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In this chapter, Markéta Levínská, Dana Bittnerová and David Doubek show the situation of the Roma Minority in the Czech Republic. According to qualified estimates by regional coordinators for Roma minority affairs, a total of 245,800 Roma lived in Czechia in 2016, which represents 2.3% of the overall population in the Czech Republic. The Roma in the Czech Republic cannot be considered a homogeneous group, neither economically, nor regarding their social status. The authors describe the legal, social and cultural status of the Roma minority then analyse their attainment on different levels of the education system. After listing the most important policies and support programmes in the area of Roma education, they show current research results relating to the state of Roma education.

The purpose of this study is to identify whether or not there is a link between using a library in the country of origin and in the Czech Republic, how immigrants perceive Czech libraries and which are the potential reasons for not using library services.

Authors used seven language mutations of an online questionnaire focused on immigrants living in the Czech Republic. The additional qualitative part consists of semi-structured interviews with eight respondents.

With regard to the results of the study, respondents used libraries in their country of origin more than in the Czech Republic. The immigrants mostly view the Czech libraries positively. One of the principal reasons why the immigrants do not use library services in the Czech Republic is that they obtain literature in alternative ways.

The questionnaire distribution was the most difficult part of the whole study because there was no direct way to target the immigrant population. Only limited conclusions can be, therefore, drawn about the immigrant user group in general. The results cannot be considered as representative for all the immigrants living in the Czech Republic.

The study’s findings show the immigrants’ behavioural patterns in the libraries and identify reasons why they are not using library services in the Czech context. This study can be used to develop other more comprehensive research in the Czech Republic.

For both the Czech Republic and Poland, globalization is intricately linked to European integration and Europeanization. Globalization and European integration have strongly influenced the policies of these countries over the last 17 years. The Czech policy of accommodation and the Polish policy of initiation toward the European Union (EU) show two different ways how the individual Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries can react to the process of Europeanization. The Czech and Polish policies within CEE area are illustrative examples of reactions to the supraterritorializing effects of globalization. These two CEE countries have answered some of the challenges of globalization through sub-regional cooperation in the Central European Initiative (CEI), Visegrad Group (VG), and the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), followed by accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and later joining the EU. The Czech Republic and Poland are gradually entering the area of supra-territoriality. But concurrently both, as EU member states, participate in building and strengthening external territorial borders of the EU through the Schengen Agreement. Despite sharing the experience of disappearing of the EU internal borders, the Czech Republic and Poland have not completely relinquished their existing territorial identity. In the context of the break-up of the Czechoslovak federation it is also useful to examine the issues of deterritorialization and reterritorialization.

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.

Vine growing for the production of wine constitutes one of the major areas of agriculture of the Czech Republic, and in recent years, it has been qualitatively improved. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether oligopolistic market structures have come into being on the sparkling wine market in the Czech Republic, and whether some wine firms have a dominant position on the sparkling wine market.

The purpose of this study is to find, compare and carry out a statistical analysis of data on the production and sale of sparkling wines in the Czech Republic, in particular the indicators of the sales and profits of the dominant producer, Bohemia Sekt. In retail chains in the Czech Republic, the price of domestic and foreign sparkling wines was then compared with a comparative analysis.

The dominant seller of sparkling wine on the Czech market is Bohemia Sekt, which is also the largest domestic non-sparkling and sparkling wine producer. Bohemia Sekt sold 11 m bottles of sparkling wine on the Czech market in 2015 and maintained a 67 per cent share of the domestic market. Traditionally, Christmas time and the end of the year is the main season for selling sparkling wines in the Czech Republic, as more than one-third of the annual production of all wineries is sold at this time.

The paper presents a finding about the consistency of the prices of sparkling wines offered in retail chains in the Czech Republic. This confirms the validity of using the model of oligopolistic competition with a dominant company on the sparkling wine market in the Czech Republic. The dominance of Bohemia Sekt in the given market is mainly due to the loyalty of Czech consumers to this brand.

The purpose of this paper is to give a complex description and evaluation of open access adoption in the environment of the Czech Republic, from both the green road and golden road points of view.

Data and conclusions in this paper are numerically supported by quantitative analyses from several relevant databases (e.g. JCR, Scopus, DOAJ or ROAR).

The issue of open access has not been given appropriate attention in the Czech Republic. Therefore, most of the important activities have only recently been implemented, or are still underway. Open access is still being completely ignored at the level of Czech state offices and funding agencies, which leads to scientific institutions learning of this phenomenon individually. Compared to other Central European countries, the Czech Republic can be classified as average in certain respects, but it is no competition for developed West European and North American countries in terms of awareness, infrastructure and open access adoption.

