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Tax avoidance became a frequently observed practice in a global business environment. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) employ differences between statutory tax rates of their home countries and countries of their subsidiaries, aiming to achieve the effective tax rate being lower than the statutory one. MNEs enable tax avoidance practices via multiple channels, transfer pricing and debt shifting being among the most popular among them. The goal of this article is to evaluate if MNEs operating in Lithuania, a small open economy of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), are engaging in tax avoidance practices, and if yes, what channel debt shifting profit shifting or both are employed. Our research is built on the data for the years 2010–2018 and analyses 3,563 MNEs and local companies operating in Lithuania. Results of the conducted regression analysis rejected the impact of differences in tax rates between MNEs and their subsidiaries in Lithuania on their leverage. Therefore debt shifting across the sample companies was not evident. On the contrary, analysis of profit shifting evidence among sample companies proved the significant influence of transfer mispricing practices on earnings of Lithuanian subsidiaries of MNEs’. Such results may imply that in Lithuania, corporate tax avoidance of MNEs occurs via the channel of profit shifting rather than debt shifting. We suggest that this is related to the specifics of small economies commonly characterised by lower tax rates, underdeveloped financial markets and lower tax avoidance costs.
Implications for Central European audience: Previous tax avoidance and profit shifting research mainly analysed the United Kingdom, Germany and other large countries in Europe, leaving a gap in research on small economies, especially those in CEE. Lithuania, similar to the other CEE open economies, is competing for attracting foreign investment, which makes it relevant to understand if and how the country’s tax system is exploited in the corporate governance practices of MNEs.

Failure is an inseparable part and probably the most likely outcome of entrepreneurial activity. Fear of failure is among the key factors that hinder individual entry to the entrepreneurial path. While entrepreneurship literature mostly deals with its consequences, considerably lower attention has been paid to understanding its drivers. This is especially true in the Central European region, Slovakia not being exempt. Thus, our paper aims to fill this gap by analysing factors driving the entrepreneurial fear of failure among non-entrepreneur individuals in Slovakia. In doing so, we rely on the 2019 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data for Slovakia and employ the ordinal logistic regression to test the hypothesised drivers of fear of failure among non-entrepreneur individuals. Our findings suggest that perceived entrepreneurial self-confidence and perceived ease of starting a business significantly reduce fear of failure. These factors are rather of an intrinsic and individual nature (the ‘I can do it’ factors). Further, in the case of non-entrepreneurs, these self-assessments usually result from expectations rather than from their own actual experience. Yet, the expectations themselves seem to be strong enough to affect the perceived level of fear of failure. We attribute this effect to the so-called failure feedback – an indication of a potential failure.
Implications for Central European audience: Our study contributes to the debate on drivers of individual involvement in entrepreneurship and their specificity in the Central European context. We shed more light on factors influencing the fear of failure – one of the strongest barriers hindering individuals from starting a business. Despite focusing on Slovakia only, our study brings this topic to the table in the region. We contribute to the body of knowledge by suggesting potential patterns behind the fear of failure formation among the non-entrepreneur population, encouraging further investigation in the region and beyond, and proposing the practical implications for entrepreneurship policy, education, and training.

Financial institutions have not paid much attention to customers in the past. In the Slovak republic, this approach has changed only since the late 1990s. Banks have recognized that understanding the customer and its behaviour is key to their success. This contribution aims to answer the research question of whether there are different segments of customers (generations) that would differ in the level of perception of the bank's brand subconsciously. The data used in the presented study was obtained by our survey carried out by a sample size of 2000 respondents (Slovak citizens older than 15 years of age). The given data has been statistically evaluated by testing hypotheses and the factor analysis supported by the implementation of the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Test, Bartlett's test of sphericity, and calculation of Cronbach's Alpha for brand value sources in general as well as for all generation. In accordance with previously mentioned, the results consist of the identification of specifics in brand value sources in the banking industry on the case study of Slovak Republic creating so a platform for future research of relevant disparities in cross-cultural brand value sources from the psychographic point of view. Implications for the Central European audience: There are some implications of the article in managerial practice. First of all, the paper presents a valuable source of relevant information for brand managers. They are anticipated to enhance and deepen the understanding of managerial previous practice as well. Overall, the findings help to understand the complexity of internal and external factors motivating consumers to interact with the brand, generating added value for consumers.

