The company’s success lies in understanding its situation and the differences in its own business and in creating original, and functioning innovation management system. The main task of the owner and management of the company is to create conditions for the creativity of its employees through the created method of providing financial resources and systematic creation of the research team. Innovation and its successful management and implementation helps to overcome the challenges of globalization. The paper aims to evaluate innovation activities, especially concerning the type of implemented innovation activities, initiator, way of development, obstacles, and type of protection of intellectual property. At the same time, the evaluation of innovation activity management is carried out according to the model of Wolcott and Lippitz (2007), which takes into account two parameters, namely the power of authority and organizational responsibility. Data on innovation activities of enterprises are obtained through a proper questionnaire survey carried out by selected innovative companies. The results of the questionnaire survey are evaluated using the IBM SPSS Statistics 21 statistical program. Cluster analysis is also used to identify categories of innovative enterprises.

The paper contains new knowledge about the expansion of technologies associated with Industry 4.0 and digitalization in selected companies including metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic and evaluates the intensity of business process innovation with a focus on internal processes implemented in companies. A probe was implemented which was purposefully focused on the analysis of statistical data on innovation activities in innovative companies including metallurgical companies in the Czech Republic in the period under study by. The processing of statistical data obtained by the CZSO by a survey made it possible to obtain more detailed overviews of the relative frequencies of enterprises that implemented individual types of process innovations in the period under study and that have introduced some of the elements or tools of Industry 4.0 and the digitalization. The importance of innovation for the continued existence and development of the company is recognized especially by large companies and companies under foreign control. Many of these companies are already applying technologies associated with Industry 4.0 and the digitalization and they are moving towards the creation of a digital enterprise. On the contrary, the implementation of innovation activities and the use of technologies associated with Industry 4.0 in small and medium-sized companies is low. The main obstacle is insufficient funding for new technologies and human resources.

The Czech Republic has a long history of product excellence recognizable in such diverse areas as beer, weapons and shoe manufacture. Moreover, many of the ideas regarded as central to contemporary expression of TQM such as empowerment and primacy of the organization's human resource are to be found in the 1920s and 1930s speeches and essays of Czech industrialist and organizational behaviorist Tomas Bata. Nevertheless, the Czech Republic faces distinct challenges brought about by the Velvet Revolution -challenges common to many Central and Eastern European nations. Challenges, practices, trends and the future promise of quality in the Czech Republic are discussed.

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Purpose:The purpose is to provide knowledge about the intensity and types of process innovation in the business sphere, as well as the representation of entities involved in creating innovation, and about the effects of process innovation. Methodology/Approach: Data from the statistical survey on innovation activities carried out by the Czech Statistical Office according to the Eurostat methodology were used, supplemented by some results of the own questionnaire survey. Methods of sorting, size arrangement, structure analysis, comparison, context analysis were used. Findings:The large enterprises were significantly more active than SMEs in implementing process innovations, as well as foreign affiliates were more active than domestic enterprises. Besides typical competitive advantages of process innovation benefits the benefits in ecology, occupational safety and reduced labour demand have also proved to be numerous. Co-operation of enterprises with universities has proved to be low. The lack of skilled workers and financial resources were the main obstacles to the innovation activity of enterprises. Research Limitation/implication:The research is focused on companies in the Czech Republic. Originality/Value of paper:The actual contribution of the article lies in the purpose-oriented comparison of process innovations between fields of enterprise activities, especially in the area of logistics innovations, in some aspects the comparison of process-innovation activities according to the size of the company and the ownership of the company. Category: Research paperKeywords: innovation activity; process innovations; collaboration on innovation; effects of innovation; innovation in logistics ABOUT AUTHORS Pavla Macurová -Associate Professor, her professional focus is logistics management, quality management and process management. In the field of science and research, she deals with supply chain management, diagnostics in the field of logistics and quality, risk management in logistics. VŠB-Technical