Czech Enterprises Research Articles

The Significance of Internal Enterprise Resources from the Perspective of the Opinion Level of Top Managers of Czech Enterprises Operating in Service Sector

This contribution focuses on the issue of internal enterprise resources in the service sector. The level of opinion in top managers is being observed, respectively what significance is being attached by top managers of enterprises operating in service sector to internal enterprise resources from the perspective of their current and future situation. Statistically significant differences between the meaning of internal resources nowadays and in the future are being analysed and indicated via the pair Wilcoxon test on a testing set consisting of 255 enterprises within the service sector from the whole of the Czech Republic. Within the evaluation of the current situation top managers assign a high importance mainly to employee standards, financial resources, the name of the enterprise, management quality, service and marketing portfolio. Evaluating prediction of enterprise internal resources and their importance's future development has pointed to a relatively high growth of significance in enterprise strategy, enterprise education, marketing, and information and communication systems. Statistically significant differences from Wilcoxon test have been proven in employee education, enterprise strategy, information and communication systems and marketing standards. Indicated internal resources will gain greater dominance in the future, and they may significantly influence the existence of enterprises operating in service sector.

Factors affecting the financial structure of Slovak and Czech enterprises in the Manufacture of machinery and equipment industry

The financial structure of enterprises is influenced by many factors. The aim of this paper is to analyze, evaluate and assess the effect of selected internal corporate factors and external macro-environment factors on the financial structure of enterprises. All the studied enterprises were operating in the Manufacture of machinery and equipment industry. We have also analyzed whether there were any differences in the action of these factors between enterprises operating in various countries—Slovakia and Czech Republic (i.e., what was the impact of the environment on the corporate financial structure). The analysis has been done for the years 2009–2014. The research results pointed to the fact that although the influence of some macro-environment factors has been proved, that were the internal corporate factors which had dominant position in shaping the financial structure of Slovak and Czech enterprises (concerning the Manufacture of machinery and equipment industry). Keywords: Financial structure, internal corporate factors, external factors of macroenvironment

Assessment of Accounting Spheres as Viewed by Accountants of Czech Enterprises

Assessment of Accounting Spheres as Viewed by Accountants of Czech Enterprises

Are publicly funded Czech incubators effective? The comparison of performance of supported and non-supported firms

PurposeEven in established economies, empirical studies on the relationship between business incubation and firm performance do not show unequivocally positive results. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this debate based on the empirical evidence from the under-researched Central and Eastern European region in which no similar study has been conducted before. Due to the shorter experience with the management of business incubators and less developed institutions, business incubators may not be so effective in supporting their tenants in this region.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilise firm-level data from incubated Czech enterprises (n=205) founded after 2003 and compare them with those that have not received support from incubators. The authors implement three matching techniques to pair incubated and non-incubated companies. The outcome variables measured sales, price-cost margin, assets turnover, value added, size of total assets and size of personnel costs.FindingsCompared to the control group, incubated firms reported on average lower values of the above-mentioned indicators. Presented study shows that Czech incubators have not been successful in supporting growth of incubated firms.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that there is a clear room for improvements. Incubators should improve in attracting and selecting high potentials and in providing more effective support focussed on tenants’ growth, whereas policymakers should exercise stricter control regarding the money spent and effectiveness of incubators.Originality/valueThe empirical analysis was conducted based on the research gap in the studies related to the impact of business incubation in the under-researched Central and Eastern European region. It also shows that positive results from similar studies done in established economies cannot be taken for granted as they depend on the quality of institutions in a particular country.

Level of compliance with the requirements of corporate social responsibility in Czech enterprises

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept is focused on understanding and managing the impacts a company has on the world around it, and doing so as a part of core business activities. CSR contains three parts: Profit (economical part), People (social aspects - employees and stakeholders) and Planet (environment). The papers deal with basic features, objectives and outputs of CSR concept in practical life of Czech enterprises. The main aim of the research was to define if organizations referring themselves as socially responsible do implement activities of all the three pillars equally and integrate them into their day-to-day activities.

