Background and Purpose:The field of innovation represents for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a fundamental challenge. If the number of innovative SMEs is to rise, it is necessary to identify key factors determining their innovation activity and eliminate the innovation barriers. The main purpose of the paper is to present the results of primary research focused on identification (evaluation) of key factors and barriers determining innovation activities in Slovak SMEs. The division of SMEs into three groups of enterprises: innovation leaders, modest innovators and non-innovators enables to identify the differences in managers´ perception of the main factors and barriers determining innovation activities in various types of SMEs and to formulate policy implications for Slovak SMEs. Design/Methodology/Approach: Results of the empirical research were processed using MS Excel and the statistical analysis of the data in R3.2.4. statistical system was done. For statistical tests we assumed significance level (α = 0.1). Results: Evaluating the importance of the key factors a majority of enterprises (64.71%) indicated financial resources as the most important factor for the innovations. There is no statistically significant difference in individual (analysed) factors between innovation leaders, non-innovators and innovation followers (modest innovators). The results gained from Fisher exact test (p-value = 0.11) indicated a small difference in evaluating the significance of individual barriers between innovation leaders, non-innovators and modest innovators. Majority of enterprises also see as the main barriers to develop innovation activities bureaucracy and corruption and inappropriate state support of innovation activities. Conclusion:The main implications (conclusion) coming from the research are basic recommendations for state policy makers as well as SME´s managers to foster innovation activities in enterprises. They refer to the areas of financial resources, high-quality human resources, cooperation and participation of SMEs in different networks and clusters, systematic institutional support to SMEs, well-created vision and clearly formulated aims, and willingness of enterprises to innovate. Recommendations are summarised following the results of factor´s and barrier´s evaluation.
Innovation cooperation has become an increasingly prominent feature of firm´s innovation activity. Cooperation with external subjects in innovation enables to the firm to search outside of their boundaries the skills, competence or technologies that they are missing and that would take too long (and too much costs) to be developed internally. The external resources and capabilities that SMEs could access through external innovation linkages might provide them with the stimulus and capacity to innovate. The aim of the article is to examine the cooperation of Slovak SMEs with external partners in innovation in special division of mechanical engineering industry. We will answer two questions. First: to identify who are the major cooperation partners for SME´s innovations in analysed division of mechanical engineering industry; second: to assess the respective type of innovation relationships with individual cooperation partners in analysed sector of SME´s. We stated 14 potential external subjects for cooperation in innovations and with the Friedman test we assessed the importance (significance) of SME´s cooperation with external subjects in innovation activities as well as the respective type of innovation relationships with individual cooperative partners. Suggested are positive effects of cooperation with external partners in innovation, indicated are main reasons of low cooperation. Based on the research results are formulated the implications for SMEs managers and policy makers concerned with the management of innovation cooperation
The Balanced Scorecard method (BSC)
The Altman model is still one of the most widely used predictive models in the 21st century, and it aims to highlight the differences between bankrupt and healthy enterprises. This model has been modified several times; its most well-known forms are from 1968, 1983 and 1995. However, the use of the Altman Z-score for Slovak enterprises is more than questionable. The unsuitability of the model for the conditions of Slovak companies has been confirmed by several empirical surveys. The objective of this study was to verify the validation of these three variants of the Altman model, depending on how an unprosperous company is identified, using a sample of 996 agricultural enterprises operating in the Slovak Republic. Four indicators were selected for the identification of an unprosperous enterprise – economic results, total liquidity, equity, and economic value added – and they were monitored over the last year or, as the case may be, over the last three years from 2014 to 2016. Using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Coefficient of variation (CV) methods as an objective method for weight determination, a combination of the Altman model from 1968 and the negative total liquidity in the last reference year was determined to be the best. One of our main findings is that the way in which an unprosperous enterprise is identified is a significant factor affecting the overall reliability of the Altman model. The Altman model from 1968 and 1983 confirmed the differences resulting from the natural conditions in which the enterprises operate. The economic results and economic value added (EVA) proved to be inappropriate as indicators for defining an unprosperous enterprise in the conditions of the Slovak Republic.
Nowadays the issue of companies' bankruptcy is very actual topic not only in Slovakia but also abroad. Financial analysts are looking into the possibility to predict of companies crisis by using prediction methods of financial analysis ex-ante. The aim of the article is verification and comparison of results of the selected prediction methods in a group of Slovak companies in year 2009, 2010 and 2011. Group of companies contains six Slovak companies. In the introduction of the article we define the theoretical aspects of prediction methods. Comparison of results of prediction methods and their verification are a major part of the article.
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