Optimizing of the Balanced Scorecard method for management of mining companies with the use of factor analysis

The managers of information age companies cannot rely merely on data derived from past activities of the company and focus on improving existing processes. They need a frame for measuring values that result from strategic goals of the company, a tool, which is focusing on obtaining information about company's current success, as well as finding new driving forces to ensure the future competitiveness of the company. Strategic business performance measurement system the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a suitable tool for improving the competitiveness of industrial companies. During its implementation, however, there is a conflict of perception of the importance of individual goals and measurable characteristics in partial perspectives of the BSC and its actual enforcement of the various strategic objectives in companies. The aim of this article is to verify the accuracy of BSC settings in an environment of selected companies in the Moravian-Silesian region with the emphasis placed on mining companies with the help of multidimensional statistics - factor analysis. The research took place in 2015 in cooperation with managers from the Moravian-Silesian Region (MSR), and it was divided into two kinds of research - quantitative and qualitative.Web of Science22444743

Co-branding and brand loyalty: higher education institutions perspective

There are various strategies for creating brands. One of the branding strategies, i.e. the strategy of creating a brand in the minds of consumers, is the brand alliance, or co-branding. Co-branding is a kind of marketing agreement established to combine several brands. The aim of the article is to present the issue of co-branding and to determine the relationship between loyalty to the brand and the strategy of co-branding on the example of universities. The article is based on the analysis of the subject literature and presents the results of the authors’ original study.There are various strategies for creating brands. One of the branding strategies, i.e. the strategy of creating a brand in the minds of consumers, is the brand alliance, or co-branding. Co-branding is a kind of marketing agreement established to combine several brands. The aim of the article is to present the issue of co-branding and to determine the relationship between loyalty to the brand and the strategy of co-branding on the example of universities. The article is based on the analysis of the subject literature and presents the results of the authors’ original study

On the strategic planning, innovation activities and economic performance of industrial companies

Proposed paper deals with the “in-situ” situation of strategic planning, innovation activities and consequent economic performance of Czech and Slovak industrial companies based on questionnaire research results. The relations between selected parameters were aimed and statistically tested on the sample of 254 industrial companies active in Czech and Slovak republic in years 2009-2011. Four hypotheses were evaluated, with the goal of enlightening mutual relations of strategy-innovations-performance behavioural characteristics of the studied companies. In findings, there is well apparent, that written detailed strategic document has mostly bigger companies (above 250 employees and gross annual turnover over 1 bill. CZK), who plan longer in advance (mostly 5 to 10 years or 3 to 5 years) than smaller companies that have more often concise written (a plan mostly from 1 to 3 years in advance) or not written strategic document (11 to 50 employees and gross annual turnover 11 to 100 mil. CZK). The (industrial) companies with written detailed strategic document are continually active in innovations and experienced strong positive progress in volume of production (over 30 %) and earnings - profit (over 30 %) in research period. The analyses have shown that medium-sized and big industrial companies experienced growth up to 30 % of gross annual turnover meanwhile the costs fall up to 30 % during the examined period 2009-2011. Change in volume of production in the course of the period 2009-2011, there is significant correlation to change in gross annual turnover and change in earnings (profit) in the course of the research period. These finding can be interpreted as empirical confirmation of the reasonability of thorough strategic planning with respect to dynamics and innovation necessity. Strategic and innovative industrial companies apparently passed through the period of slow growth without substantial problems, which most likely suffered above all micro enterprises.Web of Science201251

Database mirroring in fault-tolerant continuous technological process control

This paper describes the implementations of mirroring technology of the selected database systems – Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Caché. By simulating critical failures the systems behavior and their resilience against failure were tested. The aim was to determine whether the database mirroring is suitable to use in continuous metallurgical processes for ensuring the fault-tolerant solution at affordable cost. The present day database systems are characterized by high robustness and are resistant to sudden system failure. Database mirroring technologies are reliable and even low-budget projects can be provided with a decent fault-tolerant solution. The database system technologies available for low-budget projects are not suitable for use in real-time systems.Web of Science551868