The Business Excellence Models in Czech Enterprises: The Effects of Business Strategy on Performance

Business excellence develops and strengthens the management systems and processes of an organization to improve performance and create value for stakeholders. Business excellence models frameworks can help to an organization to focus thought and action in a more systematic and structured way leads to increased performance. The paper focuses on the business strategy of Czech enterprises in the context of business excellence models. The objective of the paper is to identify the relationship between business strategy and international performance of Czech enterprises. The enterprises included in the study are 490 enterprises established in the Czech Republic. The primary data collection method was a questionnaire-interview. The results demonstrate that the business knowledge of managers and company resources significantly correspond with the business strategy of Czech enterprises on international markets.

REGIONAL ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF LARGEST ENTERPRISES IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Location processes are constitutive for the formation of economic landscape. Largest enterprises represent one of the most important units of territorial economies. Their role is palpable mainly in the sphere of employment, technological level, value chains, competition as well as overall economic power. It is far from surprising that the weight of enterprise headquarters is higher than that of their affiliates. Therefore, the main objective of our article is to analyze and assess the development of spatial organization of one hundred largest enterprise head offices in the Czech Republic from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Due to data limitations, size of the enterprise is measured by its turnover. Spatial distribution of one hundred largest Czech enterprises and its development over time represent the focal point of our evaluation from quantitative point of view. The analysis was based upon annually published top 100 databases. Qualitative assessment is underpinned by the results of the questionnaire, which was focused on particular location factors accentuated by largest enterprises. Consistency analysis and exploratory factor analysis provide us with useful instrument for the evaluation of qualitative dimension of the issue and help us to conceptualize location preferences of largest enterprises in the country.

Patent activities of the Czech enterprises – an international comparison

Abstract The Czech enterprise sector shows in a long term a significantly lower patent activity in comparison with both the most innovation-intensive EU economies, and the EU-15 average. The topic of this contribution is a comparison of the quality and the volume of the industrial property rights created in the Czech enterprises with a selected EU-15 countries classified as innovation leaders, strong and moderate innovators. Two new EU members, namely Poland and Hungary, were also included in the comparisons. The analysis shows that the number of the international patent applications registered by enterprises with the EPO and under the PCT treaty is by more than one order lower in comparison with both the innovation-intensive countries like Denmark, Germany, or Netherlands and the countries whose innovation performance is comparable to the Czech Republic. The Czech enterprises unlike their counterparts in the innovation-intensive countries register the priority applications with the home country patent office and only a small fraction is subsequently registered with EPO and under the PCT. Also the size of the patent families and subsequent citations of the Czech patents by other patent applications lags behind the innovation-intensive countries. The low patenting activity of the Czech enterprises correlates with a low expenditure on R&D. The Czech enterprises are somehow limited in the creation of knowledge giving rise to internationally competitive products which would demand international industrial property claims. The analysis also indicates that patent applications co-authored by Czech inventors are extensively owned by foreign corporations. The Czech enterprises produce a larger fraction of patents in collaboration with research organizations than foreign ones. It indicates that enterprises are interested in tapping in the research capacity of the universities and governmental R&D establishment. The detail analysis of the data in the national R&D Information System indicates that the number of patents created by enterprises supported by applied R&D programs is currently rather low. Beside the stimulation of the Czech enterprises to the in-house R&D spending it is necessary to support long-term strategic alliances of enterprises with research organizations. It will create a fertile environment for the development of radical innovations which are a key factor for the increase of international competitiveness and market shares.

The establishment of the business architecture discipline in the Czech enterprises

Research aims to evaluate the level of business architecture establishment in the Czech enterprises. The research goals are: 1) find out the motivation of Czech enterprises to establish the business architecture discipline, 2) find out the current establishment level of the business architecture discipline in Czech enterprises. In the beginning of the paper the current theoretical approach to this domain is searched. The original research itself is then executed through the survey which was addressed to two different target groups: 1) individuals working as business architects (or enterprise architects) in commercial executive enterprises, 2) individuals working as business architecture experts in commercial advisory enterprises or academic institutions. Part of the survey evaluation is the comparison of the answers received from both groups.