In the expansion of volumes of industrial production, there is an increase of anthropogenic influence and deterioration of the external environment that became the reason for the impossibility of a functioning market system without taking into account negative externalities. The article considers the directions and principles of a “green economy” functioning as the basis for further development of society. The current state and trends of the impact of environmental factors on other indicators of quality of life have been analysed and comparative analysis has been made on the example of developed and developing countries. Effective indices and instruments of influence on the level of ecological and economic development and main tendencies and problems arising at the introduction of “green economy”, have been considered. The use of indicators that take into account negative externalities, such as the Pigouvian tax, has been demonstrated to be more visible than widely used indices. The losses from the negative impact on the resulting economic indicators have been analysed, and a significant decrease in the per capita GDP level has been proved with the extensive development of the economy.
Implications for Central European audience: This paper aims to contribute to the development of a green economy as part of a policy aimed at reducing environmental risks in the process of economic growth. The proposed indicators and tools for influencing the level of environmental and economic development arising from the implementation of the “green economy” as the main vector of sustainable development, which can be used further research and development and can be implemented by European companies.

The sharing economy is an interesting socio-economic system that has been studied by many researchers worldwide. It is an area that will affect the patterns of behaviour, processes and thinking experienced in various fields. The sharing economy is specific in that some people who have an asset they do not fully use may be willing to share it with consumers who do not have the asset but need it for a specific reason but are unable to or do not want to buy it. Platforms operating in the sharing economy need to know whom to target with their marketing strategy to spend marketing costs effectively. We used cluster analysis, a chi-square test, a Kruskal-Wallis test and descriptive analysis of data collected from 684 respondents across Generations X, Y and Z within the Czech Republic. We identified who constitutes the general supply of and demand for unused assets. While the willingness to supply prevails among Generation Y, the willingness to demand prevails among Generation Z. For Generation X, the willingness to supply and the willingness to demand are almost equal. Using cluster analysis, we defined three basic groups of participants in the sharing economy: double-sided active participants, one-sided active participants and inactive participants. We summarise new findings from not only a theoretical but also a practical perspective.
Implications for Central European audience: Platforms active in the sharing economy may better understand Czech customers regarding their supply of and demand for unused assets. The results could also be useful for managers in other countries of the Central European region. The findings may help enrich the theoretical knowledge of the sharing economy and its impact on marketing. Platforms can save money on marketing communications by focusing their marketing communications on a specific generation.

Netnography, an online qualitative research method that evolved from ethnography, previously typically used in anthropology, is experiencing its boom in contemporary marketing research worldwide. It helps to answer research questions about a variety of topics, and it is used in many different ways. Therefore, each netnographic study is unique, not only content-wise but also in terms of the approach to the use of the method. In the presented paper, the case study research method was applied to aim at the identification of the best practices in contemporary marketing research when using netnography. Based on the analysis of chosen articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals, the paper defines the features of the research problem suitable for the application of netnography, the typical process, and its variances, as well as basic criteria for use. As a result of observed significant differences in applying the method, the paper captures the variability of netnography use in the Model of NET Dimensions of Netnography. The model shows how each netnographic study has to deal with three dimensions of decisions that need to be taken: ‘the Niche’ – the place ‘where’ and the group ‘whom’ it researches, ‘the Engagement’ – the extent to which the researcher is engaged in the studied community, and ‘the Time’ – the timeline – ‘when’ and timespan ‘how long’. The combination of all the possibilities of NET dimensions makes the netnography so variable, flexible, and adaptable, and therefore a very suitable method for many research problems.
Implications for Central European Audience: The paper presents the variety of use of netnography in contemporary marketing research. Although the method originated at the end of the 20th century and is starting to be very popular worldwide, especially with the growth of life online, there is still very little research done using this method in the CEE. Researching the various scholar engines at the time of the article submission, we found very few published studies originating from the CEE. And yet, as the presented paper shows, the method is very well-fitting for a large variety of research problems, and it is very handy, especially now when other qualitative methods are often more difficult to be carried out due to COVID-19 restrictions. The method has the potential to help to answer many of the real businesses’ questions as well as to solve some academic puzzles. Therefore, we see a need to promote it within the academic and business community.

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.

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.

