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Differences between determinants of men and women monthly wages across fourteen European Union states
Research background: There is a broad discussion in the literature on the situation of men and women in the labour market, especially about the differences in their remuneration. Due to the fact that females constitute a slightly different group of employees, certain factors have different impacts on the level of their remuneration in comparison to male employees. Hence, the question arises which factors cause these differences and how large the dissimilarities are.
Purpose of the article: The aim of the presented study is to diagnose and evaluate differences in the impact of designated determinants on the level of monthly wages of women and men in selected European Union member states. The novelty of our approach consists in both comparison of the intensity of influence examined factors to men?s and women?s earnings, and a global approach to the remuneration of male and female employees.
Methods: Due to the nature of the dependent variable (remuneration decile, which is a variable measured on an ordinal scale), the ordered logit model is applied in the analysis. The data comes from the Eurostat?s Labour Force Survey.
Findings & value added: Presented results indicate that many factors have significantly different intensity of impact on the level of men and women wages. However, significant differences between parameters estimated for both genders are visible for the group of family variables the most often, then for variables describing the condition of work, the human capital variables, and characteristics of the workplace. This paper adds to the empirical literature a new approach to measure the intensity of factors influencing men and women wages. In addition, our investigation is a cross-country analysis
Determinants of board diversity policy implementation by companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange
Research background: Diversity management is one of the hot topic issues present in current public discussions. Board diversity requirements are quite new for Polish public companies. The companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange have to publish a statement on the company\u27s compliance with the corporate governance recommendations and principles included in ?Best Practice for GPW Listed Companies 2016?. This regulation is based on the \u27comply or explain? principle, thus the company may decide whether to comply with every rule included in the code, but decision on not implementing one or more rules should be explained by the company. Some of the recommended rules regard the board (supervisory and management) diversity policy implementation, where diversity refers to such dimensions as gender, education, age and professional experience.
Purpose of the article: This study aims to investigate determinants of board diversity policy implementation by domestic companies listed on the WSE. It also documents explanations provided by companies that do not apply board diversity policy.
Methods: The research sample covers 268 non-financial domestic companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange between 2016 and 30 November 2018. The companies? current reports on company compliance with the corporate governance codes and information issued on companies? websites were analyzed in order to identify those that announced implementation of board diversity policy. This study uses logistic regression analysis to identify the firm-level characteristics that may influence the implementation of board diversity policy.
Findings & value added: This is the first study analyzing the drivers of board diversity policy implementation by Polish companies listed on the WSE. It shows that large companies, companies with larger management boards and companies with women acting as presidents of the supervisory boards are more likely to take actions seeking to achieve management and supervisory board diversity
Distinctive determinants of financial indebtedness: evidence from Slovak and Czech enterprises
Research background: Indebtedness indicators are used to monitor the structure of corporate financial resources. The company\u27s share of its own and foreign resources affects the financial stability of the company. A high share of own re-sources makes the company stable, and independent. With a low share, on the contrary, the company is unstable, market fluctuations and credit uncertainty can have serious consequences. However, foreign capital is cheaper, and too high indebtedness ratios can jeopardize the existence of enterprises.
Purpose of the article: In general, the economic recession worsens the capital structure of enterprises, especially their debt management. Thus, the paper aims to apply the set of 13 indebtedness ratios to a sample of 779 Slovak and Czech enterprises from the construction sector to determine key microeconomic determinants that may influence the level of indebtedness.
Methods: A non-parametric one-way analysis of variance ? the Kruskal-Wallis test ? was used to determine whether the set of indebtedness ratios is the same across countries, districts, and sizes. For analyzing the specific sample pair of stochastic dominance, the pairwise comparison was realized using the Dunn\u27stest with Bonferonni correction. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the differences in the set of indebtedness ratios between two independent groups of enterprises, based on their legal form and country.
