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The paper deals with the child benefits system in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Sweden.

The authors describe the systems as the key baseline for subsequent qualitative and quantitative comparison. An essential element is the quantitative comparison of child benefits using their statistically stationarised values.

The Czech and Slovak systems provide a comparable rate of coverage as the Swedish system regarding the payment of both types of benefits, i.e. child benefits and tax allowances, for the first and second child; however, from the third child, the individual differences are considerable. Albeit the concepts of Czech and Slovak systems are framed by the same historical origins and conceptual approach, they differ significantly, with Slovakia providing the lowest aggregate level of child benefits.

The paper provides insight into the child benefit systems in the respective countries. These systems are at the centre of attention of policymakers who are attempting to maintain birth rates and reduce child poverty. The Czech Republic has the lowest level of at-risk-of-poverty rates for persons under 16 years of age, while natality rates are comparable.

Although mass privatizations in Slovakia had the same starting point as those in the Czech Republic, mass privatisation in Slovakia led to a different ownership structure, which also partly reflects the different industry structure. Proximately to political decision making of the new management is close and explicit. The new structure lends itself to targeted industrial policy.

In their quest to move toward free‐market economics, different nations have adopted contrasting strategies in implementing reforms. The Czechs and Slovaks, adjacent nations with similar natural resources, were both united for a substantial period of time. Although both shared a common experience, with centralized policies under communist rule, each retained its respective cultural values. Following the “velvet divorce” of the former Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic rushed into a market economy with entrepreneurs being agents of social change. The Czech Republic became the first former member of the Warsaw Pact to be invited to join NATO and the European Union. Slovakia, in contrast, adopted a policy of slow and gradual reform, with special assistance provided to micro‐enterprise.

This paper aims to examine how the Slovak Labour Code has evolved as a result of the “velvet revolution” which saw Czechoslovakia begin the transition from a “command” to a “market economy, the establishment of a separate Czech Republic and a Slovak Republic and Slovakia's accession to membership of the European Union.

The paper attempts to provide an empirical contribution to the understanding of how the process of industrial relations is evolving in the new democracies of Eastern and Central Europe in the post‐communist period.

The paper highlights how the detailed codification of trade union rights of the communist era have been drastically reformed in light of the Slovak Republic adopting a market economy and adopting the EU's social acquis communautaire. The governments desire to liberalise and encourage a more flexible labour market has seen many of the old powers of the trade unions transferred to other forms of employee representation such as works councils and works trustees.

The author has described the strategy of the government to marginalise trade unions by introducing works councils and transferring functions to them, which had previously been performed by the trade unions.

The paper provide an interesting insight into how “players” in the “employee relations game” perceive the re‐codification of the Slovak Labour Code. There seems to be a mixed response to the changes, for whilst the union claims that it is able to boast a 95 per cent success rate in winning cases in the courts arising out of the rights and protections provided for employees in the Labour Code, and not withstanding the very low incidence of industrial action, the paper notes with some irony that there is significant school of opinion amongst Slovak trade unionists that the price that they pay for all of this is some of the lowest wages in the region.

The aim of the study was to examine the use of Porter’s generic strategies and their effect on performance in the context of the Slovak hospital industry. Using mail survey the study first identified the natural taxonomy of four strategic types of Slovak hospitals, based on their use of Porter’s generic strategies in pure form and in combination. Next the study examined whether different strategic types were associated with different levels of organisational performance, while controlling for such variables as size and location, which have been argued to influence the hospital performance. The findings indicate that hospitals which follow a “stuck‐in‐the‐middle” strategy, in general, have superior performance on all used performance measures, while hospitals that place only low emphasis on cost leadership, differentiation and focus, labelled “wait and see” in this study, perform the poorest. The study concludes that the research provided body of knowledge relevant for the Slovak hospital industry, that may be used by hospital managers in the strategy formulation process as well as by the researches in exploring the influence of different contingencies on hospitals’ strategic orientation.

The use of interactive, case method and other experiential teaching has a very recent history in the Czech and Slovak educational systems. Before the “Velvet revolution”, courses were typically taught using non‐interactive lecturing. Along with the recent introduction of the free market economy has come a real need for business administration courses. The Czechoslovak Management Center has attempted to introduce and foster interactive techniques through direct training and through pairing western and Czech/Slovak Faculty in the classroom. Experiences during the first 18 months revealed market resistance to interactive methods among some local faculty and students. Reviews issues which impinge on receptivity to interactive teaching on the part of Czech and Slovak Faculty and students. Identifies lessons learned and makes recommendations.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the gender differentiation of adolescents in their online shopping motivation based on utilitarian and hedonic values as an expression of well-being. It is necessary to find out whether and to what extent utilitarian and hedonic values act as motivations in online shopping. The aim was to find whether boys and girls differ in their average individual values representing motivators in a specific, individual online shopping behavior, while assuming that a higher frequency of occurrence of the value areas represents a higher level of well-being.