With the expansion of different brands in similar classes of products and the close competition of brand owners in attracting and retaining more customers, the production of ethical brands that are subject to ethical principles in all stages of the process of supply, production, presentation, and sale of products has become one of the most important factors in creating superiority and brand differentiation in expanding customer communication and interaction with the brand. Given the importance of the role of brand ethical value in establishing effective customer relationships with the brand, this study aimed at investigating the predictions and consequences of consumer hope for the brand of Hydroderm with the role of brand charisma. The present study used a survey method to collect data and a correlation method to analyze the data. The statistical population of the study included 327 consumers of Hydroderm cosmetics brands; they were selected using the available sampling method. Information was collected using a Likert-point questionnaire, and data analysis was performed by structural equation modelling. The findings showed that the perceived ethical value of the brand on the obsessive brand passion and harmonious brand passion on consumer hope for the brand had a positive and significant effect. Moreover, obsessive brand passion did not have a significant effect on consumer hope for the brand. In addition, brand charisma mediated the effect of the perceived ethical value of the brand on the harmonious brand passion and obsessive brand passion. Finally, a positive and significant effect was found between consumer hope for brand and brand-customer interaction.
Implications for Central European audience: Since most Central European countries seek to use the social media space to introduce and sell their brands to all parts of the world, including Asian countries, identifying and understanding how the perceived ethical value of the brand affects consumers interaction of with the brand can be a good practical guide to improve their activities with Asian countries that are subject to Islamic and ethical values. The recommendations obtained from the results show that the behavioural, personality, operational values of the brand as well as its responsibility can increase customers’ desire for the brand and maintain their interactive relationship by giving the consumer hope for the brand.

Consumption styles in most modern societies are characterised by internal diversity. This situation reflects the paradox of the postmodern world in which two different trends - consumerism and greening consumption, compete for the hearts, minds and portfolios of buyers. The popularity of one of the above trends depends on society’s standards and the level of awareness of its citizens. The article aims to present Slovak consumers’ behaviour in terms of sustainable consumption in the field of organic products.  Concerning the multifaceted nature of organic food consumption, empirical research has taken into account various aspects of the potential of individual respondents and the general characteristics of their households. The survey conducted from January to May 2019 involved 1,373 individuals who live in Slovakia. The respondents’ selection criteria did not consider whether or not they had food allergies or intolerances, whether they were vegetarian or vegan, or whether they liked most foods. The paper used the clustering of objects method, especially the Two-Step method. The research questionnaire concerns consumers who have a positive attitude about organic foods considering the importance of their health.
Implications for the Central European audience: The development of organic food markets is stimulated by accepting the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to propose elements of reflection for economic entities facing the challenges of sustainable consumption. The increased interest of Slovak consumers in organic food is linked with their interest in living a healthier life. The theoretical framework of the article focuses on the significance of consumer behaviour and the consumption of bioproducts. The practical support of consumption in-home organic food is one of the main tasks of the Programme for the Development of the Country until the year 2020 and the Action Plan of the Development of Agriculture for the years 2014–2020.

In the first two decades of the 21st century, the previous democratization progress was partly reversed. It is well seen in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe but also in other geographic regions. In search for causes of this warning trend, many authors point out economic factors such as economic stagnation, unemployment, inequality, consequences of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 and side-effects of globalization. Not negating the role of economic factors, it is important, however, to see noneconomic determinants such as immature political institutions and their dysfunctionality, nationalism and cultural prejudices, and side-effects of the ICT revolution, which destroyed traditional media and public debate. The antidemocratic drift is dangerous not only for political and civil freedom but also has a negative impact on economic governance, making economies less open and competitive and easy victims of oligarchic predation (‘crony’ capitalism).

Technologies transform the total marketing mix of hotel products in the dynamic tourism market, where the distribution is detected as a key factor of market placement and profitability. The main goal of this paper is to explore the distribution channels in the hospitality industry and to identify the most successful elements of online distribution for the purposes of realising future excellence in post-COVID-19 tourism. The online distribution elements that could enhance competitiveness and incentives for reservation were identified and ranked. This was realised by choosing the most representative sample and by researching it using a structured questionnaire, where the mix of competitiveness and marketing elements were evaluated. The research findings present the importance of online travel agents (OTA), tour operators, social networks and conferences (MICE segment). The potential of Global Distribution Systems (GDS) systems is detected and, although not fully valorised in practice, implicate future franchising and contracting with global hotel brands and consortia. The answer to the question: “Which tools and techniques of innovative online distribution should be used and what product elements enhance sales in the hotel industry of the future?” is explored by the scientific methodology, which supports the purpose and presents the main contribution of the paper.
Implications for Central European audience: The paper represents a considerable contribution in the perception of the distribution channels, affirmed for exchange in the Central European tourism market as an emissive market for the receptive offer of Croatian tourism. Considered in the context of the accessibility of Croatia as a car destination that realises both long-term and short-term “impulsive” bookings, promptness, propulsion and dynamism of online distribution channels used by the hotel offer have exceptional importance for income management and profitability. Correspondingly, a positive perception is being developed of the Central European market demand, as well as tourism awareness about closeness and market potentials, which represents a platform for the development of applicative strategies in communication and business. Recognising the effect on intensification of tourist exchange through the affirmation of innovations and technology contributes to the development of science and practice of the hospitality industry.

