Inproforum, 2023 (vol. 17), issue 1

Tierra Caliente, in Michoacán, Mexico, is a region with serious problems of insecurity and violence. This is an area where agricultural production is very significant, particularly lemon cultivation, but where several organised crime groups operate. The illegal collection of quotas from agricultural producers is common. Physical aggression is also common among the various groups fighting for the collection of quotas, in addition to controlling the transfer of illegal substances. This situation has had multiple consequences, some of which are linked to the formal and informal education of girls and boys of different ages. For example, this school year, which began in September 2023, several schools were unable to start classes. On the other hand, in 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, a long period of closure began, which implied the search for alternative ways of teaching classes in very complex conditions. Taking into account the problem of public insecurity as well as the situation of confinement resulting from the pandemic, the purpose of this presentation is to give an overview of the educational needs of young children and the possibilities of using virtual media for teaching. On the basis of a questionnaire applied to teachers of early childhood education, the focus is on some localities and schools in Tierra Caliente, Michoacán.

The research on the digitalisation of public administration is crucial in the case of the Czech Republic and its rural areas due to the nature of the Czech settlement structure with many small rural municipalities. The article deals with the development of e-government in the Czech Republic from the perspective of rural development. The paper's starting point is a characterisation of the digitalisation process of state and local government in the last quarter of a century. The paper focuses on developing municipal websites, which represent a crucial communication channel in the rural environment. The paper also discusses the possibilities and limits of e-democracy in rural development.

The export of agricultural products is currently Mexico's most important source of foreign exchange, exceeding revenues from oil exports and tourism. Historically, agricultural export chains have been formed since colonial times, e.g. tobacco, coffee, bananas, cocoa or cotton. Avocados, berries and fresh vegetables, as well as alcoholic beverages (beer and tequila) are at the forefront currently. The target country is primarily the United States of America. Today's rural Mexico faces new challenges because it must comply with obligations derived from the T-MEC agreement, which was signed on July 1, 2020. It was preceded in 1994 by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada, which created the largest free trade region in the world. One of the main points of the agreement is to support the digitization of international trade and strengthen consumer protection with complete data at every stage of the production chain. An important point for agricultural workers is also the commitment to strengthen and expand the protection of workers' rights. The fulfillment of these obligations can be translated as greater supervision of companies will be able to meet such demands? Does the agreement ultimately lead to a greater concentration of access to water and land in the hands of large firms with foreign capital? Are SMEs (small and medium enterprises) still able to export? What challenges does the rural labor market face?

Digitalisation, together with new possibilities for data analysis, is currently gaining importance for regional development. This study focusses on the use of advanced statistical methods in R software, such as generalised linear models (GLM) and envelope methods from the GET package, to analyse time series of sustainability indicators in EU regions at the NUTS level. Analysis of selected sustainability indicators, such as the Human Development Index in its variants from the United Nations and the EU, compared to GDP shows that these methods enable effective identification of key trends and differences between groups of regions, while also identifying regions with similar trajectories. They also allow for advanced visualisation of the results, illustrating the effectiveness of EU cohesion policies at the regional level and their impact on reducing regional disparities. The analysis shows that functional analysis tools in R can be used for further research on sustainability in EU regions.

Historically, tequila has been one of the preferred spirits in Mexico. Since 2018, tequila production in this country has grown exponentially. One of the main reasons is the capital investments, by multinational alcoholic beverage corporations towards the main Mexican tequila companies. The entry of multinationals facilitated the positioning of tequila in international markets and increased demand. The commercial logic of corporations has impacted the amount of agricultural, forestry, and rangeland land for the plantation of Agave tequilana Weber blue variety, in local productive dynamics, in customary agreements of access to land, causing techno-productive, economic, political, social, environmental and cultural in the territories where the monoculture plantation is carried out. This article analyzes the problem from political ecology, directing attention towards agroextractivism and land grabbing via leasing and sharecropping in the municipality of Penjamo, Guanajuato, Mexico. The methodology involves field trips, participant observation, interviews, georeferencing of the plots, and statistical and documentary analysis. It is concluded that agroextractivism and land grabbing for agave plantations accentuate economic, territorial, political, and environmental inequality at a local scale and affect pre-existing activities, such as grain production and livestock farming.

The agriculture sector in Nepal has been weak over the past two and a half decades, and it faces both structural and new challenges, including poor access to technology, inputs, and credit, and the emerging challenge of climate change. The major challenge faced by farmers is a lack of marketing opportunities. The main objective of this study will be to design remedies to the main problems of agriculture co-operatives, explore other alternatives, and analyzed the institutional structures of the formal existing institutions and stakeholders, and their role in the development of the cooperatives in the rural settings, and how rural cooperatives can function on coping the circular bio-based economy. The path forward for cooperative societies lies in a holistic approach that encompasses a well-structured value chain supply, strategic government assistance, bio-based economic solution, the unwavering commitment and active participation of stakeholders, rigorous and regular audits, robust financial credibility, and stringent internal controls.

For rural areas, the digitalisation of agriculture has great potential in terms of production efficiency, and regional competitiveness, and also significantly complements the objectives that lead to sustainable development. In addition to these positives, digitalisation can have an impact on the differences between those who implement elements of digitalisation and those who do not. For example, there may be a gap between small and large enterprises due to differences in capital endowment. How do agricultural enterprises or private farmers in the South Bohemian Region perceive the issue of digitalisation in agriculture? To what extent are elements of digitisation already implemented?
The aim of the paper will be to find out how farmers in the South Bohemian Region perceive the digitalisation of agriculture. The current state of implementation of digitalisation in agriculture will be determined through a pilot survey based on qualitative research. Furthermore, the expected benefits and challenges for farmers will be identified. In the end, a picture will emerge of how a group heavily involved in the appearance and creation of the rural area will perceive this development trend.

