Iveta Ubrežiová

Corporate Social Responsibility and Perception of Environmental Pillar in the Selected Set of the Slovak Enterprises

Abstract In spite of fact that problem of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is very well known worldwide, it gets slowly into awareness in Slovakia. Nowadays more and more Slovak enterprises incorporate CSR principles into their practice and learn to profit from its implementation. This article based on the Carrolls three pillar CRS model, while the environmental pillar was selected as the most important one. On the sample of 58 Slovak enterprises we are verifying presence of a statistically significant effect of the legal form and number of employees (SME size category) on the implementation of environmental issues in the company. In the methodology we are using descriptive statistics, non-parametric methods (The Kruskal-Wallis Test, Jonckheere – Terpstra Test) and Crombach Alpha. The results of the analysis shows that the corporate legal form has no impact on the application of environmental policy, but there is an impact of the number or employees, respectively SME size category. Micro enterprises are not involved in the raising awareness on environmental policy and responsibility on the same extent as small companies. Similar differences between this two size groups we find in their extent of dealing with environmental research and development and protection of the natural environment.

Entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized enterprises: Comparative study between Slovakia and Poland for the years 2001–2007

The main attention of the submitted paper is devoted to the comparison of development of entrepreneurship in Slovak and Polish small and medium – sized enterprise sector. The conditions for blooming entrepreneurship are created in a national economy. Especially the role of SMEs in transition economy, both countries Slovakia and Poland, has impact on SMEs. Entrepreneurship of small and medium-sized enterprises, is extended in the whole Slovakia. From the viewpoint of regional structure most of enterprises are located in Bratislavsky region (30.4%), Kosicky region (11.8%), Žilinsky region (10.1%) and Trenciansky region (10.1%). On the other hand, the least of enterprises were registered in Nitriansky region (8.9%), Trnavsky region (9.2%) and Banskobystricky region (9.6%). Small and medium entrepreneurship is diverse throughout Poland. The average small and medium entrepreneurship ratio is 44.5, while the highest is in Mazowieckie Region 55.2, and the lowest in Podkarpackie Region 30. The supporting system for private entrepreneurship in both countries, Slovakia and Poland, is very similar and the entrepreneurs are satisfied with offer and help.

GLOCALIZATION AND LOCAL ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC SYSTEMS: THE CASE OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

The main objective of the paper is to introduce the term glocalization from economic as well as from sociological point of view and to describe the concepts of alternative economies. Companies and firms are no longer operating only in their domestic markets, but they are considered as international corporations with customers in all parts of the world. Marketing departments of these companies try to understand conditions and cultural traditions in different regions of the world, otherwise there is no chance for the company to be successful in international and even global level. Localization, as very important part of glocalization, offers us opportunity to think about alternative economic systems and to confront it with globalization. Therefore, alternative economic systems and its two basic types are described theoretically and then, we introduce their practical implementation in social reality. We point out the attention on the examples from the Slovak Republic and highlight the background of origins and problems connected with establishing of these systems. Finally, we summarize the most important facts which result from the comparison of the systems. Keywords: alternative economy globalization, glocalization, LETS (Local Exchange Trading Systems), localization, time banks. Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2015.081