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One of the priorities of the EU is the creation of a resilient Energy Union with a forward looking climate policy that is capable of delivering the adopted 2020 and 2030 climate and energy targets and the EU's longer-term climate objectives. To achieve this, the EU has to decarbonize its energy supply, integrate the fragmented national energy markets into a smooth functioning and coherent European system, and set up a framework that allows the effective coordination of national states efforts. The paper deals with situation on the wooden biomass market in the frame of the Slovak Republic, and, marginally in a broader, the Central-European context. Slovakia is developing its renewable energy market based on the significant biomass resources. However, the wood biomass market is highly competitive, influenced by natural disturbances (wood supply), foreign demand, situation on the Central European market, utilisation of established capacities, launching additional resources and pressure on the prices of wood assortments. There are three major sectors consuming wood biomass: the pulp and paper industry, producers of wood-based panels and energy sector. Consumption of the wood biomass among the three competing sectors is analysed in the country range including the comparison of prices of pulpwood and wood chips. The paper also explains wood biomass market distortion and problems with the round wood assortments distribution (among sectors), and failure in respect to the principle of “wood cascading”. This paper is a part of the research study “Analysis of availability of main and alternative resources for pulp and paper industry.”

The article focuses on CSR 2.0 concept (Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility) in context with concept of a circular economy and responsible consumer. The main goal of CSR 2.0 is an improvement of the quality of life for all people in the world. This concept perceives consumers as global citizens. The basic principles of CSR 2.0 are Creativity (C), Scalability (S), Responsiveness (R), Glocality (2) and Circularity (0). The companies which implement CSR 2.0 can bring innovative solutions to most pressing social, environmental and ethical problems and challenges in the world. Responsible and conscious consumers can engage in the process of implementing CSR 2.0 by their willingness to collaborate and participate in the marketplace and corporate world. The aim of this paper is to look at the consumer from the “Glocality and Circularity perspective” according to the basic principles of CSR 2.0 in the condition of the Slovak Republic. To fulfil this aim, we conducted a survey of 1061 Slovak inhabitants. The results show the profile of our respondents according to their local actions (environmental actions, buying ethical products etc.) and their profile/activities regarding their participation on circularity (e.g. recycling, re-using, sharing etc.).

Research background: Sharing (or collaborative) economy brought a bulk of possibilities to spread the business internationally not only for private sector, but also for every citizen who own any assets demanded on the market. With a vital support of web platforms even individuals can utilise shared goods and services either as a supplier or as buyer. Purpose of the article: The study aims at the assessment of public attitudes towards the phenomenon of sharing economy. More detailed, the willingness to utilise shared services and goods as well as the willingness to offer them are investigated. Methods: The questionnaire survey was conducted to reveal the public attitudes towards selected aspects of sharing economy. Dominantly, the Likert-type scale is used to express respondents’ attitudes, but also the method of semantic differential was utilised. It is used as the 7-points rating scale designed to measure the connotative meaning of the sharing economy concept. The questionnaire was distributed among public using purposive sampling via web platforms. The frequency and contingency analyses with support of the relevant statistics are used to process the data. Findings & Value added: The survey reached mostly young people which is positively perceived as lot of “web-skilled” individuals could be expected among such a sample. Internet literacy is a pre-cursor for sharing economy possibilities utilisation. Surprisingly, higher share respondents do not expressed interest to offer services via sharing economy platforms. Overall, no more than 30% of the sample utilise shared services. Here, men seem to be more embraced to be involved.

During the last decade, the Slovak and Croatian furniture industry markets have experienced changes that have made these markets more interesting for domestic and foreign investors. Furniture manufacturers and retailers are still trying to determine the best ways to adjust to customer demands, and understanding the furniture preferences of customers would provide beneficial information to the furniture industry. The purpose of this study, which was conducted in 2016, was to improve the knowledge regarding differences in the preferences of customers for furniture materials, attributes, and styles when purchasing furniture in Slovakia and Croatia. The findings showed that Slovak and Croatian respondents differ in their preferences for furniture materials, as well as the factors that influence their purchasing decisions when buying interior and exterior furniture. Overall, it was found that wood as the furniture material, compared with the surveyed substitutes, was widely preferred among the Croatian and Slovak respondents.