Findings & value added: The level of total indebtedness ratio and the self-financing ratio depends on the region as well as on the size of the enterprise and the legal form. In the case of credit indebtedness and debt-to-cash-flow indebted-ness, their dependence on the size of the enterprise and the legal form is obvious. The importance of the region and the legal form of enterprises, vice versa, affect the level of the financial independence ratio. These outputs are relevant for au-thorities, policy makers, or financial institutions to identify financial constraints that construction enterprises face and, as a result, make a long-term contribution to theory in this field
The role of financial constraint factors in predicting SME default
Research background: SMEs face financial constraints in their development, which limits their access to external funds, tightens their investment possibilities, and limits their growth. Much research effort has been devoted to understanding the nature and sources of this phenomenon. In sharp contrast to this, very little has been said about the role of these factors in explaining the default probability of these types of enterprises. Understanding such interrelationships could help to adopt policies to alleviate the situation of constrained SMEs and lower their default rates.
Purpose of the article: This study analyses the role of financial constraint factors in SME defaults. This is done by utilising the financial constraint factors in a newly derived default prediction model. A comparison of the derived model and other SME default prediction models is carried out to assess the potential of financial constraints in the discrimination power of the model.
Methods: In this study, we use the Cox semiparametric model, while leaving the baseline hazard rate unspecified and employing macroeconomic variables as explanatory variables. The discrimination power was addressed in terms of the area under the curve (AUC), resulting in out-of-sample testing. The DeLong test was used to compare the AUC of the created and analysed models. The model was estimated on a set of over 213,731 SMEs from 28 counties, covering the period 2014?2019.
Findings & value added: It was found that adopting the financial constraint measures can explain the default of small and medium enterprises with high accuracy; however, they do not explain the default of micro enterprises
Ecological and economic multicriteria optimization of operating alternative propulsion vehicles within the city of Ostrava in the Czech Republic
Research background: Individual car transport significantly burdens the environment, especially in the centres of large cities. There is pollution, traffic jams and an increase in overall noise. In the area of passenger car transport, legislation is being significantly tightened. Therefore, there are also increasing demands on public transport operators in the Czech Republic. Previously, most of the fleet consisted of diesel vehicles. These have been gradually replaced by drives that are significantly more environmentally friendly, such as the Compressed natural gas drive. The requirements defined in relation to the reduction of vehicle emissions are increasingly stricter. A number of cities, not only within the European Union, are addressing significant issues concerning the future of public transport.
Purpose of the article: The main objective of the article is to demonstrate an in-depth analysis of the operation of transport vehicles in the Statutory City of Ostrava, both from the cost and environmental point of view. The comparison of transport means using CNG, electric and diesel propulsion is made. Specific factors such as the route profile or the environmental impact of the mode of transport are also taken into account. The extent of the data processed and the multidimensional nature of the assessment offer a unique analysis of the problem. The article provides an exact view of the advantages and disadvantages of operating specific means of transport. Everything is based on data on transport operations in the city of Ostrava (the Czech Republic, EU).
Methods: The comprehensive evaluation is based on the application of methods from the field of financial accounting, evaluation of measured data from the operation of transport means and, last but not least, on the analysis of empirical data from the given area. The analysed data set is unique due to the time period, as is the multi-criteria evaluation methodology.
Findings & value added: The analysis performed demonstrated the economic viability of operating CNG vehicles. The main added value of the article is the unique multi-criteria evaluation procedure for the vehicles. The paper shows the evaluation of a complex decision problem in the transport field in the form of a case study implemented in the city of Ostrava. The evaluation results then consider both cost and environmental factors, which can be described as a comprehensive and highly innovative approach. The defined assessment can then be applied to other European and world metropolises
Is internationalisation beneficial for novice internationalisers? The performance effects of firm-specific advantages, internationalisation degree and firm size revisited
Research background: Research on the performance outcomes of different forms of internationalisation has attracted significant attention due to its theoretical and practical relevance. Still, the related findings have remained conflicting. Scholars have argued that companies need to possess or acquire firm-specific advantages (FSAs) to succeed internationalisation. However, a significant part of International Business (IB) research has treated FSAs as enablers of internationalisation, while some have argued that internationalisation in itself only helps firms translate the possessed resources into performance.
Purpose of the article: The objective of this study, which is based on the resource-based view (RBV), is to explore the moderating effect of internationalisation on the relationship between FSAs and performance, considering internationalisation degree and firm size as boundary conditions for that relationship.
Methods: We carry out statistical analyses on a longitudinal dataset containing 304 novice internationalisers from the post-transition economy of Poland and a total of 1167 firm-year observations. Thereby, we compare SMEs with large firms.