The research focused on finding if individual motivational areas of online shopping, in which utilitarian and hedonic values are applied, are differently represented by Slovak boys and girls. The research sample comprised of the Slovak adolescents (n=420, AM age=16.75). A modified questionnaire investigated the motivation for online shopping.

Research findings pointed to a higher degree of well-being in adolescents’ online shopping motivational structures based on utilitarian and hedonic motivations. The research study indicated different motivational structure based on utilitarian and hedonic values which are associated with online shopping behavior of the adolescents in relation to their gender. The outcomes showed that there was a larger representation of the utilitarian values related to online shopping by adolescent boys. The adolescent boys more often appreciated choice, availability of information, lack of sociality and cost savings. Adolescent boys and girls had equal hedonistic value motivations.

At the time of the digital marketing boom, the knowledge of adolescents’ behavior in the online shopping environment is important for marketing communication. Adolescents will represent a strong segment of buyers in the digital market in the near future. Thus, aiming for the improvement in well-being by respecting the gender differentiation, retailers could create a more effective marketing communication design that would be targeted at the current Generation Z. The findings are important for the preparation and creation of the design of the online-activities marketing in individual cultural regions.

There is a notable absence in the monitoring of the well-being values in adolescent online shopping in Europe, especially in the post-communist EU countries. The Slovak Republic is one of the dynamically developing post-communist countries of the EU. Its position in the OECD which measures subjective well-being is very low. The research can become a starting point for forming the theory of online shopping behavior, assuming gender unification in the areas of hedonic values and motivations not only for the Generation Z but for all online shopping consumers in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The presented research is thus practical in order to adequately set up the online communication and the research use of a diagnostic tool in the European space. The authors see the research as a pilot study, which gives the opportunity for subsequent intercultural comparison. Knowledge of gender differences and indicators of well-being tendencies in the motivational structure of adolescents may be applicable for supporting and regulating the online shopping behavior of adolescents, as well as for the explanation and theoretical modeling of this behavior.

The study is an attempt to provide empirical evidence, in the context of acute hospital care, of the current human resource practices in the health sector of the Slovak Republic. Using a sample of 72 acute care hospitals the research explored the perceived functions, typical customers and priorities of hospital human resource departments, ownership of a workforce plan, and the relationships between ownership of a workforce plan and type of hospital, as well as the degree to which different human resource activities are given priority. Cross‐tabulation procedure revealed statistically significant relationships between ownership of a workforce plan and the degree of priority given to having a quick, efficient and cost‐effective recruitment and selection system and, not surprisingly, the degree of priority given to ensuring that the human resource department has a workforce plan. The study evidence also indicates that, although the human resource staff in hospitals seem to be aware of their role in assisting hospital management in decision making, the human resource function in the Slovak hospitals still rather resembles that of a personnel administration than that of an important strategic human resource activity.

The Polish–Slovak borderland is a mountainous area with extraordinary natural conditions for tourism development. The main aim of this chapter is to analyze theoretical aspects of a relationship between transport and tourism and to assess selected changes in cross-border transport that have influenced tourism in Polish–Slovak tourism regions. We have tried to answer the questions on changes in transport infrastructure (based on the analysis of the cross-border projects) and public transport (based on the analysis of timetables of the cross-border public transport connections) in the borderland during the last 30 years and to answer the question whether these changes are in accordance with the sustainable development goals. The Polish–Slovak border is seen as a barrier to transport. The increasing cross-border movement of people and goods through Polish–Slovak border after 1989 required the opening of new border crossings and the construction of new cross-border transport infrastructure. Investments to the road infrastructure have led to using of individual automobile transport. Public transport is currently of marginal importance in cross-border transport. The three cross-border rail lines are in poor technical condition, and plans for their modernization are uncertain. Bus transport has been limited on two tourist-oriented lines in the central part of the borderland. In terms of the structure of the use of means of transport, therefore, no change in trends should be expected and most of the incoming people will continue to cross the Polish–Slovak border by their own means of communication. What is worrying, in the future, in the absence of modernization of the railway infrastructure and no organizational measures, there will be a further decline in the importance of public transport in relation to individual road transport.

This study reports the findings of the first survey of the knowledge and needs for training in evidence based medicine (EBM) of health‐care workers in Slovakia. This study was primarily qualitative and based on a triangular approach, which included: analysis of the situation in pre‐ and postgraduate education in Slovakia aimed at estimating needs in EBM and critical appraisal skills (CAS) training; analysis of questionnaires distributed in a sample of medical doctors and university educated public health workers undergoing postgraduate training; and focus group discussions. The findings revealed a real gap in knowledge in EBM and CAS in Slovakia and identified several areas as the focus for intervention. The results showed also some important behavioural and cultural aspects, including low individual responsibility for education; tendency to delegate responsibility to authorities (experts, top management, Ministry of Health); and persistence of the state paternalistic type of education. Concludes that managers planning to implement EBM in Slovakia should therefore consider a broader behavioural and cultural context for change, not just introduction of a training EBM module.