Research background: The innovation process is a key factor when creating and maintaining competitiveness, so the SME sector has to address a special attention to it. Examining the impact of corporate co-operation on innovation activity has to be mentioned as a crucial goal. Purpose of the article: The main goal of the research is to assess the innovative activity of the SMEs operating in ICT sector, and to map the distribution between the innovative and non-innovative businesses. The article's purpose was to outline the most recent developments in Slovakia's ICT industry with regard to SME innovation. The empirical study concentrated on the types of innovation, variables that encourage and discourage innovation, and the innovation activity of SMEs in the ICT sector. Methods: In accordance with the main goal of the research, descriptive statistical methods, i.e. unweighted and weighted arithmetic mean were used to analyze the research hypothesis. A questionnaire research study was carried out between September 2021 and February 2022 in Slovak ICT SMEs. Findings & Value added: Significant differences can be determined between the innovative and non-innovative ICT companies in terms of innovation. The majority of SMEs implemented both technological and non-technological innovations. A small number of SMEs failed to implement either type. A significant portion focused on technological innovations, with the majority successfully implementing them, and over half of them introduced non-technological innovations between 2018 and 2020. Over 75% of the companies felt they were more innovative than their competitors. More than 67% of non-innovative SMEs saw themselves as less innovative than their competitors. 92% of innovative SMES implemented both technological and non-technological innovations. 51% implemented technological innovations. 56.41% innovative SMEs implemented 3 to 5 types of innovation activities, while 38.46% implemented 6 to 7 types. Only 5.13% implemented all 9 types of innovation activities considered. 38% of innovative SMEs spent the most on research and development, 33% allocated highest expenditure to machinery and equipment. In case of supporting SMEs in innovation activities, three market players received above-average ratings: customers and consumers, suppliers of raw materials and piece parts and the group of companies.

Over the last year, many things have changed in every field as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the heads of states and governments had to respond to the virus forthwith. As government restrictions have been introduced, people started to reconsider their decisions in terms of consumption and saving. The closures affected many areas that changed people's daily lives. As a result, new trends have appeared, for instance, in the tourism field and people's shopping habits. The data were collected among Slovak and Hungarian citizens through surveys as a quantitative method. Nonparametric Pearson's chi-square test, Spearman's rho correlation test, and Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to analyze six formulated hypotheses. For the latter, it was necessary to carry out normality tests. The main purpose of this article is to give an international comparison in questions whether people will prefer domestic tourism over foreign one if people prefer domestic traders' products or foreign traders' products, whether the respondents buy online more frequently due to the pandemic, if they spend less on leisure travel and whether they think that the interest in e-commerce continues to grow. As a result of the research, it can be declared that both Slovak and Hungarian people traders prefer buying domestic traders' products instead of foreign traders' ones, while the Hungarian respondents shop online more frequently. The results pointed out that Slovak respondents will prefer domestic tourism over foreign tourism.

In the extremely competitive business environment typical of the 20th century, small and medium-sized enterprises have had to face countless challenges. As time progressed, digitization and the development of information and communication technology has had increasing impacts on the lives of both individuals and businesses. Now, from an organizational point of view, social media has become a corporate strategic tool the significant role of which is indisputable. The relevance of our study can be found in the fact that social media is now one of the most popular solutions if the goal of a business is to reach a specific target audience, to receive feedback about products/services, and to initiate the immediate communication that contributes to the loyalty of consumers and customers in the long term, as well as to take advantage of cost-effective advertising opportunities. The primary goal of our research is to provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of the thinking in the SME sector regarding the corporate application of social media. In our study, following a comprehensive literature review related to the topic, we use primary data collection to examine small and medium-sized enterprises operating in Hungary and Slovakia. The reason for choosing the subjects of the research is that, taking into account the territorial size of the regions under investigation, similar districts were selected, and the regions have similar numbers of businesses engaged in economic activity. The investigation process covers two regions in the two selected countries, examining a total of 1114 enterprises. Before starting our research, two hypotheses were defined. In order to test the correctness of the hypotheses, we performed statistical analyses using the SPSS program, specifically the Mantel–Haenszel test and the chi-square test. Considering the results, the hypotheses formulated by the authors proved to be correct in the case of both countries. As a result, it can be stated that the success of traditional marketing tools used before the online space greatly influences the extent to which businesses feel their presence in social media is important.

Research background: Due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus and its pernicious effects on the economy, a great change can be observed in consumer attitudes towards shopping. Needless to say, the demand for necessities comes to the fore, and consumers need to face a lot of hindrances when it comes to the decision-making process. It should be emphasised that consumers have responsibilities and rights. One can legitimately raise the question. Are they familiar with either of the aforementioned facts? Purpose: The main objective of the research is to analyse whether an increasing level of educational attainment affects consumer awareness in Hungary and Slovakia. Moreover, the paper investigates whether there are any significant differences in age groups regarding consumer awareness. Finally, the paper investigates whether there are any statistically significant interactions between the respondents’ gender, employment status and conscious saving attitudes. Research methodology: Kendall’s tau-b correlation, the rank-based nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis H test, and the Loglinear analysis were used to examine the formulated hypotheses. Results: It can be declared for both countries that an increasing level of educational attainment strongly affects consumers’ awareness. Furthermore, three major differences can be noticed in various age groups in the case of Hungary. Novelty: Education and age affect consumers’ awareness, whilst gender and employment status affect saving attitudes.

The advent of the 4. Industrial Revolution brings new opportunities, but also risks to entrepreneurs and employees as well as to education systems and the methods of teaching the present generation in education system. New job opportunities, new forms of work bring demands both from practice and from individual point of view, especially in terms of developing new competences and skills that are usable today. The scientific article is a partial output from the KEGA project 005UJS-4/2019 entitled “Streamlining Managerial Sills of the generations Z and Y by gamification on the context of linking science and practice", which is solved at the Faculty of Economics of the J. Selye University in Komárno. The current period in which we live is influenced by the rapid growth of knowledge. The established methods and forms of teaching must be changed by the school that prepares the individual to be able to adapt to changing requirements. The impact of scientific and technological progress on education is a societal problem, where the contradiction between the amount of new knowledge in individual fields of science and the educational possibilities of the school has to be addressed. The main aim of our research is to point out the effective use of innovative teaching methods by application of gamification, which leads to the development of new competences in the generation Z, which will be easier to apply in the labour market.