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Our paper is focused on the factors that influence innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. The country that went through long economic transformation that resulted in the setup of the new improved standards for entrepreneurship activities is currently dealing with the aftermath of world's economic and financial crisis. With regard to all that, Czech SMEs are facing tough competition on domestic and EU markets. This is when innovations might become one of the key factors of success that can help to differentiate the product, beat the competition and attract more customers. Our study is based on the empirical model that employs the data from the survey questionnaire with 1144 Czech SMEs. We find several forms of innovations (e.g. own R&D, investment into technology, improvement of quality of a product or service, or presence on foreign (EU and world) markets) can become very significant in enhancing the growth and success of Czech SMEs, while the bureaucratic barriers for innovations and external factors with negative impact did not come through as obstacles. Based on our results, one can state thatthe most important policy implications are for the relevant stakeholders would be the support of investment activities of SMEs, creation of SMEs clusters within business parks, education of employees, expansions of Czech exports to the new markets, and intensive support of R&D. It would also make sense to increase the number of small SMEs (sole-traders and micro-enterprises) by making the registration process easier, or by offering subsidies or government support to the new companies and start-ups.

This paper introduces certain trends and links between labour migration and remittances, during the current global economic crisis. Based on available data, it can be stated that the current economic crisis has had/will have a short-term impact on remittance transfers to the developing regions that are dominant receivers of this type of financial resource. Remittances clearly represent the most stable source of finances for stimulating development in poor countries, in comparison with other potential sources for financing development, even in times of economic recession or crisis and at both regional and global levels. Moreover, in harmony with Borjas’ (1994) concept, an analysis of “immigration surplus” was carried out. It clearly shows that labour migration does not constitute a burden for the economy of a relatively small Central European country, such as Czechia, and that the overall effect for the target economy is positive.

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How do journalists in two formerly authoritarian countries, the Czech Republic and South Africa, perceive the potential of media owners and other business people to infl uence their work? Multinomial ordinal regression analysis was applied to data collected in the Czech Republic and South Africa for the present 50 country-wide Worlds of Journalism (WoJ) Project. A total of 291 journalists in the Czech Republic and 371 journalists in South Africa were interviewed according to the WoJ protocol. Th ree aspects of media freedom, as perceived by the respondents, a r e discussed, namely the freedom journalists have to select news stories; to emphasize certain news aspects; and to participate in editorial discussion and decision making (news coordination). Th e results suggest that media owners as well as business people curb, but also support, journalists' freedom in dealing with the news. In the Czech Republic, a country in the global North and a former member of the Soviet bloc, the results show the infl uence of media owners and business owners supports the freedom of journalists in selecting their own stories. More infl uence of business people is associated with more freedom of journalists in aspects emphasized in the stories and in the frequency the journalists participate in newsroom coordination. In South Africa, a former white minority-ruled country in the global South, the results suggest that the infl uence of media owners seems to lessen journalists' freedom to select news and to emphasize certain news aspects, and coordination. Moreover, the perceived level of infl uence of business people in South Africa did not statistically signifi cantly relate to all three aspects of journalists' freedom.

Soaring electricity prices constitute a serious obstacle for both small and large business enterprises, since the costs of electricity are projected into the market prices of their goods and services. This paper analyzes the current conditions and offers some measures for optimization by the means of the parametric model that describes the conditions of power purchase agreements (PPA) for different groups of consumers with different demand profiles. We use the case study of PPAs contracts in Moscow, the Russian capital, in order to model the optimal power supply for three hypothetical customers: a meat factory, a car wash, and an office unit. We employ a Heaviside step unit function in order to model the consumer demand and to calculate the gains for various types of consumers. Our results demonstrate that consumers with higher energy consumption are better off when moving to across tariff zones changing the value of the contract. Moreover, it appears that changes into the investment policy of the hypothetical Russian enterprise enable it to lower the costs of energy and thence to increase the competitiveness of its good and services offered on the market. Our results might also be important in the context of the recent focus on the renewable energy and low-carbon future.