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COVID-19 has dramatically changed the economic scenery. Despite the austerity measures and decreasing resources, it might lead to an increase of the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as the key for sustainable growth and prosperity. The luxury fashion industry is known for its lavish commitment to CSR as expressed by owners and top management. However, the bottom perception is unclear. A longitudinal front-line case study of the perception of the significance of CSR by the low management and customers allows for filling in this vacuum and to comparatively assess the annual evolution from December 2019 to November 2020. The holistic Meta-Analysis using informal open-interview and mystery shopping techniques and the investigative questionnaire with the Pearson Chi-squared test reveals a fragmented and only slightly raised significance of the CSR by the low management and customers. This disappointing finding has inherent limitations and calls for further studies.

Purpose Emerging economies have to address positive challenges such as sustainability, digitalization, entrepreneurial readiness and planning and behavioral strategies and negative challenges, such as corruption and bureaucracy. The COVID-19 pandemic hit all economies and arguably made hotel businesses that are from less typical emerging economies, such as the Czech Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to deal with similar challenges to that of their counterparts from typical emerging economies. How do Czech hotel SMEs address the COVID-19 challenges and what sustainability message can be extracted from that with the relevance for not only businesses from emerging economies? The purpose of this paper is to explore how Czech hotel SMEs address the COVID-19 challenges and what sustainability. Design/methodology/approach A consolidated parsing of the literature, legislative and analytical framework, along with an investigative case study of 11 Czech hotel SMEs was performed, based on the questionnaire survey and semi-structured in-depth direct interviews. The holistic thematic analysis processed this fresh data and allowed Socratic questioning and glossing while addressing both research questions. Findings The performed case study reveals that typical challenges faced by entrepreneurs in emerging economies became, via COVID-19, universal challenges, these challenges are a valuable impulse for digitalization and changes of entrepreneurial strategies, but not so much for sustainability, and the omnipresent negative impact of corruption and bureaucracy. Originality/value This paper presents a pioneering study regarding the addressing COVID-19 and sustainability concerns by SMEs in a less typical emerging economy and offering a universal, partially comparative and sadly not so sustainable, message which is not just limited to emerging economies.

Background and Purpose: The sustainability projected into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is pivotal for luxury fashion businesses and they heavily refer to it. However, do their front-line employees follow this trend? To achieve an effective and efficient CSR, the front-line employees have to share the CSR perception advanced by their businesses. The main objective of the study is to discover, critically assess and compare the CSR perception of the front-line employees of the top luxury fashion industry businesses located in Prague, Czech Republic. Design/Methodology/Approach: An investigative case study of the CSR approach of such employees of all ten top luxury fashion businesses in Prague is performed while using a holistic Meta-Analysis, a manual Delphi method and three rounds of interviews, along with mystery shopping techniques. Results: The heterogenous conglomerate of data reveals: (i) problematic awareness of these employees, (ii) their ignorance of the legal setting, (iii) an imbalance and preferential focus, along with ignorance of certain CSR categories, (iv) direct and indirect contradictions and (v) a preoccupation with the fur issue. Conclusions: This alarming inconsistencies and ambiguity have strong implications for both science and practice, they call for more studies, a deeper understanding of causes and a prompt correction in order to make the CSR perception of these important inside stakeholders be in line with expectations.

Despite a decades-long discussion about corporate social responsibility ("CSR"), there is little known about the evolution and meaning of the EU law on CSR and its perception by various stakeholders. The two objectives of this paper are: (i) assessing the evolution to the current EU law on CSR and (ii) making a case study about the perception of CSR by businesses from the luxury fashion industry supposed to be the leading CSR force, namely their ambassadors - CEOs and employees facing the clientele in Pařižska street in Prague. In order to address these two objectives, holistic and interdisciplinary research of economic, legislative and academic sources as well as a case study, entailing interviews and mystery shopping was performed. The exploration of the yielded data employed Meta-Analysis, content analysis, teleological interpretation, etc. The critical and comparative review of the evolution of the EU law on CSR shows piecemeal trends and a lack of permanent consent. This leads to the fragmentation and ambiguity, which is matched by the findings of the case study. The perception of the EU law on CSR is done differently by various CEOs of luxury fashion businesses, and there is an inconsistency between their attitudes and those of their employees facing the clientele. Such inconsistency undermines the effectiveness and efficiency of the CSR regime and needs to be corrected.Implications for Central European audience: Although the sustainability projected in CSR is critical, the EU law has undergone a complex and fragmented evolution leading to a partially mandatory framework. The understanding and application of such a framework about CSR and its reporting is a challenge. A Central European case study of luxury fashion industry businesses shows piecemeal trends and a lack of consent, and this even among CEOs and frontline employees of the same business. The implication of such an inconsistency is a decrease in the effectiveness and efficiency of the CSR regime, a devaluation of the CSR awareness and the need for corrections.

