The subject of financial system development is widely studied in the finance literature as an indicator of economic growth and a driver of technological innovation supporting the mobilization of capital for growth. However, varying results are obtained when examining developed countries compared to the emerging countries. Developing countries are characterized by a lower investment in innovation, and lower levels of competitiveness in terms of research and development funding, fewer research academic institutions, but also lower incentives for private innovation by enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development indicators and innovation by analyzing data for 15 developing countries within the time frame of 1996-2016. The financial system is analyzed in two main pillars: credit institutions and equity markets. The number of innovation patent applications is the dependent variable of the study, i.e. as an indicator of a country’s innovative performance. The results of the study show that a higher level of crediting by the banking sector will positively affect the number of patent applications. Credit mobilization by other financial intermediaries in the financial system such as equity markets or non-banking institutions show a lower efficiency in boosting innovation activities, resulting in the opposite effects regarding the number of patent applications. Countries with a higher level of education will show more efforts toward innovation and the development of innovative practices. On the other hand, higher competitiveness among companies in terms of technology innovation and processes is expected to boost the demand for funds in the financial system, leading to the improvement in system development.

This paper aims to achieve two targets. First, using balanced panel data from 2008 to 2017 it compares the cost efficiencies between US and Canadian commercial banks to examine whether structural differences in the two countries' banking industries create differences in efficiencies. Since efficiency is a valuable measurement to indicate the ability of an organization to utilize limited resources to produce, in this article we compare the operating competitiveness of these banks. Next, to achieve the first goal, both the Stochastic Frontier Analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis are employed to examine cost efficiencies in order to find new evidence given the mixed results in previous literature. Profit efficiency is also compared with cost efficiency based on a parametric approach. The results regarding cost and profit efficiency conforms to prior studies indicating a relatively low correlation. However, SFA and DEA produce very different and uncorrelated results, though DEA generates overall lower efficiencies, as expected. Thus, the findings suggest that methodology cross-checking along with information regarding variables selection are necessary before decision making. Essentially, there is not enough evidence to conclude that bank efficiencies are different either between the US and Canada, or between large and small banks in US. However, DEA suggests an increasing trend in average efficiencies, as this parameter is not time-adjusted. A more technical exploration of how to reliably measure efficiencies is awaited to make advancements in this area.

The article deals with the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on small-medium companies (SMEs) in the field of e-commerce. As many people today are aware of the exhaustion of resources, ethical codes as well as working standards, CSR has become a strong competitive tool. Additionally, with the global increase in economy, e-commerce users have come to be regarded favourably in terms of environmental friendliness, with e-commerce becoming a popular tool of purchase. However, previous research offers little understanding about the relationship between CSR and e-commerce. To shed some light on this issue, two questionnaire surveys and interviews with seven managers of selected companies were conducted in the Czech Republic. The participants in the first study were e-commerce customers (N = 207), and the second study was aimed at SMEs in e-commerce (N = 63). The research shows that the implementation of CSR may influence sales positively. The findings also indicate that consumers prefer companies with CSR as well as the necessity of good implementation of CSR in the company process by managers. The most discussed issue of CSR by SMEs managers concerned working standards. The research also shows big differences between formal acceptance and certified SMEs for CSR. CSR is not only a competitive advantage but also one of the ways to maintain sustainable corporate development with ethical codes and transparent corporate policy.

The issues of risk management in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been analysed and discussed for a long time. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to concentrate on this field, especially in the Slovak Republic. SMEs are very sensitive to changes in the business environment which are always reflected in the quantitative characteristics of this sector in a certain time interval. According to various global surveys and studies, risk management represents a significant contribution to the increasing competitiveness of enterprises in changes of the business environment. The aim of this paper is to statistically assess the dependence of perceived key business risks of SMEs on their size in Slovakia based on own empirical research carried out in 2017. The contribution also includes an assessment of key risk sources and an evaluation of the survey results compared to the results of surveys taken last year. Based on the results, market, financial, economic and personnel risks comprise the four most important risks that negatively affect the business environment of SMEs. Dependence perceived by the SME entrepreneurs was found among market factors, personnel risks, and business size. No dependence was found among the financial, economic and business risks. The overall results of the empirical research point to the need and importance of addressing the assessment of key risks and their resources in SMEs in Slovakia. The goal of the paper is to highlight through a relevant study the need to apply risk management in the SMEs and to bring the results of the research in Slovakia closer to world trends.

