Circular Economy (CE) practices and technologies are essential for increasing sustainability performance in manufacturing. Due to the increasing number of environmental regulations and growing public awareness of environmental issues, especially in the EU, CE is increasingly seen as a valuable factor in improving competitiveness. Therefore, there is a need for a fuller understanding of the ways in which CE technologies can be implemented into the manufacturing industries. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the identification of the characteristics of manufacturing companies and their perceptions of the barriers to the adoption of CE technologies. This survey-based study of 241 manufacturing companies (comprising a sub-sample of Slovak and Slovenian companies from the more extensive European Manufacturing Survey) uses a series of statistical tests to examine the implementation of three CE technologies. The results show that there is significant relationship between the adoption of CE technologies in manufacturing companies and their size, location, R&D activities, company age and product batch size. Finally, the research reveals the surprising finding that there is no apparent link between the perception of CE barriers and the plans of companies to implement selected CE technologies.

The diffusion of technologies within an economic system is an intricate process, influenced by a variety of factors, including governmental policies, the characteristics of adopting companies, and the technologies that can be adopted. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the implementation of environmental management systems (EMSs), such as ISO 14001, or energy management systems (EnMSs), such as ISO 50001, and the adoption of energy recuperation technologies (ERTs), which are a subset of energy efficient technologies (EETs). To achieve this, our research leveraged data from the 2018 European Manufacturing Survey, specifically a subsample of 798 companies across five European countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, and Lithuania. Due to the investigation of relationships and the type of variables used, we employed a two-step ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis. Our analysis uncovered that the current utilization of EMSs and EnMSs within companies is significantly linked to the current use of ERTs. However, upon further examination of the implementation timeline, it became improbable that EMSs or EnMSs have a substantial impact on enhancing the adoption of these technologies in the short term. Moreover, our results show that technological intensity and product complexity does not play a determining role in the adoption of ERTs, but they did show that larger companies tend to invest more in ERTs, which is in line with the findings of previous studies.

This paper explores the trends in participation in a variety of cultural activities in Slovakia. Although the research on cultural participation has thrived and there have been plenty of empirical studies published about the consumption of cultural products in different countries, there is still a lack of comprehensive research from former post-communist countries. The paper aims to test the link between cultural participation and social and economic characteristics, which has previously been done in other international studies. The cluster analysis suggests four types of Slovak cultural participants—the heritage visitors, the omnivores, the popular genre visitors, and the inactive. The outcomes point to a strong relationship between cultural inactivity and heritage visits to socioeconomic status, while there is a weak relationship between highbrow cultural participation and the upper-class. The results challenge cultural policies to be adjusted for different groups of cultural participants with the objective of increasing the overall consumption of cultural goods in Slovakia.

Culture can be a powerful driver for development, with broad social, economic and environmental impacts. UNESCO acknowledged the role of culture as an enabler and a driver of sustainable development. There are undisputable effects of culture on community building, social cohesion and empowering people. The economic importance of the cultural sector is growing. Creative and cultural industries can be a source of structural economic development, job creation and innovation. The sector of culture is among the hardest hit by the corona crisis in the whole of Europe. In Slovakia, the sector suffered by austerity measures also before the pandemic. The paper is focused on the impacts of a COVID 19 pandemic on the cultural and creative sector in Slovakia. The paper's objective is to critically analyse the supportive measures for the sector at the national and local level. The theoretical framework is based on the cultural policy and its evolution in Slovakia, which created the baseline for the analysis. The paper summarises local and national bodies' compensations for cultural workers and organisations based on text analysis of available documents. There is also presented a case study of a local cultural centre in Košice. The data for the case study stems from the semi-structured interviews with the managers of the centre about the impacts of a pandemic on their business. The results show that the policies to support firms and workers during the pandemic can be scarcely adapted to the non-traditional business models and employment forms in the cultural sector.

Gender equality initiatives in higher education face numerous challenges, from persistent meritocracy myths to gendered workload allocations and the influence of neoliberalism. Research on this topic has examined how institutions address these barriers through policy interventions such as Gender Equality Plans (GEPs), but less attention has been paid to the impact of broader political contexts on GEP implementation, particularly in cases where measures face pushback. This article analyses GEP implementation at two STEM‐oriented institutions in Slovakia operating within a national context that is broadly sceptical of such values. Drawing on institutional theory, this study examines how organizations navigate this challenging environment through a series of 19 semi‐structured interviews with administrators, researchers, and institutional representatives. The study shows that external pressure exerted with a lack of localized expertise can lead to fragmentary implementation and highlights the fact that hostile local contexts compel a greater reliance on “common sense” approaches and commitment on the part of management. The article advances our understanding of how national discourses influence GEP implementation and argues for context‐sensitive evaluative approaches with broader implications for GEP assessment practices.