Our paper is focused on the factors that influence innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. The country that went through long economic transformation that resulted in the setup of the new improved standards for entrepreneurship activities is currently dealing with the aftermath of world's economic and financial crisis. With regard to all that, Czech SMEs are facing tough competition on domestic and EU markets. This is when innovations might become one of the key factors of success that can help to differentiate the product, beat the competition and attract more customers. Our study is based on the empirical model that employs the data from the survey questionnaire with 1144 Czech SMEs. We find several forms of innovations (e.g. own R&D, investment into technology, improvement of quality of a product or service, or presence on foreign (EU and world) markets) can become very significant in enhancing the growth and success of Czech SMEs, while the bureaucratic barriers for innovations and external factors with negative impact did not come through as obstacles. Based on our results, one can state thatthe most important policy implications are for the relevant stakeholders would be the support of investment activities of SMEs, creation of SMEs clusters within business parks, education of employees, expansions of Czech exports to the new markets, and intensive support of R&D. It would also make sense to increase the number of small SMEs (sole-traders and micro-enterprises) by making the registration process easier, or by offering subsidies or government support to the new companies and start-ups.

Corruption is a widespread phenomenon in all countries undergoing market transition. However, the Czech Republic stands apart, with its incredible entanglement of corruption, politics and business. Although corruption on the firm level in the Czech Republic is heavily criticized, the results of our in-depth interviews conducted with Czech SMEs showed that almost every firm has encountered some form of corruption and even used corruption to either increase sales, help negotiations, or increase production. Most of our respondents admitted that corruption was useful for day-to-day business. This article aims to obtain information about the state of corruption in enterprises in the Czech Republic and map the behaviour of entrepreneurs in companies. Our results offer ways to fight corruption: apart from highlighting the negative traits of corruption, emphasis should be made on determining to what extent corruption would be acceptable for firms and their clients. This could be useful for designing various state policies that might influence system change and market development in CEECs and both directly and indirectly influence the volume of corruption.

Innovation is one of the most important factors for business growth. Human capital plays a significant role in the successful process of innovation. This article deals with employee motivation in the innovation process and the main scientific aim of this study is to present results of research that was undertaken in the Czech Republic at the beginning of 2013. Questionnaires were used for the survey and statistical analyses such as Chi square test or Hierarchical cluster analysis were used for data processing. This study also provides a theoretical and practical overview of business innovation in the Czech Republic.

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Corruption at the labour market is one of the biggest challenges in contemporary organisational studies, economics and law. The paper is concerned with research attitudes and perception of corruption in the Czech Republic. Over the last 40 years the problem with corruption wasn´t in the research focuses because of political regime. The situation has changed considerably over the last 10 years, especially after the 2004, when the Czech Republic joined the European Union. The main goal of the paper is to provide an analysis of corruption perception, its parts and research methodology to provide an adequate picture and analysis of corruption of the Czech Republic. The first part of the article is dedicated to the theory of corruption and state of the art. The second part describes situation in the Czech Republic. The third part is focused on the methodology of research, possibilities and limitations at the level of states, companies. The final part is focused on identification of suitable methods to study corruption in the Czech Republic. We identified several comparatively new approaches and methods to use in private and state organizations. The following methods are used secondary data analysis on the basis of available information about research methods. The research plan has several areas: definition of corruption, typology of corruption and corruption's level, corruption in the Czech Republic, research methods and their effectiveness.