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...

The article presents a new approach to the generation of business models based on value streams. The originality of the study lies in the assumption that in every business model the generator of added value is the value chain which, if original enough, will maximize potential while minimizing costs. This approach will provide the respective enterprise with a high level competitiveness in the long term. The tested group of enterprises consisted of 354 SMEs, one hundred eightyseven of which were from the manufacturing and industry sector, with 167 from the services sector. The novelty of this approach also consists of the integrated approach to the business environment in which the value streams were analyzed. The results suggest that the analysis of value streams is suitable for the projection of business models. In addition, the methods of dimensional reduction and logit regression have been identified as appropriate analytical tools, with representative results found valid and utilizable in business practice. The authors of the article are aware that this is only the first step in addressing this issue, one which will play a critical role in the gradual process of the upcoming digital transformation of all business models, not only those of SMEs in the Czech Republic.

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Slovak spa services are not given sufficient attention directly following the support and sustainable development. The paper focuses on the evaluation of the overall development and current level of efficiency of the Slovak spas in 2013–2018, through the application of DEA models. Input variables (total number of beds, employees, medical staff) and output variables (use of bed capacity, number of treated clients) within the structure of DEA models analyzed (CCR-I, CCR-O, BCC-I, BCC-O) are determined by results of the correlation analysis. The data were obtained from the annual reports of the spa enterprises. By the results, the average efficiency score for all enterprises reached 0.7527, i.e., the average spa enterprise would need only 75.27% of currently used inputs for a given output production to move to the efficiency frontier. The development of the average efficiency score confirmed a positive growing trend until 2015; however, the efficiency decreased by 1.84% in a year-to-year comparison in 2016–2018. In each year of the analyzed period, the number of inefficient enterprises (66.67%) exceeded that of the efficient ones (33.33%). Through research carried out in spa facilities, the authors contributed to expanding the application of the DEA method in another tourism sector.

Measuring the performance and efficiency of the tourism enterprises is essential regarding the current pandemic situation. In such a context, improving their financial situation and competitive position also depend on the use of innovative multi-criteria evaluation models. The paper's main objective is to propose the newly designed Performance & Efficiency model (P&E model) for Slovak spa enterprises. Its structure consists of three dimensions – P&E_I, P&E_II, P&E_III. The application of Confirmatory Factor Analysis validates 34 key performance ratios reflecting the financial situation of enterprises within the P&E_I. In case of P&E_II, the development of value-added dynamics is measured by using the Economic Value Added Momentum. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis, the level of enterprise efficiency is quantified (P&E_III). The partial results of the dimensions are transformed using min-max normalization to the overall score ranging from 0 to 3. Based on the results, a rating scale of all enterprises is carried out, and both their partial and overall positions are assessed through benchmarking. During the research (2013 – 2018), the best results are achieved for SE03 (Spa Bojnice, Inc.), SE21 (Specialised Spa Institute Marína, s.e.), and SE18 (Spa Horný Smokovec, Ltd.). The worst-rated spa enterprises include SE14 (Natural Iodine Spa Číž, Inc.), SE09 (Spa Sliač, Inc.), and SE19 (Pieniny Resort, Ltd.). The proposed P&E model is easily applicable to other tourism enterprises. The research as carried out enables deepening of knowledge concerning the multi-criteria evaluation and management concepts and helps enterprises overcome current unfavorable situations.