Central European Business Review

5-25

Authors: Daniel Seelhofer, Gianni Valeri

This paper reports the results of an empirical examination of leadership traits and behaviors that contributed to team performance in a major Swiss HR consulting firm. Based on personality tests, survey research, and in-depth interviews, results indicate that, in the context of the company’s sales-driven, high-pressure environment, personality factors such as conscientiousness or detailorientation seem to be better predictors of leadership success than extraversion and openness to experience. Female leaders overall outperformed their male counterparts, and experience was found to significantly contribute to superior performance. Implications for hiring, development, and succession practices are discussed.

48-60

Authors: Eric Thivant, Hana Machkova

Over the past two decades, French enterprises have been heavily investing in the Czech Republic. Today, France is the fifth biggest investor to the Czech Republic, and French companies are among the most important employers. The aim of this study is to analyze the presence of French firms in Czech Republic by look at the example the French-Czech mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and to explain the main motivation of the location of French firms in the country. Using a review of documents and secondary data analysis, we observe that French enterprises have invested especially in the Czech manufacturing sector, energy & power, consumer staples and financial services. In this study, we evaluate if French corporations try to optimize their production process within so-called global value chains, and if French companies have invested in their own strategic domain area or another strategic area by using the diversification growth approach. Finally, we present examples of successful mergers and acquisitions of French firms realized in the Czech Republic.

76-91

Authors: Karel Knap, Ivan Novy

The goal of article is to analyze the analytical tools applied in the identification of national cultures and to identify and schematically express these Czech cultural standards, which are perceived most strongly by Germans when dealing with Czechs in higher-middle management. The article consists of a review of the related literature extended by a polemic on the applicability of the models. The authors conducted qualitative research based on semi-standardized interviews with ten German managers who grew up in the territory of former West Germany and had worked in the Czech Republic in international corporations for a period of at least two years. The results present three propositions connected to the most perceived cultural standards of Czech managers: propensity for improvisation, avoidance of conflict, and rejection of hierarchical structures.

5-16

Authors: Bojana Suzić, Miroslav Karlíček, Václav Stříteský

Conceptual evolution of the Internet and Web, substantiated through Web 2.0 and the emergence of online social networks, reinvented the way that enterprises interact with their customers. Museums, as cultural institutions with an important mission, are not unaffected by that change, however. In order to fulfil their duties and societal purpose successfully, they have to attract visitors’ attention and engage the public effectively in a highly competitive and saturated environment. The goal of this paper is to analyze and compare the social media presence of museums in two European capitals. It focuses on museums in Prague and Berlin, and considers their general Web presence and the dynamics of activities on Facebook. In order to understand the integrative social media approach of museums in both regions, we investigated additionally Twitter and Youtube presence among museums with a Facebook account. The study reveals a lower presence of Prague museums both on the Web and in the identified social media networks, in comparison to Berlin museums. Moreover, we conclude that the presence of both regional museums on social media networks is low, while the integration and simultaneous application of more networks at the same time are negligible, both for Prague and Berlin museums.

37-46

Authors: Edina Berlinger, Gyorgy Walter

Income contingent schemes have been widely used in student lending in the last few decades. Recently, in the aftermath of the crisis of 2007-2008, several authors argued that income contingent loans have much better risk profiles than traditional fixed loans, and they proposed to extend their scope to other areas of retail lending, too. Hence, understanding this scheme can be relevant from the point of view of both human resource management and financial engineering. In this paper we analyzed the unusual characteristics of income contingent repayments, and derived closed formulas for stability, success and shape. We concluded that humped debt paths can be frightening; however, if the growth rate of the debt is lower than the growth rate of the income, then it is not a debt trap, but a natural consequence of this patient and flexible scheme, which requires new methods of communication, risk management, financing and administration.

57-73

Authors: Lidia Danik, Izabela Kowalik, Petr Král

The goal of this paper is to compare the characteristics of Polish and Czech companies which follow the Born Global internationalization model. More concretely, the analysis aims to discover the differences or similarities in terms of the internationalization paths of Polish and Czech SMEs in the characteristics of their managers in terms of the so-called “international vision” and in their innovativeness level. The introductory part of article provides a description of this internationalization model and the International New Ventures traits (INV) and summarizes the recent studies on this topic conducted in Poland and Czech Republic. In the empirical part, the International New Ventures from the two countries are compared. The Polish sample includes 105 companies which were surveyed with use of computer assisted telephone interviews in autumn 2014. For the Czech Republic, the sample consists of 54 small and medium-sized companies, which were surveyed using the computer assisted web interviews from November 2013 till January 2014. The surveyed companies in both countries fulfilled the definition of Born Globals. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation analysis and non-parametric tests are applied to accomplish the goals of the paper.

5-28

Authors: Daniel Seelhofer

This conceptual paper examines the rationale for strategic planning in business schools and outlines an applied strategy development and controlling process that has been in use at a major Swiss business school for several years, contributing to a significant strengthening of the school's strategic position. It explains the strategy hierarchy and the strategy planning cycle, describes how to conduct a consistent strategic situation analysis, and details how to develop and manage a coherent strategy at all levels (normative, strategic, tactical, and operational), including type, nature, and structure of the corresponding documents.