This research examines the relation between annual report readability and company performance in a German-speaking country, Austria. The incomplete revelation hypothesis, management obfuscation hypothesis and agency theory assume that firms with lower performance strategically use readability in their disclosures to obfuscate negative results. For investors, reading, analysing, and interpreting data becomes a costly affair; this weakens the negative effect of such data on a firm’s reputation and share price. We use LIX and Flesch formulas to measure the readability of letters to the shareholders and/or interviews with the board in annual reports. The sample consists of 37 companies that are listed on the Prime Market of the Vienna Stock Exchange and their data from the year 2009 to 2020. Company performance is measured by the change in turnover, profit, and share price. The analysed sections mostly show high to very high levels of difficulty. During the observation period, readability levels do not change significantly. We find that the annual reports of firms with lower performance are not harder to read and, therefore, cannot confirm the management obfuscation hypothesis. A significant influence of change in profit/loss on readability is minutely observed. Possible reasons for this observation could be characteristics of the German language, statistical outliers, the long observation period, more professional investor relations offices, and changing communication channels between companies and stakeholders. The last point, changing communication channels, also puts the obfuscation hypothesis and its application to readability up for discussion again.
Implications for Central European audience: Our study shows that also Central European countries are confronted with low levels of readability in annual reports. Nevertheless, we cannot see a clear tendency towards obfuscation in corporate disclosures.

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 factors determining the success of crowdfunding projects is one of the central issues for crowdfunding researchers. Quantitative approaches recognise the number of funds targeted as an important control variable. However, little is known about the impact of the funding goal on other factors that impact crowdfunding success. We hypothesise that the effect of crowdfunding success factors varies contingent on the funding goal level. A dataset of 338 crowdfunding projects from the largest German crowdfunding platform StartNext in the years 2015 to 2016 is analysed by conducting regression analyses controlling for varying funding goal sizes. We use the dependent variables success, the degree of success and the number of project supporters and control whether the effect of independent variables such as comments, updates and social media depend on different funding goals. Our study indicates that the impact of the investigated success factors, in fact, strongly depends on the funding goal levels of crowdfunding projects. By grouping projects into clusters of varying funding goals, we find that the impact of individual success factors changes and that the funding goal plays a moderating role for factors impacting project success.
Implications for Central European audience: Many crowdfunding studies focus on the most popular US-based platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. We examined projects on the largest German reward-based crowdfunding platform StartNext. These results help both researchers and future entrepreneurs in Europe to better understand supporter behaviour. We suggest that future entrepreneurs should be aware that factors influencing the success of a crowdfunding project strongly depend on the set funding goal, which should be adequately considered in future crowdfunding research.

The concentration of real convergence in a short period before the Great Recession (2001-2008) is a characteristic shared by many countries, but it was particularly pronounced in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. Bulgaria managed to converge after the Great Recession, but convergence in other mentioned countries was meagre; Slovenia even diverged since 2010. Direct effects of post-Yugoslav wars belong to the past, but indirect effects may have had more persistent effects: a lost decade of the ’90s led to weak institutional development and the creation of the local form of state capitalism, which provides weak fundamentals for economic growth. Monetary policy and exchange rate regimes in the region are mostly centred around stable exchange rates and strive for the introduction of the Euro (Bulgaria and Croatia joined the ERM II in 2020). However, the impact of exchange rate regimes on long-run economic growth is neutral. Preference for credibility building monetary regimes is a legacy of the past. Financial predictability served as a shock absorber and a substitute for good institutions in order to attract inflows of international capital, which flooded ex-communist countries after the emerging markets crisis in the late ’90s. However, when the wave of capital inflows stopped in the Great Recession, more fundamental growth factors emerged, explaining the slow convergence of the majority of SEE countries in the second decade of the 21st century.