Antecedents of Accelerated Internationalisation of Polish and Czech Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Objective: The study goal was the investigation of relationships between accelerated internationalisation descriptors and antecedent firm- and entrepreneur-related factors in Polish and Czech SMEs. Research Design & Methods: In order to compare Polish and Czech companies, the data collected in two independent studies were used. The study of 233 Polish companies was conducted with the use of CATI method in 2014; 108 Czech companies were surveyed in 2013/2014 with the use of CAWI method. In both samples half of the surveyed SME-exporters were conforming to the accelerated internationalisation criteria. Findings: In both samples the “global vision” elements and company internationalisation scale and speed were interrelated. In the Polish companies this relationship was moderated by company size. There was the lack of strong positive relationships between innovativeness and internationalisation speed and scale in both samples. Implications & Recommendations: The managerial mindset has a decisive role for accelerated internationalisation in both Czech and Polish SMEs. The innovativeness of offering is not indispensable for fast foreign expansion. Larger companies may expand abroad faster if they have internationally oriented managers. Contribution & Value Added: This work addresses a research gap concerning idiosyncrasies of internationalisation antecedents in Polish and Czech enterprises. As the results show, there is no common internationalisation pattern for Polish and Czech SMEs .

Maintenance Management Systems in the Czech Enterprises of Chemical and Food Industries

Purpose of the article: The aim of this article is to use the results of the qualitative research to describe the current form of maintenance systems used in enterprises of chemical and food industries, and then to discuss and generalize the results. Methodology/methods: The primary qualitative research was conducted in five companies, which can be regarded as typical representatives of the industries. The main objective of the primary research in individual companies was to determine how they perform the strategic and tactical operational planning of maintenance, implementation of these plans and their control. Individual interviews with respondents were used as the research method. The results of the research were processed using the content analysis method. Subsequently, comparison of the findings from individual businesses and subsequent synthesis thereof was performed, which allowed making generalizations. Scientific aim: The scientific aim of the article is to develop knowledge in the field of maintenance management by specifying the form of the maintenance systems utilized in Czech enterprises of the chemical and food industries and identifying the main opportunities for their improvement. Findings: Czech enterprises of the chemical and food industries utilize maintenance management systems. These systems are aimed at prevention, emphasizing the planning of maintenance activities in fixed periodic intervals. Also, they often utilize diagnostic maintenance. However, the maintenance systems currently used cannot be considered fully operational, with regard to the relatively large volume of after-failure repairs. Conclusions: Production equipment maintenance systems are irreplaceable in chemical and food industry enterprises, but there is great potential for improvement. Improvement should be focused on the area of strategic as well as tactical and operational planning of production equipment maintenance. In terms of strategy, the biggest opportunity for a dramatic improvement is the implementation of modern maintenance methods. In the context of the existing systems, improvement can be achieved especially in setting strategic objectives, the system of indicators to measure the performance of maintenance and in implementing an information system. In the tactical and operational level, it would be useful to develop a maintenance planning system linked with suppliers and customers and utilize mathematical methods and models to optimize plans for this business activity

Evaluation of Entrepreneurs with a Focus on Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation (OPEI). Results of a Questionnaire Survey

