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Th is paper presents a theoretical and methodological model of measurement of the quality of business environment in the segment of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and introduces an I QSME index. Th e paper presents the way of selection and defi nition of the important factors that form business environment, the analysis of their interconnections and quantifi cation of their infl uence. According to the results of the application of the created model we can state that the conditions for doing business in the Czech Republic are quite challen ging. Th e value of I QSME for the Czech Republic is at the lower end of the range of possible values. We found that Czech entrepreneurs quite negatively evaluate the government's approach and its attempts to develop suitable conditions for doing business, the attitude of the fi nancial market players in providing the opportunities of external fi nancing for their entrepreneurial activities, current level of business risks, but are satisfi ed with the attitude of their surroundings to their business activities.Keywords: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the business environment, quality measuring model, approach of the state to entrepreneurship, commercial banks, corruption JEL Classifi cation L 26, O 16, G 32

This paper presents a method of generating a business strategy using value chain analysis. There were 186 manufacturing and industrial enterprises from the Czech Republic. The analysis was carried out using mathematical-statistical methods (dimensional reduction, logit regression and its transformation in order to objectify the opinion level of the managers) and with a neural network in terms of validation of the results of the mathematical-statistical methods. The aim was to determine the significance of different parts of the value chain in terms of their impact on the profitability of an enterprise and to demonstrate its important role in the process of generating business strategy. The significance for the profitability of the enterprises was statistically proven in the area of scientific and technological development, input logistics and human resource management. These parts were identified by the authors as the golden triangle of manufacturing and industry. Purchasing and output logistics were identified as the parts with a negative impact to the profitability of the enterprises. Strong underestimation of scientific and technological development by the top managers of the manufacturing and industrial enterprises is seen as a very negative finding. Neural networks showed higher statistical sensitivity compared to the mathematical-statistical methods (dimensional reduction and logit regression). They defined the value sector chain with the following structure (ranked from the highest degree of positive impact on the profitability of the enterprise): human resource management, scientific and technological development, production, input logistics, purchasing, material management, output logistics, enterprise infrastructure, marketing and sales, service and other supporting services. In conclusion, it is stated that the sector value chain of manufacturing and industrial enterprises will be further decomposed into value chain models of specific industries of the production and industry, such as engineering and construction, intended for direct use in different business entities to generate their unique value chains and corporate strategies.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1520 2 of 15 changes taken by the enterprises in the enterprise architecture, including the generation of corporate strategies. Scientific institutions, including universities, need to play a crucial role in addressing this limiting issue in terms of sustainability of enterprises.The current state of scientific knowledge in the field of corporate strategy creation, its structure, form and implementation, together with its decomposition into partial strategies including the methods of its implementation, is described as inconsistent and difficult to use in business practice.The authors of this paper were directly confronted with such a negative and worsening situation in the framework of cooperation with business practice, in particular with top business managers. A similar situation arises in the educational field at universities, where the requirement...

In this paper, the present state of competitiveness along with other economic issues in a number of EU countries are investigated, with emphasis placed on the economy of Slovakia. Heterogeneous results were produced in terms of the full integration of these economies into the framework of competitiveness stated in the Europe 2020 strategy. In particular, factors were identified which are the results of rating agencies focusing on indicators based on the position of countries in international markets as well as WEF results, which devote more attention to the economic development of countries. The research objective of this paper is to analyse the relations that exist between innovation and competitiveness, taking into account the results of performance assessment models within the selected countries as the object of the research. Using these models, the present authors evaluate the relationship among composite indicators computed with the help of methodologies in order to confirm the cause-and-effect relations between innovation and competitiveness. The research methodology is based on hypothesis verification focused on level of competitiveness in EU countries and especially in Slovakia.

Organizational changes have a major impact on the competitiveness, growth, efficiency, and survival of any organization. This article deals with the issue of an organizational change and its management. The main objective of the research is to verify the existence of a statistically significant relationship between selected factors and the success of organizational changes in Slovak companies. In the short theoretical introduction, the article explains basic aspects of change management. The main part of the article deals with the analysis of variables affecting the outcome of changes taking place in companies. The empirical survey was carried out using the questionnaire method. The questionnaire was distributed to employees from different types of companies where the changes took place. The survey sample consists of 287 respondents. To test the statistical hypotheses, we used the Spearman's correlation coefficient. The test hypotheses were processed through the program Gretl. Based on the tested relationship between the variables, a significant relationship between the variables was found -the time needed to prepare and implement the change and the success of the change. Other variables also showed an impact on the final outcome of the change. It has been shown that the process of planning changes, checking upon changes, and the time needed to implement changes have an important role and a major effect on the ultimate success or failure of change in a company.