The present study seeks to evaluate the theoretical approach towards physicians’ dual practice. This is done by investigating the various theoretical grounds that form the basis of physicians’ dual practice. The study presents theoretical findings by comparing them with practical primary data from experienced experts. An in-depth search of the top keywords related to dual practice was done in various databases. The study first identified all articles related to dual practice in various databases. In total, 59,838 articles identified after duplicates were removed were narrowed down to four hundred and thirty-eight (438) studies and considered relevant for review. The filtration process was carried out based on the recentness of the articles. A review of the articles was done to eliminate duplicates, a linguistic check was conducted, and a final sorting was carried out to arrive at fully accessible reviewed articles in the journal databases. Filtration was done to select fully accessible publications under the following keywords: Herzberg’s two-factor theory, contract theory, and supply of labour theory. Forty-one (41) fully accessible and peer-reviewed articles were used for analysis. The study underscores that dual practice can be theoretically modelled as a function of three theories (Herzberg’s two-factor theory, contract theory, and supply of labour theory). It is paramount, therefore, for studies to appreciate the theories in understanding the motivation behind the dual practice. Thus, the present study has proposed a hybrid integrated theory, the Integrated Theory of Labour, Supply and Motivation, in order to offset the weaknesses of the theories and build on their strengths.
Implications for Central European audience: This study proposes the Integrated Theory of Labour, Supply and Motivation in order to help researchers and government institutions better address the concept of moonlighting in public institutions. The study concludes that future scholars and researchers in related fields could extrapolate the Integrated Theory of Labour, Supply and Motivation by conducting a factor analysis in order to validate the theory since it offers a platform to cover the drivers behind the dual practice in a comprehensive manner and also builds on the strengths of other theories explaining the dual practice. Theoretically, the study also validates the theories it uses and the extent of their applicability to this and similar studies. This is not through ruling out theories explaining dual practice but reinforcing them. The findings of this study may be useful in shaping policy in the area of managing contracts for physicians in dual practice and supply of labour economics in general.

Empirical studies exploring particular mechanisms that the country’s institutional profile, such as regulatory and normative dimensions are internalised into scientists’ cognitive process of commercialising their research results, are rather sparse. This study aims to develop a conceptual framework in which integrated the lens of institutional theory and theory of planned behaviour to empirically test and discover the effects of regulatory and normative supports on scientists’ intention to commercialise an invention. A survey was conducted at institutions and universities using stratified random sampling from 255 scientists during the period of 2 months from May to July 2020. Structural equation modelling was employed to estimate the paths and correlations. Results revealed that although regulatory support was not found to have a direct role in shaping intention to commercialise the invention, it had more influences and significances in the increase of attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control. Also, attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control were found to be full mediators in the linkage between regulatory support and intention to commercialise the invention, but subjective norms were not. Besides, normative support, although it was not related to subjective norms, it had direct influences on attitude toward invention commercialisation, perceived behaviour control, and intention to commercialise the invention. Thus, attitude toward invention commercialisation, perceived behaviour control was figured out to play a partially mediating role in the relationship between normative support and intention to commercialise invention among scientists. This research shows that new institutions that address younger generations and concentrate on enhancing entrepreneurial qualities are crucial to foster commercialisation in emerging economies. Also, by representing outstanding issues, our research encourages further debate and research activities.
Implications for Central European audience: Even though the research results are related to academic entrepreneurship in Vietnam, the findings of this study can advocate that to promote academic entrepreneurship in emerging economies, enhancing both regulatory and normative supports are really necessary. In addition to theoretical contributions, this study also has several practical implications for researchers and policymakers in Central Europe.

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.