Having lived through a narrow win for the Brexit movement, the UK now finds itself in the world of reality, one that apparently sees the nation’s economy contracting and its sphere of international influence diminished around the globe. This paper explores recent attempts by the UK to re-write itself as somewhat of a dominant power beyond the borders of the EU. We concentrate on efforts the UK is making in the Asia-Pacific region, with particular attention to the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement (AUKFTA) and, to a lesser extent, the recently announced agreement to allow the UK to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). We conclude that the UK has no guarantee of success in re-inventing its relevance on the world trade scene, and it is unlikely that any imminent Free Trade Agreement deals will bring great economic prosperity in the near future. Perhaps it may have been best for the UK to have remained as an EU member state after all.

The development of the wellness travel industry has been propelled by the rising concerns of an overworked population faced with both physical and mental health issues. Wellness vacation enables travellers to rejuvenate themselves after a long working period due to burnout, stress, and feeling overwhelmed, especially after the recent COVID-19 pandemic. As the traits and preferences of Czech travellers could have been impacted by the recent pandemic lockdown, and as there are scarce published works that have documented their recent preferences for vacation destinations; this study investigates the traits and behaviours of Czech tourists in selecting wellness vacation destinations in the Czech Republic (CR). Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey, and participants who are familiar with wellness vacations in CR and at least visit a wellness vacation destination once a year were invited to participate in the study. Two hundred and sixteen respondents participated and 182 responses were finalised for data analysis after removing incomplete responses. Data analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 25, and description analysis was carried out to tabulate travellers’ gender, age and income of participants, frequency of wellness vacation visits per year, intention to travel and willingness to travel based on distance. Findings show Czech travellers of both genders have similar preferences when it comes to wellness destinations. The result also shows most Czech travellers are willing to travel far distances (of more than 200km) to visit wellness destinations, which suggests that wellness destinations do not have to be concerned about the location if they are providing quality products and services to their visitors. The study also makes several suggestions and recommendations based on the results, including innovative ideas for future wellness vacation retreats to target both genders and age categories, especially for Millennials who work in busy cities where services such as digital detox would appeal to this market segment.

The aim of the article is to assess the development of the tourism in Khorezm region in the context of the measures taken and the external factors influencing the tourism sector and travelling. Due to his historical development and character of natural attractions, the Khorezm region is one of the most important tourism destination in Uzbekistan. Based on the available statistical data, we evaluate the recent development of  number of tourists in the context of the support provided to the tourism development recently, external factors, like the pandemics and development of the tourism infrastructure in the destination.

The main objective of the paper is to find out, based on the secondary investigation carried out by the author, how the logistics performance of the countries of the European Union changed in 2023 in comparison with the year 2018, i.e. with the period before the Covid-19 pandemic, when author also commented on the possibilities of increasing logistics performance through the European Parliament of its committees. Logistics performance is expressed in the contribution using the country logistics performance indexes for 2023 and 2018, which have been published by the World Bank since 2017. Here, not only changes in the overall LPI indexes are monitored, but also changes in their six sub-criteria, which are Customs, Infrastructure, International Shipments, Logistics Competence and Equality, Timeliness, Tracking and Tracing. As a result, the author analyses which countries of the European Union have improved in terms of logistics performance compared to 2018, which have worsened, and which sub-parameters have the main influence on the detected positive or negative change in overall logistics performance.

The aim of this research is to provide a comprehensive understanding of tourism demand, its various trends, factors, and highlight future research directions. The research method used is the systematic literature review (SLR), involves analyzing existing studies to identify patterns and gaps in understanding tourism demand. The study also highlights the growing trends of experiential and immersive travel, and the emergence of smart tourism. Various economic indicators, such as income levels, exchange rates, and overall economic stability, significantly influence tourism demand. The demographic characteristics, social trends, cultural values, and the influence of social media as well play a role in shaping tourism demand. Factors related to the environment, including climate change, sustainability concerns, and the promotion of ecotourism, have an impact on tourism choices. Noticeably, the use of technology, such as online platforms and emerging technologies, affects tourism demand and shapes the overall tourist experience. The research identifies several research gaps and proposes future directions, including the study of sustainable tourism practices, community-centered tourism, and the interplay between tourism demand and sustainable development. Overall, this research provides valuable insights for practitioners and academics in the tourism industry.

The aim of the paper is to identify consumer expectations in terms of positive and negative impact of using modern technologies. Within the specified focus group, both benefits and risks of specific and general types and forms of digitization of this consumer segment are identified.

This paper uses individual data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to examine occupational trends and earnings returns to routine jobs over the period 1985- 2019. Initially, we observe a significant decline in the returns to routine task intensity (RTI), suggesting a reduced demand for routine jobs. However, once unionized workers are taken into account, this decline is reversed and becomes positive and highly significant. This highlights the role of unions in mitigating wage declines in routine occupations, consistent with results of Parolin (2021) for the U.S. labor market. Interestingly, controlling for unionization eliminates the statistical significance of the linear time trend, suggesting that unionized workers are increasingly specializing in non-routine occupations. Moreover, we find that demand for unionized workers does not decline significantly, as in the case of non-unionized workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the worldwide tourism sector, causing unprecedented disruptions and changes in visitor behavior. Due to the massive spread of the virus at the global level, the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled the epidemic a pandemic in March 2020, resulting in extensive travel restrictions, border closures, and dramatic changes in consumer behavior. These precautions were designed to slow the spread of the virus, but they had severe consequences for the tourism sector. This systematic literature review (SLR) aims to offer an overview of new research on tourist dynamics in the post-COVID period. The study summarizes the findings of necessary research published between 2021 and 2023, concentrating on significant issues such as tourism sector change, shifting travel patterns, destination management strategies, and the role of technology in influencing tourism's future. The SLR identifies research gaps and provides insights to policymakers, destination managers, and academics to help them navigate the changing world of post-pandemic tourism.

