Business sustainability has been one of the leading topics of the financial management of Slovak companies since the beginning of the millennium. The initially relatively strict link only to environmental aspects has been supplemented by the economic and social dimensions in recent years, under the pressure of the business environment. Examining the link between a company's financial performance and sustainability is addressed in this paper by the financial ratios method and the correlation and linear regression analysis methods. The subjects of investigation are enterprises from three selected sectors, with the selection criterion for the sample being determined based on the share of sales of the enterprises in the sectoral sales such that the sample includes enterprises with a total share of more than 50%. The aim was to design an integral indicator of business sustainability and linking it to the identified economic performance indicator, Economic Value Added, whereby it insists on economic pillar of sustainability exclusively. The research results show a strong direct dependence of the financial performance to the IU UP (Integral business sustainability indicator) in the supply of "Supply of electricity, gas, steam and cold air" and the independence of the IU UP in the "Information and communication" and "Industrial production" sectors. Further research should go beyond the borders of the Slovak Republic and should be aimed at proposing changes and amendments in IU UP , applying more comprehensive evaluation procedures, while respecting the public availability of input information.

The business environment and entrepreneurship are important elements in the economic growth of each country. The better the business environment a given country offers, the more attractive the country is for small and large companies as well as for private entrepreneurs. A high level of business competitiveness can help a country secure economic growth, especially after overcoming a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Many institutions focus on the measurement of the business environment using indices to evaluate its quality. The main goal of the present study is to evaluate the quality of the business environment through multicriteria analysis. For the period from 2018 to 2020, the data were analysed by using seven selected indices of the weighted sum approach (WSA) and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods. The research sample included all EU countries that joined the EU at the same time in 2004. The processing of analytical data was gradually implemented by using descriptive statistics and multicriteria evaluation methods. The methods used in the multicriteria evaluation of variants determined the rankings of the individual variants in terms of the selected criteria using entropy. We concluded that the efficiency of the business environments in Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia are below the EU average. Within this group of countries, Estonia, Malta and Slovenia have seen the largest regeneration of their business environment since having joined the EU.

This study aimed to investigate the differences in motivational focus and sources of satisfaction between family and non-family employees in family businesses. Data from a questionnaire survey conducted between May and September 2021 were used to examine the relationship of work motivation between family and non-family employees. Data were collected via a questionnaire and interviews with 56 non-family employees and 148 family employees from family businesses of eight Slovak regions. To meet the stated aim, relevant quantitative methods such as the two-sample Fisher’s F-test, two-sample Student’s t-test with inequality of variances, and the Pearson correlation method were applied. Based on the established results, it can be assumed that it is possible to adapt the dealings with the employees of family companies more closely to their individual needs, and thus contribute to their performance. Non-family employees are more oriented towards economic benefits. Family employees show a more balanced orientation between economic benefits and moral satisfaction. This confirms that financial considerations are still an important factor of motivation for non-family employees. According to the results of the study, non-family employees tend to focus on content and activity, while family employees rather focus on success. A possible explanation could be that family members perceive the success of a company more than their own and feel more confident in the choice of activities they would like to carry out, so they take this fact more than for granted. AcknowledgmentThis paper has been supported by funds of the project VEGA No. 1/0240/20. This study was supported by the project GAAA 5-5/2020 “Development of family businesses in Slovak regions”, which has received funding from Grant Agency Academia Aurea and by project VEGA 1/0813/19 “Managing the development of innovative and start-up forms of businesses in international environment and verification of INMARK concept”, which has received funding from the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic.

The focus of this paper is the application of one-dimensional discriminant analysis in specific conditions of economic practice. The research sample of the enterprises has shown, that even these methods can better warn against nearing bankruptcy by predicting whether business will or will not be sustainable. The assumptions of research were verified in a group consisting of prosperous and non-prosperous business entities. The results of the original research show that one-dimensional discriminatory methods had a higher reliability than the multidimensional ones on the sample of enterprises surveyed. The method of discriminant analysis established is relevant for research in this conditions.

The focus of this presented work is the application of one-dimensional discriminant analysis in specific conditions of economic practice. The research sample of the enterprises has shown, that even these methods can better warn against nearing bankruptcy by predicting whether business will or will not be sustainable. Generally, these discriminant analyses use the financial ratios methods. The future situation of an enterprise can be predicted, among other things, by means of one-dimensional and multidimensional discriminant analysis methods, which are dealt with by several authors. Given the different approaches of authors, one-dimensional discriminant analysis methods that are "older" can be assumed to have a different reliability than multidimensional discriminant analysis methods. The assumptions of our research were verified in a group consisting of prosperous and non-prosperous business entities. The results of the original research show that one-dimensional discriminatory methods had a higher reliability than the multidimensional ones on the sample of enterprises surveyed. At the same time, it has not been established that a 100% reliable method will be found, but it is good to know the assumptions on which these existing methods work and use a combination of multiple methods.