Gender Heterogeneity and Politics in Decision-Making About Green Public Procurement in the Czech Republic

Green public procurement (GPP) is a widely recognized public policy tool that has attracted considerable scholarly research. However, much of this research has paid little attention to the nature of discretionary decision‐making on the part of bureaucrats and local politicians; nor has it recognized that a crucial determinant of the implementation of GPP is the extent to which women hold administrative and political positions. While GPP tends to be discussed as a tool for promoting gender equality, we draw on feminist insights to argue that doing so may be a tool for enhancing the uptake and implementation of GPP. Utilizing the data from a large‐N survey among local politicians and upper‐echelon bureaucrats in the Czech Republic, we develop a path analysis model exploring the influence of gender on their decision‐making. The results give credence to our overall argument that women are more likely to promote GPP. This argument not only breaks new ground by revealing the gendered nature of GPP but also generates straightforward policy implications

Comparison of Development of Non-governmental Organizations and the Current State of Their Funding in Slovakia and Austria

Non-governmental organizations play a vital role in the economy of every country. They are not only providers of special type of services that public sector is not capable of providing in full quality and quantity, and private sector is not interested in, but they are also watch dogs of the society and builders of active citizenship. Thus they have become an object of many research studies. The divergence in their goals, sizes, roles, types of services provided, and ways of funding make NGOs an interesting subject. As a goal for our research we therefore chose a comparison of the development and state of the Slovak and Austrian non-profit sector in the view of historical development of both countries. Consequently, we want to evaluate the funding of NGOs in Slovakia and Austria. In the paper we map the development of non-profit sector in Slovakia and Austria and in the context of a common historical development we assess a current state and a potential of economic strength of NGOs in both countries. The output is comparison of funding of NGOs in Slovakia and Austria based on statistical data evaluation. Subsequently, we propose recommendation for suitable diversification of the funding sources

Sustainability of Rural Nonprofit Organizations: Czech Republic and Beyond

Sustainability of nonprofit organizations is a key concern for today’s nonprofit scholars and practitioners. Building upon the nonprofit economics literature, the present paper introduces the distinction between the demand-side and supply-side determinants of nonprofit sustainability and makes the case for the discrepancy between them. This discrepancy presents not only a generic conceptual explanation of the nonprofit sustainability problems but is also applicable to the context of the European rural nonprofit sector. Three arguments are advanced. First, the notorious implementation problems of LEADER partnerships can be explained as a manifestation of the above discrepancy. Second, and related, the rural context implies the tendency of the supply-side determinants of nonprofit sustainability to undermine the demand-side ones. Third, recent empirical findings from the Czech Republic show that this tendency does not necessarily imply the possibility of a clear classification of the demand-side and supply-side sustainability determinants. Rather, those features of rural areas and communities that significantly affect the size of the local nonprofit sector exhibit a controversial entanglement of demand-side and supply-side identities

Current state of self-financing of private non-profit organizations in the conditions of the Slovak Republic

Ensuring the financial stability of non-profit organizations through financial decision in the structure of financial resources is influenced by many objective and subjective factors. However, a necessary presumption of financial stability is to reduce their dependence on one source of funding or in other words, the independence can be achieved by diversifying of the funding sources. And it is the diversification of financial sources and their acquisition through self-financing that we consider as an appropriate way to achieve financial balance and thus long-term existential security of non-profit organizations. This scientific paper presents the partial results of a research of the current state of self-financing and diversification of financial resources of private non-profit organizations in the Slovak Republic. We analysed the primary data by the relevant scientific methods and procedures (selected mathematical-statistical methods, analysed in SPSS – Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). With the analysis we acquired a knowledge which allows us to formulate several solutions and recommendations for theory and practice. By presenting these conclusions we fulfil a scientific goal of the paper, which is to present partial results of research of current state of funding of private non-profit organizations and interpret the obtained outputs in an economic and social context

Competition and municipal waste management expenditure: Evidence from the Czech Republic Olomouc Region

