M21 - Business EconomicsReturn

Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain can be defined as Eurozone periphery countries due to their specifics being rooted in policy systems and lagging behind in economic performance when compared with EU-15 countries. The objective of this paper is to provide an initial exploration of the similar and dissimilar business aspects' development within observed Greek and Irish entities' economic performance in different industries, using two-dimensional visualisation in the context of the recent world financial and economic crisis. This visualisation approach using classical correspondence analysis helps to reveal broader associations, which could influence the economic status of observed business units. Greek and Irish businesses which have been considered to be specifically, strongly and negatively influenced by the world economic downturn were observed. A sample of companies' corporate financial statements' data were employed. The sample of entities was set up according to the criterion of profitability of the whole involved capital development, regardless of its nature during the time period of the years 2008 - 2010, i. e. according to either the continual increase or decrease of the aforementioned indicator. Consequently, there were explored other attributes of assorted businesses, namely economic size and industry classification as the components for cross-tabular data sets. Authors revealed associations among different industries and size categories of Greek and Irish businesses using classical correspondence analysis.

This paper deals with quality management using ISO 9001 certificate and other similar certificates and with Costs of Quality. Numerous studies claim that quality management increases a company's performance, mainly measured by operational indicators. The paper aims to find out if there is also a relationship between implementing these tools in a company and higher financial results. An analysis was carried out on a sample of 548 medium-sized and large companies based in the Czech Republic, by way of an extensive questionnaire survey. Financial performance was measured by means of the return on assets indicator between the years 2005-2011. The findings proved that ISO 9001 and other certificates are quite widespread. Costs of Quality, however, are of little interest to companies. Better financial performance in companies which aim at quality management has not been confirmed.

The paper focuses on the issue of evaluating the performance of clusters. Given the fact that this phenomenon is in the Czech Republic is still somewhat new, it is necessary to pay attention. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a case study on the use of selected method for evaluating the performance of clusters. This study was prepared for the Czech Stone Cluster using the method of multidimensional evaluation of clusters and cluster initiatives. Viewed area is extended to evaluate the level of social capital in the cluster, which is seen as a fundamental factor affecting the efficiency and long-term functioning of the cluster, and in the wider regional context.

This paper presents some results of research carried out in 2011. The research was focused on the relationship of small organizations to crises prevention. The aim was to determine the extent to which small organizations prepare for crisis. The result of presented part of research is identification of two crisis prevention strategies. The first strategy is focused on creating and updating a crisis plan and crisis team. The second one is based on appropriate behaviour to employees and surroundings so that the organizations build up their loyalty. Preparation for the crisis is most complicated by financing gap, which could be expected in small organizations and also managers declared a lack of time to prevention entertain. By the statistically processed data obtained by empirical research, the authors came to the conclusion that, although many small organizations know their weaknesses and external threats and trying to take precautionary measures, the preparing for a potential crisis still does not become a normal part of managerial work and it is not appreciated as a feature of competitiveness. The correlation analysis and factor analysis statistical tools were used for the research.