Purpose: The question has been asked, “Where are the women?” explicitly looking at the public relations (PR) industry, but this is a broader issue reflected in many senior management roles, especially at the corporate board level. One of the solutions suggested is “quotas”. This paper explores the literature to identify the prominent arguments for and against representation regulations (quotas) concerning corporate board gender diversity and concisely presents the findings.Design/methodology/approach: The exploratory research path first focuses on a literature search using the keywords – “gender diversity”, “board structures” and “female traits” to identify the various issues concerning female members serving on corporate boards. This led to the investigation exploring if 'quotas' could play a role in increasing the number of female directors and, if so, what kind of impact this would have. When the authors discovered the paper by Place and Vardeman-Winter (2018), it was realised that a possible gap in the literature might have been identified. The focus then turned to the PR and corporate communications literature, where it was discovered that the issue of gender quotas was not explored. This paper brings together the germane literature from a wide range of disciplines. To obtain a broad perspective of the arguments, the authors conducted a review of this diverse field of literature through various databases and websites, including Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, publishers' databases such as Emerald Insight, Taylor and Francis, Macmillan, Blackwell, Oxford University, etc.Findings: There are solid arguments both for and against quotas. However, many opposing views appear to be less sound than the positive ones, which allowed the authors to concur in favour of quotas and the broader adoption of female directors. It is only by identifying problems that solutions can be found – the issues concerning corporate board gender quotas relate to the perception of the arguments for and against quotas; the reality is often different. While there is a strong “business case” and “stakeholder influence” for the inclusion of women on corporate boards, some governments have put further pressure (either voluntary or mandatory) on organisations by imposing a “quota” system. At the same time, other countries are undecided on what action, if any, to take.Practical implications: This paper can serve as guidance to countries that have not yet implemented quotas or those looking to move from a voluntary to mandatory quotas system. In addition to that, the paper should be valuable to academics, managers, regulators, legislators and policy-makers.Originality/value: To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first academic paper to present the critical arguments raised in the diverse literature on corporate board gender quotas succinctly and concisely and, therefore, adds value to the literature. It is also believed to be the first paper to address the issue of quotas in the PR and corporate communications literature.

Visegrad Group is a group of four countries in Central Europe, namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary. These countries share not only a similar history, but also similar economic development (measured for example by Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) and geo-political ideas. Nowadays, the economic development of every country and its competitiveness on the world market is supported by the creation of innovation (knowledge-based economy), especially from an Industry 4.0 point of view. The aim of this article is to compare the Visegrad Four (V4) from different perspectives. Firstly, the comparison of GPD development is done, next the analysis of foreign trade. The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of changes in innovativeness and competitiveness of the V4 economies over a period of 5 years. The Global Innovation Index (GII) shows the level of innovation of most countries in the world. Reports publishing GII were established thanks to the cooperation of Cornwall University with INSEAD (fr. Institut européen d'administration des affaires) Business School and World Intellectual Property Organization. The Summary Innovation Index (SII) was used in the European Innovation Scoreboard, as well as the Global Competitiveness Report and Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). The analysis shows that all members of V4 are so called moderate innovators. The Czech Republic begins to diverge from other member states in terms of SII, GII and it has been increasing its GCI as well. Poland occupies one of the last positions in the V4 innovation ranking, where Hungary was the weakest in terms of competitiveness in 2016. However, the mutual connection between GDP and above mentioned indexes shows relatively surprising results.

The article focuses on the analysis of business conditions in the Czech Republic and looks for the answers to the questions why the Czech Republic’ rating in relation to other EU member countries, the OECD and the whole world is not very good. To analyse business conditions we use the World Bank’ study – Doing Business 2013 – Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium–Size Enterprises, which has been assessing and comparing business conditions on global scale for ten years. The data are current as of June 2012 representing the result of an extensive and highly specialized data processing

Purpose: This article’s primary purpose is to present and analyze the current state of board gender diversity and elaborate on the relatively sparse literature in this field in the Czech Republic, a post-transition Eastern European economy. The described study sought to identify and comment on the theoretical views concerning previous research in other, mainly Western European countries, by highlighting new perspectives on board gender diversity. Design/methodology/approach: The study’s empirical analysis was based on 235 companies domiciled in the Czech Republic with 500 or more employees. We followed a selection protocol consisting of several filters in arriving at our final sample. We initially analyzed the data in relation to (a) the number of employees, (b) organization turnover, and (c) industrial classification. We calculated the mean (μ), standard deviation, (σ), and coefficient of variation (CV) of the data/variances, then tested our hypotheses through χ2, determining the significance through the p-value. Finally, we calculated the board diversity index (DI) for female/male board members. Findings: Our findings showed that the representation of women on corporate boards of Czech Republic companies is well below the European directive target figure of 40%. There is a greater representation of women on supervisory than on statutory boards. Moreover, the research revealed that female directors are more likely to serve on boards of companies in health care, social, wholesale, retail, and administration sectors compared to the construction, manufacturing, transportation, and storage sectors. Furthermore, company turnover also plays a part in board gender diversity. Finally, we highlighted many reasons why the Czech Republic is a fertile ground for the study of board gender diversity. Practical implications: We believe this article will be valuable to senior managers in industry and wider regulatory, corporate governance, and ethical environments, fostering diversity and equality on corporate boards. This article forms a sound foundation for future studies on board gender diversity in the Czech Republic and contributes to the ongoing discussion on any adoption of possible future quota. Originality/value: This research presents a rare insight into the current board gender diversity structure in the Czech Republic, especially because the country is relatively under-researched in the corporate governance and gender diversity literature. Thus, the research adds to the theoretical views concerning earlier research undertaken in other, mainly Western European countries, highlighting new perspectives on board gender diversity.

Educational challenges for companies are created by market regulation less frequently versus market dynamics. Yet when law-enforced educational challenges appear, they have a significant impact on companies and their employees. This empirical study focuses on a new professional qualification regulation on the market of consumer credit in the Czech Republic. We analyze how companies cope with the new law-enforced educational requirements and whether the regulation has been successful. We analyzed more than 1900 certification tests. The sample accounted for approximately 10% of all employees tested in the Czech Republic in the first year of the regulation. All test variants were found unique, the expected point score of each variant had skewed distributions with only a small number of difficult variants. A significant majority of the tests showed expected values in an interval of 60–75% with only several outliers; test difficulty was balanced. The professional qualification tests separated employees with the required knowledge from those without and excluded accidental success. We identified a successful education management system that resulted in success rates above the country average: decentralized regional managers supervision, employee financial participation, and effective e-learning. We found structural changes in the market supply structure. Companies with professionally skilled employees met the regulatory conditions. The regulation combining centrally-provided requirements and questions with the market-based method of preparing for the professional qualification test was successful.