M10 - Business Administration: GeneralReturn

More efficient and productive employees enable businesses to achieve better results, innovate, enhance the quality of products and services and respond to changing market conditions. The research therefore focuses on an analysis of procrastination at work in Slovak SMEs. We focus on the prevalence of procrastination and demographic determinants that were investigated and analysed among 253 administrative employees of various SMEs in Slovakia. Quantitative research was carried out by online inquiry using the standard questionnaire Procrastination at Work Scale, which focuses on online and offline employee procrastination and its total score. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in maintaining economic stability in Slovakia. They generate jobs, stimulate local markets and contribute to overall GDP growth. They are not only the driving force of innovation but can be characterised by flexibility and the ability to react quickly to changes on the market. They also contribute to increasing the country's competitiveness and balanced regional development. However, the performance of SMEs depends on the productivity of employees. Motivating employees is essential for businesses as it boosts employee efficiency, productivity and performance, promotes collaboration and stimulates creativity and innovation.
Implications for Central European audience: The present study provides answers to many questions and can help SMEs obtain the necessary recommendations that are applicable in practice in the field of motivation. Addressing this issue opens up the ground for conducting similar research dealing with global changes in management of small and medium-sized enterprises.

This research aims, through a multi-perspective and multi-disciplinary approach, to identify the key dimensions as well as the scale of measurement of enterprise supply chain resilience for an in-depth understanding of the concept. This is among the first empirical studies examining the key dimensions and appropriate measurement scale of enterprise supply chain resilience to address disruptions induced by unavoidable risk events. A detailed literature review is conducted to identify the dimensions of the construct under study. Then, a measurement instrument is developed from a set of items. The questionnaire is purified through a pretest, a pilot test, and reliability and validity tests. Data are collected from a final sample of 150 senior and middle managers, whose responses are considered for confirmatory factor analysis using SPSS Amos 22. The research results show that the enterprise supply chain resilience construct is composed of seven distinct dimensions, including collaboration, alertness, preparedness, visibility, robustness, flexibility and velocity. Then, a measurement instrument containing measurement items for each of said dimensions is empirically validated. This research develops and validates a structured and comprehensive measurement scale for the concept under study while identifying measurement items that can guide further theoretical testing of this concept and thereby dilute the dimensional and measurement confusions surrounding this theoretical concept.
Implications for Central European audience: This research develops and validates a structured and comprehensive measurement scale for the concept of firm supply chain resilience while identifying measurement items that can guide subsequent theoretical testing and thus dilute the dimensional and measurement confusions surrounding this theoretical concept.

The digital transformation (DT) process, which has been experienced intensely recently, can radically change all business processes, models and structures of organizations. Change and transformation, which are focused on efficiency and productivity, also trigger stress from time to time. Public institutions are also adopting DT processes. In this study, the relationship between technostress faced by organization employees in the DT process and employee performance is examined. The mixed method is used in the study. As a sample, 351 central career experts working in primary units of public institutions are selected, and the data are analysed using IBM SPSS 25 and MAXQDA 20 software. As a result of the study, it is seen that the perspective on DT affects employee performance and technostress in a positive way, and that employees' technostress levels negatively affect employee performance. Besides, according to the findings of the qualitative research method, the concepts of hardware and software, technological infrastructure, the attitude of senior management, resistance to transformation, education and ability to use technology, workload, complexity and uncertainty, speed, satisfaction, motivation, continuity, quality and work-life imbalance are listed as influential factors.
Implications for Central European audience: The findings reveal that by focusing on DT, technostress can be reduced, and thus employee performance can be increased. Employees can improve their DT skills, which will also positively affect their performance. It has also been stated that in 2021, Turkey would rank 16th in the European Union digital agenda e-government title and has digital government services similar to Central European countries. It shows that the positive and negative aspects of DT can be similar for employees.

This literature review aims to assess the evolution of performance monitoring articles in relation to the business strategy based on an overview of articles indexed in the WoS and Scopus databases. The initial dataset of articles was obtained based on carefully developed keywords. In the second phase, we restricted the selection to business and management journal articles and reviews written in English before 2019. The authors simultaneously reviewed the abstracts of all 571 articles in the third phase of the study. These were subsequently re-read and limited; thus, the final dataset for further analysis includes 157 articles published between 1983 and 2019. The most important result is that the field of business strategy and performance is not subject to trends. While in the field of business strategy the literature is still dominated by generic strategies according to Porter and the strategy typology according to Miles and Snow, in the field of performance measurement we identified the market position (sales volume, growth in sales volume, etc.) and profitability (profit margin, return on assets, etc.) as the dominant method.
Implications for Central European audience: Despite a considerable amount of work focusing on bibliographic analysis, there remains a lack of literature on the link between strategy and performance. The paper brings potential value for the Central European audience by drawing attention to the systematisation of knowledge in the field of performance articles and its trends in relation to the field of business strategy. The overview of the theoretical frameworks contributes to a better orientation of the current state of the art and creates opportunities for future research.