Many producers keep to showcase their commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. One of the ways is to place environmental claims or labels on product packaging. Based on a pilot survey, the article presents some findings about consumers’ perceptions and attitudes concerning those claims or labellings, especially their care of environmental claims and labellings and their willingness to pay a premium price for environmentally friendly products.

Digitization affects various areas and finds practical application all over the world. Companies are not idle and use digitization just like individuals. Those individuals who are looking for employment in the labour market. Companies have assimilated and use digitization when looking for new employees. This scientific article describes what forms of digital means they use.

The E-commerce business is continuously growing and attracts the attention of practitioners as well as researchers. Its acceptance among consumers has been the subject of academic research for more than a decade now. In particular, the Technology Acceptance Model and latent factor analysis originally used for information system adoption show signs of high popularity in the e-commerce domain. Replication studies, on the other hand, have not received much attention. Despite the fact that replication guarantees progress in every scientific discipline, customer behaviour is no exception. In order to alleviate this undesirable condition and verify previous research in the field, we have selected a popular journal article from Ha and Stoel (2009) and re-searched their main model. To do that, an internet survey was conducted among 125 online consumers. Website design, customer service, privacy/ security, and shopping atmosphere/ shopping experience were the factors evaluated in this study with e-shopping quality as a second-order factor. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that latent factors do not load as previous research suggests thus we failed to replicate the model. Further, confirmatory factor analysis showed better results with decent reliability of the model. However, validity measures showed troubling values. Based on the findings, implications for future research are proposed in the conclusion.

Customer engagement captures interactions among customers and companies (brands). It is one of the hot topics, also thanks to the development of various social networks, enabling an easy and fast realization of customer-brand interactions. This paper is designed as a case study describing the phenomenon of customer engagement at a chosen business entity in the field of sport. A particular hockey club from the Czech Republic was selected as an example. The aim was to identify ways and methods of engaging sports customers at the chosen business entity. A mixed research approach was used to obtain data: it was a mix of an online survey, content analysis of relevant materials, and semi-structured interviews with two managers from the chosen hockey club. Results indicate that there is a range of engaging activities, both online and offline. Overall, respondents think they are sufficiently engaged in the company's activities (92%), in which social networks play an important role in engaging customers at the analyzed company. 

Traditional marketing methods are for today's purposes and influence are in short supply on the market. The dynamics of changes in the market and the rapid growth of competition means: that on the one hand, there is big pressure on brand sustainability, on the other hand, this situation brings opportunities for implementing innovative approaches in the marketing strategies of the brand. One of the innovations is aroma marketing, one of the directions of sensory marketing. For the application of fragrance in branding, knowledge from a field called neuromarketing is used, which (using neuroscientific tools) provides results about consumer behavior, decision-making, and emotions. For this purpose, a systematic review of the existing literature was carried out, and then the potential of using aroma marketing in branding was described. The records obtained allowed an in-depth insight into how the application of fragrance can contribute to understanding consumers' emotional and decision-making responses to strengthen the brand's marketing strategy.

The aim of this paper is to conduct a literature review on determinants of entrepreneurial personality and their implications for business success. Both unchangeable personal factors such as gender, generational affiliation, age, cultural and regional conditions, as well as changeable factors in the form of personality traits (Traits) are examined. The literature review elucidates that both categories of factors significantly shape entrepreneurial personality and consequently influence business success. In conclusion, the relevance of considering personality traits in startup consulting is emphasized to minimize business failure and ensure well-founded advice for founders. The paper recommends the integration of the discussion on personality traits into startup consulting to promote a more comprehensive understanding of entrepreneurial challenges and requirements.

Innovation is becoming an increasingly essential part of business. Modern technologies are increasingly penetrating everyday life, not just the business sphere. Without the implementation of new technologies, many companies will cease to exist. At best, they will lag far behind the competition. We can already see different levels of use of new technologies across individual businesses. The question also remains how to finance and subsequently evaluate these significant investments. This contribution aims to determine which technologies are most used in small and medium-sized organizations and how their choice is influenced. Attention is also paid to the reasons behind using technologies related to Industry 4.0. Data for this research were collected using an online questionnaire survey. It has been found that digitalization and cloud storage technologies are the most widely used in absolute terms. On the other hand, technologies such as Machine learning, Big data, or Virtual reality are used to a minimal extent. It has also been observed that the organization's vision is the main reason for implementing these technologies. 

This paper reacts to the current issue of home-office in the Czech legislation. Currently, an amendment to the Labour Code is to be approved bringing substantial changes to this legal institute. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to those changes because this topic has been legally regulated only marginally. The necessity to adopt legal rules to make home-office function practically was confirmed during the "Covid" era, when this tool started to be used by employers for objective reasons. employers began to massively use this tool for objective reasons. Another significant reason for new regulation is an obligation to harmonize the Czech and EU legal regulation which is based on the Directive 2019/1158/EU on work-life balance for parents and carers and on the Directive 2019/1152/EU on transport and predictable working conditions in the EU. This obligation was already required to be fulfilled up to August 2022. It is necessary to consider whether this regulation would sufficiently respond to the practice needs and whether it makes the usage of this legal tool easier for labour-law relations. Of course, only practice will prove a correctness of such legal changes.

