A country’s competitiveness depends primarily on its economic development which in turn is affected by a number of factors. Some of these, such as investment, favorable business conditions, legal environment, etc., promote economic development, while others, such as low labor productivity, insufficient staff qualification that fails to meet the requirements of the labor market, etc., slow down the pace of economic development. The latter category describes the phenomenon of the shadow economy (SE). Research into shadow economies is dominated by the analysis of the local impact factors. Nevertheless, the results of such analyses do not reveal the general patterns of the shadow economy, without the knowledge of which it is difficult to develop effective preventive measures. The basic determinants of the shadow economy must first and foremost reflect national economic development, as these particular determinants have the most significant impact on the size of the phenomenon of the shadow economy. National economic development can be expressed by employing various indicators, but recently it has most commonly been expressed by GDP per capita. GDP reflects national competitiveness, integrates a number of domestic factors, and is easily accessible and publicly available in national and international statistical sources. In addition, this indicator is calculated by employing a unified methodology, which makes it universal, allowing the comparison of countries in different situations. As presented in this article, the analysis of the relationship between economic development and the size of the shadow economy allows the division of all the EU member states into characteristic groups by the level of their economic development as well as size of the country’s SE. Our research attempts to reveal the regularity of the above-mentioned relationship: the higher the level of national economic development, the lower the size of the shadow economy.

In terms of competition, manufacturing companies are focusing more and more on employee performance as well as motivation, the latter of which seems to be a prerequisite for the long-term performance of employees and thus the sustainable success of the company. Managerial decision-making, another phenomenon gaining scientific attention, can be considered a challenging function and the most important activity of a manager. But what is the impact of managerial decision-making on the motivation of employees? Can managerial decision-making influence employee motivation? The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of managerial decision-making on the motivation of employees in manufacturing companies. As the main method of data acquisition, a questionnaire survey among employees was conducted. For further processing and evaluation of the survey results, a contingency table and Chi-square test were used, followed by Student's T-test and F-test for calculating testability and verifying hypotheses. The results brought answers to the questions regarding the relationship between managerial decision-making and motivation of employees in the selected production companies. Factors and benefits affecting the motivation of employees and leading to their higher work performance was also determined, as well as to what extent a manager is able to influence performance.

The paper presents the results of an international research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) conducted in post-transitional countries in Europe. The aim was to investigate the recognition level of the efforts in companies toward CSR activities by employees and their influence on perception and identification with those activities. It was expected that employees with a higher level of CSR awareness would show a greater level of loyalty and identification with the company and, therefore, perform their activities better. A number of significant issues were investigated, i.e. the purpose of CSR implementation, CSR activities in companies, barriers for CSR implementation, employee loyalty, and the performance of companies, along with how these factors are interconnected. CSR was accessed from the point of view of employees through a questionnaire, after which the proposed conceptual model and hypothesis were tested using SEM methodology. The results point out that a clearly defined purpose of implementing CSR can contribute positively to appropriate CSR activities and overcoming the barriers that can occur during implementation. In addition, statistical evidence was gathered showing that CSR activities significantly influence employee loyalty, thus more commitment from employees to the company. Finally, the findings indicate that the greater the loyalty of employees, the greater the performance and competitiveness of the company. The presented results can be very significant for decision-makers and researchers, as they highlight the specificity of CSR and can be used for creating appropriate business strategies that introduce and implement CSR in business operations in order to increase competitiveness and overall company results.

The competitiveness of a particular national economy and its business environment is critical for the country's economic, political and societal development. Competitiveness can be analyzed using a diapason of single-and multi-factor competitiveness indicators that contribute to quantification as well as and the analysis of internal and external competitiveness determinants. Suitable levels of competitiveness measurements and analyses, be they in terms of a company or a nation, are a matter of continuous debates. The authors of this paper have used econometric equations (models) in order to quantify and qualify the impact of the institutional environment, a factor represented both by the quality of governmental and regulatory measures as well as the corruption perception index. Institutional environment impact was measured in terms of export performance, as this metric represents one of the most important single-factor indicators of competitiveness. For the purposes of our research, the precise quantification of exogenous variables was not a necessity; rather we evaluated the assessment of strength and direction of relations between endogenous and exogenous variables. Our assumption was grounded in the notion that a higher quality of institutional environment is characterized by a higher level of competitiveness and lower transaction costs based on the belief that export performance is a reliable measure of competitiveness. Our research demonstrated, however, that the export performance is not a universal indicator of competitiveness, a finding that signals the need to apply other indicators, most notably, multi-factor ones.