Several researchers suggest that value-based pricing (VBP) is one of the most profitable pricing methods for companies competing in today's business environment. Interestingly, the implementation rates of VBP are, however, rather low. Numerous barriers to the implementation of value-based pricing have been found by researchers already. Although, a theoretical model for determining whether value-based pricing may be a suitable pricing method for a business is yet to be found in the literature. This study aims to introduce a theoretical model to aid pricing executives in their pricing method selection. For this purpose, 20 semi-structured in-depth expert interviews with German pricing experts were conducted as part of qualitative data analysis. The experts were selected using a purposive selection method. Pricing experts were asked to describe the most important factors for determining whether a company may implement value-based pricing.  We identified two main factors as being necessities for using VBP. The first factor named by the authors was the brand advantage (BA), and the second factor was represented by the delivered product benefits (DB) as perceived by the customer. Based on these two factors, a two-dimensional, quadrant-based theoretical model was developed and was named the VBP Determination Matrix. The matrix now evaluates a company's position within the matrix based on the factors BA and DB. It leads to direct calls-to-action for properly choosing the most suitable pricing method. This study's theoretical contribution was the development of a so far non-existing two-dimensional model for the determination of the suitability of value-based pricing. Business practitioners are now provided with an easy-to-use and highly applicable model to determine the initial suitability of implementing VBP. Senior management is given direct calls-to-action, whether an investment to implement VBP shall be made and whether to allocate resources.
Implications for Central European audience: The VBP Determination Matrix is a highly applicable model recommended especially for business practitioners in pricing, marketing and management. Central European companies are recommended to utilise the model to benefit from its strategic recommendations to properly select the most suitable pricing method for profit maximisation and competitiveness optimisation.

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).

Innovations are among the most important drivers of firms’ productivity improvement.  Newly introduced products and processes, as well as organizational and marketing practices, are important for firms’ performance and for countries’ prosperity. In this paper, we analyze how management processes influence firms’ innovation and performance based on Russian data. Our main research question is how the quality of management affects innovative results and thereby, productivity. We employ a survey of enterprise activities, and business climate BEEPS covering the period 2012-2014 and including 1564 firms. Based on the existing literature, we create a framework to study the impact of various factors on firms‘ innovation and productivity. We study both internal factors such as a firm’s quality of management and external factors such as innovation climate in the region and availability of private and public financing. A model applied in our research is a well-known CDM model containing three stages. This model makes it possible to analyze expenditures for research and development, implementation of innovations, and then its impact on the firm’s performance. Estimation results demonstrate that enterprises benefit from innovations. The same time, our research shows the importance of management quality in the firms’ innovative activities among the other internal and external factors affecting innovations. Results can be applied by the enterprises interested in innovations and by policymakers involved in facilitating innovations at the regional and country level.
Implications for Central European audience: A version of a well developed CDM model is used, which makes results reliable; the model can be further applied for the analysis of various economies, including the countries of Central Europe. Our research sheds light on the determinants of innovation activity at all its stages, creating a background for analysis and development of economic policy. A key implication is that management quality deserves attention along with other factors affecting firms’ innovation and productivity. The research is based on firm-level BEEPS data for Russia, making the possible comparison with the other countries covered by BEEPS survey.

Faced with an environment that is changing faster and faster, companies have long sought to encourage the almost automatic emergence of new approaches that can respond or even anticipate these changes. The development of creativity has become an essential theme. For more than 20 years, companies have been promoting the concept of agility at the same time as they attempted to extend creativity to all employees. Managers have been called upon to implement the corresponding actions. Our research, based on semi-structured interviews with 35 global managers, analyses several aspects of the implementation of the concepts. We looked particularly at what managers think of agility, how this concept relates to the efforts made to develop creativity, what they experienced, and the conditions for success. The analysis of the responses highlights the significant differences in perception, often linked to the functions performed in the company or to nationalities. Regardless of the value associated with agility, the interviewees agreed on the importance of the manager’s role while directing it in three different directions. The discussions also identify a series of necessary but not sufficient conditions for creativity to emerge.
Implications for Central European audience: This paper does not deal with a problem specific to Central Europe. It is a general problem going beyond regional limits, as international management tends to use the same concepts everywhere. However, in its processing, we sought to interview several managers from this geographic area. In the second phase, we plan to improve the representativeness of managers from Central Europe to understand better what is specific to them.

Confidence factors play an important role not only in the assessment of business cycles but also in the evaluation of national competitiveness (e.g. the Global Competitiveness report published by the World Economic Forum) due to both using soft data obtained from opinion surveys. The subjective nature of confidence leads to questions about the soundness of such findings. Since the answers from opinion surveys are subjective, the empirical relationship between sentiment indicators and economic variables is not unambiguously established. In these conditions, the results of business surveys and the findings published by competitiveness rankings should not be accepted unconditionally. This paper starts with the comparison of soft data (respondents' sentiment) assessing the quality of institutions among world regions in the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-18. The aim of this paper is to offer a more precise view of the development of economic sentiment in the EU countries, especially in Germany and the Visegrad group countries (the V4). As tools for this description, a business sentiment indicator (ESI) and confidence indicators were applied. For analysis of changes in business sentiment and respondents' confidence, a graphical examination of variables, correlation analysis, changes in standard deviation, changes in countries' ranking, and the comparison of average sentiment (confidence) in the pre-crisis and the post-crisis period were used. Our analysis indicates the equivalent of the so-called halo effect in the pre-crisis period for the V4 (the positive expectation connected with the EU accession) and the deterioration in sentiment and confidence indicators in the post-crisis period.

