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The so-called agile approach is increasingly popular in the world of project management as a response to more dynamic and competitive environments. This study follows the question: What are the decisive criteria that result in the use of agile process models in practice? Therefore, a broad range of decision criteria is investigated, representing different reasons for firms to decide in favour or against the usage of agile process models, namely: Time-saving, increased efficiency, availability of qualified personnel, uniform terminology, project comparability and functions as a knowledge base. Most existing research on agile project management is of qualitative nature; this study uses a quantitative approach to assessing 51 firms and nine different industries within the DACH region. The collected data was analysed in a binary logistic regression model. Results reveal that time-saving positively predicts the use of agile process models, while high ratings in function as a knowledge base and project comparability predict the absence of agile process models. Therefore, practitioners are suggested to educate project and portfolio managers in the creation of hybrid environments and integration of agile process models in traditional project portfolios.
Implications for Central European audience: The results of this study provide valuable insights into the selection of project management approaches across different industries in the DACH region.

A sudden change in the external environment, such as the COVID-19 pandemic meant for senior customers in CEE, required coping mechanisms to adapt and a significant change in behavioural patterns. The paper presents the social and customer behaviour changes among elderly citizens caused by the pandemic and aims to identify regional differences in adapting to these changes. Results from CATI interviews of 5875 participants from Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which were conducted as a part of the international SHARE project, bring a deeper understanding of regional differences. Behavioural segmentation made in each of the studied countries shows that the clusters created in each country are different and yet similar in certain aspects. Clusters of “adapters” – seniors with partial behavioural change – are found in all three countries, and even though they vary in some aspects of behaviour, they have significant commonalities as well. Clusters of the “vulnerable” – seniors who had undergone a complete change of behavioural patterns to protect themselves – and clusters of the “resistant” – seniors resisting the change – are found only in two of the studied countries. Differences in understanding the threat and feeling the need to react in certain ways are found not only between countries but also within cultures. By employing Hofstede’s cultural dimensions score to explain detected differences, the article brings more understanding of how power distance, indulgence and individualism could form differences in the usage of coping mechanisms among the elderly. The results bring insight into important aspects of changes in behaviour, which should be understood and mirrored in the business strategies of companies whose actual or potential customers are represented by this population.
Implications for Central European audience: The research into behavioural changes among senior consumers due to the COVID-19 pandemic was done in three CEE countries: Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany and the implications are therefore well suitable for the CEE region, yet generalizations for other countries must be made carefully as the results show that behavioural segments identified in the studied countries indicate cultural differences.

There is empirical evidence that business commitment to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles has a direct positive impact on customer loyalty, employees’ performance, and, as a result, on the company’s value. The goal of the current paper is to evaluate the perceived importance of the company’s CSR-related practices from the viewpoint of employees. One hundred nineteen representatives of Latvian companies were surveyed, using the authors’ developed questionnaire consisted of 35 statements. Survey data was processed applying the frequency analysis and the logistic regression method. Most of the respondents (84%) perceive the company’s commitment to CSR principles as necessary. The base on the frequency analysis results, the most important CSR elements from the viewpoint of Latvian employees are paid leaves, consumer interests, and salary. Logistic regression yielded the elements, which contribute the most to the positive perception of CSR: ‘flexible work’, ‘support staff relaxation’ and ‘claims submission system’ within the group’ staff matters’. The measurement scale was tested for reliability and, based on Cronbach alpha results, was accepted as appropriate for use in a cross-country survey.
Implications for Central European audience: Despite the high interest in CSR-related issues in academia, the number of published works in Baltic countries is limited. In this particular study, the authors tried to identify — what exactly affects employees’ positive attitude to CSR commitment — the company’s participation in charity programmes or its environmental responsibility, for example? This survey contributed to the theoretical knowledge base about CSR perception among the staff of Latvian companies. In turn, the future survey is planned to be extended, involving respondents from Central and Eastern European countries. This, in turn, will allow making conclusions about the differences in attitude to CSR practices expressed by employees from different countries.

This paper examines the impact of fiscal policy on business investment in research and development (R&D). Panel regression models – with independent variables for the total tax and contribution rate, government appropriations and outlays for R&D, and the R&D tax subsidy rate – are set up to examine cross-country differences in business investment in R&D, with a set of control variables. The latter include, most notably, the number of full-time researchers, tertiary education attainment, the protection of intellectual property rights, governance, the long-term interest rate, and trade openness. The panel encompasses eleven countries of Central and Eastern Europe over ten years (2010–2019). The findings suggest that fiscal policy does not affect BERD, while trade openness, tertiary education attainment, and full-time researcher employment have a significant positive impact. These findings are consistent with some of the earlier studies on the effectiveness of fiscal policy in stimulating business investment, calling for greater allocation of public and private funds for R&D professional development and training programs.
Implications for Central European audience: This paper used recent data for eleven Central and Eastern European countries. Therefore, the findings are directly applicable to these countries. As the paper used random-effects generalised least squares estimation for panel data, the findings can be generalised to other countries.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The textile industry has been massively affected by structural changes in recent years. The fashion market is currently in a phase of stagnation. This means that market saturation has been reached, competition between companies and retailers has increased, and predatory competition has set in. Gains in market share are mainly achieved through an aggressive pricing policy, for example, through earlier price reductions. Nonetheless, there are still uncertainties regarding specific product mix-related marketing measures in fashion markets. There is a lack of scientific evidence about the exact proportion of product mix-related marketing measures used.
As an aim, this study focuses on the effects of various influencing factors on consumer loyalty. Factors examined include product quality, product selection, service quality and price-to-performance ratio. To investigate the proportion of the chosen marketing measures, a conceptual model was proposed, four hypotheses were derived.
In order to shed more light on fashion markets related marketing measures, the research methodology of cross-sectional face-to-face survey research was applied. For this purpose, randomly sampled fashion shoppers were asked to answer a questionnaire, using tablets. The collected data were then analysed using multiple regression and evaluated.
Implications for Central European audience: The study has derived some remarkable key findings that contrast with other non-fashion markets. First of all, service quality is not the most important factor, whereas product quality is an important criterion for the price-to-product ratio and consequently, for customer loyalty. Finally, practical guidelines are provided, limitations discussed and suggestions for future research provided.

This paper aims to examine how knowledge management is associated with perceived organisational innovativeness in global companies operating in Central European country and what role in this relationship is played by organisational environment stimulants – organisational trust, leadership support, training and access to resources, and information and communication technology (ICT). This empirical study used a quantitative approach with the data gathered by questionnaire from global companies functioning in IT service (94) and in money transfer service (109). The findings revealed that knowledge management is significantly associated with perceived organisational innovativeness in the global organisations’ context. Organisational environment stimulants (organisational trust, leadership support, training and access to resources, ICT) were confirmed to have a moderate positive association with perceived organisational innovativeness and mediated the relationship between knowledge management and perceived organisational innovativeness. The findings provide additional insights into the existing research on global companies’ knowledge management and suggest that global organisations aiming to foster their innovativeness through knowledge management should focus on the development of learning capability and orientation at the organisational level, as well as reconsider their level of organisational trust and leadership support perceived by employees. This research contributes to the literature by examining the relationship between knowledge management and perceived organisational innovativeness and looking into organisational environment stimulants’ role in this link in a specific global organisations’ context.
Implications for Central European audience: when more and more global IT or financial service providers are looking for options to expand their business across the international borders, Central European countries like Lithuania become an attractive destination. The recommendations derived from the results indicate that leadership in global organisations should strive to create a sense of benevolence and aim to maintain integrity between communication and behaviour, particularly focusing on organisational trust development. Global business organisations’ managers must be able to communicate values and norms in a clear and transparent manner as well as ensure that organisational policies are governed in a coherent way across the offices around the world.

Many sources have been noted that environmental protection measures are economically beneficial as their application allows to increase the efficiency of resource use, reduce operating costs, increase company’s profit and also to avoid ecological accidents. The aim of the article is to analyse the environmental component of sustainable development in terms of its expression in the corporate activities. And according to results of analysis to create a model whose application not only demonstrates the actions needed to strengthen the environmental sustainability of corporations, but also allows an assessment of their potential and readiness for sustainable development. The elements of created model define the environmental actions to be taken also provide structural basis for implementation of these processes. So, the model serves as an instrument to show directions of improving the environmental sustainability of the Company's activities. Research was based by using the methods of logical assessment, systematization, and comparison of information, selecting the most important information, which describes the environmental sustainability. The application of the actions in the company's activity would allow to gradually approach the sustainability of the company activities. Possibility to use the model and its suitability has been approved by Lithuanian construction companies. The application of the model will allow companies better implementation environmental actions which will improve the company's results of economic performance and will also help public institutions distributing funds for environmental purposes by projects. Construction companies were ranked in accordance with possibility to implement environmental measures by use proposed methodology.

The adverse effects of the pandemic (COVID-19) are already reflected in the Slovak economy. At the same time, some experts warn that the pandemic is not over and may manifest itself in the second wave. The article examines the concept of Health consciousness as one of the possible (preventive) measures in a pandemic. The aim is fourfold: 1. to measure the level of health consciousness in normal conditions 2. to measure the level of health consciousness during a pandemic 3. to examine the differences between these levels and 4. to determine the true meaning of health consciousness in a pandemic. A sample of 384 respondents was employed in the research to collect the empirical data. The sample was selected by the quota method. The study consisted of two phases - the first phase before the pandemic and the second phase during the pandemic (COVID-19). The one-way ANOVA test and linear regression analysis were used to explore the impact of selected factors on health consciousness in the Slovak population and to verify the hypotheses. The results of the research indicate that health consciousness increased sharply during the pandemic. At the same time, selected demographic factors were confirmed as factors influencing the level of health consciousness. The level of health consciousness can affect the frequency of infections. The results can be used in many fields (medicine, sociology, psychology, marketing), both theories and practice.
Implications for a Central European audience: The development of the Slovak economy at the end of 2019 led to a more positive estimate of GDP growth and other economic indicators. The situation has changed in the context of the pandemic. Especially small and medium-sized enterprises represent a vulnerable place in the Slovak economy. We must look for possible ways to eliminate the pandemic and at the same time look for effective preventive means that could be used in the event of a second wave or another pandemic to protect human lives as well as the state economy.

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.