Findings & value added: We find that while FSAs do positively affect firm performance, this relationship becomes weaker for higher levels of internationalisation. However, the negative moderating effect of the internationalisation degree becomes weaker for larger novice internationalisers, which are more able to handle the complexity of managing foreign operations
Fostering Czech firms? innovation performance through efficient cooperation
Research background: The business climate development and the stage of innovation systems? transformation are very similar in many Central and Eastern European countries, making it necessary to study these specific economies. These economies are at a different level of transformation, and their governments are trying to support the development of a knowledge-based economy, the creation of innovation systems, and collaboration among different types of entities. These governments need feedback in the form of research into the impacts of public funding on innovation activities through the influence of basic research and cooperation-based resources in individual countries.
Purpose of the article: This paper focuses on the examination of (i) the influence of national and European subsidies on innovation performance in manufacturing firms in the Czech Republic and (ii) impacts of knowledge- and cooperation-based resources on innovation activities in Czech manufacturing.
Methods: The latest available data from the Community Innovation Survey was used for analyses realized by different regression models. The proposed research models were gradually created to verify the influence of pro-innovation factors (expenditures on in-house and external R&D and on the acquisition of external tangible and intangible sources, cooperation with different partners and innovation) and public (national and/or European) funding of firms? innovation performance within the Czech manufacturing industry.
Findings and value added: The results have showed that there is a need to focus on direct and indirect effects of selected innovation determinants; we have also identified the crucial role of cooperation (specifically with government, public, or private research institutes) as a mediating variable within innovation processes. The results have also evidenced that public funding affects the efficiency of knowledge- and cooperation-based resources and amplifies the impact on firms? innovation performance differently. Whereas subsidies from national budgets do not significantly influence the innovation performance of Czech manufacturing firms, European subsidies, on the other hand, significantly increase firms? innovation performance. A long-term contribution of this paper is the significant completion of the theory of policy implications that may be applicable in a broad international context beyond the borders of the Czech Republic. This study significantly contributes to the ongoing discussion about (i) the significance of public financial subsidies from both national and European funds and (ii) the effects of cooperation and R&D on firms? innovation performance within ?catching-up? in Central and Eastern Europe. 
Development of small and medium-sized enterprises sector and the use of European Union structural funds in the Radom subregion
The aim of the chapter was to analyze the use of European Union structural funds by the sector of small and medium enterprises in the Radom subregion. There was one hypothesis and one research question posed in the study. On the basis of literature studies, as well as the observation of economic reality, the SME sector for the Radom subregion was discussed, as well as the role of European Union structural funds in four programming periods. The theoretical part includes a detailed author\u27s questionnaire containing fifteen variables relating to the effects of implementing projects co-financed by EU funds on a group of 100 companies in the SME sector of the Radom subregion. The paper contains results for a group of a national study conducted in September 2021 (100 enterprises) that used the method of Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) are presented. The paper contains the author?s original research into a representative group of SME?s enterprises that can be generalised to the entire population
Application of virtualisation environment for data security in operational data processing systems
This paper presents a concept, developed and tested by the authors, of a virtualisation environment enabling the protection of aggregated data through the use of high availability (HA) of IT systems. The presented solution allows securing the central database system and virtualised server machines by using a scalable environment consisting of physical servers and disk arrays. The authors of this paper focus on ensuring the continuity of system operation and on minimising the risk of failures related to the availability of the operational data analysis system
\u27How I have ever loved the life removed\u27: re-interpreting the convention of disguise in Shakespeare\u27s measure for measure
The paper focuses on the design of Duke Vincentio from Shakespeare\u27s Measure for Measure, interpreted as a highly ambiguous example of the traditional \u27ruler in disguise,\u27 set within New Historicism\u27s methodological framework and the theory of Renaissance self-fashioning proposed by Stephen Greenblatt. Although not a treatise on disguise theory, Greenblatt\u27s Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980) develops analyses appearing highly relevant to the study of disguise in the early modern social and literary context. This is due to the key significance of disguise in his reading of Renaissance culture, typified by, argues Greenblatt, the predominance of rhetoric and ever-present theatricality. Applying Greenblatt\u27s analyses to Shakespeare\u27s Duke, I will show how self-fashioning governs the character\u27s self-identity, resulting in an emergence of behaviours into the character\u27s discourse, indicating a great psychological conflict.