Social sustainability is slowly becoming a more important aspect of a company’s management, particularly in the case of multinational companies with an international network of subsidiaries placed in diverse cultural and social environments. The concept of social sustainability is strongly connected with a considerable number of stakeholders, compared to the environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. The nature of activities under the social pillar of corporate responsibility connects social sustainability with family business, which aims at the principles of social solidarity, equality and ethics. This article uniquely analyzes selected aspects of social sustainability on a sample of 201 Slovak subsidiaries of foreign multinationals and finds differences between family and nonfamily ones. Surprisingly, the conducted research proved that the examined family businesses cannot be considered as bearers of social sustainability in Slovakia, since, in many aspects, the nonfamily businesses implemented the monitored aspects in larger measures, and there were only two factors that turned out to be significant, according to the type of business ownership. Equal opportunities in the workplace were the only variable, due to which significant differences were seen, according to the factor of a family business and the factor of employees’ gender simultaneously, which makes it a crucial variable. The conducted study fills the gap in explanation of interconnections between social sustainability, family business and equal gender opportunities, which makes it unique not just in Slovak conditions.

Nowadays, all sources in the reproduction process are easily substituted, thus the most important factors in reaching a competitive advantage are human resources. Talent management is the process oriented to enrich higher the ability of employers to increase their quality and productivity. Globalization has changed the structure of the companies in Slovakia, depending on the size of the company. This paper compares how the size of the company influences the main phases of the talent management process (strategy, identification, assessment, development, retaining). A scaled questionnaire was applied as a tool for data collection in 381 companies operating business in Slovakia. Questionnaire reliability was verified by Cronbach’s alpha. To verify the existence of statistically significant differences between individual groups of respondents, ANOVA was used. We found that the main differences between small and large companies were identified in the phases of talent identification and talent development. In bigger companies, management is more focused on HR plans that include talent identification and acquisition and have more possibilities to develop talented individuals. On the other side we could see that small companies were more successful in the process of retaining the talents. Talented people in small companies are more loyal to the employers and stay in the company for longer periods than talented individuals in large companies.

Even though formalization of ethical principles is a must in today’s business, research and evidence in the Slovak conditions remain scarce. Yet, creating an ethical business climate and especially the formalization of ethics through codes of ethics incorporated in corporate standards is a particularly interesting phenomenon in the conditions of transit economies due to the significant role of multinationals in this process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine main factors influencing the extent of ethical codes in 225 subsidiaries of multinational companies operating in Slovakia. The conducted questionnaire study containing items focused on area and extent of ethical code, number of employees, economic performance, regional and industrial scope, ownership structure, and nationality of executive director was used as a tool for data collection. Factor analysis was processed to identify the interdependencies between observed variables and to find the latent variables. Further, the Kruskal–Wallis test was applied to identify the differences among the variables along with the Bonferroni correction test, which specified the items between which the significant difference occurred. The following findings emerged. First, companies with lower extent of ethical code use general phrases. When they want to specialize on any ethics problems, extent must be wider. Second, companies with a lower number of employees do not need extensive ethical code due to clear rules with which they are familiar in a direct way by owners. In multinational companies, the communication of ethical rules is realized via ethical codes with specific purposes because the direct way is impossible. Third, companies with foreign ownership used different managerial approaches, and therefore ethical codes differ in extent and content.

The success of talent management is based on keeping talented individuals in a company. Attractive work, suitable working environment, strong organizational culture, work flexibility, effective leadership, as well as financial or non-financial benefits are factors that a company can significantly influence in order to retain talent for future tasks. On the other hand, companies should avoid mistakes that complicate retention of talent, for example, extreme workload, conflicts with executives, lack of opportunities for self-development, as well as inadequate financial remuneration. The goal of presented study is to explore differences in talent retention in various types of companies according to several factors. Realized questionnaire study obtained data from 381 companies represented by managers. Data were analyzed quantitatively by ANOVA and results were completed and described by Focus groups qualitative research. The research model was set according to outcomes of previous researches with following most important factors: financial requirements, motivation system, communication and self-development. Also, the challenges from outside and specific procedures provided inside the company to retain talents were added. Obtained outcomes shows interesting differences between companies in successful retention of talents which can be found: in private companies, in companies with foreign capital, in companies with a HR unit, and companies with a better financial situation. Surprising findings were seen in the comparison of companies by size. Despite the better chances of retaining talents in larger companies, the talent retention process is more successful in small ones. Our study helps to understand the current situation in talent retention in different types of Slovak companies and find ways to improvement. Outcomes are significant for managers, researchers and education of future entrepreneurs. However, despite good knowledge of practical implementation of talent retention in Slovak companies there are still limited financial resources and regulations which impede the application of the results obtained.

Purpose - find differences in the core principles of implementation of CSR (Cor-porate Social Responsibility) practices in subsidiaries of foreign multinationals in Slovak and Czech Republic, two similar yet different countries.Research methodology - the questionnaire was distributed to local daughter companies of foreign multinational enterprises selected on the basis of stratified randomization. The sam-ple: 360 enterprises (180 from each country). Mann-Whitney U Test was used for the analysis (non-normally distributed data) of the differences between Slovak and Czech companies in their CSR implementation.Findings - differences among the two countries in the implementation of CSR exist in few factors due to their joint history.Research limitations - the representativeness of companies connected with foreign mother companies in the two countries cannot be computed: no data are available. To overcome this issue, the same number of monitored entities was analysed to so as to make further statistical analysis possible.Practical implications - the results can be used by business entities, which may benefit from comparing themselves against other players on the market or against the average situation on the monitored markets. Moreover, teaching future managers and promoters CSR is of significant importance.Originality/Value - the work sheds lights on CSR practices in Czechia and Slovakia, two coun-tries in which there is a lack of studies on the topic of CSR.

In spite of fact that problem of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is very well known worldwide, it gets slowly into awareness in Slovakia. Nowadays more and more Slovak enterprises incorporate CSR principles into their practice and learn to profit from its implementation. This article based on the Carroll's three pillar CRS model, while the environmental pillar was selected as the most important one. On the sample of 58 Slovak enterprises we are verifying presence of a statistically significant effect of the legal form and number of employees (SME size category) on the implementation of environmental issues in the company. In the methodology we are using descriptive statistics, non-parametric methods (The Kruskal-Wallis Test, Jonckheere – Terpstra Test) and Crombach Alpha. The results of the analysis shows that the corporate legal form has no impact on the application of environmental policy, but there is an impact of the number or employees, respectively SME size category. Micro enterprises are not involved in the raising awareness on environmental policy and responsibility on the same extent as small companies. Similar differences between this two size groups we find in their extent of dealing with environmental research and development and protection of the natural environment