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Abstract The essence of knowledge economics is a permanent innovation process and the implementation of intense development factors. Decision-making about innovation is strategic and crucial. It is thus useful to [...]

Due to Covid 19 regional railway transport in Germany faced a decline in passenger demand. The volume of passengers in million passenger-kilometer dropped from 102,026 in 20219 to 58,822 in 2020 and stays at this level in the next year. Even the end of the pandemic in the first half of 2022 did not lead to the reserve trend in passenger numbers development. Many railway companies faced big losses due to the decline and asked for some form of help. German government therefore introduced the so-called 9-Euro-Ticket in the months of June, July and August 2022. It was the monthly ticket costed 9 EUR valid in regional transport in the mentioned months. The government further increased its support of regional transport by 2,5 billion EUR to cover all costs with increasing numbers of passengers who did not pay the full price of their travel. The ticket can be seen as a success - 52 million of them were sold. The article analyzes the development of passenger's numbers in months when the ticket was introduced, mentions some problems connected with high numbers of passengers and also discusses what happened in the period after the validity of the ticket, namely concentrates on the so-called Deutschlandticket that costs 49 EUR per month and is valid in months from May to August 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construct of cultural intelligence ("CQ") consists of four facets (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioural). The objective of this study is to identify the CQ facet best able to predict overall intercultural adjustment. Twenty independent hierarchical multiple regression models were performed on a sample of 189 international students studying at Czech universities in a foreign language. The results showed that the CQ facet that best predicts intercultural adjustment, when controlling for demographic variables and preparedness for study abroad, is the motivational CQ facet. However, a significant relationship was also discovered for all remaining CQ facets and intercultural adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative study examines a specific approach to public sector innovations in three European countries (UK, Finland, Denmark). As these countries are world leaders in the innovations, the knowledge gained through qualitative analysis of their government reports, publications and policy analyses can serve as an example of good practice and inspire other countries. The aim of the study is to find certain generalizing principles and procedures that can be followed in the interest of good public governance. The example of the three selected countries shows the current direction of the public sector innovation effort, how innovations are supported and implemented in the public sector. In general, the development of innovation in the public sector requires strong, concrete political (usually from the country's prime minister) and financial support, a clearly defined innovation strategy and a functioning innovation cooperation, which is set up and developed centrally. With regard to public administration, in contrast to the private sector, innovations are not regulated by law and their definition given by a law is missing. Municipal and regional governments play a crucial role in the field of innovations, supporting public sector development through local innovation laboratories/hubs and centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption contracts are, throughout the democratic world, illegal and considered immoral. Their participants thus cannot use standard procedures to find a second party, to negotiate the content of the contract, to check if it performs what was promised, and to enforce the promises. This increases the risks associated with the contract. Illegality or immorality of the contract makes both parties more vulnerable – each party can threaten to reveal the contract and denounce the second party. Connecting a corruption contract with a previously established legal contract is usually seen as the best way to reduce risks and to reinforce the corruption contract. Owing to legal contacts and contracts, potential parties interested in corruption know where they should seek a counterparty and what to offer. At the same time, the corruption contract is tied to legal contracts, and failure to fulfil conditions of the corruption contract may put such legal contract at risk, therefore there is a higher probability that both parties to the corruption contract would fulfil what was promised and that there will be no extortion by any of the parties to demand additional fulfilment after the end of the corruption contract or that the corruption contract will not be disclosed. This paper presents the opposite approach in which a corruption contract is established as the first and it creates the base for further often legal but immoral contracts. All contracts lead to the mutually advantageous affinity of all its participants who often become members of corruption networks. The article presents the model when a blackmailed or dependent person must participate in corruption contracts, otherwise, it faces serious problems. But sooner or later, participation will begin to bring him benefits, so he becomes dependent on the network, although initially, he had moral inhibitions to participate in its activities. The subjects looking a counterparty of the corruption contract thus often create the environment of dependency and blackmailing and when people that are obliged to corruption lose their scruples and they see corruption as the common behaviour. Our model comes from real corruption networks in the Czech Republic. Some of them are briefly analysed. Theory of corruption must pay higher attention to all factors contributing to the spread of corruption behaviour, including mutual dependence and extortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an alternative method to growth accounting. It makes it possible to express the effect of change in the quantity of inputs as well as the effect of the productivity of inputs (i.e. technological changes) on the change of GDP for all possible typologies of input/output changes. Unlike the growth accounting, this method is universal and also accurate; it may be applied not only to small growth rates. Dynamic parameters of intensity and extensity could be delivered as the output of the method. The first one captures the effect of change in the summary productivity of factors, while the latter captures changes in the input quantity. The dynamic parameters were calculated for the development of GDP in the United States and China for a period of fifty years (1960-2011). In case of the United States, it was also calculated how the development of labor and the development of capital contribute to the change in inputs. The calculated values verify that the method can reliably capture significant changes that took place in the given countries in individual years. The growth rate of the summary productivity of factors calculated on the basis of our method only differs slightly from the growth rate of the summary productivity of factors calculated on the basis of growth accounting. For all the aforementioned reasons, the method appears to be a suitable instrument for analyzing the GDP development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]