Based on the research studies of several authors who perceive the environmental management system as a tool that helps to increase the competitiveness of the company, the main goal of the contribution is the identification of barriers in the framework of building the corporate image and increasing the competitiveness of the company through the implementation of the environmental management system according to the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard in selected company. By applying a structured guided interview with the managers of a specific department of a multinational food company, based on their answers, we investigated the current situation and limitations within the framework of building the company's image and increasing competitiveness through the implementation of the environmental management system.
The result of the work is the finding that the implementation of the environmental management system in the selected company does not go through the entire organizational structure of the company, and managers in a specific department identified many reserves in the framework of building the corporate image and competitiveness. Based on the above, the managers of a specific department in the company do not perceive the implementation of the company's environmental management system as a tool that contributes to building a positive image and competitiveness of the company.

The article deals with the application of the ABC method for fairtrade products on the spot market of food products. On the basis of Pareto's principle, the aim of the article is to define key items of specific consumption of food products from the point of view of a selected retail chain, which in case of their substitution by Fairtrade-certified products would significantly increase the market share of certified products and potentially also their consumption. According to the results of the analysis performed on a set of 4,405 stock items, a group of 140 items was created that represent the most significant part of the business range, since in the cumulative sum of the sub-items they represent the highest share of the annual turnover of the entire company and thus represent the most potentially significant groups for the expansion of the Fairtrade product range.

Generation Z enters the labour market with its specific needs and requirements. Most members of Generation Z are now studying and gaining their first work and international experience. The Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) is an example of the new trend of cooperation between business and university. A case study of the BIP related to modern HR trends can answer the research question of which competence development is most preferred by Generation Z. A CAWI and descriptive data analysis methods explore the attitudes of Generation Z towards the current labour market. This case study can inspire corporate training and corporate management. It can promote collaboration between businesses and universities. Moreover, knowledge of Generation Z's competencies can support selecting an appropriate management direction for the company to remain competitive in the long term.

The article deals with the interdisciplinary approach of interested social sciences (in particular, economics, social work, sociology, pedagogy, etc.) when introducing digital technologies into the educational process of students going on a practical internship. At the same time, the investment process of human capital appreciation in the preparation of students is looked at here.In the empirical part of the contribution, the need to introduce digital technologies into teaching is presented not only in connection with the process of human capital appreciation, but also from the point of view of the country's social issues.

China's ascent as an economic powerhouse has been accompanied by a remarkable digital revolution, placing the country at the forefront of the global digital economy. This paper takes a closer look at the intricate landscape of E-commerce and Online Retail in China, uncovering its growth, innovations, and implications for businesses, consumers, and policymakers. It explores the distinctive features of China's digital economy, which have propelled it to a leadership position in E-commerce worldwide. The paper explores the driving factors behind China's E-commerce success, including the pivotal roles played by digital platforms, mobile commerce, and data analytics. Additionally, it scrutinizes the profound impacts of E-commerce on traditional retail, consumer behavior, and employment patterns.

In the modern world, innovation is a prerequisite for a company's competitiveness in any industry. Nowadays, emphasis is also placed on sustainable growth of the company, which includes, among other things, the environmental dimension of economic development, especially energy savings, optimization of water consumption, elimination of water waste, minimization of waste, use of secondary raw materials in production, etc. The aim of this article is to identify innovative activities of enterprises in the textile industry of the Czech Republic in the context of the EU. These are innovations that both contribute to environmental protection and are thus effective for the enterprise. The evaluation of innovative activities of textile enterprises is also made from the perspective of environmental benefit. Although it has been found that eco-innovations are being implemented in this sector across the EU, which provide significant savings especially in energy consumption, hence transforming the sector towards sustainability and environmental friendliness, this progress is very slow. It is mainly the cheaper products from developing countries that are very significant competitors for European textiles in the eyes of consumers.

Our article deals with family businesses according to Czech legal regulations. It summarizes their specifics and typical features, including their involvement in digitization and the use of artificial intelligence. Family businesses have been emerging in the Czech Republic for the past thirty years. The term family business is appearing more and more in the names of already existing companies. The number of these companies is also growing in the Register of Family Businesses. That is why we are thinking about what advantages such a designation can bring to the company and at the same time what it can bring to our Czech society. According to expert estimates, family businesses create more than half of the gross domestic product. They are usually local patriots, invest and plan their development for future generations. The influence of the family business on the education of the next generations, the intergenerational transfer of experience is essentially essential. On the other hand, such a company designation represents new obligations and different expectations of state and other institutions, business partners and customers. Automation and digitization belong to the current and future functioning of family businesses. Research shows that family businesses are not afraid of these challenges, increasing their performance, effectiveness and resilience.

The sharing economy, as a system based on exchange, is a section of economics that brings a completely new perspective on economic processes. The goal of any economy is to use resources as efficiently as possible. This objective can be achieved by using these resources to the maximum extent possible. The sharing economy then opens up new possibilities for the use of resources, involving not only businesses but also and especially people sharing their private property, which they have hitherto used only for their own personal purposes. Entrepreneurs who are able to take advantage of this mechanism, i.e. the use of private property of non-business persons in return for compensation, can significantly reduce their costs. These costs would otherwise have to be spent on acquiring new property or leasing property from someone else on a long-term basis. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a clear relationship between the use of the sharing economy and increased competitiveness by comparing free statistical data.

The aim of the contribution is to describe the economic benefits of implementing digital technologies within online educational processes. In essence, these are modern technologies that are used for educational programs in non-profit organizations with the subsequent evaluation of human capital for the all-round support of sustainability in the region of interest with appropriate global reflection. For these reasons, the contribution is processed with an interdisciplinary approach of social sciences – economics, sociology, social work and global studies.

