Central European Business Review, 2025 (vol. 14), issue 4
Articles
Users' Attitudes towards Self-Service Technologies (SSTs): The Role of Demographic Factors
Vladimir Zhechev, Gabriela Popova
Central European Business Review 2025, 14(4):1-24 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.392 
In the contemporary business environment, many companies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have adopted self-service technologies (SSTs), moving away from traditional face-to-face interactions. Although numerous studies have examined the factors that shape users’ attitudes towards SSTs, the extant literature has primarily focused on the impact of specific individual and technological factors. In addition, a predominant emphasis is placed on SSTs for hotels, restaurants and retail stores. To bridge these gaps, the present research explores the effect of demographic factors on Bulgarian users’ attitudes towards SSTs at filling stations....
Enhancing Security in Sustainable Energy Systems for Central European Business: An Adaptive Response Methodology under National Economy
Yurii Kharazishvili, Oleksandr Sukhodolia, Gennadii Riabtsev, Oleksandr Kalinin, Galyna Us, Yevhen Lunov
Central European Business Review 2025, 14(4):25-63 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.396
The increasing complexity of energy security threats, both internal and external, poses significant challenges for businesses in Europe, necessitating a robust framework for evaluating and responding to these risks. This article introduces a comprehensive methodology designed to assess the effects of these threats on a state's energy security through two distinct approaches. The first method focuses on identifying imbalances by analysing the deviation of key indicators from established sustainability benchmarks. The second method combines expert evaluations of changes in comprehensive index components with mathematical computations to assess their...
Unwritten Rules Of "Instagrammable" Travel as a Status Symbol: Visual Analysis of Social Media Posts among Young Middle-Class Adults
Jana Kovarova, Zuzana Chytkova
Central European Business Review 2025, 14(4):65-80 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.393
It is a well-known fact that consumers demonstrate their status through displaying their consumption and one of the key areas of consumption used to display status is travel. While traditional markers of travel status emphasized destinations, today’s status is more often conveyed through particular, often intangible, elements included in how the travel experience is shared. The display of these more intangible and immaterial aspects of travel consumption has developed vis-a-vis the proliferation of social media, which has allowed displaying the manner of travel in more detail but has also changed what status travel means. Our research aims to...
Does CEO Ownership in High-Tech Companies Affect Corporate Financial Decisions?
Elżbieta Bukalska, Jakub Czerniak, Irmina Florek
Central European Business Review 2025, 14(4):81-106 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.395
The role of high-tech companies increases in turbulent times. Additionally, the status of the company (high-tech or non-high-tech) affects financial decisions. Moreover, CEOs with ownership in the company that they work for make specific financial decisions. The paper aims to identify the impact of CEO ownership on financial decisions in high-tech companies. The sample consists of 750 manufacturing firm-year observations from the period 2018-2021. All the companies included in the research are listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Linear mixed-model analysis with individual and interactive effects were implemented. Findings show that high-tech companies...
Industry 4.0 Technologies in SMEs and Differences According to Company Size and Sector of the Company: The Case of the Czechia
Lukáš Klarner, Petr Řehoř, Jaroslav Vrchota, Monika Maříková
Central European Business Review 2025, 14(4):107-132 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.394
The article focuses on adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in Czechia's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It examines how enterprise size and sector affect the level of implementation of these technologies. The main objective is to observe the differences in the use of modern technologies in SMEs based on enterprise size and the sector in which they operate and to identify the main barriers to their implementation. The research was conducted online between October 2023 and January 2024, involving 240 respondents from various sectors. The statistical analysis included a non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), the Kruskal-Wallis...
Funding Structure of Clusters in Post-Communist and Developed Countries
Peter Burger, Eduard Baumöhl
Central European Business Review 2025, 14(4):133-152 | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.397
The paper compares the funding structure of European clusters. It uses a hand-collected questionnaire survey (n = 185) to examine the budget structure of European clusters. The objective is to identify the differences between clusters in post-communist and developed countries, as well as between clusters located in countries with higher and lower levels of innovation performance. The results show that clusters in (i) post-communist countries and (ii) countries with lower levels of innovation performance have a much higher share of EU structural funds and community programmes in their budgets than clusters in (iii) developed countries and (iv) countries...