Suchergebnisse

This paper investigates the complex relationship between direct public support for innovation projects, being continuous innovator, and turnover growth, with a particular emphasis on the possibility of a Peltzman effect. The quantitative analysis investigates whether companies incentivized by direct subsidies prefer safer projects over riskier, groundbreaking innovations, using the 2014 Czech innovation dataset and an extensive literature review. The findings show a link between firms that receive public funding and those that engage in continuous or occasional innovation activities. However, the impact on turnover growth is not positive, implying that, on average, public subsidies do not significantly contribute to turnover growth. Concerns are raised in the study about potential market distortions, inefficient resource allocation, and the dynamics of collaboration among large firms in publicly funded projects. While acknowledging the models' exploratory nature, the study emphasizes the importance of ongoing scrutiny and refinement of innovation policies to ensure their effectiveness in promoting genuine innovation while mitigating unintended consequences.

This paper analyzes the rapid onset of Robotic process automation (RPA) technologies in the Czech financial sector between 2015-2020. The development and experience from the "hype-and-fear" phase contributed to
business process integration and technological spillovers are expected in the future. If ICT capabilities are the source of performance differences, then most likely candidates are inventory and finances business process integration and implemented Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management systems. The RPA should not be seen only as simple automation but as a complex instrument offering a lot of advantages with a focus on benefits for internal and external stakeholders.

PURPOSE. The goal is to qualitatively analyze the experience with RPA implementation and quantitatively assess ICT capabilities via analysis of differences between various organizational ICT activities and types of companies in the Czech financial sector.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH. The qualitative case study was performed in
the bank ČSOB, a.s. in 2019, respondents, owners of processes in the final part of automation, were chosen randomly from different departments of the bank. Data for the quantitative part comes from the ICT survey (Czech Statistical Office), business performance dataset (EMIS) and a case study about ICT capability implementation. Differences
are assessed and indirectly interpreted using goodness-of-fit approach.

FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS. The results from the RPA case study revealed that the Czech financial sector is past the "hype and fear" phase and many companies focused on their return on investment and are beginning to focus more on other stakeholders. According to this development, the requirements and outputs are suggested in the phases of RPA implementation. The possible source of rofitability performance differences are integrated business processes.

LIMITATIONS. Financial sector data are anonymized in ICT surveys and the
measurement of the competitive advantage of ICT capabilities is only indirect. Qualitative approach is suggested with focus on technological efficiency measurement using data envelopment approach.

ORIGINALITY. This paper provides an understanding of the strong experience in RPA in Czech financial sector. Certain initial setbacks in
RPA are expected and this paper suggest to focus on knowledge management (lessons learned) and other requirements influencing the successful RPA prototyping and implementation process.

Abstract
The paper deals with the state of the social sciences after the boom of internet services in the Czech Republic in the 1990s. The results of our survey, based on 512 responses from the economics and history departments of major Czech public universities, show that internet services are considered a quality factor for academic output; however, the issues of plagiarism, a lack of resource criticism, inadequacy of impact factor-based evaluations, poor academic training for the new generation of social scientists, the failure of state academic policy, and the generation gap make further development in the Czech social sciences rather problematic. As a result we recommend creating a better communication link between policy makers and scholars, reforming the current state policy which encourages lower quality academic output, and improving academic training, which requires a more individual approach, and also placing higher demands on social scientists.

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze awarded scientific degrees at the University of Economics, Prague (EUP) in the fifties of 20th century. Methodological approaches of economic, social, cultural and political history, economics and statistics were pursued and required in this study. An interdisciplinary approach that enabled further determination of factors will serve as the approach for all subsequent research of the UEP position in science in the fifties of the 20th century. Yet untapped primary sources from UEP Scientific Council Meetings were used, also published sources, newspapers, etc. We came to the conclusion that UEP failed to significantly increase the number of professors and associate professors in the first seven years of its existence. The reasons behind were: 1) Policy of the Communist leadership that followed cadre policies which frustrated many personalities and prevented them a chance to work for universities. 2) Only highly politically reliable teachers were awarded. 3) Bureaucratic apparatus rigidity and poor flexibility of the Ministry of Education and the State Committee for Scientific Degrees. 4) Ongoing continual changes in laws and regulations. 5) Lack of experienced teachers who had also been overwhelmed with paperwork and various out of university activities so they had little time to immerse in intense research activity. Analysis showed that some of the preferred fields after 1948 such as political economy were not preferred at the expense of others. Adapted from the source document.

This paper focuses on the analysis of the relationship between business cycles and innovative activity in a small open economy. Small economies benefit from imports of foreign technologies through international trade and foreign investments and are subjects to significant exogenous shocks that impact their business cycle. The economic analysis is based on the demand and supply theories of innovation and economic fluctuations. Hypotheses about long term and short term (Granger) effects are tested on Austrian historical data (1852-1979) about the economic output (gross domestic product and industry production) and innovation output (granted patents). The econometric analysis utilizes vector error correction procedure to estimate time-series models of the economy. The results are interpreted in Austrian historical context. The economic-historical analysis suggests that there is no long-term relationship between business cycles and innovative activity between 1852 and 1937. The long-term relationship manifested only between 1948 and 1979. This relationship is very complex and influenced by the historical context, and it is not easy to grasp by the econometric analysis. In the short run, there is no compelling evidence trough-out the analyzed time period (1852-1979). However, we cannot fully reject the hypothesis suggesting a relationship between economic cycles and innovative activities. In the most recent period (1948-1979), we can observe a negative impact (Granger causality) of granted patents on the real GDP. Future research taking into account more countries using parametric as well as non-parametric approach could shed some light on the demand hypothesis in the pre-war and post-war development of small open economies. This paper showed that there is a long-term equilibrium between economic output and innovation activity. This result suggests that long term factors such as political stability are behind the complex relationship.

The report summarizes the conditions of the small and medium size enterprises (SME) sector in Georgia, identiies main problems in their development and provides recommendations for further interventions based on the Czech experience, research of existing literature and own survey among SME stakeholders in Georgia. Georgia is a small open economy. Its structure has been changing during last decade dramatically what provides opportunities for start-up companies. The revealed comparative advantage is in mineral waters, nuts and wine, but the opportunity to export also encompass metals, electricity, chemicals, stone, glass and clothing. One of the fast growing industries is tourism. Exports have increased over the period, although Georgia remains to be a net importer. Geogia attracts relatively large amount of foreign direct investment (FDI), large share of FDI in lowed from the European Union (EU) countries. Georgia receives favourable evaluations of its business environment. It ranks high in indices of economic freedom and it is among the top countries with respect to ease of starting and doing business. [.]