M21 - Business EconomicsReturn

The expected development of economic reality is a determining variable for many companies and their demand planning. Do their reflections on future market development differ depending on how big the companies are? The study focused on business cycle indicators that the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) publishes regularly. Until 2017, the CZSO published these indicators sorted according to company size, but then it abandoned the division. This study aims to evaluate whether the size of companies affects their estimate of future demand and to use these results to point out whether the termination of the publishing of these indicators, broken down by company size, was justified. The data were evaluated with correlation and cluster analysis. The research confirms that the nature of the forecasts for different-sized companies varies in terms of examined prediction indicators. Small and medium-sized companies agree in their projections, and large companies (in general) are more pessimistic than small and medium-sized ones. The breakdown made according to the size of companies should be maintained as it is an essential signal for policymakers.

In the study, we focus on examining the impact of selected factors on the results of electronic reverse auctions and thus the savings achieved. The study extends the knowledge of extant literature to empirical insights and uses currently the broadest sample of approximately 16,000 e-auction cases. The study confirms that the savings calculation method and the use of a comparative or initial price affect the outcome of the auction as well as the individual selected factors entering the model (e-auction value, number of changes, number of extensions, number of bidders, number of items).

This article presents the outcome of research focused on financial characteristics of companies declaring a moratorium. The key purpose of the moratorium is to avoid threatening bankruptcy. The aim of the research is to identify the financial situation of the companies entering the moratorium process. The main objective was to find the answer to the core question whether there is any chance of avoiding bankruptcy using the moratorium, that is, whether the moratorium fulfils its basic function. The research is based on a quantitative analysis of selected financial ratios and synthetic indicators and their mutual relations. The analysis looks for an answer to what financial indicator levels were characteristic for the companies launching the moratorium mode of operation and what these levels indicated. The research results prove that the financial situation of the companies entering the moratorium process was unsatisfactory. It is even possible to conclude that the companies were in the last stage of their corporate crisis. This situation shows that the probability of avoiding bankruptcy was extremely low.

Bankruptcy prediction has long been regarded as a critical topic within the academic and banking community. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study in the Slovak Republic has attempted to develop a bankruptcy prediction model putting together statistical and artificial intelligence approaches performed on a such an amount of data. This paper seeks to fill this gap. Our aim is to develop a hybrid bankruptcy prediction model using a genetic algorithm in the process of training a neural network (GA-NN). The research data set comprises a balanced sample of both healthy and bankrupt firms operating in Slovakia in the period from 2014 to 2017. Financial information regarding a firm's financial situation are acquired from the Finstat database, which stores annual reports. For the purpose of comparing the classification accuracy of the proposed GA-NN model, two more models are constructed, namely BP-NN (back-propagation neural network model) as well as MDA (multiple discrimination model). The results gained by utilizing these models suggest the superiority of the developed GA-NN model to both BP-NN and MDA models in terms of prediction performance.

The aim of the research is to show differences between characteristics of insolvency proceedings of traditional and virtual enterprises. This paper focuses on results of insolvency proceedings in the case of enterprises which do not have a traditional headquarter. Instead of the traditional headquarter these enterprises are registered at virtual addresses for a purpose of business register. Among the professional public this institute enables discussions about lower transparency and even functioning of grey-area. First the paper analyzes results for enterprises with virtual address and second these results are compared with traditional enterprises. Research questions are based on probability of insolvency proposal, kind of bankruptcy (with default and without default) and level of creditors' satisfaction. The used data are extracted from business as well as insolvency register. The gained results show that there are significant differences between the insolvency proceedings of traditional and virtual enterprises which have in this case higher probability of insolvency, lower level of creditor's satisfaction and therefore many cases finish without default due to enterprises' property emptiness.

We analyze how efficiency of firms in the Czech Republic is affected by their size, age, competition, capital structure, ownership types, and global financial crisis. We employ the stochastic frontier approach, use a large and detailed dataset, and cover time span 2001-2012. While effects of firm characteristics are small, the effects of ownership are economically substantial. We show that majority owners are most contributive with respect to firm's efficiency when compared to other categories we analyze. Minority owners with legally grounded power are able to impose significant efficiency improvement. The effect of the foreign ownership is strongest when foreign owners control firms with less than majority of voting power. Minority owners sharing the control do not seem to contribute to efficiency. The impact of crisis is not balanced but can be regarded as marginally positive in general. The firms' characteristics change only a little. In contrast, worsening impact of the crisis is evidenced for controlling ownership categories. Minority owners exhibit a limited disciplining effect to improve efficiency after the crisis, though.

This paper analyzes the technological efficiency of companies in the European Union (EU). Our extensive database covers more than 4 million firm/year observations from many EU countries including both manufacturing and service sectors in 2001-2007. Methodologically we apply a model of a stochastic production productivity frontier. We show that: the economic signifikance of company age is negligible, the higher the debt the greater the efficiency, bigger companies are less efficient, and a medium-level concentration of the market benefits companies. Majority ownership, in contrast, does not lead to higher efficiency, but a combination of majority and minority ownership has a positive disciplinary influence leading to higher efficiency. As to the origins of ownership, it does not seem that foreign-(co-)owned companies imply greater efficiency in old European countries, whereas foreign ownership is a significant driver of efficiency in new EU members through FDI.

The paper aims to show a comprehensive insight into the history of business economics science in the Czech Republic, marginally also on the European continent and worldwide. It depicts business economics in its beginning as a doctrine that was largely underestimated. This science was, for a very long time, a part of economics (national/public); only slowly has it gradually become an autonomous branch of science. This article shows historical attitudes to the theory of business in Bohemia as well as abroad since the end of the nineteenth century up to this day. It describes the period of statism in Bohemia within the context of business economics, it focuses on fundamentals of this science and depicts consecutively aspects from which the theory of business economics as a science arises in the transition period to free market economy. The paper discusses the future of business economics as a science that, considering current economic conditions worldwide, has a huge potential to grow. The article contributes to the worldwide discussion about its further development.

We employ a large panel data set and analyze efficiency in the Czech firms during 1998-2007. We investigate how their efficiency evolves over time and how it is affected by ownership structures. Methodologically we employ a panel version of a stochastic production frontier model. We distinguish several categories of the ownership concentration by domestic owners and through foreign direct investments (FDI). Our results show that concentrated and foreign ownership impact efficiency positively in general. This results confirm benefits of the foreign direct ownership on the microeconomic level. Further, we show cases when majority ownership does not necessarily constitute improvements in efficiency. We also analyze effect of ownership coalitions and bring detailed new evidence on how ownership structures and industry sectors affect firms' efficiency.

In this article we analyze medium- and long-term effects of firm break-up (and subsequent change in ownership) on its profitability and productivity. We use an extensive data-set of the Czech firms for the period 1996-2005. We employ the propensity score based matching methodology to account for potential endogeneity. Our results show that initial effects of the firm break-up are positive but they vanish in five to seven years after the break-up. Hence, the break-up of large and less efficient companies delivers a positive effect on corporate performance for a period of time. The effect is not permanent, though. Subsequent development in profitability and productivity is likely affected by ownership structure, corporate governance and other micro-level factors.

This paper uses new firm-level data to examine the effects of breakups of the Czech firms and their subsequent privatization on corporate performance. Unlike the existing literature, which analyzes breakups almost exclusively in advanced economies, we control for accompanying ownership changes and the fact that spinoffs and ownership are endogenous variables. We find that breakups increase the firm's profitability but do not alter its scale of operations, while the effect of privatization depends on the resulting ownership structure - sometime improving performance and sometime bringing about decline. The effects of privatization are hence less clear-cut than suggested in earlier studies. Methodologically, our study provides evidence that it is important to control for changes in ownership when analyzing divestitures and control for endogeneity, selection and data attrition when analyzing the effects of breakups and privatization.