Today, the increasing importance of waste management and the question of its efficiency is a broadly discussed topic, both on the theoretical and practical level. The present paper provides the results of a comprehensive analysis of the competitiveness of the environment with regard to waste management in the Czech Republic, Olomouc Region, while focusing on its effects on municipal waste management expenditure. The main goal of the paper is to examine and evaluate the impact of the competitiveness of the environment on cost-effectiveness of municipal waste management expenditure by using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and a competition index of our own design. We compare expenditure per capita for several municipality size groups. Moreover, the data have also been analysed separately for the each of the five districts of the Olomouc Region in order to identify whether there are any significant differences among the districts within the region. The analysed period covers 5 years - from 2010 to 2014 - and the sample consists of all 399 municipalities of the Olomouc Region. The HHI results confirm that the competitive environment has a significant impact on municipal expenditure, but our competition index results show impact of competition as ambiguous

Benefits and risks of self-financing of NGOS: empirical evidence from the Czech republic, Slovakia and Austria

Self-financing of non-government organizations is a highly discussed topic in the theory and practice of non-government organizations (NGOs). In the presented paper we respond to the current theoretical and practical questions associated with self-financing in the context of an effort to achieve financial independence and thus a long-term stability of NGOs. Our intention is to present and interpret the results of the analysis of primary research of funding the NGOs in the Slovak Republic and Austria and preliminary results of a pilot pre-research in the Czech Republic. Based on the historical development of these countries, especially the development of the non- profit sector within the conditions of every country and on the relevant empirical findings we assess and compare the current extent and potential of self-financing in the selected countries (including the extent of other sources of funding). We point out the benefits and risks connected to the examined issue and try to show that self-financing of NGOs must be understood in a broader context than just a "business" or a commercial activity and that it can be in compliance with the core work. Furthermore we explore the effect of self-financing on the principle of non-distribution- constraint of NGOs and we try to point out that self-financing can be in compliance also with this principle. By presenting these conclusions we fulfil the scientific goal of the paper, which is to identify particular benefits and risks of self-financing of NGOs based on relevant empirical findings from the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Austria

Social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic: Current trends in research on hybridity

The hybridity phenomenon has received increasing attention in the scientific literature worldwide. However, this is largely western literature, which is not perfectly suited to the transitional context of Central and Eastern Europe, respecting its specific features. The lack of relevant research on hybridity in the post-communist countries shows a considerable research gap that strongly indicates the need for deeper insight. The paper contributes to the conversation by rethinking hybridity in the context of transitional economies. The typical hybrid organizations, combining a market orientation with a social mission, are social enterprises. The discourse on social enterprise is quite different across countries, including across (post-) transitional economies. The Czech Republic is a CEE country still lacking legislative regulation on social entrepreneurship. The paper provides a comprehensive picture of the driving forces, challenges, and opportunities for social entrepreneurship in the specific historical, socio-economic, legislative, and political conditions of the Czech Republic. The main results presented in the paper show key historical events explicitly influencing social entrepreneurship and its current state based on up-to-date data, enabling the assessment of current trends in research on hybridity in the Czech Republic

Stewardship and administrative capacity in green public procurement in the Czech Republic: evidence from a large‐N survey

Background The uptake of green public procurement in the Czech Republic is known to lag behind the European standards. We trace this condition back to the adverse effects of a specific type of decision-making trade-off faced by the Czech public procurement officials, namely the trade-off between stewardship and administrative compliance. The trade-off means that public procurers are aware of administrative risks and complications attendant on the conscientious non-perfunctory implementation of green public procurement. Results The overall result is that public procurers ultimately come to prioritize the contract criterion of the lowest price over ecological criteria. The existence of this trade-off has been generally confirmed by the results of a unique large-N survey of more than 1100 respondents from a group of local public officials and mayors in the Czech Republic. Conclusion We have found that the decision-making of Czech public procurers is affected by the trade-off between stewardship and administrative compliance, which turn out to be mutually conflicting goals. On the one hand, many public procurers do possess a stewardship motivation that shapes their positive attitude to GPP. On the other hand, they are painfully aware of, and seek to forestall, administrative risks and complications attendant on the conscientious, i.e., non-perfunctory, implementation of GPP.Czech Grant Agency [GA19-06020S]Depto. de Economía Financiera y Actuarial y EstadísticaFac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesTRUEpu