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Electoral Geography of Post-communist Countries
Sokol, Petr ; Hnízdo, Bořivoj (advisor) ; Brunclík, Miloš (referee) ; Kouba, Karel (referee)
The thesis "Electoral Geography of Postcommunist Countries in Central and Eastern Europe" deals with the topic of electoral geography, which is a part of the political geography. The basic hypothesis of the paper is based on opinion that the postcommunist countries experienced the twenty years of development in the postcommunist period which made their electoral geography very similar to one in Western Europe. This hypothesis is proved by three different areas of electoral geography. The first part is composed by the analysis of the electoral geography of the founding elections in the 17 postcommunist countries (including the GDR). In the paper is proposed after the research of all 17 countries the categorization of founding elections on the basis of electoral geography. The second part examines the electoral geography of capitals. The research is focused on the size of the lectorate in the capital compare to the whole country, on the diverhgence of electoral results in the capital and in the whole state and on strength of the party families in capitals. Folowing these three areas is proposed the catehorisation of the postcommunist capitals into the five groups. The third part deals with variability of the electoral results inside the state.
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Chinese Business Culture, Corruption versus Guanxi
Mejtová, Tereza ; Kouba, Karel (advisor) ; Mlčoch, Lubomír (referee)
Today, corruption belongs to particularly topical issue, especially in connection with China, because it has destructing impacts on the overall investment climate in every country, it limits innovations and investments in education. The rate of corruption in China is labeled as critical by the international community. But this appraisal derives from the principles and values of western market economies and does not take into account the Chinese cultural differences and distinct ethical perception of the world. There is no universal definition of corruption. It is a very dynamic element, which stems from particular social-politic situation of every economy and it depends on many factors. China is a traditional relationship economy. The whole society is based on hierarchical system of relationships, which is the basis for necessary harmony among people and for moral values. This thesis tries to evaluate the rate of corruption in China in respect of the Chinese ethical perception of the world. Firstly it defines Chinese traditional values and the way of doing business in China. Further it describes guanxi contacts, which are the cornerstones of relationships in China. Guanxi is a phenomenon, which penetrates through the whole Chinese society and encompasses among others the relationships among...
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Outward foreign direct investment. Comparative study of the development in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Jánošíková, Katarína ; Kouba, Karel (advisor) ; Geršl, Adam (referee)
This thesis deals with the issue of direct investments of Czech and Slovak companies abroad. The aim is to analyse which factors have contributed to the latecomer position of Slovakia in outward foreign direct investments in comparison with the Czech Republic. It is argued that Slovak companies have been disadvantaged in comparison with Czech companies since Czech governments have created better conditions for local companies aiming to invest abroad. In addition, belated inflows of foreign direct investment also contributed through more channels to the latecomer position of Slovakia in outward foreign direct investment. It is also shown that proximity of national cultures can be an important factor in internalization considerations of companies and that closeness of national cultures does not necessarily imply closeness of corporate cultures.
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Behavior and Institutional Change
Baxa, Jaromír ; Kouba, Karel (advisor) ; Mlčoch, Lubomír (referee)
The main aim is to explain, why we can observe strong persistence in human or firm behavior despite substantial change of economic environment and why persistence of informal institutions occurs. During recent two decades there were various trials to provide explanation of persistence of behavior based on presumption of existence of path dependency and increasing returns, reflecting findings of experimental economics with methodological background in bounded rationality or using simulations of interactions or networks. My practice is slightly different as I'm trying to incorporate findings of cognitive psychology and social cognitive learning into economics. Cognitive psychology implies that behavioral regularities, routines, are based on subjective mental models. Evolution of behavior can be now understood as evolution of routines and mental models, and thanks to their nature routines have high propensity to long persistence despite changing environment. This approach is applicable to evolution of informal institutions and it allows to explain persistence of them using shared mental models. Then informal institutions are seemed as behavioral regularities used by decisive part of the society and their evolution can be now described as diffusion of new behavioral regularity in the society and...
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Behavior and institutional change
Baxa, Jaromír ; Kouba, Karel (advisor)
The main aim is to explain, why we can observe strong persistence in human or firm behavior despite substantial change of economic environment and why persistence of informal institutions occurs. During recent two decades there were various trials to provide explanation of persistence of behavior based on presumption of existence of path dependency and increasing returns, reflecting findings of experimental economics with methodological background in bounded rationality or using simulations of interactions or networks. My practice is slightly different as I'm trying to incorporate findings of cognitive psychology and social cognitive learning into economics. Cognitive psychology implies that behavioral regularities, routines, are based on subjective mental models. Evolution of behavior can be now understood as evolution of routines and mental models, and thanks to their nature routines have high propensity to long persistence despite changing environment. This approach is applicable to evolution of informal institutions and it allows to explain persistence of them using shared mental models. Then informal institutions are seemed as behavioral regularities used by decisive part of the society and their evolution can be now described as diffusion of new behavioral regularity in the society and modeled using...
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