This article deals with intellectual property (IP) boxes as an important factor in tax competition and tax planning. IP payments are used for profit shifting within a group of companies to lower their tax burden. One of the latest important developments in the use of IP boxes is the changing attitude of the OECD and its nexus approach, the application of which influences taxation within an IP box, especially the treatment of expenditures. This paper focuses on the situation regarding IP boxes after the implementation of the modified nexus approach, with an emphasis on changing the tax burden. These changes affect tax planning, thus managers need to know how they affect the overall tax burden of a company's investments. As a measure of these changes, the effective average tax rate (EATR) was selected. This study concentrates on three countries which have applied this approach: Hungary, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The results indicate that there is a new dependence after the application of the modified nexus approach: the structure of IP expenditures. The implementation of nexus approach makes the statutory income tax rate important also for IP income, and it causes a higher tax burden on IP income in the case of a small share of IP qualifying expenditures. A significant importance of the statutory corporate tax rate for the taxation of IP income is shown by changes in EATRs related to IP income after a reduction in corporate tax rates in Hungary and in the United Kingdom in 2017.

From the EU perspective, the Western Balkans region is considered to be an important sphere of interest with the prospect of stepwise EU accession. This is evidenced by establishing a specific accession process for these countries, including an option of granting the status of potential candidate. The progress, particularly concerning the economic preparedness and competitiveness of the Western Balkan countries, is uneven. This paper compares the readiness of particular Western Balkan countries for EU membership on the basis of accession progress assessment, as well as on the basis of international economic position assessment. Taking into account official progress reports published by the European Commission providing a comprehensive assessment of the EU membership criteria, we broaden the perspective of the economic progress assessment by employing the assessment of the international economic positions of the Western Balkan countries based on multifactor indicators. For this purpose, we developed our own composite index of international involvement. We then compared the assessment based on our own index with assessments based on both the Global Competitiveness Index and the Index of Economic Freedom. Based on our findings, the best international economic positions among the Western Balkan countries belong to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Montenegro. Therefore, it may be concluded that accession progress is accompanied by an adequate fit of these economies represented by their international economic position. Contrary to that, Serbia belongs among the worst assessed Western Balkan countries despite its advanced accession progress.

The devastating Japan earthquake (magnitude 9.0) and tsunami (39-metre high) of 2011, also called the Great Tohoku or Sendai earthquake, was a record-breaker natural disaster causing enormous damage and a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima nuclear power plant. This paper attempts to analyse the long and short run effects of this record-breaking natural disaster on the Japanese equity, debt and FX markets as well as Gold as one of the most popular metals and investment options, using daily data. A variance bound test proposed by The results seem to indicate that the natural disaster influenced the efficiency of the market in the immediate terms more than the long term. In a global financial market where the key is competitiveness, it is essential to analyse the efficiency and therefore stability of the Japanese financial market. Therefore, analysing the impact of the natural disaster on the competitiveness of the Japanese financial market.

At present, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are experiencing favourable economic conditions. The socio-economic development in regions in the country except a new created product is also affected by labour market factors, employment and average salary. This paper assesses and compares the development trends in employment and average wages in the regions of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and defines development differences over a selected time period: 2007-2016. We used statistical indicators to monitor the observed phenomenon variability by means of setting the minimum, maximum and average variation ranges and coefficients. To set a position, from descriptive characteristics a simple arithmetic mean was used. From the results of the analyses, it can be seen that significant regional differences exist in the Czech and Slovak labour markets due to different primary potentials, different possibilities of development, economic structures, demographic differences and levels of infrastructure. The situation in the Czech labour market is better than in Slovakia, and the differences among regions are smaller in the Czech Republic. For the particular regions, we chose territorial units at the NUTS III level.

This article focuses on one of the most currentlydiscussed topics, the ageing population. Population aging can be discussed from different perspectives, exploring various challenges associated with it. The authors examined marketing communications from the point of view of a target group, over age 55. The main objective of this study was to find out which marketing communication tools those over age 55 prefer, including selected aspects of printed advertising. At the same time, it was examined whether there is a different gender perspective on this issue. To find out answers to the main question of this study, we conducted quantitative research by using a questionnaire survey among the population over age 55 living in the Czech Republic (Zln Region). The results of this study were compared with the results of a previous study conducted in 2014, focusing on the marketing communication tools targeted at the 55+ group from the point of view of companies.

The purpose of this paper is to present the influence of the management to the SMEs in the markets facing problems of economy consolidation. This paper seeks to explore how a particular manufacturing SME in Kosovo organizes its processes on the daily basis and the challenges that currently faces in a fragile competition. This research embraces a qualitative single case study methodology in the context of manufacturing SMEs. The data collection comprises fourteen interviews. We also conducted observation within the organization supplemented by analysing different documents in order to have triangulation that could increase validity and reliability.