The revolutionary advancement of technology in the past decade brought the attention of academics and management practitioners to ways of improving innovative capabilities of organizations. Advice-seeking relationships have an essential role in the knowledge production of modern-day organizations as they enable actors to acquire information, professional support and knowledge elements that they can recombine to form new knowledge. This paper conceptualizes advice-seeking behaviour as part of an inherently complex social world that can best be captured by a multiplex approach to organizational network research. It investigates how different layers of interpersonal relationships in the workplace may contribute to the appearance of advice-seeking interactions. This study examines the cases of three knowledge-intensive organizations and applies binary logistic regression to shed light on the yet invisible relational foundations of workplace collaboration.
Implications for Central European audience: Central European countries attempt to improve their economic competitiveness by attracting knowledge-intensive companies as well as incentivizing innovation and digital transformation. Knowledge-intensive firms, such as business service centres or information and communication technology companies, are significant contributors to the economic output of countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Recommendations derived from the results of this paper provide insights into the leadership of knowledge-intensive companies regarding creation of organizational environments that foster knowledge sharing and innovation. Measures that promote interpersonal trust, visibility of expertise and boundary-spanning behaviour are recommended.

Intensive attention has been devoted to strategic management recently as it is one of the tools which is capable of leading the enterprise to succeed in the long term. In spite of this, it is mostly connected with big organisations. Managers underestimate SMEs often and do not apply the strategic management methods in the way they could. Using strategic management in small enterprises is not sufficiently described in the professional literature. The target of this article is to determine the level of strategic management in SMEs by means of the created LSM (level of strategic management) indicator. Data were found out for 156 enterprises through the questionnaire. Based on the professional literature and similar studies, nine main principles were selected influencing the level of strategic management in the enterprise (the enterprise has the strategy, the strategy is defined in the written form, the strategy is elaborated in detail into plans, the enterprise analyses the external environment, internal environment, the enterprise fixes and checks achieving the enterprise’s goals, the enterprise knows the value of the product for the customer assuring its competitiveness; the enterprise follows and evaluates the result indicators and the enterprise decides based on the forecast of the future market development). As a strategically managed enterprise, such enterprise was evaluated having acquired 12–15 points; this criterion was fulfilled by 74 enterprises (47%). On the contrary, a not strategically managed enterprise is the enterprise that acquired seven or fewer points (in total 38 enterprises).
Implications for Central European audience: Strategic management is a tool that leads a company to long term prosperity. Strategically managed companies have a well-thought-out business plan based on a long term competitive advantage. They create better value for customers, know their surroundings and react more flexibly to changes. Within the practical applications of the paper, emphasis is placed on simplifying and making strategic management accessible to SMEs. Based on the LSM indicator, each company can verify whether it’s strategically managed or not and find out where it has shortcomings. These can then be eliminated, and the company can become strategically managed with all its advantages.

A growing interest in human resource management (HRM) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has not been accompanied by increased knowledge of how different HRM policy orientations can affect SMEs' effectiveness. In this way, the goal of this paper is twofold: to test whether the orientation of HRM towards high-performance work practices (HPWP) –represented by the Abilities-Motivation-Opportunities (AMO) framework– allows SMEs to achieve better performance and to test the moderating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientation. Based on a telephone questionnaire together with data collected from a sample consisting of 1,136 Spanish SMEs that operate in the industrial or services sector, our results show that SMEs perform better when HRM policies are oriented towards the AMO model. In addition, our findings highlight that this performance impact of orienting HRM towards HPWP is positively moderated by a CSR orientation. This paper thus complements HRM-related literature by adding new evidence exploring the impact of the AMO model on firm performance as well as the role played by CSR orientation within the SME context.
Implications for the central European audience: Managers should be aware of the importance of considering and implementing appropriate ability, motivation, and opportunity policies for their employees in order to enhance SME performance. In addition, the importance of a CSR orientation is highlighted, which intensifies the impact of HPWP on firm performance. This empirical paper brings evidence from the underexplored high-performance work policies in SMEs, given their importance in stimulating employee and organizational performance. It also takes into account the particularities of the Spanish context, where most businesses are considered to be SMEs.

