The new challenges that will currently affect the existence and sustainability of businesses stem from the dramatic changes that come from the fourth industrial revolution. Based on the concept of intellectual capital management as a resource-based strategic management approach, which leads to the management of structural, human, and relational capital, sustainable human resource management underlines the involvement of partnerships and external relations in learning and personal development processes. Industry 4.0 expects major changes in human resource management and processes such as education. Organizations will benefit from the new knowledge in the near future that will need to be brought into the internal environment of the organization constantly. However, this will require cooperation with the external environment, and the resulting new education opportunities built on cooperation with external partners, organizations, and educational institutions. Innovations as essential factors in adapting to major changes in the environment will be key in all organizational processes, including educational. This paper focuses on comparing highly innovative countries and less innovative countries in Central Europe, analyzing 1482 businesses by looking at differences in attitude towards employee education and individual forms of employee education. The main statistically significant difference is in the strategic approach to employee education and development and the set-up between innovative countries and moderate innovators.

Radical changes resulting from the Fourth Industrial Revolution strongly affect industrialized European countries. In particular, due to the new technologies that are characteristic of Industry 4.0, it will be essential for companies to make the necessary changes and achieve competitiveness through the implementation of these technologies. In order for companies to be able to make radical changes and innovations, they need to secure all the supporting areas in their organization. This research paper is focused on comparison of companies from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Switzerland in the context of readiness for Industry 4.0. This research was part of a research project, while data were collected in the period of 2015–2016. We have analysed companies from selected countries based on 7 areas which are closely interconnected with the business transformation and technology transformation coming from Industry 4.0. The main analysed questions focused on areas such as employee education and training, organizational culture, strategy, or organizational processes, that will be most affected by radical changes in the environment. Research has highlighted the differences between countries as a result of long-standing cultural differences, but at the same time identified the unified influence of the ongoing global debate on the need for technological innovation. With Slovak and Czech companies being below stronger innovators in the maturity of education systems, we strongly advise considering partnering in education which can bring valuable information to businesses that want to take on the wave of innovation.

Although the concept of Industry 4.0 is newer, more and more companies are responding to this concept and incorporating it into their business models. Industry 4.0 arose as a result of the development of new technologies based on automation, through which technologies can communicate with each other. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of Industry 4.0 on companies from the point of view of the value chain model. The study points out why the model is a suitable tool for evaluating changes. The research consisted of 1164 respondents, while the sample consisted of 591 Czech companies and 573 Slovak companies. We found that 62% of companies carry out activities in the field of robotization and automation to a large extent, and 32% carry out these activities little or not at all. Regarding the impact of Industry 4.0 on individual activities in the value chain, we found that companies expect the greatest impact on technological development (secondary activity) and customer service (primary activity). On the contrary, they least expect the impact of Industry 4.0 in the primary activities of input logistics and operation. From this point of view, we can say that companies perceive the impact of Industry 4.0 on the activities taking place in their value chains. However, it is important to capture these changes, react appropriately to them and remain competitive.

The current pandemic situation has forced organisations to adapt quickly and change processes through digital transformation. Businesses began to interact with consumers online and generally had to adjust existing processes and develop or improve the products and services offered. The agile transformation as part of Industry 4.0 started several years ago and in the current situation can be considered the best starting point for ongoing changes. The agile approach is mostly used in the field of IT, where it has penetrated mainly into software solutions and project management. Later, this concept began to penetrate deeper into several areas of the organisation, today we can talk about the company-wide transformation into an agile platform. While agility was initially perceived as a benefit, especially for software solutions, today it helps in successful business mainly by penetrating the organisational culture in which organisations define the desired values, ideas and procedures of employee behaviour in the organisation and is able to implement agile management principles. In the presented article, we present the results of research focussed on the analysis of the current state of application of agile management methods in companies operating in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The aim of this paper is to identify the approach to building an agile culture as a basic prerequisite for their effective implementation. The contribution of this article to agile management research is to identify specific aspects of agile culture that support agile management functioning. The size of the examined sample and the comparison of the results between the group of companies in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic provide findings with a high degree of reliability.

Sustaining a competitive position on the market has become crucial in order to survive in the dynamic environment under the influence of Industry 4.0. Industrial and service sectors have been affected by new technologies, such as automation, robotization, VR, AR or Big data, and their strategies towards future innovation and focus need to be reevaluated. This requires a revision of theoretical models that assess the external environment and following opportunities and threats. Our original study of 573 Slovak companies presents an analysis of Porter’s five competitive forces in the context of innovation activities and perceived impact of Industry 4.0 on companies. The research results provide a deep insight on the relevance of company size, maturity or sector to the different perspectives of the P5F model, as well as make clear the impact of each force on company measures and activities conducted in recent years. Our findings point to the strong technology push and main focus on product innovation, while reveal a paradigm shift in perceiving the power of suppliers. Results of our study lead to practical implications and enrich the theory on the relevance of strategic analysis in current era.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies