During the COVID-19 crisis, consumer behaviour and purchasing habits fundamentally changed. This paper examines the effect the COVID-19 crisis had on digital consumer behaviour and discusses factors affecting online shopping and the latest trends in ecommerce in the Czech Republic. Potential respondents were selected from different generational cohorts in two waves. Based on generation cohort theory (Igelhart,

The main aim of this paper is to measure the influence of market interest rate on commercial banks' business mix. The global character of banking business and the conditions of the world economy have caused extremely low interest rates at the loan and mortgage market in Czech Republic. Low interest rates generate cheaper money and make loans and mortgages easily available since 2014 where the mortgage interest rate dropped below the level of 2.5%. The first aim of this research is to evaluate the effect from different types of interest rates on two types of loan products in this five-year period (2014-2018). The second aim of this research is to analyse the effect from the selected interest rates in Czech Republic on profitability of the selected commercial banks. Lastly, profitability behaviour of the banking sector in Czech Republic and its relation with the selected interest rates and bank-specific determinants has been examined. Our final results state that the consumption interest rate, mortgage interest rate, deposit interest rate, PRIBOR 2w-repo, inflation rate, disposable income, unemployment, GDP and the real effective exchange rate (REER) have significant influence on the volume of mortgage loans and consumer loans too. The authors find that banks´ ROE is affected by profit margin and liquidity, but it is negatively related to financial leverage and the

In addition to insurance companies, pension funds, cooperative banks, investment companies, investment and share funds, and leasing companies, banks represent the most important segment of the financial sector with a stake of nearly 80% of total assets. The balance sum of the banking sector of the Czech Republic amounted to 5,476 billion CZK as of 1.3.2015. Innovative, low-cost players have become the latest trend on the banking market, presenting an alternative to traditional banking. They enforce a business mode of retail banking based on an internet platform. This paper defines and evaluates their activities compared to transnational companies in terms of business success and clients´ perception.

The internet has enabled a fundamental change in consumer behaviour and their understanding of e-commerce business. The main objective of the following article is to present the latest trends in the way of client segmentation associated with individual credit evaluation based on machine learning. The first part discusses the current situation and innovations in the way people pay in an omnichannel world. We describe how the absence of physical money has affected society, how it has changed customer purchasing behaviour, and what this change means for the digital economy and marketing. In the background of the rapid development of big data and the Internet technology, the traditional personal credit evaluation method of the commercial bank faces a significant challenge in the evaluation of personal credit. Based on the limitation of the existing personal credit evaluation method, the second part discusses the necessity of the research on the personal credit evaluation based on the machine learning method and then probes into the comprehensive personal credit evaluation dimension and the advanced data acquisition method of the Internet finance company. And then, the data desensitisation and LOF test were carried out by dynamic desensitisation technique. The abnormal value of the tested data and the random forest method supplement the missing value of the data. The importance index is screened by the gradient boosting decision tree method, and the personal credit evaluation score is output through the scorecard model based on logical regression. After that, the model is tested by BP neural network, and the personal credit level is predicted. The personal credit level fosters customer market segmentation.

The paper examines the role of human capital in sustainable corporate strategy, education and discusses the ways it supports corporate social responsibility (CSR). In order to identify how employee benefits and how education can support human capital development, quantitative research was realized via an online survey method through a structured questionnaire. Data were collected during two time intervals, before and during COVID-19 Crisis. We find evidence that employees have transformed their perceptions of employee benefits during the Crisis. The survey showed that with the majority of employees working from home due to the current situation, it is necessary to support more flexible working benefits as an integral part of creating a sustainable strategy. Moreover, the investment in employee education as the condition of sustainability is not supported by most of the investigated companies. Finally, the results indicate that the benefit structure is, for employees, an essential part of their job satisfaction and can support employees' loyalty to the firm.