Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

In recent years, M&As have become popular among Chinese companies, with many of them receiving a high premium. This paper empirically analyzes the motivation of high-premium M&As from the perspective of price manipulations. The sample consists of 1,013 Chinese companies, listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange, and covers the period from 2013 to 2018. Our results indicate that benefit seeking of major shareholders on the costs of minor investors is a key determinant for the merger of companies. In comparison, economic synergy effects are not the predominant factor of M&As. Therefore, legal reforms by the Chinese Market Supervisory Department are necessary to protect smaller investors.

This paper explores the convergence of financial systems in selected CEE countries, by examining the typical capital structure, and its convergence, of their non-financial companies. It examines the sigma convergence of ratios of the most important financial liabilities to total financial liabilities. It focusses on those liabilities that constitute a significant part of total liabilities. These are equity and investment fund shares, bank loans, debt securities and trade credit. Using the Eurostat database, there is strong evidence for sigma convergence of equity and bank loans. This confirms the banking sector’s key role in continental Europe. In contrast, debt securities and trade credit show only moderate convergence. The 2008 crisis led to increased variance for debt securities and trade credit.

Various research studies have already reported many benefits of cluster cooperation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but the factors´ assessment leading them to be joined in this form of business are still missing. This research contributes to fill this gap by a broader analysis accomplishment within three perspectives: the SMEs’ size category, the cluster cooperation experience and the typology being related to Slovak clusters. The main aim of this study is to identify the most important reasons that drive SMEs to engagement into cluster cooperation and by means of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to group them into main factors affecting the SMEs’ decision about clustering. These outcomes are based on questionnaire survey results conducted among 1018 Slovak SMEs. We evaluated the SMEs’ perception of ten identified reasons by using the Chi-square independence test and Cramer’s V. The EFA results indicated two main factors. The results highlighted the importance of clustering to SMEs, policy makers and other stakeholders.

This paper deals with the issue of financial strategy formulation and available models of financial strategy with a focus on e-commerce. The paper aims at using the financial strategy model to assess current financial strategy for enterprises primarily oriented towards electronic commerce and to propose the optimum financial strategy for this area of business. The research used selected methods of financial analysis (liquidity, profitability, indebtedness, activity) to evaluate current financial standing of a selected sample of enterprises. The results of the financial analysis were used for building of a model of financial strategy in Vensim program. The model, based on selected financial indicators, identifies current financial strategies of enterprises and designs the optimum financial strategy using the principle of dynamics and proposes its development for long-term progress of the enterprise. The financial strategy model is also applicable to e-commerce.

The paper analyses the models of the Laffer curve addressed in the academic literature and strives to explain the effects which can exist in relation with the original curve and the one modified by other academicians. The effects are decomposed in a theoretical manner and statistically tested thereafter with a dataset covering the period 2000 – 2012 consisting of data for Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Greece, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Norway, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The main value added of the paper lies in the outcomes of the cross-sectional panel data regression testing the model derived from the theoretical decomposition of the curve as well as graphical expression of the particular effects. Based on the result of the analysis only a few of the decomposed effects could have been observed mainly the originally anticipated negative correlation of tax base and tax rate, positive correlation of labor productivity and tax base or negative correlation of tax base and unemployment level. Other effects (grey economy, tax competition, government spending, etc.) were not proven.