L25 - Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and ScopeReturn

The issue of social responsibility is one of the most discussed contemporary topics. It is closely related to the financial management of the company. The social area is one of the three main topics integrated in the concept of corporate social responsibility. In addition to the social interactions of the company and its surroundings, there is also included a wide range of internal relations. The largest group within the rage of internal relations consists of employees. Employees' satisfaction, loyalty, fluctuation, sick leave of employees, as well as accident rate has a direct impact on labour productivity. This has a direct impact on the economic performance of the company. In the Czech Republic, the highest number of accidents and the highest number of fatalities are in the construction industry. The summary of duties related to the occupational health and safety of workers at workplace, given the acronym OHS, is based on legislative regulations. OHS is regulated primarily by the Labour Code and Law. 309/2006 Sb. The standard for occupational health and safety management systems is currently OHSAS 18001. When a company is certified, it is demonstrating an occupational health and safety management at high level and its continuous improvement. This article deals with the measurement of economic performance of enterprises in connection with the implementation of OHSAS certificate 18001. Economic performance is represented by return on equity and based on data obtained from financial statements. Performance measurement is used on 50 enterprises operating in the construction sector in the Czech Republic. The impact of the implementation of the OHSAS certificate on economic performance is quantified mainly by comparison methods and correlation analysis.

This investigation of small and medium sized enterprises is based on receiving and evaluating 185 questionnaires reflecting the situation in 2010. Data from questionnaires were evaluated in three different ways: 1) as average values of the whole group. 2) Later, they were sorted according to the number of employees (1-9; 10-24; 25-49; 50-249) and 3) according to six different specialisations. The planning activity is most developed in enterprises with 50-249 employees, where on average 2.6 different plans are used, however, in the category with 10-24 employees only 1.6 plans are made. The same tendency concerns process maps, which are constructed first of all in enterprises with 50-249 employees (67.2 %),whereas, in the category of 10-24 employees this is only 21.7 %. A part of this investigation was focused on four main processes: Marketing, Human relations, Production and Finance. The best evaluation was in respect of Finance, followed by Production, Human relations and Marketing. Detailed analysis was carried out for the process connected with Production. Besides this, the analysis also concerned outsourcing [most outsourced activities were accountancy (24.9 %), maintenance (23.2 %) and transport (26.5 %). As the most competitive advantage there was mentioned assortment (37.8 %), flexibility (21.6 %) and quality of work (35.7 %). The enterprises are worried the most about client's insolvency (39.5 %) and policy of the government (20.5 %).

Small and medium sized enterprises were investigated by means of university students who helped managers to fulfill 185 questionnaires. Questionnaires were sorted according to the size of firms into 4 groups [1-9, 10-24, 25-49, 50-249 employees] and according to the branches [Industrial production, Building firms, Woodwork, Food processing firms, Retail business, Services including transportation]. The main indicators concern the size of firms, number of employees, productivity, legal form, number of managers, form of production, foreign country activities and strategy of enterprises. Interesting results were received especially in classification according to branches, where firms in Engineering production and Services substantially differ from others. Classification according to the size showed better results in enterprises with more employees. Enterprises should take these differences into account when applying new methods of organization and management.