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The paper attempts to assess the added value of women in management in the context of the Czech Republic. The wider purpose is to contribute to the debate for the need of gender-balanced top managerial teams. It additionally contributes new inputs to the discussion as to whether quotas or other special measures are relevant to promote or engage more women in higher management positions within both the Czech public and private sectors. According to the results, Czech respondents view women as added value to management given the different characteristics of their approach over that of their male counterparts. However, the research reveals that women who obtain higher managerial positions demonstrate the same set of characteristics as men.In conclusion, the promotion system is designed for candidates that demonstrate typically male characteristics.

The purpose of this study is to examine consumer tendencies within the economic crisis, to examine consumer ethnocentrism (CE) among CEE consumers and its character and influence on buying domestic and foreign products. Based on broad existing theoretical and empirical knowledge, we constructed measures for this research derived from existing literature. The hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling. The analyzed sample consisted of 199 Czech respondents. The results confirm effect of CE on buying behavior as well as national identity influence on CE. In the Czech context, CE significantly and positively influenced domestic purchase behavior. Alternatively, there was only a marginal influence of CE supported its negative effect on foreign purchase behavior. Cosmopolitanism did not affect CE in the Czech context. Therefore, the research findings suggest a prevalent influence of CE on buying behavior under conditions of economic crisis. The paper concentrates on ignored area that was very hard hit by economic crisis in Central and Eastern Europe. The findings provide useful information to marketing specialists in designing their marketing strategies for local "made-in" communication campaigns. In addition, implications for retailers to evaluate their merchandise assortment portfolio are implied from the findings. We build on the positive influence of CE on buying behavior of domestic products versus foreign, and infer preference for freshness and quality of goods. This suggest implications for public policy implications related to local job creation and employment, especially within the area of small local producers, self-employment, development of local agriculture, as well as countryside maintenance. This issue seems to gain more importance and attention given the nature of the global economic crisis for consumers, producers, retailers and government. Potentially, there appears to be significant carryover effect related to the present and future integration processes of the CEE economies.

The paper examines similarities and distinctions of EU countries based on the Global Gender Gap Index and its four subindexes (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Political Empowerment)