This paper seeks to examine the various sources of knowledge and innovation that Slovak and Hungarian manufacturing firms rely on to improve their innovative performance. To carry out our empirical analysis we used the multiple regression technique and data from the Community Innovation Survey conducted between 2010 and 2012. Our empirical analysis demonstrated divergent results for both countries. Slovak firms derived their innovation from in-house activities and other sources such as scientific journals and conferences while Hungarian firms relied on market sources such as cooperation with clients or customers from the private sector for their innovation as well as from scientific journals. However, there was a convergence in the results, manufacturing firms in both countries didn’t collaborate with research institutions such as universities and other public and private research organization for their innovation. This study, therefore, proposes firms to foster closer collaboration with these research institutions since they are the birthplaces of innovation that can increase their competitiveness and innovation performance.

Online grocery shopping is becoming an integral part of life for more and more customers around the world and has truly changed the way consumers acquire their groceries. Nevertheless, the offline environment is still a priority for most customers. Therefore, it is not surprising that new technologies are also being introduced in traditional stores. The purpose of this paper is to explore if all generations of customers equally perceive pressure to apply new technologies into the purchasing process and how previous online grocery shopping acceptance can influence customer behaviour. This research was conducted on a sample of 1,050 online respondents. The answers of respondents have a nominal character. Therefore, Pearson´s chi-square test was used for testing. Subsequently, the frequency analysis was used for a more detailed examination. The results indicate that online grocery shopping acceptance positively influences the perception of new technologies from the perspective of all generations of customers. An interesting finding is that if traditional retailers entered the online market, 67% of online grocery shoppers would change retailers. This paper brings a new perspective on online and offline generations of customers and states that online grocery shopping acceptance is a predictor of positive perception of other technologies in retailing. Managers should take steps to increase the acceptance of technologies in stores, which will facilitate the business processes in the store and optimize the use of the workforce. This paper also demonstrates an opportunity for traditional retailers to enter the online marketplace.

With a growing interest in social media, social networks have been discussed largely in brand management and marketing communications literature. Specifically, Facebook, as the leading brand in social networks, is increasingly popular both for users and companies. However, it is not entirely clear what differences occur among Facebook users regarding their attitudes toward brand profiles. The goal of the research is to identify which demographic factors are related to the functional and hedonistic attitude towards the brand fan page and the overall social value of the page on Facebook. A quantitative survey was conducted on a representative sample of 454 users. The concepts of functional, hedonic and social value were measured using Likert-type questions (four for each of these concepts). Using cluster analysis, homogeneous groups were identified in the data set, resulting in two main segments for the functional and hedonic concept and three for social value. Subsequently, these groups were compared with selected demographic characteristics using Chi-square statistics.
Implications for Central European audience: Results of the analysis showed that there is no evidence that gender or age relates to any attitudinal measures towards brand pages on Facebook. The paper ends with a conclusion about the usability of the results for further research and business practice.