While certification is generally understood as a third-party confirmation that the requirements set out in an agreed framework have been met, sustainable development is seen as a type of development that also seeks to eliminate or mitigate the negative impacts of the way human society has developed to date without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their basic needs and maintain their standard of living. In integrating ESG criteria into corporate strategies, ISO standards and other certifications are proving to be important tools. The aim of this paper is to assess the interrelationship between certification and the concept of sustainability in the context of market competitiveness. The authors consider that certification is a key condition for sustainability, especially because it creates standards without which there would be inconsistencies in the applied processes. And it is the alignment of set processes through certification that is a prerequisite for successful sustainable development and market competitiveness

The purpose of this research work is to create an overall picture of the leadership traits and activities that have been recognized in recent literature as necessary to promote and support digitalization in SMEs. Furthermore, this research work also aims to review the overall picture created for completeness and to identify any research gaps.
The chosen research methodology follows in its approach a systematic literature analysis.
The findings of this research lead to an overall view of the most important traits and activities of leadership to promote and support the digitalization process in SMEs. Moreover, this work also leads to the assumption that the topic of trust has been insufficiently considered in the literature studied, both in terms of traits and activities.
The limitations of this research work are mainly justified by the chosen research method-ology, but also by the fact that the literature analysis was conducted only on the basis of one literature database.
The value of this research work lies in particular in the fact that an overall view of the traits and activities of leadership has been created from the recent literature. This overall view can serve as a basis for future research projects. In addition, the topic of trust was identified as an important aspect that should encourage future research to examine this aspect more deeply in the context of leadership traits and activities to positively influence digitalization development in SMEs.

Investment in research and development (R&D) can play a key role in improving the environmental performance of EU countries. R&D contributes to a more efficient use of natural resources, which reduces negative environmental impacts. Investment in R&D often leads to innovations that can have a positive impact on sustainable development and on addressing environmental challenges, thereby improving environmental performance. The aim of this paper is to assess the correlation between R&D expenditure and improvements in countries' environmental performance. The paper focuses on EU countries. The analysis also focuses on the structure of R&D expenditure. The study uses changes over a ten-year period. The analysis found that over the period under review, the link between the size of R&D expenditure and environmental performance as measured by the EPI is very low.  Significant differences were found between the countries with an initially high EPI (Nordic countries) and the post-communist EU countries.

The article presents the results of the development of the profitability of agricultural enterprises in the years 2017-2022. The results are compared with the sectors: Food Production and Food Retail. The Albertina database was used. The profitability of agricultural enterprises is significantly below average (roughly half) compared to other sectors. Intercompany volatility is also lower. On the other hand, year-on-year volatility (volatility over time) is higher. The year 2022 is characterized by high inflation and a significant increase in profitability in all sectors. The causes of change in profitability (ROA) were analyzed. Logarithmic and exponential decomposition methods were used. The reasons for the difference in profitability are different. There was a sharp increase in sales in all sectors. In the Agriculture sector, material costs grew faster than sales. Higher profitability is achieved due to depreciation (which remained fixed as sales increased), especially labor costs (which grew significantly slower than sales). In the food production sector, depreciation significantly impacts profitability (they again remained the same despite growing sales). The influence of wages is weaker than in the Agriculture sector. The average salary here more closely followed inflation. In the Food Retail sector, the main reason for the increase in ROA is higher selling prices. Selling prices rose faster than the purchase costs of goods and materials.

The assessment of regional differences in the technical performance of farms in Slovakia requires a comprehensive analysis of various factors and sources, with technical efficiency in agriculture referring to the ability of a farm to produce a given level of output with a minimum amount of inputs or resources. The aim of the contribution was to evaluate the technical efficiency of Slovak farms at the regional level using the widely used method of Data Envelopment Analysis. We used an output-oriented DEA model to calculate a technical efficiency score for each farm and identify the most efficient farms. We found statistically significant differences between efficiency scores at the regional level. The highest technical efficiency scores were achieved by farms in Western Slovakia, and the lowest efficiency scores were achieved by farms in Eastern Slovakia. Farms in Eastern Slovakia lag behind those in Western Slovakia. While all farms are catching up with the most efficient farms in the Nitra region, it's worth noting that these farms experienced the highest decline during the period from 2014 to 2019. In conclusion, it can be concluded that in most regions the overall efficiency of agriculture has not been fully realized. These farms have the potential to improve efficiency by optimizing the use of resources, specifically by reducing their scale.

The economic and social disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic again focused the attention on the importance of strategies and practices to secure the sustainability of small farms involved in short food supply chains (SFSCs) following such disruptive activities. The aim of the paper is to examine the role and importance of the vulnerability and resilience predisposition of SFSCs and show the importance of their adaěptive capacities in the face of such catastrophes and disruptions. Some theoretical analysis is offered in analyzing the adaptive capacity of such undertakings. The article interrogates the potential collective protective mechanisms offered by SFSCs to participants in mitigating these risks with the objective to offer perspective on strategies and policies aimed at the management of the sustainability of small farms in SFSCs. Selected methodological approaches suitable not only for identifying the levels of sustainability, resilience, and vulnerability of small farms, but also the importance of their individual determinants, are discussed. This paper identifies this matrix of contributing factors and offers insight into the development of a strategic vulnerability and resilience analysis framework to research and promote sustainable small farmer involvement in SFSCs. Discussions confirm the importance of careful policy considerations and mechanisms when developing vulnerability and resilience analysis frameworks to enhance the adaptive capacities of small farms in navigating toward resilient small farms in inclusive SFSCs.

Urea is an organic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen, which is used in the production of plastics, adhesives, but also in cosmetics. More than 90% of the world's urea production is for agricultural use as fertiliser. Urea has the highest nitrogen content of the commonly used solid nitrogen fertilisers. Unfortunately, the current price trend is very unfavourable not only for urea but for all nitrogen fertilisers. Although agricultural commodity prices have risen proportionately, they are not always sufficient to cover the costs incurred in producing the commodity. What is certain, however, is that any price anomalies in the morning will ultimately be paid for by all of us in food prices, even in staple food prices. How far are our farmers willing to pay, and what effect will this price anomaly have on agricultural technology, farm composition and farming?