IntroductionSupporting of entrepreneurship is part of stimulation of economic growth and is one of the key element of economic change. Policy of supporting entrepreneurship has become significant for regional development. It is entrepreneurship that has positive influence on economic growth (Audretsch, 2001; Carree et al., 2007; van Praag, Versloot, 2007; Naude, 2010; Romero, 2012; Sternberg, 2012; Marcotte, 2012), e.g. Ny strom (2008) confirms a positive relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth and productivity in the long term (approximately 10 years). Seen from this perspective, policy of supporting entrepreneurship is very important. The greatest attention is focused especially on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they are considered to be the greatest source of innovations, economic growth, employment and social integration of the society. Greater flexibility in reacting to changes in the market, more ability to exploit market niches (Hodorogel, 2009) and faster and better implementation of innovations are often listed as advantages of SMEs. Wit and Kok (2014) prove that contribution of SMEs to creation of employment opportunities is higher than in the case of larger companies. In connection to innovations in small enterprises, Burns (2001) claims that these enterprises introduce products and services, which are very different from those of the big companies. Even though conducting research and development is less probable in SMEs than in big companies, when they do conduct them, it is more effective and they launch new products in the market much faster than big companies. Audretsch (2001) sees SMEs as leaders in the process of innovations, which gives them a great competitive advantage. Also Copus, Skuras, and Tsegenidi (2008) see SMEs as a contributor to the competitiveness of the local economy and innovation. Countries such as Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia have already accepted the fact that SMEs are an essential part of economic reforms (Maletic et al., 2014).In the Czech Republic, 70% of those employed in the corporate sector work in small or medium-sized enterprises. These enterprises contribute to the employment in economy more than by a half and generate approximately a third of the nominal GDP (Czech statistical office, 2013). The figures concerning the share in employment and GDP are very similar in Poland (Peszko, 2014). Among the disadvantages of SMEs, lack of capital and limited opportunities to gain advantages from the scope of production are mentioned. Their being is very often dependent on banks' lending, so government bodies tried to find ways to simplification of access to entrepreneurial finance (Fossen, 2011). The key element for survival, development, and growth of SMEs, but not only them, is the access to finance. Czech enterprises can use various types of support, financial or non-financial. In the European Union, cohesion policy and structural funds have a key position. When focusing on support from structural funds and the Cohesion Fund, these operational programmes can be named in the period of 2007 - 2013 in the Czech Republic: OP Human Resources and Employment, OP Education for Competitiveness, and OP Enterprise and Innovations (hereinafter OPEI).1.Research goals and hypothesesOPEI, which is the third biggest operational programme in the Czech Republic (about 12% of all the financial resources of the Convergence is determined for it), is focused on supporting entrepreneurs, especially in manufacturing, research and strategic services. The programme is designed especially for SMEs, however, in some programmes, big companies and other subjects may also apply for support. One of the conditions for receiving a subsidy is realization of the project in the Czech Republic, with the exception of the capital city of Prague. Specific conditions are defined in the calls to the individual programmes of support. The article focuses on analysis of subjects with an issued Decision to Provide a subsidy (applicants with loan or guarantee contracts will not be included) and the way they used the aid offered to them. …

Communication about A Business Model within An Organisation in the Opinion of Czechs and Polish

Abstract Business models are nowadays a popular topic in management science. The concept of ontology of business models in particular is used in numerous scientific works within this scope. The issue of shared understanding of a business model within an organisation is becoming essential in this regard. Therefore, this work presents the opinions of young Czechs and Polish studying on faculties of management on the issue of the subject matter of a business model in the dimensions of the way it is communicated within an organisation. The study has been conducted with the aid of a survey. Hundred and twenty persons altogether have given their answers, of which 50% were Polish and the other 50% were Czechs. The existence of statistically important correlation between independent variables (‘nationality’, ‘seniority’) and opinions concerning particular dimensions of communicating about business models within an organisation (dependent variables) has been proven. The existence of these correlations (despite their very low level) in the light of a generally formulated research problem may constitute a premise for conducting further studies on the issue of cultural conditionings of communicating about this problem as well as the way it is practised in Polish and Czech enterprises.

