A regional disparity is becoming increasingly important growth constraint. Policy makers need quantitative knowledge to design effective and targeted policies. In this paper, the regional efficiency of healthcare facilities in Slovakia is measured (2008–2015) using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The DEA is the dominant approach to assessing the efficiency of the healthcare system but also other economic areas. In this study, the window approach is introduced as an extension to the basic DEA models to evaluate healthcare technical efficiency in individual regions and quantify the basic regional disparities and discrepancies. The window DEA method was chosen since it leads to increased discrimination on results especially when applied to small samples and it enables year-by-year comparisons of the results. Two stable inputs (number of beds, number of medical staff), three variable inputs (number of all medical equipment, number of magnetic resonance (MR) devices, number of computed tomography (CT) devices) and two stable outputs (use of beds, average nursing time) were chosen as production variable in an output-oriented 4-year window DEA model for the assessment of technical efficiency in 8 regions. The database was made available from the National Health Information Center and the Slovak Statistical Office, as well as from the online databases Slovstat and DataCube. The aim of the paper is to quantify the impact of the non-standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) variables as the use of medical technologies (MR, CT) on the results of the assessment of the efficiency of the healthcare facilities and their adequacy in the evaluation of the monitored processes. The results of the analysis have shown that there is an indirect dependence between the values of the variables over time and the results of the estimated efficiency in all regions. The regions that had low values of the variables over time achieved a high degree of efficiency and vice versa. Interesting knowledge was that the gradual addition of variables number of MR, number of CT and number of medical devices together, to the input side did not have a significant impact on the overall estimated efficiency of healthcare facilities.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on entrepreneurs' attitudes towards the selected business risks in the SME segment. 1502 SMEs took part in the research, while 822 of them provided their responses regarding business risks before the COVID-19 crisis and 680 during the COVID-19 crisis in Czech and Slovak business environment. Market, financial, and personnel risks were considered by Czech SMEs as the three most significant business risks, both before and after the COVID-19 crisis. The statistically confirmed differences in SMEs' attitudes based on the time of providing responses are most apparent in the perception of financial and personnel risks. 35.7% SMEs in Czech Republic and 35.3% in Slovakia considered financial risk as one of the three most significant business risks before the COVID-19 crisis. During the crisis, it changed to 53.6% SMEs in Czech Republic and 59.7% in

Numerous research studies deal with the issue of researching the impacts on credit risk determinants in the SME segment. The study of economic factors that are easier to quantify from methodological point of view, and which prevent complex evaluation of causality of interest rate risk and the discovery of various social barriers dominate. This consistent fact forms a platform in designing the research to introduce a model of dependency of effective credit risk management in the SME segment on significant social and economic factors. Empirical research was carried out in the Czech business environment in 2017 on a sample of 352 enterprises. The structural analysis modeling (SEM) was the main analytical method. The research results confirmed the fact that an effective approach to managing the SME’s credit risk is determined by a number of factors of a noneconomic nature. The most important are education and family environment. These are followed by economic factors, such as a relationship with banks, financial knowledge in the area of capital and payment discipline. The multi-spectral dimension of the findings and causality also opened up a wide discussion and prepared a high-quality data research base for further deeper exploration of this issue.

The aim of this paper is to review the impact of entrepreneurs' attitudes toward the defined business risks on the perception of the future of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 454 SMEs from the Czech Republic (CR) participated in the research and completed an online questionnaire. Structural equation modelling and factor analysis were used to identify the causal relationships between the examined variables. Entrepreneurs' attitudes toward business failure also have a positive effect on the future of the SME. The perception of financial risk in positive indicators of financial performance and the perception of financial risk as part of the company's everyday life have the most significant impact on future business. Operational risk is reflected in the utilisation of corporate resources, reducing customer complaints about the quality of the company's products and the company's independence of a limited number of suppliers. The company's sales volume adequacy provides a source of market risk. It has the third strongest positive impact on the future business in the SME segment. The research results provide a valuable platform for the authors of national and regional development strategic plans looking for SME support and development as well as the authors of the relevant policies.

In our study, we focused on the assessment of four bankruptcy prediction models, to figure out which model is most appropriate in the conditions of the Slovak business environment. Based on the previous research within the Slovak conditions, we set a portfolio of 4 models to be assessed: Altman model (1984), Ohlson model (1980), indexes IN01 and IN05 that were validated on the sample of 700 Slovak companies. Based on previous studies we expected that IN indexes are superior to Ohlson and Altman model. The excellency of our research lies in validation and assessing the accuracy of bankruptcy prediction models at three levels: the overall accuracy, accuracy of the bankruptcy prediction, and the non-bankruptcy prediction accuracy. This analytical structure enables to look at the topic more complexly and to increase the objectification of accuracy of analysed models. Based on the results, we showed that Ohlson model is not applicable to predict bankruptcy in the Slovak conditions as reached the lowest bankruptcy prediction ability even if has high non bankruptcy prediction ability. On the other hand, we have confirmed our expectation about the bankruptcy prediction ability of index IN05, that is proven to be superior to Ohlson and Altman model and so is the most appropriate model for Slovak business environment.