Does Biological Assets´ Tangibility Matter from the Profitability and Cost of Debt Perspective for Agricultural Firms?

The research aim is to identify specific production factors (biological assets) and target potential profitability and cost of external debt dependency on these biological assets (as an anticipated essential driving forces) due to relative scarcity of this topic coverage. Underlying unbalanced data set consist of 229 agricultural firms managing their business operations from 2011 till 2019 in the Czech Republic. The paper is innovative based on its combination of several different factors including incorporation of biological assets’ variables influencing firm’s profitability and by assessing determinants concerning cost of external debt using a panel regression analysis with fixed effects. Biological assets tangibility is relatively low with declining trend. Contrary to it land tangibility experienced exactly opposite development caused by "skyrocket" land price appreciation. It has been proven that cost of debt is depending only on the short/long-term leverage levels, thus primarily the total indebtedness is essential and relevant driving force

Complexity of reference consultations for undergraduate and graduate students in an academic library

Effective resource allocation is critical for academic libraries that offer reference consultations and information literacy instruction to support student success. The study aims to examine the time spent and the intensity and variation in information resource use across 671 reference consultations provided to undergraduate and graduate students at the Czech National Library of Technology, categorized by complexity levels. A case study methodology with quantitative analysis, including descriptive statistics and correlation tests, was applied. The results indicate that simple consultations require more extensive involvement of information resources with an emphasis on basic information literacy, while higher grades of consultations involve fewer resources but more frequent use of full-text databases. It is also shown that information resources are used consistently, with usage patterns reflecting the complexity of users’ assignments and questions. The analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between consultation complexity and both the time spent providing a consultation (correlation coefficient 0.276) and the time spent preparing for the consultation (correlation coefficient 0.262). The results suggest the need for strategic planning of human resources based on service complexity to increase the efficiency of consultations, as well as more conscious decision making regarding the use of information resources in consultation services. Acknowledgment The authors are grateful for the invaluable support provided by the Czech National Library of Technology during the research process. The research data offered were extremely helpful and have been essential to complete this research successfully

Research on citizens’ behavior in relation to the use of re-use centers and re-use points

The article explores the attitudes and behavior of Czech consumers aged 18+ towards the adoption of secondhand goods within the framework of the circular economy. While the European Union’s Circular economy action plan emphasizes sustainable production and consumption, consumer resistance to re-used goods remains a barrier. The exploratory study aims to identify the perception/attitude/relationship of the Czech population towards the purchase of used items. Detailed knowledge of the customer is an elementary base for the market of re-used products to grow. The research objective is divided into three partial objectives: identifying the main customer segments in secondhand markets, evaluating the reasons for and against purchasing re- used items, and assessing the perceived suitability of various product categories for secondhand trading. Conducted in June 2024, the research involved an online survey of 1,300 respondents across the Czech Republic. Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) was employed to structure the questionnaire, while data analysis utilized Pearson’s χ²-test of independence to examine relationships between categorical variables. In some instances, complementary methods were employed. The findings indicate that younger consumers and those actively employed are more inclined to purchase re-used goods, while older individuals and pensioners show higher reluctance. Cars, art, and books were viewed as highly suitable for secondhand markets, whereas casual footwear was ranked lower. The results also suggest that Czech consumers are generally open to the secondhand market and each product category has corresponding group of customers who find the product suitable to sell. This research contributes to the literature on the circular economy by highlighting how targeted business and marketing strategies can address consumer resistance, ultimately fostering sustainable consumption

Spearman’s correlation coefficient: The case of duplicate ranks

Correlation analysis makes it possible to calculate the dependence of one variable on another. It can be used to calculate the tightness of the relationship between variables. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient allows you to perform a ranking operation based on features that can be represented numerically, for example expert estimates, consumer preferences. In expert assessments, it is possible to rank the assessments of various experts and find a correlation between these expert assessments. Spearman's correlation coefficient can be used to evaluate the dynamics of expert assessments. The article proposes a formula for calculating Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient with repeated ranks. Spearman’s correlation coefficient is ranked. When calculating them, the relative position of the parameters. However, these parameters do not necessarily have to have a normal distribution

Metodika adaptace malých a středních podniků v sektoru služeb na implementaci principů, postupů, metod a nástrojů Společnosti 4.0

Technologická agentura České republiky, program ÉTA, projekt TL02000136 Adaptace sektoru znalostně náročných služeb na podmínky Společnosti 4.

Charakteristika sektoru znalostně náročných služeb České republiky

The concepts of Industry 4.0 and then Company 4.0 have been not only discussed for a long time, but have demonstrated their growing role in the development of smart businesses. The aim of the paper was to describe the approaches to the classification of knowledge intensive services of the two largest studies - Eurostat, OECD and on the basis of theoretical theses to select the codes of activity that can be considered as knowledge intensive services. By this procedure, companies with codes J and M were selected. In the last step, a description of the profitability of assets, capital and sales of defined knowledge-intensive enterprises was made with using data from the Bach database. For comparison purposes, profitability indicators were found not only for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic, but also for neighboring countries (ie. Germany, Poland, Slovak, Austria). This comparison revealed that small enterprises in the Czech Republic in categories J and M occupy a very good position in comparison with four countries - the first place was recorded in the ROA and ROS indicators, Czech companies rank second place in the ROE indicator. The situation of medium-sized enterprises is significantly worse, especially the indicator of return on sales is at the lowest level in Czech enterprises. Furthermore, the paper graphically depicts the development of profitability indicators in an 11-year time series, where an above-average development of all profitability indicators was found with the exception of ROS in small enterprises