This article aims to define and analyze important factors of the introduction of a local currency. The research was carried out in the Cieszyn Silesia region. A questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the employees of both public and private companies in the region and filled in by 422 respondents. Advanced data analysis methods were used to evaluate the questionnaire: contingency tables, absolute and relative species abundance, the Pearson's chi-squared test, along with a standard score (Z-score). Respondents' attitudes towards introducing the local currency led to some interesting results. Most respondents know the term "local currency," but only one third of them are able to interpret this term correctly. 65% of the respondents are familiar with the term "digital currency," but only 11% of them have trust in the concept. According to the received answers, the credibility of digital currency can be increased by it being ensured by trustworthy subjects. Three out of four respondents predict that the introduction of digital currency would significantly support regional producers and service providers. These results are used as the information base for assessments regarding the types of employee benefits on offer by major employers in the region along with cooperating institutions of the public non-profit sector, as well as for an academic discussion on the suitability of the local currency in the Czech Republic and its impact.

Certain risks associated with particular human activities cannot be eliminated, with commercial risks representing factors of business success or failure. In the current turbulent environment, proper risk assessment and management is of utmost importance in maintaining competitiveness. The aim of this paper is to present the output of our research which focused on the assessment of commercial risk faced by exporters to China, specifically, determining the probabilities for commercial risk model management. Along with this, the cultural context of the Chinese market influencing risk size are explored, particularly the concepts of tan-wej, kuan-si, li-ie and mien-c', the effect of which was confirmed by our exporter survey. The research focused on Czech companies exporting goods and technologies to China. The study involves manufacturing enterprises (section C, CZ-NACE Rev. 2) as well as, more specifically, medium and large scale engineering, along with chemical and electrical power companies. Firms exporting common consumer goods, raw materials and recyclables were excluded from the study. The data were obtained from controlled interviews with company representatives (with 58 percent of the exporters participating in a 2013 research) and from Justice.cz (2016) which published economic results of all exporters registered in 2015. The study outcomes were further reviewed in 2016-2017 using follow-up interviews and literature reviews. In collecting the primary data and verifying research outcomes, semi-structured and structured interviews were conducted, following which methods of descriptive statistics and statistical dependence analysis were applied. The findings allow for the construction of a commercial risk assessment model for export to China, involving relative risk costs.

Franklin Templeton Investments is a worldwide asset management company that provides services to clients in more than 170 countries. Unlike investment funds, mutual funds do not have legal personality, therefore they are merely baskets that associate assets. High past equity returns are not a guarantee of future earnings. Individual funds are often praised for the positive results they have achieved in the past, but even experienced portfolio managers cannot guarantee future returns despite their past successes in the market. The main purpose of this paper is to compare the competitiveness of Franklin Templeton fund managers. Among the time-tested indicators and suitable markers for our research on the validation of an active mutual fund with its benchmark index, the information ratio and sharp ratio have been included in the present study. Recent studies suggest that fund managers cannot achieve better results than those set in their benchmark. Managers do not utilize a simple set-up with a given portfolio, and thus their competitiveness would seem to compare unfavorably to results achieved by so-called passive investment. It can be noted that over the course of 15 years, the longest single time period that was analyzed, out of 22 equity funds, only four sets of results exceeded the benchmark. However, if regular fees are also taken into consideration to reflect more pragmatically the benefits for the investor, none of the funds analyzed in the present study failed to overcome the set benchmark during this period.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the peculiarities of the financial behavior of households as one of the main factors of country competitiveness. The authors undertook to fulfill this aim by dividing household expenditures into fixed and variable elements, and investigating each element separately. The analysis is based on data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and encompasses the period of 2001-2017. A chi-square test was used to test the selected data. A high propensity of households to consume stimulates a greater internal market size within a country, a correlation which is also an important indicator of competitiveness in Ukraine, where a high proportion of savings of household income is typical. The situation in Ukraine shows a great positive impact of savings to the development of the local financial market. Ukrainian households tend to accumulate savings with the intent of creating a financial safety net for themselves in anticipation of future economic downturns. As is the case in many Central and Eastern European countries, Ukrainian households hold most of their savings in foreign currency and bank deposits. This allocation has proven itself to be resilient to changes in the expected returns of the assets in question. The marginal propensity of Ukrainian households to purchase non-financial assets is small, but relatively stable. The internal crisis in 2014-2016 triggered substantial changes in the financial behavior of Ukrainian households. The post crisis period of 2017 has not yet significantly changed the financial behavior of Ukrainian households. As in the past, today households keep a great deal of cash outside the banking system, with the largest share of the non-financial assets of households held in foreign currency.

In the conditions of market economy all business entities, which can be viewed as socio-economic systems (SES), must be competitive. This also applies to the regions in the country. From the regions competitiveness depends effective solving of a whole range of social problems: jobs, social welfare, crime, migration and etc., in turn country region's competitiveness depends on how it is adjusted its economic, social and ecological development. It's important because it could be that some of the development components are developing at other component's expenses. For example, economic development could be at social and ecological expenses. This would prevent the creation of the necessary living conditions not only today, but also for future generations.