The purpose of this paper is to determine the level of food security in European Union member countries using selected socioeconomic indicators. The data for the research are gathered from FAOSTAT's and EUROSTAT's public databases for year 2020. We examine four socioeconomic indicators from the access pillar based on FAOSTAT, and two agricultural indicators. Following indicators are considered as stimulants, namely gross domestic product in purchasing power standard, median equivalised net income, government expenditures for agricultural R&D and agricultural factor income. On the contrary, indicators like the proportion of total household expenditures spent on food and the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity are considered as inhibitors. The data has been normalized using the min-max transformation. To achieve the set goal, we use a multivariate statistical method - Factor Analysis. We have used Principal Component Analysis without rotation to estimate the Factor Analysis Model. The 73,8% of total variability of original data has been explained by one common factor, that was used to catch the phenomenon of food security among analysed countries. From the above results, we conclude that the most food secure countries are Ireland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, which achieve the highest values of common factor. On the contrary, Bulgaria and Romania rank among the most food insecure countries with the lowest values of common factor.

Josephus problem is an ancient mathematical problem based on the historical events lived and described by Flavius Josephus. As the problem description is rather vague, there is a traditional interpretation and some alternative versions. Our purpose is to show several different mathematical fields that can be applied to the solution with emphasis on usage in education and teaching, as the formulation of the problem is an ideal tool to introduce new methods and fields to students.

Automation has had a profound impact on the economy, which has led to it being a widely discussed topic not only in economics over the past few years. However, the pertinent literature on the possible interplay between trade unions and automation is still relatively meager. Therefore, this article strives to contribute to the body of literature by analyzing theoretical effects of automation on the decision-making of trade unions. For this purpose, a model of the firm and a trade union akin to van der Ploeg (1987) is constructed. The firm employs capital, labor, and automatable capital, which is assumed to be a perfect substitute for labor. The trade union maximizes its utility by choosing an optimal amount of labor employed by the firm with the wage being determined by the demand for labor. By means of optimal control, we show that the employment of automatable capital can have an adverse effect on the optimal amount of labor.

Analyzing consumer behavior in bakery product markets involves understanding the factors that influence consumers’ choices and preferences when it comes to baked goods. One crucial aspect of this analysis is examining how different diseases impact the consumption of bakery products, such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, or a low histamine diet. By incorporating these factors into consumer behavior analysis in bakery product markets, researchers can gain valuable insights into how these diseases impact individuals’ choices and preferences. This knowledge can help bakeries and food manufacturers develop products that cater to specific dietary needs and expand their customer base. This study aims to investigate the consumer behavior and preferences of bakery products in Slovakia. Using a survey of 528 respondents we applied regression models and correspondence analysis to analyze the data and identify the factors influencing consumer choices and satisfaction. The results show correlations between different qualitative variables such as the consumption of bakery products the feelings arising from the consumption of bakery products and the average physical activity of the respondent. The research is supported by the VEGA project: Challenges for food security in 21st century Europe – key factors, socio-economic and environmental contexts, no. VEGA 1/0755/21.

The conventional practice in the financial industry involves the assessment of creditworthiness through default scoring models, primarily focused on predicting the likelihood of default. However, this research paper challenges the status quo by introducing benefits of the concept of profit scoring – a novel approach that shifts the focus from mere default prediction to forecasting potential returns on a debtor when extending credit to clients. Using publicly available peer-to-peer (P2P) lending data, this study meticulously examines the efficacy of profit scoring compared to traditional default scoring methods. Through the implementation of machine learning (ML) algorithms, our analysis demonstrates that profit scoring outperforms default scoring in average return on portfolio of out-of-sample credit applications. In order to achieve comparable results, the paper uses the same family of algorithms for both tasks: profit scoring (predicting return on a loan) and default scoring (classifying defaults and non-defaults). Furthermore, the paper reveals that the factors influencing loan profitability exhibit disparities when compared to those driving default probabilities. The results underscore the transformative potential of profit scoring, offering lenders a more holistic perspective on risk assessment. By focusing on potential internal rate of return rather than default probability alone, financial institutions can make more informed decisions, leading to enhanced portfolio performance and profitability.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an applied information technology with the potential to transform processes in various fields and sectors. The highest expectations are associated with administrative support, engineering, management and marketing, computers, healthcare, and education institutions and libraries, which also find their place in this transformation. AI-driven automation will affect public tasks such as data entry, meetings and presentations, or document management. Good examples may be observed in CRM systems, where AI generates content and personalized emails, creates predictive analytics to gain insights into customer behavior, and provides support for natural language processing. in the context of education, AI technologies open up opportunities for critical thinking rather than repetition in navigating applications like CRM systems. There is more room for real-time feedback to engage students effectively, leading to a better learning experience. This article presents experiences from courses that focus on analytic thinking about customer relationship management. ChatGPT is used to illustrate the variability in the description of necessary terms and processes. Active work involves not just passively receiving content but it is about thinking for the right expression, exploring innovative possibilities, and subsequently testing in selected CRM systems. For example, this evaluation is in the form of a classic SWOT analysis, or it is more flexible, involving the identification of both positive and less positive experiences and the knowledge required to solve the assigned tasks.