Electronics Industry: R&D Investments as Possible Factors of Firms Competitiveness

This paper aims at the impact of R&D investments on economic stability in the Czech enterprises. The authors study relationships between R&D investments and financial indicators and ratios for period 2007–2014. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 103 Czech electronic industries innovative enterprises with R&D investments during the period 2007–2013. The paper deals with the hypothesis that R&D investments are utilized to increase economic efficiency. The second hypothesis is represented by an idea that enterprises invest systematically to be able to cope better with the effects of depressions. Financial indicators are analyzed and presented with the aim to verify these hypotheses.

Opportunities for Cross-Border Entrepreneurship Development in a Cluster Model Exemplified by the Polish–Czech Border Region

The subject of the paper is the analysis and evaluation of cross-border entrepreneurship development opportunities on the basis of cross-border cooperation, which has gradually evolved from consisting of bilateral partnerships to a networking model or even a cluster. The study conducted at the Polish–Czech border area indicates that, in terms of the development of cross-border cooperation, the economic sphere is lagging far behind social activities such as culture, education and tourism. At the same time, Polish and Czech enterprises are not sufficiently mobilized to develop cross-border entrepreneurship, although a number of support instruments in this regard have been proposed. Sustainable development of the border should take into account both social and economic aspects. An important research problem therefore becomes determining the possibility of boosting the development of cross-border entrepreneurship on the basis of the existing forms of cross-border cooperation, including cooperation in the social sphere. The aim of this paper is to define the conditions and opportunities for the development of cluster cooperation in the area of cross-border entrepreneurship. The author has attempted to resolve whether the intensity of cross-border cooperation can be a factor which mobilizes companies to develop their cross-border entrepreneurship and whether cross-border entrepreneurship can be further developed within the cluster model.

Large Enterprise Branches: the Case of the Czech Republic

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionLarge enterprises and their organizational structures can be comprehended as one of the most important determinants of socioeconomic landscape. Internal hierarchies of these companies often tend to follow existing settlement hierarchies. Indeed, when evaluating big companies, economic and geographical perspectives are of utmost importance. When these two perspectives are joined together we get a truly useful instrument for tackling large enterprises with emphasis on their organizational structures. And just the fine mixture of economic and geographical standpoints will be utilized also in this article.Location decision-making and enterprise organizational hierarchies belong among typical themes in advanced countries. There exist ample literary resources dealing with large enterprises from economic, geographical, sociological or political perspectives. In practice, location decision-making is a difficult process since it is dependent on concrete socioeconomic context. Above contexts are strongly differentiated as to their spatio-temporal characteristics as well as prevailing economic-political paradigms.Any larger generalizations are not desirable also due to the different nature of applied methods, differentiated sources and quality of data, peculiar features of specific branches of the economy, different institutional environment in various territories, specific targets of individual companies etc. (see also Aksoy & Marshall, 1992; Bevan, Estrin & Meyer, 2004; Corbridge, Martin & Thrift et al., 1994; Shephard & Barnes et al., 2003; Suchacek, Seda, Friedrich & Koutsky, 2014 or Johnston, Gregory & Smith et al., 1994).Collocation of largest enterprises affects also territorial developmental processes, which is twofold valid for relatively small and open economies of post-transformation character, such as the Czech Republic, which provides us with appropriate material for the case study. Spatial distribution of large enterprises co-shapes contemporary socioeconomic relevance of individual regions one the one hand and helps to materialize also future socioeconomic maps of whole countries. There exists a distinct interconnectedness between politics and economy, which is officially disregarded and almost concealed.Big companies embody one of the most important actors of local and regional development. Their stabilizing and developmental functions in relations to territorial economies are frequently being emphasized. They can also affect competitiveness and cohesion of whole territories. In contrast to their smaller counterparts they possess the capability to compete on European or even worldwide scale. Connotations related to territorial development are apparent and we are entitled to state that intra-enterprise geography simply matters.The main objective of this paper is to analyze and assess the location factors pinpointing the location of the first-tier branches of one hundred largest Czech enterprises. Sizes of individual enterprises are embodied by their turnover. The whole issue will be captured and interpreted primarily from qualitative perspective. And, as already indicated, territorial principle will penetrate whole our study as it considerably affects the formation of enterprise affiliates. In recent years, headquarters of large enterprises lured intense, albeit yet insufficient attention (see Lyons, 1994; Meyer & Sinani, 2009 or Suchacek & Baranek, 2011).However, local and regional studies usually get rid of affiliates of individual enterprises. Put succinctly, geographies of largest enterprises are of enormous importance and individual affiliates should not be underestimated at all. Case study brings us to the Czech Republic, which traditionally belonged among economies with strong emphasis upon industry. In this country, large enterprises always played quite a relevant role. That is why location preferences of large enterprise headquarters and affiliates in the country should be the subject of close scrutiny. …