In order to measure the corporate image and identity of companies the Corporate Character Scale was developed. This scale consists of seven dimensions of corporate personality: Agreeableness, Enterprise, Competence, Chic, Ruthlessness, Informality and Machismo. In our paper, we test this method in the conditions of the Slovak Republic surveying customers of two well-known furniture selling companies – IKEA and Merkury Market in order analyse and reveal their corporate image profile. There were 546 respondents asked to agree or disagree with the items of the scale. The results represent the profiles of the two companies. In general, respondents perceive IKEA as a company with more positive corporate image compared to Mercury Market. Additionally, the paper provides recommendations for further research in this field.

In this paper we have researched the perception of corporate identity in wood processing and furniture manufacturing companies in Croatia and Slovakia. The research was conducted as a survey using questionnaires, which contained general information about the enterprise and 10 questions regarding the perception of corporate identity. In Croatia 210 enterprises for wood processing and furniture manufacturing were surveyed and 300 enterprises in Slovakia. Only 43 (20.47 %) of them answered to all the questions, of which 35 (16.67 %) were taken into consideration in Croatia. In Slovakia 80 (26.60 %) enterprises answered to the questions, of which 59 (19.67 %) were taken into consideration. The given data were analyzed statistically using χ2-test. The main hypothesis was that there was no significant difference in the perception of corporate identity in Croatian and Slovakian wood processing and furniture manufacturing firms. The results showed that corporate identity in Croatian and Slovakian wood processing and furniture manufacturing companies was mostly defined and identified with visual presentation of the company, image and reputation and differentiation in the market. At the same time, most respondents thought that corporate identity was mostly made of the company design, outward communication and company’s philosophy. In general, the only significant difference between answers of Croatian and Slovakian respondents was established for the question 4 (How would you define „Corporate Identity” in your own words)., Identitet poduzeća različiti autori različito defi niraju i zasad ne postoji jedinstvena defi nicija. No identitet poduzeća svakako je “duša” svake kompanije i temelji se na povijesti, okruženju, prethodnom razvoju i prepoznatljivosti na tržištu. U radu je istraživana percepcija identiteta poduzeća u poduzećima za preradu drva i proizvodnju namještaja u Hrvatskoj i Slovačkoj. Istraživanje je provedeno anketiranjem upitnikom koji je, uz opće informacije o tvrtki, sadržavao 10 pitanja vezanih za percepciju identiteta poduzeća. U Hrvatskoj je anketirano 210 poduzeća za preradu drva i proizvodnju namještaja, a u Slovačkoj 300 njih. U Hrvatskoj su na anketu odgovorile samo 43 tvrtke (20,47 %), od kojih je u razmatranje uzeto njih 35 (16,67 %). U Slovačkoj je 80 poduzeća (26,60 %) odgovorilo na upitnik, a od tog je broja analizirano 59 (19,67 %) upitnika. Dobiveni su podaci statistički analizirani primjenom χ2-testa. Osnovna hipoteza bila je da ne postoji značajna razlika u percepciji identiteta poduzeća između hrvatskih i slovačkih tvrtki za preradu drva i proizvodnju namještaja. Rezultati pokazuju da se identitet poduzeća u hrvatskim i slovačkim tvrtkama za preradu drva i proizvodnju namještaja uglavnom defi nira i izjednačuje s vizualnom prezentacijom tvrtke, njezinim imidžem i prepoznatljivošću na tržištu. Istodobno, najveći broj anketiranih misli da identitet poduzeća tvore dizajn tvrtke, komunikacija tvrtke s okruženjem i njezina filozofija. Jedina bitna razlika u odgovorima hrvatskih i slovačkih ispitanika ustanovljena je za pitanje 4. (Kako biste svojim riječima defi nirali pojam “identitet poduzeća”?).

This paper provides the overview on Customer Relationship Management that is strongly influenced by corporate culture, corporate identity and employees. Different theoretical approaches to CRM are included in the first part of the paper. Second part of the paper presents the results of research based on Delphi method, which was aimed at finding actual CRM definition and customer's characteristics in the future. Third part of the paper presents four main areas company should focus on when engaging customers. It aims on People and Corporate Culture which is one of the four areas, when building customer experience with company.