Nowadays business landscape, characterized by the pervasive integration of innovation across all facets of organizations, the realm of employee development stands as no exception. Contemporary trends, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and blended learning, have intricately woven current businesses into the fabric of market dynamics and employee expectations. This research paper is primarily devoted to the examination of how one of these contemporary trends, namely AI, exerts its influence on the domain of employee development and training. This paper will centre its attention on the soft skills, aiming to provide a thorough analysis and comprehension of how AI technologies may serve as indispensable tools in enhancing the training of soft skills within organizations. Additionally, this study will endeavour to ascertain the preferences of employees regarding their soft skills development. Through an exploration of AI's impact on soft skills training and an examination of employee preferences, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of employee development in a rapidly changing business environment.

The article explores the significance of artificial intelligence (AI) in education in the 21st century. With the continuous advancement of technology and data resources, AI plays an increasingly crucial role in reshaping how we learn and teach. The article deals with the profound transformations and crises affecting the contemporary world and education. It highlights that new artificial intelligence tools will undoubtedly bring unprecedented changes to education. These changes, although still very new, have the potential to redefine traditional education. The world itself is going through many crises. Higher education is not immune to these challenges; the various crises affect its ideological, intellectual, managerial, and ethical dimensions. This paper introduces the concept of "turn to artificial intelligence" in education, highlighting the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in reshaping educational paradigms.

The article draws attention to the issue of texts generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). The paper deals with examples of the processing of some selected tasks from the subject Methods of information processing taught at the Faculty of Economics of the University of South Bohemia solved with the help of AI. The generated answers are critically assessed and compared with the procedures used in teaching.

The contribution deals with law and economics in the French budget. In other word, legal and economic aspects of the French budget and budgeting is mentioned in the contribution. Therefore, the contribution pays attention to the evolution of budget in France, its legal regulation and selected economic, or rather statistic data of the French budget. The contribution also explains the performance budget as a tool of performance budgeting.

This article focuses on innovative forms of financing and their impact on the transformation of capital structure in the digital age. With the rapid development of digital technologies and the environment, new financing opportunities are emerging for businesses and investments. Crowdfunding, Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), peer-to-peer loans, and other innovative tools are bringing alternatives to traditional forms of financing. The article will address how these innovations are changing the way companies acquire and manage capital. Additionally, we will explore the challenges that these new approaches bring, including regulatory frameworks and security questions. The article aims to contribute to a better understanding of this issue and discuss general trends in innovative forms of financing and capital structure.

In 2007, a new 50-kilometer section of highway connecting Prague and Hradec Králové was opened to the public. This notably reduced travel time between these two cities by approximately 15 minutes. Employing a rigorous analytical approach that combines the difference-in-differences methodology based on the synthetic control method with panel regression techniques, this study investigates the impact of this highway expansion on regional economic dynamics, namely the pace of firm establishments. According to our results, the faster travel facilitated by the new highway had the consequence of slowing the pace of firm creation in municipalities lying close to the highway, which were able to benefit from faster travel times. We expect that the introduction of the new highway segment amplified the gravitational pull of major urban centers, attracting economic activity away from the surrounding regions. 

During the last decade, we have observed a reinforcing trend of declining share of traditional banks in financial intermediation. One of the causes of this development is the process of digitization of the financial industry. In the financial sector, or better said, beside it, virtually new industry of FinTech has developed. This development brings several significant opportunities and risks in many aspects, especially in areas such as consumer satisfaction, effectiveness of financial intermediation, the effectiveness of monetary policy, or in the broader context of financial stability. In this article, we present a liturature overview on the topic and formulate the most significant opportunities and risks of ongoing innovations in the financial sector, with a special focus on digitization and the FinTech sector.

The paper deals with a mutual relationship between the size of taxation and the tax decentralization ratio. The size of taxation in an economy is approximated using a simple tax-to-GDP ratio, a tax decentralization ratio by share of subnational government tax revenue on general government tax revenue. Due to a lack of data, the subnational government's real decision-making power over taxation is not considered. The aim of the paper is the evaluation of a mutual relationship of both variables and a discussion of the economic background of the relationship. The paper departs from the normative theory of fiscal federalism and also from the positive approach to the problem. Quantitative analysis is based on panel data from countries of Europe from 2005 to 2020, taken from the IMF GFS database.

This paper deals with the issue of corporate financial health. In theoretical and practical terms, it works with selected bankruptcy models on which the financial analysis of enterprises can be shown. The paper includes a search of financial health from the perspective of various authors of important theoretical publications. Among other things, the paper aims to compare whether the selected bankruptcy models have sufficient predictive power, which is done in the later parts of the thesis. In the first part, it mentions specific bankruptcy models that are widely used in mainstream economics. The Altman model, Douch's balance sheet analysis, the Springate model, and the Index IN05 are discussed. In the practical phase of the paper, the reliability of the selected bankruptcy models is evaluated on a sample of about 6,000 firms from the manufacturing industry. The thesis concludes that the selected models are suitable for the evaluation and overall prediction of the future financial situation of companies. However, the thesis also concludes that the selected models have different predictive abilities in practical terms. Thus, the selection of specific models depends, among other things, on the needs of the chosen analysis. To determine the reliability of the prediction of the future state of the company will be used descriptive statistics. The thesis also concludes that the selected models are suitable as a complement to the needs of financial analysis, as they provide good information on the overall assessment of the financial and economic situation of the enterprise and provide the necessary entities with early warning.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate investment strategies of conservative investor – reinsurer and assess their performance. In addition, risk exposure is assessed as well. The ultimate goal is to recommend optimal investment strategy for a given investor’s risk profile which is influenced by reinsurer’s underwriting risk sourced from its core business activities, i.e. sale of reinsurance products to various business segments with various risk exposures. Considering risk pool of particular liability (i.e. from its multiple business segments) and underlying investment portfolio, reinsurer’s portfolio managers seeks to choose suitable investment strategy that matches risk profile of given portfolio. For the purpose of study of this specific investor’s risk profile, reinsurer’s investment process is further analysed with focus on Asset Liability Matching (ALM) framework. Core business activities of reinsurer source significant stream of liquidity which makes reinsurer alongside pension funds and insurance companies significant subject on financial market in terms of investing, however its investment strategies are limited predominantly to conservative strategies due to government regulations, i.e. Solvency which portfolio manager has to consider. We modelled and analysed reinsurer’s three investment strategies: (i) North American Equity USD Strategy, (ii) Structured Credit North American USD Strategy and (iii) Corporate Credit North American USD Strategy. Bloomberg Terminal and BlackRock Aladdin platform were used to source securities, construct portfolios and assess their performance on a 5 year period. The length of the assessed period was chosen due to period of macroeconomic stability without disturbing events, e.g. shocks and contractual life of underlying underwriting products.