Complex processing of rubber waste through energy recovery

This article deals with the applied energy recovery solutions for complex processing of rubber waste for energy recovery. It deals specifically with the solution that could maximize possible use of all rubber waste and does not create no additional waste that disposal would be expensive and dangerous for the environment. The project is economically viable and energy self-sufficient. The outputs of the process could replace natural gas and crude oil products. The other part of the process is also the separation of metals, which can be returned to the metallurgical secondary production.Web of Science20429729

Mining coal production in Slovakia

The paper aims to describe the development of mining and utilization of black coal in the territory of the Slovak Republic. The authors also try to analyse the state of the financial health of black coal mining companies in our territory. The result of the paper is to provide a compact view of the development of coal mining in the context of the financial health of enterprises in this sector. We compare the development of coal production in Slovakia with the development of coal production in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria and Ukraine. We analyse the development of coal production within the Visegrad group along with the neighbouring state - Ukraine. Mining production in Slovakia decreased 15.70 per cent in November of 2018 over the same month in the previous year. Mining Production in Slovakia averaged -1.08 per cent from 2001 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 135.30 per cent in July of 2007 and a record low of - 57 per cent in July of 2008.Web of Science24217116

Evaluation of the functionality of bankruptcy models in mining companies

Mining companies are an important part of the national industry of the Czech Republic. Since mining companies are important for the industry, it is necessary to predict their economic development. Moreover, forecasting the economic development of an enterprise in terms of the risk of bankruptcy is an important activity for the financial management of any enterprise. One of the ways to predict economic development and assess the risk of possible bankruptcy is to use bankruptcy models. The aim of this paper is to determine the most appropriate model for predicting the bankruptcy risk of a mining company. The subject of the article is to identify the most suitable bankruptcy models applicable for bankruptcy risk prediction in Czech conditions of mining enterprises and to verify their functionality on real data of mining enterprises. On the basis of a search of expert sources and comparative analysis, it was found that the most suitable models for predicting the development of the enterprise in terms of bankruptcy risk are modified versions of traditional bankruptcy models. The analysis showed that the bankruptcy models are the IN05 Index, Altman's analysis for Czech companies and the modified Taffler's index. The authors' team conducted a thorough analysis during which they verified the functionality of the selected bankruptcy models on real data of mining companies. After a thorough analysis to test the functionality of bankruptcy models on real data from mining companies, the most appropriate model for estimating the evolution of bankruptcy probability risk was identified.Web of Science27376675

The new national energy concept 2015-The future of brown coal in the Czech Republic

Reserves of brown coal in the Czech Republic are, in the long term view, still recognized as the main domestic fuel and energy resource. The biggest issues, concerning the use of these domestic resources, are, according to the authors, the existence of the “Resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic No. 444” of 30 October, 1991 together with the new State Energy Concept, which was approved in May this year, and which states that the CR will export three out of four key fuels and energy resources, namely oil, gas and nuclear fuel. Brown coal is, therefore, the only domestic energy resource that allows a long-term guarantee leading towards reducing the energy dependence.Web of Science20431029

Quality quantification model of basic raw materials

Basic raw materials belong to the key input sources in the production of pig iron. The properties of basic raw materials can be evaluated using a variety of criteria. The essential ones include the physical and chemical properties. Current competitive pressures, however, force the producers of iron more and more often to include cost and logistic criteria into the decision-making process. In this area, however, they are facing a problem of how to convert a variety of vastly different parameters into one evaluation indicator in order to compare the available raw materials. This article deals with the analysis of a model created to evaluate the basic raw materials, which was designed as part of the research.Web of Science55337837

Increasing the efficiency of production of iron by means of reduction of harmful elements

Sintering process is a summary of physical, thermal, and physical-chemical processes taking place simultaneously in a given time interval, but in particular order within a time sequence. The input raw materials of the sintering process include a number of negative elements, which can later affect the course of the blast furnace process. The key point is to monitor the amount of these raw materials and purposefully try to reduce their amount. The article deals with the content analysis of selected harmful substances entering the sintering process in order to reduce their amount that later continues into the blast furnace process.Web of Science54465264