Search

Effective public support of innovations, research and development represents one of the priorities of the European Union (EU). The aim of this paper was to examine the effectiveness of one such public programme – public support for business innovation from EU funds in Slovakia – by using selected quasi-experimental design methods on the example of the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Economic Growth for the programming period 2007 – 2013. The value added of this paper is the fact that we use the method proposed and used by the European Commission and Slovak national authorities. The “difference-in-differences” method is used to compare the changes in value added of supported firms before and after the intervention in comparison to firms that did not receive support. The results suggest that the public support from selected calls of the evaluated operational programme was effective and delivered improvements not only in the field of innovativeness and competitiveness, but also in the area of employment. The evaluated call was much more effective compared to other calls of the programme evaluated by other authors. The responses from the management body suggest that the core success factors were the contents of the call and timing.

Contracting waste management services is one of the most commonly used approaches to the delivery of this service and this topic is clearly in the focus of frequent academic research. The goal of this article is to examine trends in the area of solid waste collection and disposal on the municipal level for the Czech Republic and Slovakia in terms of developments over the past 20 years with a focus on the share of inter-municipal cooperation in the delivery of this service. In contrast to Western European countries, which are undergoing re-municipalization, the data obtained for Slovakia and the Czech Republic over 20 years show that the municipal solid waste management service is dominated by contracting, which has increased over the examined period. This fact is apparently a reflection of the high rate of fragmentation in municipal structures and the low willingness among municipalities to cooperate. The data obtained also indicate that using external suppliers seems to bring marginal savings that could certainly be substantially larger; potential increases in efficiency via contracting are unequivocally limited by the low quality of contract management. Regarding our core question, we found that the proportion of inter-municipal cooperation between service delivery modes did not significantly increase during the investigated period. The experts interviewed almost uniformly agreed on three critical limits related to the issue of inter-municipal cooperation in MSW management delivery - transaction costs of different types, non-existent regular comparisons of best solutions, and limited motivation to select optimal service delivery modes Kontrahování nakládání s odpady je jedním z nejčastěji používaných přístupů k poskytování této služby a toto téma je zjevně v centru častých akademických výzkumů. Cílem tohoto článku je prozkoumat trendy v oblasti sběru a odstraňování pevných odpadů na komunální úrovni pro Českou republiku a Slovensko z hlediska vývoje za posledních 20 let se zaměřením na podíl meziobecní spolupráce na dodání této služby. Na rozdíl od západoevropských zemí, které procházejí rekomunalizací, data získaná za Slovensko a Českou republiku za 20 let ukazují, že v nakládání s komunálním odpadem dominuje kontraktace, která ve zkoumaném období narůstá. Tato skutečnost je zřejmě odrazem vysoké míry fragmentace v obecních strukturách a nízké ochoty obcí spolupracovat. Získaná data rovněž naznačují, že využití externích dodavatelů zřejmě přináší marginální úspory, které by jistě mohly být podstatně větší; potenciální zvýšení efektivity prostřednictvím uzavírání smluv je jednoznačně omezeno nízkou kvalitou řízení zakázek. Co se týče naší základní otázky, zjistili jsme, že podíl meziobecní spolupráce mezi způsoby poskytování služeb se během zkoumaného období významně nezvýšil. Dotazovaní odborníci se téměř jednotně shodli na třech kritických limitech souvisejících s problematikou meziobecní spolupráce při dodávkách TKO – transakční náklady různých typů, neexistující pravidelná porovnávání nejlepších řešení a omezená motivace k výběru optimálních způsobů poskytování služeb. Contracting waste management services is one of the most commonly used approaches to the delivery of this service and this topic is clearly in the focus of frequent academic research. The goal of this article is to examine trends in the area of solid waste collection and disposal on the municipal level for the Czech Republic and Slovakia in terms of developments over the past 20 years with a focus on the share of inter-municipal cooperation in the delivery of this service. In contrast to Western European countries, which are undergoing re-municipalization, the data obtained for Slovakia and the Czech Republic over 20 years show that the municipal solid waste management service is dominated by contracting, which has increased over the examined period. This fact is apparently a reflection of the high rate of fragmentation in municipal structures and the low willingness among municipalities to cooperate. The data obtained also indicate that using external suppliers seems to bring marginal savings that could certainly be substantially larger; potential increases in efficiency via contracting are unequivocally limited by the low quality of contract management. Regarding our core question, we found that the proportion of inter-municipal cooperation between service delivery modes did not significantly increase during the investigated period. The experts interviewed almost uniformly agreed on three critical limits related to the issue of inter-municipal cooperation in MSW management delivery - transaction costs of different types, non-existent regular comparisons of best solutions, and limited motivation to select optimal service delivery modes

The article examines the section of officials in the central administration who belong to the ministerial staff of the Czech Republic. It examines those persons engaged in the creation of analyses, strategies, and management activities. The study is based on original research conducted by the ministries of the Czech Republic in 2013 (N = 1351). The article seeks to discover what the make-up of this group is in terms of gender, age, and education levels at the chosen ministries, as well as to report on the types of experiences the group has had. The analysis shows that ministerial officials are in fact a gender-balanced group of employees, predominately university-educated. The overall median age of employees in all ministries is 42 years. On the other hand, there are certain inter-ministerial differences, as explained in detail in this paper. Based on results of the empirical research, conclusions have been drawn that may also serve as an inspiration for similar investigations in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe that address similar issues as found in the Czech Republic.