COVID-19 leads to a reinforced need to address sustainability at the economic, environmental, and social pillars, and the six categories of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of businesses, that is, their self-commitment to integrate sustainability in their policies and strategies and to become more effective and efficient. Luxury fashion businesses refer heavily but not identically, to their CSR, by formally issuing CSR reports and Codes of Ethics, and informally voicing their pro-CSR statements. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and brought important changes. This burning issue translates into three objectives in this paper—assessing the CSR statements of International and Czech Luxury Fashion Industry businesses (i) at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and (iii) identifying new trends. To address them, a holistic and interdisciplinary case study exploration was performed entailing 10 International Luxury Fashion businesses and 10 Czech Luxury Fashion businesses. The resulting data were explored via Meta-Analysis and content analysis, teleological interpretations, etc. The critical and comparative review revealed six interesting trends indicating a shift in perception of sustainability and CSR caused by COVID-19. The review offers propositions for how the COVID-19 threats could become an opportunity for rebuilding this industry.

Electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services ("eIDAS") is a standardized system for trustworthiness, effectiveness and efficiency. Since 2018, Czech public sector bodies have to use qualified electronic signatures when officially acting via electronic documents. This calls for a pioneering study entailing three purposes: (i) to identify provisions set by the EU law and Czech law of this duty and to interpret them, (ii) to study and assess how this duty is materialized and observed while using a pioneering Czech micro case study and (iii) to discuss and compare the yielded results with the status quo in other EU member states. A multi-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional research of primary and secondary sources is performed along with a Czech micro case study exploring the readiness, implementation and consequences of this new duty on five Czech public sector bodies - Prague municipalities. The qualified electronic signature is a reality in the EU, but its standardized use is welcome and materialized with varying intensities.

The Directive 2013/34/EU is a fundamental part of European Union (EU) legislation harmonising the regime of financial and non-financial reporting throughout the entire EU, including reporting about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Inasmuch as its transposition deadline expired in 2015, it is possible and also highly elucidating to holistically study its nature and actual transposition. A related literature summing up, accompanied with a legislation and transposition review compiled via the EUR-Lex database, makes for a solid foundation for a holistic and critical exploration of the related case law of the ultimate judicial authority for the interpretation and application of the Directive 2013/34/EU, namely the Court of Justice of the EU (CJ EU). Researching this case law within the Curia database brings forth an interesting meta-analysis, refreshed by Socratic questioning, which reveals the approach of the CJ EU to the Directive 2013/34/EU. The hypothesis suggests that this case law of the CJ EU offers valuable and as-yet hitherto-neglected indices, signifiers about the EU conforming to the perception of the nature and meaning of the Directive 2013/34/EU. These indices could be pivotal for further improvement of the harmonized regime of financial and non-financial reporting, for the boosting of CSR and also for supporting European integration and its legitimacy.

The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (“GDPR”) created a duty to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of security to protect natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data. Infringement of this duty is severely punished. These GDPR security measures and their operation should effectively and efficiently reflect intellectual property (“IP”) and unfair competition concerns. The theoretic teleological interpretation of the GDPR along with the critical study of the academic literature is complemented by a practical exploratory investigation via a micro‑case study based on interviews of a well‑balanced group of subjects of this GDRP duty – Czech SMEs. Although the yielded results are rather indicative than generally conclusive, they allow to suggest a partial confirmation of the proposed hypotheses that this GDPR duty will have a significant impact on IP and unfair competition. The semi‑conclusions based on the primary and secondary data enlightens the status quo, offers recommendations and brings suggestions for further research.