Globalisation and increasing competition affect all existing enterprises, as well as those in emerging economies. For this reason, enterprises continuously improve their own management systems and try to gain a competitive advantage in the market in addition to eliminating shortcomings. In emerging economies in Central Europe, including Slovakia, there are still not well-established tools to support management decisions that could reveal reserves, identify deviations from the required state and reflect all these attributes in the system of motivation, evaluation, and remuneration of employees. Controlling is such a tool, the implementation of which is a prerequisite for growth in performance and market value of the enterprise. The aim of the paper is to identify and present the optimal software support for controlling for the given segment of enterprises based on the mapping of the current state of using Business Intelligence to support controlling in micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the conditions of the specific emerging economy, namely Slovakia. This information system will allow MSEs to respond flexibly to market changes, offer alternative options to support managerial decisions and can simulate the impact of any change in the plan on business management. Within empirical research, a questionnaire was used as a method to survey the given problem in the business practice of micro and small enterprises in Slovakia. The questionnaire was sent to 2,415 MSEs, with the research sample consisting of 421 respondents, i.e. of 17.43%. The survey meets the condition of a minimum sample size. We focused on groups of micro and small enterprises, as these represent 99% of the country’s market potential. While the introduction of the controlling module into the basic information systems of the company or Business Intelligence are investment-intensive for MSEs, as a real option, affordable software support for controlling based on the MS Excel programme was identified in practice. In view of the above, a prototype of a controlling information system called ‘SOFIN-KA’ was designed and successfully tested in the practice of the Slovak Republic in an MS Excel programme, which is customisable to each MSEs.
Implications for Central European audience: For the success of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in today’s turbulent business environment, it is important to make better and faster decisions. However, MSEs in Central Europe, including Slovakia, currently do not often have sufficiently established tools to support management decisions. One of the ways to solve this problem is controlling. The proposed software support for controlling is applicable not only in Slovak MSEs but also in V4 countries. The software has been designed this way that it can always be adapted to the specific conditions of each company.

The world’s human population and its natural environment are currently facing many unfavourable effects from climate change. A significant proportion of this phenomenon is attributable to air pollution generated by combustion engines used in transportation (greenhouse gases, dust particles, etc.). Despite the inevitable need for decisive actions to reverse climate change, central authorities may face significant pushbacks when actually promoting or enforcing electric and hybrid-based mobility, if a wrong (ineffective) mix of restrictions and incentives is applied. Using primary data from the Czech Republic (surveyed in 2019), we use logistic regression and other means of quantitative analysis to provide detailed information on socio-demographic and lifestyle factors affecting individual stances towards different aspects involved with the upcoming transition towards clean personal transportation. In this paper, we focus on topics related to electric and hybrid vehicles. Based on our analysis, we provide actionable information to facilitate the complex process of turning combustion-based transportation into a sustainable feature of our modern society. We find important gender and age-related differences in opinions towards diverse aspects related to changes in personal mobility. Women and older individuals are significantly more in favour of environmentally responsible transportation means. Active car-drivers (individuals who perceive themselves as such) in lifestyle segmentation are distinctively less in favour of ecologically oriented changes – hence such individuals ought be the primary targets for marketing and educational activities (perhaps even state-sponsored) aimed to shift vehicle (mobility in general) procurements towards environmentally responsible choices. Implications for Central European audience: Climate protection is a key subject embedded in multiple EU policies. In Central European countries, the forthcoming transitioning of individual mobility towards EVs and hybrids might be a bit more complicated as compared to “old” EU members: our purchasing power is weaker, our car markets are more price sensitive and they rely heavily on imported second-hand cars. Our insights may be used to alleviate possible complications and bottlenecks in the process of reducing environmental pollution produced by individual transportation.

In this article, we focus on ethnocentrism applying to the theory of consumer behaviour while a relatively new concept of consumer ethnocentrism was created, which is under-studied in Slovakia. A patriotism indicates a second research issue. However, this concept is used in purchase and marketing conditions rarely. Based on these facts, we decided to contribute to a set of knowledge with new findings and broaden a knowledge base. This work’s main aim is to research consumer ethnocentrism and patriotism impact on evaluation and preference of domestic products. The primary quantitative survey supports this study. The fundamental part of our survey is 628 respondents. We created partial goals which produce a foundation for the phrasing of survey questions and hypotheses. These were tested by a one-way ANOVA test. We used a model of linear regressive analysis for pinpointing direction and frequency effect. Results suggest a strong link between consumer ethnocentrism and patriotism. Based on these results, consumer ethnocentrism and patriotism can be marked as factors that positively influence a preference and evaluation of domestic products. But both concepts show themselves in different frequency in different product categories. Based on the results, we can state that it is necessary to explore both concepts when speaking of product categories. Results can be used in different fields (sociology, psychology and marketing) while representing a benefit for a theory and practice.
Implications for Central European audience: A knowledge used in different marketing campaigns supporting a domestic purchase can be established from the trade and marketing perspective. Noteworthy is also a discovery that the influence of concepts is not visible equally in each product categories. Results can be used by the Slovak republic government and domestic producers who are interested in an increase of competitiveness of domestic products. But also, it is for foreign producers who have an interest in expansion on the Slovak market.