Enterprise Content Management Implementation and Risk

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions are commonly used in many areas such as document management, record management, digital asset management, etc. Key features of ECM systems are capturing, indexing, preserving and retrieving of digital information. The state-of-the- art ECM solution can help revolutionize document management and further automated business processes which can lead to better decisions and competitive advantage. Risk management can reduce project failure and that is why controlling risk in ECM implementation projects is considered to be a major contributor to project success. To manage software risk, the first step is to identify a list of ECM projects’ risks. The present paper provides an overview of ECM implementation risks and contains findings from a small survey on experience of ECM implementation and risk in Czech enterprises. Risk of implementation in the public sector is discussed more deeply with case study examples.

The Main Reasons for Implementing BPM in Czech Companies

This article focuses on describing the main aspects and reasons for implementing Business Process Management in Czech companies, and was based on original results of the quantitative research evaluating aspects of process management in the context of company strategies in Czech enterprises which was carried out in 2006 with regard to the extension of its further utilization. Following the interest of professionals in practice, the research continued and was re-implemented in 2012, having the interviews completed in 2013. I have described an evaluation of a process segmentation typology in this article too. The analysis showed that managers have more options regarding process segmentation to choose from. In terms of practicality and ease of use, the method of process segmentation most frequently used (managerial, main and supportive) comes directly from the requirements of ISO 9001.

MINIMÁLNÍ MZDA V ČESKÝCH PODNICÍCH

Although the statutory minimum wage is not a new category, in the Czech Republic we encounter the definition and regulation of a minimum wage for the first time in the 1990 amendment to Act No. 65/1965 Coll., the Labour Code. The specific amount of the minimum wage and the conditions of its operation were then subsequently determined by government regulation in February 1991. Since that time, the value of minimum wage has been adjusted fifteenth times (the last increase was in January 2007). The aim of this article is to present selected results of two researches of acceptance of the statutory minimum wage by Czech enterprises. The first research makes use of the data collected by questionnaire research in 83 small and medium-sized enterprises in the South Moravia Region in 2005, the second one the data of 116 enterprises in the entire Czech Republic (in 2007). The data have been processed by means of the standard methods of descriptive statistics and of the appropriate methods of the statistical analyses (Spearman correlation coefficient of sequential correlation, Kendall coefficient, χ2 - independence test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and others).

Process restructuralization and its importance by increasing a competitiveness of an enterprise

Restructuralization in traditional understanding is considered for solution of crisis situation in an enterprise. However, it is important to emphasize that restructuralization shouldn’t be connected only with crisis situation in enterprises. In present time the restructuralization has become a tool enabling revaluation of present enterprising activities and to relocate sources towards increasing the enterprise performance. This paper is focused on substance of restructuralization based on process approach that can enable to optimalize enterprise structure and process and increase competitiveness of an enterprise. Results of research in Slovak and Czech enterprises showed that implementation of process management components by realization of strategic changes enabled to achieve the increase of business performance. Opinions of experts as also experiences of enterprises with realization of changes supported process approach as a basic condition for successful restructuralization. In paper we pay attention especially to effects of enterprise’s restructuralization with emphasis on process approach to restructuralization management which is more effective in comparison with function approach.