L25 - Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and ScopeReturn

This article analyses the distribution of firms by size in six selected countries in 2012 and 2017. Estimates are always made for the whole economy and two subgroups of firms. We compare the Visegrad Four countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) with similar economic activities and two neighbouring economically more developed countries (Germany and Austria). As the main objective of the article, we describe the distribution of firms by verifying the validity of Zipf's law in selected economies and their sectors. The results confirm the positively skewed distribution of company sizes measured by sales revenues, but Zipf's law does not apply to the distribution of all companies by the magnitude of sales in the whole economy (or in an economic subgroup), but only to sections in the right tail of the distribution (companies with higher turnover within the whole economy), which is in line with numerous research studies.
Implications for Central European audience: This article attempts to contribute to the state of the art of firm size distribution in two ways. Firstly, it reviews a wide range of research studies looking into the existence of power laws in firm size distribution. Secondly, it analyses the distribution of firms by size in six selected Central European countries in 2012 and 2017, where four sample countries were burdened with interrupted business activities during a communist regime (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), and two countries are their neighbours not exposed to changes in the political regime (Germany and Austria). 

The business environment, its quality, and its development are important indicators of the global competitiveness of individual economies. The situation is enhanced in the European area, where the open community brings specific opportunities to expand and grow in new markets. However, it is not that easy to find the proper place to start a business, considering the financial performance and cost-effectiveness. Thus, the paper focuses on the comparative analysis of selected European countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, and France) in the context of their macroeconomic and inner-markets factors in the 8-year horizon (2013-2020). The quality of the business environment is evaluated using a multi-criteria decision-making method TOPSIS and global multi-level indices such as the Global Competitiveness Index, Corruption Perception Index, and Doing Business Index. Their mutual dependence is tested by correlation coefficients. To find the statistically significant differences among the countries, the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffé´s post hoc tests were used. The results reveal the subsets of countries with similar business environments, which may be beneficial in increasing the global competitiveness of enterprises.
Implications for Central European audience: The comparative analysis is focused on the selected (mostly) Central European countries. This selection enables comparing the business environments with similar features and grouping them into subsets based on their economic, political, and social peculiarities. The analysis of variance proved that the business environments in Slovakia, Hungary, and Croatia are very similar, which may simplify the way of doing business in these countries. Thus, the implications of this study are crucial for better evaluation of the factors influencing the business environment, grouping attractiveness from the perspective of national enterprises, and understanding the indicators that increase the international competitiveness of enterprises.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the expectations of the management of different industries in the Czech Republic related to governmental support for their implementation of Industry 4.0 and their preparedness for the challenges associated with these technological changes. Mixed research, specifically exploratory sequential design, was used. The findings of qualitative data analyses from in-depth semi-structured interviews (n=41) with representatives of different industry sectors formed subsequent quantitative data collection (N=146, the board of management members representing various industries) through survey items corresponding with formalized research questions. The findings revealed a strong group of companies already implementing Industry 4.0 elements (85% of respondents) driven by companies with 250+ employees. As perceived by the management, the critical threat related to the workforce is a lack of skilled labour. Managers tend to prefer a transparent business environment without state interventions or interventions targeted to strategic state industries, preferably to the spheres of education, research & development, energy sector, sustainable agriculture, and healthcare. The results indicate that the easier administration and education reform are among the companies' boldest expectations from the government, among general conditions for current business.
Implications for the Central European audience: Central European companies face challenges related to implementing the Industry 4.0 elements. Therefore, the findings that aim to contribute to the debate addressing administration simplification, business environment transparency, and reform of the education system are considered relevant for the CE audience.

More attention is being paid to companies’ environmental performance these days. It includes the consideration of how a company’s business operations affect the natural environment in which it operates. In order to improve its environmental performance, various investments are essential. However, one important question is how such environmental performance investments affect the company’s financial performance. The theoretical background indicates that both positive and negative effects on financial performance are possible; however, previous results show that environmental performance has a predominantly positive effect on financial performance. Considering the importance of environmental performance, the aim of this research is to determine if there is a positive relationship between environmental performance investments and financial performance. Investments in new long-term assets are used as a proxy for environmental performance investments since newer long-term assets are considered to be more environmentally acceptable than the older ones, while financial performance is measured with the business result (net profit or loss). The data was analysed by using multivariate regression analysis. The sample included 150 Croatian large-sized companies. The results reveal that there is a positive relationship between environmental performance investments and financial performance. Therefore, such investments are of interest to both the environment and the company since they help to preserve the natural environment and, at the same time, improve the company’s financial performance.
Implications for Central European audience: The effect of environmental performance investments on financial performance has been tested on a sample comparing companies from Central European country, Croatia. Obtained results can be of interests also for audience from other Central European countries with similar characteristics as Croatia due to common historical features (transitional experience).

In today's turbulent times, businesses must cope with an increasing focus on digital technology, automation and robotics systems. It represents the fourth industrial revolution, called Industry 4.0. The goals of Industry 4.0 are achieving higher levels of operational efficiency and productivity, as well as a higher level of automation. Concerning Industry 4.0, therefore, not only the technological aspect but also the size of the organization, the scope of business by industry and other elements are considered and analyzed based on Mann-Whitney U test and Fisher test. According to statistical analysis, it was found that the size of the company affects its relationship to Industry 4.0, and we can say that the larger the business, the more it is affected by Industry 4.0. This influence was manifested primarily in companies operating in the field of commercial activities, or Agriculture and Construction. In terms of the relationship between the written strategy and Industry 4.0, it can be stated that the link between them has occurred in small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the areas of Professional and Administrative Activities, Manufacturing and Wholesale, Transport and Accommodation. In contrast, this effect has not been proven in micro-enterprises.
Implications for a Central European audience: The paper primarily deals with the analysis of the relationship between enterprise size and Industry 4.0 and the study of the relationship between the division of enterprises by industry in relation to CZ-NACE. A significant difference was found between the enterprises affected and unaffected by Industry 4.0 when evaluating the size of the enterprise. Enterprises involved by Industry 4.0 employ more workers, which may be due to the introduction of automation and robotic automation, which means the initial phase. As the results further show, the written strategy is mostly the domain of medium-sized enterprises, with only 29 % of micro-enterprises and 41 % of small enterprises having it defined.

Entrepreneurship researchers have called for more investigation on the contribution of context in advancing entrepreneurship theory. The aim of the paper is to analyse the agribusiness enterprise performance by introducing collaborativeness as a dimension of entrepreneurial orientation. Agribusiness is a key regional sector representing a crucial ratio of employment, economic production. and future growth. Due to the sector`s importance and the many challenges it faces, the impact of a synergy approach entrepreneurial orientation model on agribusiness performance is tested.
Structural equation modelling is used to test data collected from 120 agribusinesses located in Albania. Study results show collaborativeness as a dimension of the extracted entrepreneurial orientation model which provides a synergy between the actors of entrepreneurial value creation and has a significant direct contribution to enterprise performance.
Implications for Central European audience: Even though the results are related to agribusinesses in Albania, the findings of this research may advocate that to enhance enterprise performance in fragile sectors and emerging economy markets, the synergy among the value creation actors of the entrepreneurial process is a necessity. Besides the theoretical implications, this study has also some practical implications for policymakers, entrepreneurs and researchers.