This is the very first article that comprehensively sums up all aspects of the issue of open access in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic has a long history of product excellence recognizable in such diverse areas as beer, weapons and shoe manufacture. Moreover, many of the ideas regarded as central to contemporary expression of TQM such as empowerment and primacy of the organization’s human resource are to be found in the 1920s and 1930s speeches and essays of Czech industrialist and organizational behaviorist Tomas Bata. Nevertheless, the Czech Republic faces distinct challenges brought about by the Velvet Revolution ‐ challenges common to many Central and Eastern European nations. Challenges, practices, trends and the future promise of quality in the Czech Republic are discussed.

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 investigate the issue of performance measurement of social enterprises with main particular focus on economic performance approach reflecting local aspect, since the local aspect plays a significant role in social entrepreneurship concept. Thus, comparison of two instruments that consider local aspects: local multiplier 3 (LM3) and Input-Output analysis is examined. Input-Output analysis is empirically used to calculate social enterprises’ impact on the Czech economy and to confirm the assumption to be more suitable instrument for economic performance measurement of social enterprises in comparison to local multiplier 3 method.

The research adopted two-phase approach. At first a qualitative approach was used to compare the two selected instruments (LM3 and Input-Output analysis). Consequently, a quantitative research was applied to determine the impact of social enterprises’ activities on the economies of individual regions. The research was carried out on a sample of social enterprises (143 subjects) in the Czech Republic covering the year 2015. For this approach, Symmetric Input-Output tables and multipliers were calculated and revenue data from each observed social enterprise were used.

The findings of the research indicate effects of social enterprises’ activities on the economy in individual regions of the Czech Republic. The results clearly show that the impact of social enterprises on the Czech economy is not negligible. Calculated impacts differ in sectors as well as in regions. Besides, of these findings, the assumption that the Input-Output analysis is more appropriate instrument for economic performance measurement of social enterprises, especially in situation of a larger sample of social enterprises in different regions, in comparison to LM3 method, was confirmed.

The limitations of this study is the dependence on the Symmetric Input-Output tables, which are usually published by local statistical offices and it takes some time to construct them. A more significant limitation and future research direction relates to the lack of generally accepted measurement framework in the sector of social enterprises and lack of the data, especially quantitative, in the Czech Republic.

The findings of the research represent a significant contribution to the process chain of understanding the role of social enterprises in (local) economy. The lack of proven impact of social enterprises to economy is considered as important limit of this sector development, not only from the perspective of investors and donors but also from the perspective of policymakers and even social enterprises themselves. The Input-Output analysis can be applied for any region of any country and can contribute to reduce scepticism about economic performance of social enterprises, thus to support putting social and environmental goals of social enterprises into practice.

This research has been carried out on the so far largest identified sample of social enterprises in the Czech Republic and provides data for discourse among stakeholders about social enterprises’ impact; thus, it enables to understand their impact and make capable to enlarge their support network and development.

This research is a pioneering attempt to provide data about economic impact of social enterprises using Input-Output analysis in the Czech Republic. No previous research identifies such a large sample of Czech social enterprises and collects quantitative data about them, as well as considers Input-Output analysis as an option instead of LM3 method. The effort of this research has been to react on a research gap in studies related to the impact of social enterprises (reflecting local aspect). This paper could be understood as beneficial not only from the perspective of the Czech Republic but also worldwide.

Medical technology (MedTech) is a growth industry, which like other manufacturing sectors has undergone fragmentation of production and emergence of Global Value Chains (GVCs). The purpose of this paper is to compare how two open European economies position themselves competitively within MedTech GVCs: highly developed Switzerland and the emerging Czech Republic.

The research applies a mixed methodology to analyze the performance of each location in the MedTech GVCs. It draws on macroeconomic, industry, trade and a proprietary sample of firm data, combined with onsite interviews.

The economic outcomes and GVC positions differ in both cases, whereas Switzerland focuses on high value-added activities such as R&D and after-sales service. Specialized manufacturing is also located here in spite of high costs. By contrast, the Czech Republic focuses mostly on low value-added activities, like manufacturing disposables, although some domestic innovative companies are notable. The authors generalize four types of firms in the industry, comparing their presence in both locations.

The competitive positions and challenges faced by each location when engaging in MedTech GVCs are summarized and related to economic outcomes. In the Czech Republic, the barriers to upgrading include its business environment, and weak links between education institutions and industry. Switzerland’s high cost structure is offset by adding high value in core competencies. Both countries should protect the inherent advantage their locations offer within responsive European supply chains.

GVC research in the MedTech sector has been limited. There is no comparison of two European countries, and their position in MedTech GVCs, nor of how firms, participate successfully in them.