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.

The article concerns the analysis of elements building the reliability of IT solutions used in the organizations (system reliability, usage reliability, information reliability and support service reliability) and their influence on IT performance in conditions of the crisis, which calls for social-distancing and forces employees to work remotely, putting IT performance at the centre of attention for organizations seeking ways to survive the crisis. The article aims at verifying the IT Reliability Model under such conditions and identifies which elements building the reliability of IT solutions may contribute to ensuring IT performance. The empirical study is performed among 115 organizations operating in Italy during the COVID-19 epidemic crisis in March 2020 (during the lockdown and peak of the epidemic). The results are compared with a previous study performed among 349 organizations from Poland and 288 organizations operating in Switzerland operating under normal conditions in January 2019. The obtained results confirmed that there are major differences in the strength and significance of the influence of four elements building IT reliability on IT performance among employees from organizations working under normal conditions and conditions of epidemical crisis. The usage reliability and support service reliability were proven to become key factors influencing IT performance under such critical conditions.
Implications for Central European audience: Central Europe was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and most of the organizations experienced problems with their functioning due to the need to establish new ways of working in a world of social distancing rules. Information technology became an especially important factor allowing them to remain continuity. Therefore, the analysis of factors influencing its performance during the crisis may help contemporary organizations in Central Europe to overcome the crisis caused by the sudden need to relay, more than ever, on information technology.

The corporate brand represents a global set of perceptions of the unique functional and emotional attributes associated with it. These are the result of interactions of all the impressions, experiences, feelings and knowledge of all participating sides based on the products of the company, management style, and the planned or unscheduled communication activities. The study aims to describe Czech Millennials using demographic criteria in relation to their brand perception. The questionnaire was used as the research technique for gaining the primary data. The respondents were questioned about their opinions and perceptions of many issues such as attitudes towards brands, life values, willing to pay, making decisions, searching and buying products, preferences in the field of stability, having fun. Several statements from the questionnaire were tested for the purpose of this paper connected to the sense and sensibility in the decision buying process of Millennials as the consumers in the marketplace of the Czech Republic as one of the Central European countries. Afterwards, the Millennials are classed according to these pre-selected variables into groups by using a cluster analysis in such a way as to ensure the greatest similarity within the clusters and the greatest variation between clusters. Two clusters were formulated. From the carried out survey is obvious consumers with a lower degree of education are more emotional when they purchase goods than consumers with other achieved degrees of education. In relation to gender, we can allege that women are much more motivated by emotions. Younger Millennials are more likely to be motivated by emotions than older ones.
Implications for Central European audience: Businesses in the 21st century, especially in developed markets should focus on the adequate targeting of selected market segments to use adequate marketing programs because the use of mass marketing approaches in different areas of business is currently uncompetitive and sometimes totally impossible. Proper targeting has a significant impact on consumers' behaviour and their brand perceptions. The Central European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Austria, with a population exceeding 165 million, represent a solid and an attractive market for business opportunities. Ordun (2015) claims that customers (consumers) of so-called generation Y (also said as  Millennials) are said to be the second-largest population all of the world. It represents an occasion as well as a challenge not only for business units. Individuals of this generation have very strong buying power but they can as well influence the buying decisions of their parents and children. Moreno, Lafuente and Moreno (2017) present the findings of their research that suggest that Millennials were born in the time period when the technology is understood as an important part of people´s life in all aspects. Thanks to this fact Millennials perceive buying process as joy and their loyalty to purchased brands is relative. They are supposed to spend the money which they earn quickly using the online shopping channels.  The current research projects in the area of the currently ongoing and still unfinished phenomenon of the generation

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.

Servant leadership has been anchored in academia on the international level during recent years. However, there is a lack of studies within the Central European region. The aim of this study is to review the concept of servant leadership and examine its relation to work performance. The focus is placed on the supervisor’s servant leadership and their relationship with subordinate’s in-role and extra-role work performance. Data were collected via a self-report questionnaire based on validated and adapted scales. The sample included 106 Master students of a standard Management program at the University of Economics, Prague (VŠE) who have a job of 20 hours a week and more. Regression analysis showed a positive and significant relationship between supervisor’s servant leadership and both subordinate’s in-role and extra-role work performance. On the level of individual dimensions of servant leadership, only “empowering” showed to be positively and significantly related to work performance. Results suggest that working business students appreciate when supervisor provides them with responsibility and autonomy. The implications are limited due to the design of the study and the nature of the data. Organisations would benefit from the adoption of servant leadership if they aim to create an environment supportive for both in-role and extra-role work performance.
Implications for Central European audience: Servant leadership is a viable concept used and researched worldwide. Its factorial structure was supported in the Czech context, and it provides a base for future research. Servant leadership might offer a convenient roadmap to accommodate work expectations of millennials and Gen Z from Central European region, e.g. servant leadership behaviour “creating value for the community” aligns with their expectation “business leaders take responsibility for societal needs”.

Family businesses are the lifeblood of the economic growth of the nations. However, a large gap exists about the application of machine-learning algorithms such as Random Forests (RF) to the quantification of patterns, drivers, and interactions in the succession process of family businesses. The primary aim and novelty of this study lie in the quantification of variable importance based on machine-learning algorithms, and the differences among the characteristics of family businesses, family employees, and family business owners (FBOs) for multivariate responses. For this reason, a field study was carried out in family businesses in Sivas and Ardahan provinces. The questionnaire form created by the researchers was used in this study. In this research, RF classification model was applied. RF classification models of 17 response variables were constructed as a function of 32 predictors.
Implications for Central European audience: Impacts of characteristics of FBOs, family businesses, and family employees on FBOs’ willingness to transfer to successors and preferences about the successor’s qualities were modelled. High-dimensional data were collected from 53 family business owners (FBOs) in two cities for a total of 49 variables. As a result, the domain of the FBOs’ characteristics was found to have a more profound impact on both FBO’s willingness to transfer to a successor and what successor’s qualities were most valued than did the domains of the family business and employee characteristics.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are an important part of the economy of every country. These enterprises operate in a highly competitive environment and are especially exposed to rapid changes in the business environment. Therefore, one of the most important issues which they face is effective business planning (BP), especially in relation to the projects which they carry out. This is because business planning provides an opportunity to take the risks inherent in the activities of an enterprise into account and providing coordination of the production and economic processes. Given these facts, our study analyses the process of business planning administration in small enterprises. Its main aim is to develop methodological recommendations for the administration of business planning processes through the utilization of innovative tools. It should simplify the business planning of projects and make it more relevant and effective. The administration of business planning is presented as a complex process which is modelled with the utilization of a roadmapping approach. We suggest using the business canvas as one of the milestones of the model, which is especially suitable for the visualization of future business plans. A single case study analysis based on the private company Gal-Exim PC and its innovation project planning was chosen as the research method. The company's core business and main innovation projects are in sphere of commercial real estate operations. Our analysis confirmed that the proposed model may be regarded as an effective instrument of BP in small enterprises. It has a universal nature and therefore may be utilized in other companies as well.
Implications for Central European audience: Our study is based on the most modern world trends and practical research in sphere of business planning. The proposed model has a universal nature and may be easily implemented in any European small or medium-sized companies. The proposed roadmap of business planning administration includes instruments which are accessible and may be used by companies regardless of the region. We deliberately based our analysis on the company which provides a variety of innovative projects with utilization of European and world trends in sphere of commercial real estate operations, thus we assume that the suggested study may make a positive contribution to the Central European business environment generally.

The article focuses on the analysis of the results of empirical research, which shows how motivation of knowledge workers influences their job performance. The analysis focuses on characteristics (that are differentia specifica) of a knowledge worker and their impact on the results achieved in their organization. It was assumed that the impact of motivation on job performance increases together with the intensity of these characteristics. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to verify the influence of motivation on knowledge workers’ job performance. In order to verify the formulated hypothesis, an empirical study with the use of a questionnaire was conducted among employees of 204 organizations operating in Poland. Methods of statistical description and estimation were used, including correlation analysis and regression analysis with moderator. A positive relation was established between the absorption of knowledge workers’ characteristics and work motivation, and a positive relation between absorption of knowledge workers’ characteristics and job performance. Together with the verification of the knowledge workers’ characteristics as the mediator of the relation between work motivation and job performance, the study allows for the advancement of the existing (and described) research area. The obtained results allow only to preliminarily verify the raised issue which proves that it is a field of study undoubtedly worth exploring further.

A number of socio-economic phenomena that are intensifying nowadays, in particular an increase in competition and customer expectations, forces enterprises to seek new sources of innovation, including process (technological) ones to ensure their ability to compete effectively. It turns out that they are increasingly transferring them from their environment, and the success of this undertaking is dependent on their absorptive capacities. Therefore, the main goal of this article was to identify the key absorptive capacities that are endogenous determinants of the effectiveness of the process of the absorption of process innovations in the activity of Poland’s financial companies. The empirical part of the article was written on the basis of an online survey carried out in 2015-2016. It was sent to the heads of 155 commercial financial sector companies registered in Poland, namely all banks, property and life insurance companies, investment funds and universal fund management companies. In total, 111 entities filled in the online survey questionnaire. In the conducted study an attempt was made to assess the direction and strength of dependence between the level of development of specific absorptive capacities of financial companies and the scale of the effects achieved as a result of the absorption of process innovations. Personal and organizational absorptive capacities of financial companies in Poland remain in a positive and strong linear relationship with their effectiveness achieved in the scope of the absorption of process innovations. The results identified the key absorptive capacities that determine the effects obtained in the process of absorbing technological innovations, taking into account the specific conditions prevailing in the service sector.

This paper extends the concept of organizational project management maturity to the national context. Based on a review of the extant literature and a thorough analysis of existing organizational maturity models, it develops a systematic framework of national project management maturity and the national project management maturity model (NPM3), by defining maturity levels, identifying key maturity perspectives and drivers, and discussing key performance indicators that may be used to assess and compare national project management maturity. Practical implications, limitations, and the need for further research are discussed.

This paper aims to understand how born global firms develop their international pricing strategies, practices, and models. It aims to expand the study of international entrepreneurship and born global firms by including a broader and deeper range of pricing aspects than is normally found in the international entrepreneurship and pricing literature. The paper opted for a multiple case-study research design using different sources of evidence, including four in-depth interviews with CEOs of born global firms. The case-study firms were selected using a purposive selection method. The theoretical framework of Ingenbleek, Frambach & Verhallen is used. The results suggest that successful leaders act as ‘integrating forces’ on two levels: by applying a structured and disciplined price-setting process with regular reviews and by mediating between corporate financial goals and the local market reality. The results support the claim that policy makers should offer insights, training and financial support to give promising born global firms the possibility to select the most efficient international pricing models and strategies. The results are relevant for entrepreneurs to understand the importance of efficient price-modelling processes and the influence of the different price strategies and price models on financial results and sales revenues.

The goal of this article is to present work-related attitudes of a sample of Czech Generation Z and their comparison to the results of an international research study. Currently, there are three important trends influencing the labor market: (1) the origin and development of a ubiquitous working environment, (2) the thriving of coworking centers, and (3) Generation Z's entering the labor market. Instead of traditional jobs, the bearers of human capital tend to choose independent work in an online environment, and often work in coworking centers. Using self-determination theory, we substantiate why they thrive better this way. Based on the results of an international research project focused on work attitudes among Generation Z and the results of a replication study we carried out in the Czech Republic, we attest that members of Generation Z may prefer independent virtual work in coworking centers, too. The total amount of available human capital, the lack of which is pointed out by companies, may grow thanks to new ways of working. Companies, which can use human capital of independent workers, gain a competitive advantage.

The aim of the article was to internationally compare the market concentration of grocery retailers in the six countries of Central Europe - Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The market concentration was measured by CR4 ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and the GRS index. Data covered the period 2010 - 2015. The secondary data came from the Euromonitor International and Bureau van Dijk databases. The results showed that the market structure of the Central European grocery retailers has mostly a character of asymmetric oligopoly. The pairwise correlation did not reveal any strong relationship between the market power and profitability of the grocery retailers. The Central European grocery market is controlled by strong national retail chains and multinational companies which operate modern grocery retail formats. However, traditional grocery retailers are still popular in Hungary while traditional individual grocers in other countries are disappearing or gradually joining the networking system based on franchising.

Every organization needs well-adjusted, trained, and experienced people to perform its activities effectively and efficiently. Today's business environment has become complex; the training for employees' education is becoming a diver for adjusting dynamic change in organizational interfaces. This survey reveals that employee training and job satisfactions have a significant positive relationship with organizational effectiveness. The survey also indicates that job dissatisfaction has an insignificant relationship with organizational effectiveness in commercial banks. The study indicates that to chase dynamic business environments, management should focus on building human resources through diverse training for promoting organizational effectiveness.