The paper deals with consumer preferences of young people (members of Y generation) in relation to general principles of sustainability in environmental and social aspects of consumer goods purchase. The aim of the article is to evaluate the relationship between the general attitudes to the above-mentioned issues and the awareness of the “fair trade” business concept in the context of sustainable development of the young generation aged 15–34 in the Czech Republic. The presented results were obtained through primary research involving 840 respondents from the Czech Republic. Within the research, the quota selection features were taken into account, which were gender, age, educational attainment and respondent’s residence area. The results show that young people are interested in the origin of consumer goods they buy. They are willing to invest more in the purchase of goods if their price reflects the quality, the environmentally friendly way and the working conditions of the producers. From the point of view of the specific knowledge of the concept of Fair Trade, it was found that almost half knows it. It has been proven that young people who are interested in the origin of goods also know Fair Trade.
Our paper focuses on the analysis of the the role of risk management in sustainable hotel chain policy. We tackle the issue of risk evaluation and prevention in hotel industry as a factor of enhancing its entrepreneurial value. Our empirical value-added is based on its own novel survey based on a case study of a chosen company. We evaluate the problem areas of risk management and make suggestions for the hotel optimization procedures based on our results and findings. Furthremore, we compare the outcomes of our research with those of the the studies conducted by the renown foreign companies and focusing on payment discipline and risk management. Our results demonstrate that in order to optimize the cash flow in hotel operations, it is advisable to provide a balanced business mix and improvement of strategic internal processes. Moreover, it appears that for the optimal application of the risk management it is important that a new or updated strategic analysis is conducted annually within the business entity according to the development of both the external and internal environment. Furthremore, financial and payment risks need to be integrated into the formulation of strategic goals so as to identify which of them can put the strategy and its strategic goals at stake.
Throughout the history of mankind, energy security has been always seen as a means of protection from disruptions of essential energy systems. The idea of protection from disorders emerged from the process of securing political and military control over energy resources to set up policies and measures on managing risks that affect all elements of energy systems. The various systems placed in a place to achieve energy security are the driving force towards the energy innovations or emerging trends in the energy sector.
Our paper discusses energy security status and innovations in the energy sector in European Union (EU). We analyze the recent up-to-date developments of the energy policy and exploitation of energy sources, as well as scrutinize the channels of energy streaming to the EU countries and the risks associated with this energy import. Moreover, we argue that the shift to the low-carbon production of energy and the massive deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) might become the key issue in ensuring the energy security and independency of the EU from its external energy supplies. Both RES, distributed energy resources (DER) and “green energy” that will be based on the energy efficiency and the shift to the alternative energy supply might change the energy security status quo for the EU.
The extent of the sustainable tourism is increasingly linked to the development of information and communication technologies, especially the Internet and for a long time the online market is becoming a key aspect of its further secure development. Current technological development brings with it significant digitization of all processes and significantly affects how today’s companies are entering and communicating on the online tourism market. Similarly, as a result of these changes, the significant change occurs in consumer behaviour, and across all age groups. With the development of these technologies, today’s consumer is not only knowledgeable and more experienced, but is increasingly being constant online part of this market. The development of online tourism market is thus increasingly strongly linked with the growth of the total Internet population and currently also the one, that is using to the Internet access the cellular infrastructure and equipment. From the perspective of the Internet population the Czech Republic is the fourth largest online population in Central and Eastern Europe, which creates a good starting point for its further application on the growing Central European online travel market. This article aims to analyse current consumer behaviour of Internet users in the Czech Republic in the field of tourism.