In 2022, the Russian Federation's troops invaded the territory of independent Ukraine full-scale. Since then, Ukraine's economy has been operating under martial law, which imposes certain restrictions on business activities. In addition, due to the hostilities, businesses, infrastructure, and housing were destroyed, leaving many people without homes and sources of income. To boost entrepreneurial activity, the government has introduced many grant programs. This study examines one of these programs. The intensification of entrepreneurship should ensure that citizens receive new sources of income, create new jobs in the country, and fill the state budget.

The transfer pricing is now not only a topic for multinational companies, but also for every company cooperating in multi-companies networks. The activity of tax administrators in the tax audit focused on transfer prices is increasing, and this issue becomes an almost standard part of a regular tax audit focused on corporate income tax.
This paper deals with the issue of transfer pricing in a company evaluated as a full-fledge manufacturer, that is, a part of a multinational company. The concerned company is currently working to improve the quality of transfer pricing documentation. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate, in a brief case study, the basic procedure used to evaluate the differences between prices for independent companies and for associated companies. The evaluated transactions are compared with the data available from companies operating in the same industry.  It was found that the profitability of the company is comparable to the expected profitability based on the calculated market profit range. According to the risk analysis, the main risks to the company resulting from the market environment and the poorly established transfer pricing policy.

The article focuses on the comparison of wine taxation indicators in the Czech Republic and other member states of the European Union. The author wants to contribute to the discussion on the introduction of a higher than zero rate on still wines in the Czech Republic. When introducing the taxation of still wine in the Czech Republic, it is necessary to proceed in accordance with the applicable directives of the European Union. These are Council Directive (EU) 2020/1151 and Directive 92/83/EEC. The 2020 Directive regulates the conditions for the application of reduced rates for wines and amends Directive 92/83/EEC, which sets a rate of zero for still wines. The source of data for comparing indicators applicable in the area of wine taxation are European Commission and Eurostat documents.
Cluster analysis ranked the states of the European Union according to their similarity of the observed characteristics. The clustering objects have made up of 27 member states and their characteristics are indicators of taxation in the field of still wine. It is evident that states with high production prefer lower taxation of still wine and consumption is usually at a higher level in these states. In contrast, states with lower or no production more often choose higher taxation and consumption is rather low here. France with higher taxation of still wine and Italy with no consumption taxes appear to be specific.

This article focuses on the impact of digitalisation on tax administration in the Slovak Republic. We focus on the improvement of digitalization for the finance administration of the Slovak Republic which represents easier access to data and consequently helps to higher tax collection. Modernising tax systems increases resilience to tax fraud and consequently we focus on how tax authorities can make tax audits more efficient. In our article, we also focus on the various digital projects that the tax administration has introduced in recent years. We mention projects such as electronic communication and electronic treasury. In the conclusion of the article, we focus on future developments in the financial administration in the field of digitisation and processes that help to simplify established practices. Our aim in the article is to highlight the fact that digitalization increases the mutual trust between the tax administration and tax entities, leading to voluntary tax compliance.

Few information systems can generate the documents necessary to reconcile the balances of the receivables and the liabilities. For these purposes, the external confirmation method is suitable, which can be used voluntarily by the accounting units within the framework of the inventorying of the receivables and the liabilities, and by the auditors when auditing the financial statements. The external confirmation, as one of the audit procedures, is the most effective way of the verifying the account balances correctness, the contractual terms, the contracts, or the transactions, for the reason that audit evidence is obtained from independent sources outside the accounting unit. The paper presents the external confirmation and offers the solutions in the problematic areas, such as the "obligation" to send the external confirmation, unreceived response from the confirmation letters, the choice of the sample unit, the question of the prefilling the confirmed amount, the reliability of audit evidence obtained from the confirmation letters, or possible reasons of the unsent external confirmation, etc.

Controlling is becoming an increasingly significant component of modern business management. Controlling tools enable businesses to monitor and manage their assets more effectively. As part of the analysis, it has been found that there is a statistically significant difference between certain asset items and implemented operational and strategic controlling tools. This means that businesses with effective controlling have a better awareness of the status of their assets and are better equipped to respond to risks and opportunities. The analysis was divided into four parts in the same way as the assets are divided in the balance sheet. The Mann-Whitney U test was used, and it was tested at the significance level of 0,05. A statistically significant difference was found for the total assets item, then for the items of fixed assets and long-term tangible assets. In the area of current assets, there was a significant difference in the items current assets, short-term receivables and trade receivables. For the other assets, there was not find any statistically significant difference.

This paper contributes to empirical evidence of semi-strong market efficiency focused on cryptocurrency market, specifically examines the persistence of random walk in the Bitcoin and Dogecoin exchange rates. Using an event study approach and abnormal returns methodology authors verify the reaction of selected cryptocurrency exchange rates to the statements releases through social media platform during the time-period from 2020 to 2022. The results show that celebrity statements on social media can influence investor behaviour, which is especially reflected in the increased volatility of cryptocurrency rates.