This article explores the relationship between digitalization and business performance in European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which has intensified the need for SMEs to adopt digital technologies for enhanced competitiveness. Conducted through a comprehensive literature review, this study investigates the impact of digitalization on SME performance. Employing the statistical software EViews 12, the research utilizes an econometric analysis of panel data to examine the influence of digitalization on SME performance and validate the formulated hypotheses. The dataset comprises 135 observations collected over a five-year period from 27 European countries. A linear regression model is used to test the hypotheses, revealing the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Model specifications are determined through various tests. This study’s findings demonstrate that the integration of digital technologies and digital intensity significantly drives digitalization in European SMEs, leading to positive impacts on performance. This article emphasizes the importance of digitalization in SMEs for process streamlining, productivity improvement, and enhanced customer experience, ultimately fostering business growth and development. These empirical findings provide valuable evidence for policymakers to prioritize the identification of appropriate measures for stimulating the integration of new digital tools into SME infrastructure and serve as a foundation for future research in this domain.

The current market situation shows that enterprises are still struggling to digitize their business through the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), cloud technologies and other more advanced technologies, but the fifth industrial revolution is knocking on the door. This article deals with the analysis and evaluation of the impact of Industry 5.0 on entrepreneurs. Industry 4.0 analysis provides results based on interviews with practitioners as well as sales representatives. The main part of the article focuses on the business situation, where the goal was to identify existing gaps along with opportunities and threats. This analysis also describes the best way how to transform in times of the next industrial revolution. Study addresses the approach of integrating human workers in the supply chain in cooperation with automated processes. The purpose of this study is to confirm or refute whether companies are ready for another industrial revolution.

Society and the government perceive alternative propulsions as a way out of a world of high emissions. For several years now, European countries have been trying to enforce various strategic plans in which they give maximum support to electromobility. Subsidies and emission limits for car manufacturers or strategic plans for the development of electromobility in each European country are only a small part of the enormous support for the development of this new alternative drive. However, questions arise in the energy and ecology sectors: Is Slovakia ready to increase the number of electric vehicles? Will Slovakia have enough energy sources? Are electric cars really as clean as they are presented? The article focuses on these issues and, through detailed analysis, based on individual annual reports of each sector, refutes or confirms the fact that electromobility is a promising alternative and a replacement for internal combustion engines.

The paper deals with the life cycle of electric vehicle and future of reusing and recycling its battery. Investing in new alternative propulsion became an obligation to every automotive company because of the latest emissions limits. The life cycle is divided into three phases which describes a phase of production, phase of use and phase of recycling. Each of the phases has its own strategy and source of emissions. Research is focused on possible options how emissions can be reduced which helps to understand the importance of the problem. The main attention is paid to future options of reducing emissions in the recycling and reusing process, also an article focus on the analysis of expected battery life of an electric vehicle based on a comparison of selected models.

This article focuses on the practical use of used batteries from electric vehicles also known as 2nd life batteries. The first part emphasizes lithium batteries, which describes the overall life cycle of the battery, its number of charging cycles and secondary use. This part of the article also focuses on implemented projects of 2nd life batteries from electric vehicles and there is an analysis of the market potential for 2nd life batteries mentioned at the end of the chapter. The second part of this study offers a practical proposition of two possible strategies for using 2nd life batteries. The main source of income in both cases is the provision of regulatory energy. Using the formulas and the function of the calculation model created in the MS Excel software, the appropriate price of the battery for car manufacturers will be calculated and from other possible scenarios of individual strategies will be expressed. The first strategy works with large central battery storage and the second strategy uses small, decentralized battery storage with a fast-charging station.

Currently, companies are trying to optimize production, even more so as the economic situation is gradually deteriorating in many countries around the world, which is currently caused mainly by the COVID 19 pandemic. A specific type of production is that on production lines, which are individual workplaces where various production and assembly operations take place. The aim of the article is to analyze the impact of the choice of the control method for the production process on the optimization of costs and the process. The subject of the research is the production of fire-fighting throttles on a production line that has three workplaces. The problem of waste on the production line was identified by direct measurements of time consumption at the individual workplaces and by using images of the working day schedule. The article compares three approaches to production line management and waste reduction. The first approach was based on counting the number of finished products on the production line. The second approach analyzed in detail the duration of the individual operations into which the workplaces were divided. In the third approach, a method of balancing workplaces was used, which brought time and cost savings. The achieved results, using different methods of production management, are analyzed in detail, and the conclusions evaluated. The article contributes a comparison of the achieved results of cost optimization through the course of production of fire dampers. The research results were applied in practice. The research used methods of industrial engineering in the field of ergonomics, technical and economic analysis, and production management. Visualization of hourly performances, downtimes and failures, execution of work procedures, Shop Floor Management and many others, are recommended as ways to implement waste elimination when using the methods of industrial engineering.