Slovak business environment development under the industry 4.0 and global pandemic outbreak issues

Matej Húževka,Valentinas Navickas,Marcel Kordoš,Adriana Grenčíková

doi:10.9770/jesi.2021.8.4(9)

Abstract

The current global crisis, triggered by the spread of the Covid-19 virus, is associated with the economic slowdown in many countries as well as global economy. The presented study deals with the social and economic impacts of a coronavirus pandemic issue on economic environment within Slovak companies and other organizations. Based on the executed e-questionnaire survey analysis, the main goal of the paper is to assess the opinions of workers in different types of companies, while the key parameter is the intensity of impacts on the economy development. The survey was conducted within the period of 30th September to 14th October 2020, it involved 302 respondents and provides data on how different groups of people perceive the current situation from the status of an employee - women, men, different age categories, inhabitants of individual regions in Slovak Republic. The data assessment output reveals the selected labor market trends in terms of new employment possibilities. At the same time, the paper demonstrates a relatively negative economic period within the Slovak society, while mapping the overall macroeconomic situation in Slovak Republic and world economy, caused by the global covid-19 pandemic outbreak. Results show that the Industry 4.0 elements adequately incorporated into the organization of labor are the correct tools to handle the current economic crisis affected by pandemic outbreak within the Slovak entrepreneurship environment.

Highlights

According to Toth, Maitah, Maitah, K. (2019), Besenyő, Kármán, (2020) and Wójcik, Ioannou (2020) since the beginning of 2020, the term Covid-19 has gradually become a society-wide phenomenon, which has made us realize how unstable and difficult it is to predict the environment in which we live and work
The third observation is determined by theoretical threats - there is a realistic assumption that liquidity problems of households, businesses and government organizations will result in a chain reaction in terms of insolvency and bankruptcy, resulting in a vortex of financial and economic crises within the global economy (Saroch, Smejkal, 2018; Jiránkova, 2012)
The whole situation regarding the spread of Covid-19 can be seen as a kind of accelerator to implement the ideas of intelligent industry concept into economic production

Summary

Introduction

According to Toth, Maitah, Maitah, K. (2019), Besenyő, Kármán, (2020) and Wójcik, Ioannou (2020) since the beginning of 2020, the term Covid-19 has gradually become a society-wide phenomenon, which has made us realize how unstable and difficult it is to predict the environment in which we live and work. Just as the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s or the Global Financial Crisis (Great Recession) of 2008 and 2009, the current crisis, characterized by the spread of the Covid-19 virus, is associated with the economic slowdown in particular countries as well as global economy (Hnát, Zemanová, Machoň, 2016; Maitah, Smutka, 2019; Leduc, Liu, 2020). The difference between the three mentioned crises lies mainly in the causes of their occurrence - while the first ones were the result of problems culmination in financial markets, the primary cause of the current crisis is the spread of contagious respiratory disease, which paralyzes the possibility of social interaction - whether study, work or leisure (Nenckova, Pecakova, Sauer, 2020). The third observation is determined by theoretical threats - there is a realistic assumption that liquidity problems of households, businesses and government organizations will result in a chain reaction in terms of insolvency and bankruptcy, resulting in a vortex of financial and economic crises within the global economy (Saroch, Smejkal, 2018; Jiránkova, 2012)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion