Fulltext search in archive

We focus on the determinants and potential benefits of relationship banking. Based on the existing literature and the unique role intangible assets play regarding firms' capital structure, we test two hypotheses using rich data on firm-bank relationships in Germany. We show that firstly, a high share of intangible assets does not worsen the access of firms to debt financing. And secondly, firms with a high share of intangible assets are statistically significantly more likely to choose an exclusive and persistent bank relation.

With this study, we will test the interrelations between the psychological concept of self-efficacy of managers and its influences on the resistance to change. The results show that it makes a qualitative difference, if change in competences occurs in a positive or a negative direction and that there is a clear predisposition of managers concerning change. Both results have to be taken into account in designing changes processes.

This paper investigates the mechanism of a financial accelerator. In particular, it examines the procyclicality of credit margins in Europe after the financial crisis, with an additional split into small, medium and large-sized banks. The empirical analysis is in contrast with contemporary authors because it approves that the financial accelerator is not present on the European market after the financial crisis. It could be caused by multiple factors, for example structural changes during the financial crisis, a change in the behaviour of commercial banks or extremely low interest rates. We tested our hypothesis on a dataset that consists of a data panel with annual data for the period 1998-2015 and includes 2,489 banks from 36 European countries from the Bankscope database. We also provide robust empirical proof that such behaviour was not occurring during the financial crisis or after the financial crisis in the European banking system.

A firm considers various factors when approaching a dividend policy decision. To analyze the determinants of dividend policy in the context of Bangladesh, questionnaire survey has been done from financial decision makers of sample companies. The nonparametric test and factor analysis is used for interpreting results. The research finding exhibits that in the first stage, the economic related factor, legal constraint factor, capital market related factor, residual policy factor, capital source factor and clientele factors are considered in dividend decision making. Then in the second stage, the companies follow the preceding years' pattern of dividend payment. In the next stage, dividend decision is made mainly on the level of earnings and liquidity. The observed result reveals that present earnings and liquidity are the most likely factors for the firm in deciding the payout policy.

A successful integration of migrants in the society as well as of older employees in the organisation is getting more important based on demographic changes. The central aim of the investigation is to deal with problem fields of the Human Resource Management, which arise by demographic changes regarding migration and the ageing society. Therefore, an explorative qualitative study with human resource managers and diversity representatives of the large DAX companies was conducted. The views of leaders and employees with and without an immigration background regarding diversity potentials in organisation are compared in this study. The results indicate that diversity is important for organisation. Employees have recognised the importance of diversity. Managers have not recognised the seriousness and urgency of cultural diversity and diversity actions. Human resource managers are not able to assess the additional stress of migrants correctly and to consider them in their day-to-day management and diversity actions.

Web anonymization tools have been used for a long time, primarily by the users afraid of possible undesirable consequences of their on-line activity on the web. The paper analyzes both historically proven anonymization tools like TOR and newer tools, namely JAP/JonDo and CyberGhost VPN that are based on slightly modified technological principles. The primary focus is given to the measurement and evaluation of the latency increase and the transmission speed decrease in comparison to normal (non-anonymized) web browser operation. Results show that all anonymization tools being subject of the analysis provide relatively moderate latency increase. On the opposite, the transmission speed decrease was more significant, especially for JonDo. This confirms the conclusions of previous studies resulting that no anonymization tool is suitable for daily web browsing. On the other hand, in the case when higher anonymity is required, their use can be reasonably comfortable from the point of view of latency increase. However, their usefulness for downloading larger files is always disputable.

This contribution deals with issues of corporate taxation in relation with economic growth. Its main objective is to quantify and analyse the relation of corporate taxation and economic growth using of OECD countries. The corporate tax rate is approximated by effective corporate tax rates such as corporate tax quota, marginal effective and average tax rates as determined by micro-forward looking approach and the alternative approach World Tax Index. The relation of taxation and economic growth is verified using an econometric model based on panel regression methods and tests using a dynamic panel. The model has shown a negative impact on economic growth for all six of the selected corporate tax approximators under the assumed significant level. A quantitatively higher negative impact has been verified in the case of labour taxation.

Foreign-owned firms enter foreign markets for traditional reasons (market acquisition, securing resources, and diversification), but lately they have also been seeking better economies of scale and a more rational allocation of expenditures, via shifting processes and activities to lower-cost countries. The aim of this paper is to analyse the major foreign direct investments (FDI) and impacts on Human Resource Management through seven case studies in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Multinational Corporations are considered the driving force behind the internationalization of business. The shift from a domestic to a global business perspective also has a profound impact on corporate human resources management activities. The analysis confirms the general viewpoint in literature that HR work in subsidiaries of MNCs has shifted from an administrative role to a strategic contributor role. The strategic impact is especially big when it comes to fields which need to be "culturally translated": recruitment, compensation and benefits, and talent management. However, that influence is still limited to national HR work on a national level.

This paper deals with cultural differences in states around Europe. People represent key resources of the companies where flexi forms are necessary way how to reach goals. Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Theory can find many answers. Application of new culture and flexi forms may improve work organization, working time and family life of employees. This paper utilizes survey data obtained from Hofstede Institute research fields and Eurostat database. Set hypotheses are supported by six auxiliary questions what help reach conclusions, how integration slowly cancelled national differences between nations.

Taking the leading role of the banking industry in the financial system into consideration, this paper constructed a financial vulnerability index by using the method of principal component analysis, and found China's financial vulnerability showed a slightly upward trend in general. In order to confirm the macro factors affecting financial fragility, dynamic regression models were constructed. As a result, the authors obtained seven major macro factors. Finally, the authors determined that an overheated economy, increasing inflation, excessive growth of the country's fiscal expenditures, and export shocks will increase financial vulnerability. However, the increasing investment in real estates and fixed assets may reduce the risk in the financial market. Therefore, China needs to adapt to the new normal economic development model, weaken government intervention in the financial markets, deepen financial reforms, and maintain steady development in the financial system.

The objective of the study was in two parts; first, to construct an overall risk index to ascertain risk level of banks listed on Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), second, to ascertain whether there is a significant relationship between risk management and bank performance. Secondary data of all listed banks on GSE over the period 2007-2014 was used and a panel regression data approach and a risk index were constructed for all listed banks. Findings show that, banks listed on Ghana Stock Exchange have declining risk indexes on average over the latter part of the study period indicating that the Ghanaian Banking Regulator may have to impose additional prudential and regulatory requirements to ensure banks remain solvent. We also find evidence that risk management is positively related to performance of GSE listed banks when the latter is measured from ROE perspective.

The article focuses on the Age Management philosophy and the concept of Work-life balance in the selected Czech banking institutions. The objective of the article is, inter alia, to determine whether the selected Czech banking institutions are dominated by stereotypical perception of the employees and further to reflect over how the concept of the Work-life balance can affect the context of aging of the population and the Age Management philosophy. The article presents a view of some of the results of quantitative and qualitative research conducted in the selected Czech banking institutions in the Czech Republic. The research group of the questionnaire survey included in total 180 employees of banking institutions working in and responsible for the area of human resource management and 282 employees of the 50+ age category. The results of the inquiries show that these institutions are more or less not dominated by prejudices and the corporate culture is welcoming and friendly to all the employees regardless of their biological age. The satisfaction with the measures carried out in the Czech Republic in association with the 50+ employees was assessed rather negatively. The concept of Work-life balance is supported across the board, not based on the context of the Age Management philosophy.

Everyday people have been experiencing changes in weather and climate. The question is whether we are really on the top of a tendency or we just overstate the weather change because of our heuristic mentality? If the negative tendency of change is adopted we must involve climate friendly technologies in the strategic decision making process of enterprises. On the other hand, the important thing to keep in mind is that the main motor of the strategy is the profit. In case of the latest climate related strategies the problem is the hard quantification of the real profitability because it also depends on external effects. In spite of the classical investment analysis, the costbenefit analysis is able to take into account negative and positive external effects. In case of strategic decision the new technologies or methods are also confronted with resistance. In the strategic decision making process we should calculate with these resistances as well. The aim of this study is to highlight those long-term calculation methods and business models which are able to consider the external effects of projects and examine the real profitability and break-even point in case of bad climate tendency scenarios. This paper presents a new method which includes the cost-benefit analysis and the change equation.

The aim of this study was to examine the factors that determine return on equity (ROE) in the Manufacturing industry in the Czech Republic over a 10-year period of 2005 to 2014. The study combined firm level variables (DuPont model) and macroeconomic variables (Multifactor Arbitrate Pricing Theory - APT) to regress data obtained from Amadeus (Bureau van Dijk) and the World Bank respectively. The results show that profit margin and net asset turnover have a positive and significant effect on ROE. However, financial leverage had a negative and significant impact on ROE. With regard to macroeconomic variables, none of them affected ROE positively. GDP growth and Interest rate impacted negatively on ROE whilst unemployment, inflation and exchange rate do not have any impact on ROE. These results suggest that the firms can improve their ROE by developing cost leadership strategies and increasing sales revenue.

The subject of this research is to reveal the customer's approach towards local food in general and to explore the impact of its labelling on consumer perceptions. The main objective is to find out if an eco-label, a local-label or a bio-label has an impact on consumer behaviour. The following methods were used during the research: eye-tracking technology, in-depth interviews, the A/B testing method, the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test and the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test for testing hypotheses. Data were collected from the eye-tracking device in December 2015 and additionally revised for higher validation. In total, the observation contains 121 respondents (63 participants in the reference group - A, and 58 participants in the control group - B). Participants are defined as being from generation Z. It is assumed that the presence of the label on a product has an effect on consumer behaviour. The experiment itself took place at the eyetracking laboratory of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Mendel University in Brno.

This contribution is focused on the use of the stereoscopic image for the purpose of depth map creation. Further, methods for calibration of the camera(s) are discussed. A stereoscopic head was constructed for the purpose of creating a stereoscopic image. Two Basler acA1600-20uc industrial cameras with Computar M2514-MP2 lenses were used for constructing this head. Furthermore, the algorithm for obtaining the depth map is described. The programming language C# and EmguCV library were used for the implementation of the algorithm. The algorithm consists of 4 parts. The calibration of the camera(s) and image acquisition is solved as first. Calibration of the camera(s) is solved by detection of intersections on the chessboard. Further, methods for the purpose of obtaining the depth map are described. Finally the implemented algorithm is tested.

We analyse the impact of regional and sectoral labour market characteristics as determinants of the supply of employer financed training using a unique data set on employer provided training in Vienna. According to the results labour turnover has a robust negative impact and employment density a slightly less robust but also negative impact on the probability of a firm to provide employer financed training. Policies directed at increasing employer provided training may therefore face substantial challenges in sectors and regions with high labour turnover and employment densities. These challenges are likely to be even larger when it comes to providing employer financed training for less skilled workers.

The paper presents a procedure that helps in revealing topics hidden in large collections of textual documents (such as customer reviews) related to a certain group of products or services. Together with identification of the groups containing the topics the lists of important expressions is presented which helps in understanding what characterizes these aspects most typically from the semantic point of view. The procedure includes determining an appropriate number of groups representing the prevailing topics, partitioning the documents into a desired number of groups using clustering, extracting significant typical features of documents from each group with application of feature selection methods, and evaluating the outcomes with the assistance of a human expert. The results show that the presented approach, consisting mostly of automated steps, is able to separate and characterize the aspects of a certain product as discussed by the customers and be later useful, e.g., for handling customer complaints, designing promotional campaigns, or improving the products.

Crowd investing has recently become an interesting possibility for young entrepreneurs to finance the start-up of new firms. This paper analyses the impact of education and gender of young entrepreneurs who finance their start-ups using a crowd investing platform. We analyse the crowd investing projects financed through the Companisto and Seedmatch platforms, which are the main crowd investing platforms in Germany. The study confirms that the majority of founders of crowd investing start-ups completed a university education. However, we find a surprisingly low-rate of female founders in crowd investing, although the gender structure do not influence the amount of crowd investing. Thus, the crowd investing does not facilitate the access to finance for new groups of entrepreneurs, but it rather facilitates the financing conditions for founders, who could also obtain a credit from the bank.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have become increasingly important in nowadays society as providers of employment opportunities and key players for the well-being of local and regional communities. Access to external funding is one of the largest problem facing SMEs in European Union (EU). Entrepreneurs face difficulties implementing their development plans while creating new businesses, adopting innovation, etc. Scientists also argue that without external funding business cannot achieve good financial performance results. The European Commission (EC) is implementing a number of programs specifically designed to improve the financial environment for SMEs in Europe. Since the financial markets have failed to provide SMEs with the finance they need, the EC has developed and funded various financial instruments. According to the scientists, creating the appropriate conditions for the development of SMEs in each country would possibly reduce the unemployment rate, accelerate country's economic growth, help to overcome social problems, and create competitive environment. Given the current economic situation in the EU countries, the subject's relevance is obvious underlying the importance to assess whether a better access to external funding sources would provide benefits to the countries at micro and macro levels. The main empirical findings of this study confirm the results of early empirical studies that a better access to external funding is an important growth factor for SMEs as well as for the whole economy. The panel regression analysis results suggest that a better access to banks' funding has a positive and statistically significant effect on country's economic growth as well as on SMEs development, however, a better access to equity finance (venture capital, business angels' investment) has no statistically significant effect. While SMEs represent over 99% of businesses in the EU so it is crucial to support their growth and innovation as well as improve the financing environment for small businesses in Europe.

We apply standard Merton and enhanced Merton-D-Vine copula model for the measurement of credit risk on the basis of accounting and stock market data for 4 companies from Prague Stock Exchange, in the midterm horizon of 4 years. Basic Merton structural credit model is based on assumption that firm equity is European option on company assets. Consequently enhanced Merton model take in account market data, dependence between daily returns and its volatility and helps to evaluate and project the credit quality of selected companies, i.e. correlation between assets trajectories through copulas. From our and previous results it is obvious that basic Merton model significantly underestimates actual level, i.e. offers low probabilities of default. Enhanced model support us with higher simulated probability rates which mean that capturing of market risk and transferring it to credit risk estimates is probably a good way or basic step in enhancing Merton methodology.

The article focuses on how milk packaging is perceived by generation Y. The required data were obtained through eye-tracking using the SMI RED 250 device. Additionally an in-depth interview and a short questionnaire were included in the experiment to obtain complementary qualitative data. The research took place during November 2014 in the Eye Tracking Laboratory at Mendel University. In total 110 respondents representing generation Y participated in the experiment. The research analyzed the front of 12 types of milk packaging. The main objective was to determine which package attributes attract the most attention among consumers. The research shows that the most attention is given to the milk brand as well as claims with additional information, such as fat content and quantity. Additionally, the respondents were asked to rank the packaging samples from the best to the worst. Finally the respondents had to decide which of the products they would buy. The results provide valuable insights to create customized, eye-catching packaging for consumers.

Many consumers believe that choices they make result from rational analysis of available alternatives. In reality, however, emotions greatly influence and determine our behaviour and decisionmaking also on the market of products and services. The main aim of this paper is to show the relationship between selected personality traits and emotional consumer behaviour. We used two psychological tests (Eysenck personality questionnaire and author's scale of emotionality) and tested several factors that might have influenced emotional consumer reactions. We found out that two of three tested personality predictors are significant - extroversion and neuroticism. The higher the score that respondents reach in the scales of extroversion and neuroticism was, the more emotional was their behaviour and decision making. In that connection, there are also differences between individual temperaments. Cholerics and melancholics react more emotionally than other two temperaments.

The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of investment incentives on development of regional unemployment in the Czech Republic and with proposal of recommendations related to utilization of investment incentives as an instrument for promoting employment and development of regions as well as for reduction of differences in economic activity of regions. Time series from 1998 to 2014 were used to solve the problem when regional unemployment was chosen as a dependent variable, for which econometric model was created using panel regression and including investment incentives. Results of testing prove that investment incentives have positive and statistically significant influence on regional employment.