The commitment of the European Union (EU) to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is projected into EU law about annual reporting by businesses. Since EU member states further develop this framework by their own domestic laws, annual reporting with CSR information is not unified and only partially mandatory in the EU. Do all European businesses report CSR information and what public declaration to society do they provide with it? The two main purposes of this paper are to identify the parameters of this annual reporting duty and to study the CSR information provided by the 10 largest Czech companies in their annual statements for 2013–2017. Based on legislative research and a teleological interpretation, the current EU legislative framework with Czech particularities is presented and, via a case study exploring 50 annual reports, the data about the type, extent and depth of CSR is dynamically and comparatively assessed. It appears that, at the minimum, large Czech businesses satisfy their legal duty and e-report on CSR to a similar extent, but in a dramatically different quality. Employee matters and adherence to international standards are used as a public declaration to society more than the data on environmental protection, while social matters and research and development (R&D) are played down.

What is the Internet? What is Internet governance? Who has the competency and legitimacy for it? What are the perspectives regarding the future Internet governance? These questions deal not only with the business management of the Internet but also its compliance or contradiction with conventional approaches and perceptions. These burning questions deserve to be addressed systematically, scientifically and critically, from the standpoint of the USA, the EU and even individuals. The Meta-Analysis of the secondary data yielded from disparate literature and other sources, as well as of the primary data yielded by the author via direct questionnaires, is performed in an open-minded manner and reported comparatively, along with a number of glosses. The truth can and should be presented and explained, while myths should be corrected. The critical importance of IS/IT, and naturally of the Internet, generates a significant need for an enhanced awareness in this respect on all levels, national, regional and local, and both public and private. A successful and sustainable existence in the postmodern society depends upon the effective and efficient employment of IS/IT, and without understanding the governance of their platform par excellence, the Internet, business conduct is a chimera. The goal of this article is to address the above mentioned four questions from various perspectives through pre-set hypotheses, and to bring more light in this area, an area of a, so far, rather confused perception and much discussion. As well. to perhaps even help launch initiatives towards more involvement in GAC, ICANN and in the Internet governance as such. There is no need for myths, the truth about the Internet governance should come to light.

The commitment of the European Union (EU) to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is projected into EU law about annual reporting by businesses. Since EU member states further develop this framework by their own domestic laws, annual reporting with CSR information is not unified and only partially mandatory in the EU. Do all European businesses report CSR information and what public declaration to society do they provide with it? The two main purposes of this paper are to identify the parameters of this annual reporting duty and to study the CSR information provided by the 10 largest Czech companies in their annual statements for 2013&ndash, 2017. Based on legislative research and a teleological interpretation, the current EU legislative framework with Czech particularities is presented and, via a case study exploring 50 annual reports, the data about the type, extent and depth of CSR is dynamically and comparatively assessed. It appears that, at the minimum, large Czech businesses satisfy their legal duty and e-report on CSR to a similar extent, but in a dramatically different quality. Employee matters and adherence to international standards are used as a public declaration to society more than the data on environmental protection, while social matters and research and development (R&amp, D) are played down.

Research background: The Post-Lisbon EU aims at smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth on the single internal market, as indicated by the Europe 2020. The interplay of the competition and consumer protection on such a market is subject to harmonization. The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive has been made in order to achieve a full harmonization in this respect in 2007. However, EU member states share different social, political, legal and economic traditions and their approaches to unfair competition, in particular if committed via parasitic commercial practices, are dramatically diverse. In such a context, is it feasible, effective and efficient to install a full harmonization?Purpose of the article: The primary purpose of this article is to describe and assess ap-proaches to unfair competition, in particular if committed via parasitic commercial practices, by the EU law and EU member states law. The secondary purpose is to study and evaluate possibilities for the feasible, effective and efficient harmonization, or their lack. Methods: The cross-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional nature of this article, and its dual purposes, implies the use of Meta-Analysis, of the critical comparison of laws and the impact of their application, to the holistic perception of historical and national contexts, and to case studies. The primary and secondary sources are explored and the yield knowledge and data are confronted with the status quo. The dominating qualitative research and data are complemented by the quantitative research and data.Findings & Value added: The EU opted for an ambitious challenge to install via the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive a full harmonization of the regime against unfair commercial practices, including parasitic ones. The exploration pursuant to the duo of purposes suggests that the challenge is perhaps too ambitious and that the EU underestimated the dramatic diversity of approaches to unfair commercial practices, especially parasitic ones.