37-44

Authors: Andrea Szalavetz

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of MNCs’ crisis-driven cost-cutting and organizational restructuring actions on their local subsidiaries in Hungary. We hypothesize that much of the cost-cutting minded and efficiency-focused organizational transformation prompted by the global crisis of 2008 can actually be beneficial to some subsidiaries. Drawing on interviews carried out at 13 manufacturing subsidiaries, we find that upgrading occurs partly as a consequence of MNCs’ pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency, partly as an outcome of organizational restructuring and resources reallocation, and partly as a result of an increasing delegation of advanced functions to production subsidiaries. Although the Hungarian subsidiaries were on the receiving end: they hosted some of the relocated production activities, the main managerial implication is that caution is needed, success often breeds failure. The resulting overconfidence may prevent local managers and policy-makers from monitoring and analyzing industry-specific technological and market trends to detect opportunities and threats as early as possible.

62-68

Authors: Hana Machková

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5-12

Authors: Radek Tahal

Loyalty programs rank among the most important marketing tools used for motivating customers in repeated purchases. The history is more than a hundred years old and there are many interesting points in the development. At present, programs can be built on the basis of various algorithms. In any case, it is necessary to develop such programs that are positively accepted by customers, viewed as useful, creating emotional ties to a retailer or to a brand. This study is based on primary data collected in the Czech Republic and in Great Britain, and it aims at two research targets. The first is to compare customers´ preferences in choosing loyalty programs in the two countries, to find similarities and differences. The second target is to make a comparison of customers´ willingness in disclosing their personal data for a retailer when signing up for a loyalty program.

23-34

Authors: Hana Machková, Paul-Marc Collin

In 2014, the Czech automotive industry had a record-breaking year with 1 278 000 motor vehicles manufactured. This was a result of the investment of three major carmakers, who entered into the Czech Republic, because they believed in the industrial capacity of the country and its strategic location in Central Europe. The goal of this article is to analyze the different entry strategies into the Czech market and to compare the results of different strategic approaches for both foreign private investors and the recipient country. The main research method used in this article is a case study. In our case studies, we will analyze the cases of the Volkswagen group and its acquisition of the manufacturer Škoda, the greenfield investment of Hyundai, and the strategic alliance of the French car producer PSA with Japanese Toyota who had founded the TPCA joint venture in the Czech Republic. All three case studies show examples of good practices and prove that foreign direct investment (FDI) has the potential to generate employment, raise productivity, transfer skills and technology, enhance exports and contribute to the long-term economic development of the country.

48-59

Authors: Jiří Strouhal, Natalja Gurvitš, Monika Nikitina-Kalamäe, Emilia Startseva

Despite the fact that obligations to publish reports on corporate social responsibility will come into force in the European Union from 2018, an increasing number of companies are starting to implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy into their everyday business practices, and as a result the information of this activity is disclosed in CSR reports or within annual reports. As the disclosure of such information is currently voluntarily based, we believe that the growing popularity of CSR leads to a direct link between the sustainability of the company and its financial performance. The purpose of this paper is therefore to determine the linkage between CSR and financial performance within two countries in the CEE region – Czech and Estonia – using data from 2012 - 2013. We compare return on assets and normalized market value added of listed companies. Based on the results, we can state that the implementation of a standalone CSR report does not have any direct linkage with the financial performance of the tested companies.

7

Authors: Ziva Kolbl, Maja Konecnik Ruzzier, Tomaz Kolar

Brand revitalization is a process, which is often necessary when the brand’s offer of products as well as associated attention from consumers decline. Even so, the core of a brand needs to be clearly defined, in order for brand revitalization to be successfully implemented. Marketing managers need to be able to recognize the acute, as well as the latent signs of brand aging, and need to implement brand revitalization elements and strategies that are most suitable for a certain brand. The goal of the paper is presenting brand revitalization through the practical example of two Slovenian brands, which both went through the process of brand revitalization. With the review of secondary data, as well as interviews with the brand’s marketing managers, the paper proposes main steps and serves as a guideline to other managers, when going through brand revitalization.

8

Authors: Ioana Andrada Moldovan (Gavril)

This article aims at analyzing the relationship between sustainable development and the financial system, mainly focusing on the role that the financial system plays within the process of sustainable development. Theoretically, the financial system could be a very important factor to promote sustainable development, as it could foster economic growth and development, efficient resource allocation, the protection of the environment and also social responsibility. Using panel data econometrical analysis, we tested for correlations between indicators of the financial system and indicators of sustainable development in five developing Eastern European countries. We found weak or no correlation between financial indicators and sustainable development indicators. This might be explained by several facts. First, the financial systems of these five developing countries are not highly developed, so that they do not have a high capacity to foster economic growth and development. Second, even if this was the case, promoting sustainable development requires a lot more than fostering economic growth and is not a question of whether the financial companies can promote sustainability, but whether they are interested in promoting it. Even though financial companies have embraced the sustainability agenda, they haven`t done much to change their short-term orientation to profit and to shift to long-run strategies in favor of sustainable development.

10

Authors: Ovidiu Ioan Moisescu

The goal of the current research is to analyze the impact of customers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their loyalty towards mobile telecommunication companies within the particular socio-cultural and economic context of one of the largest national markets of Central and Eastern Europe. In order to achieve this goal, a survey was conducted among a sample of 1,464 mobile telecommunication customers from the urban area of Romania. The findings point out the fact that Romanian mobile telecom customers’ loyalty is not significantly impacted by how they perceive their service suppliers’ responsibilities with regard to their employees or economic success, while their perceptions of companies’ responsibilities towards customers, public authorities, the environment, community development, and sponsorship have a significant impact on corporate brand loyalty. The findings have managerial implications in what concerns the appropriate implementation and communication of CSR policies by mobile telecommunication companies from the region in order for them to enhance their customer’s loyalty.