Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Ondřej Vilikus
Title: Hybrid Approach to Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis
Abstract: Conjoint analysis is a popular tool for analysing consumer preferences in market research which has undergone rapid development throughout history. It is now generally agreed that choice-based conjoint (CBC) has a stronger theoretical background than traditional conjoint methods and that it mimics the real decision-making process of consumers more closely. When hierarchical Bayesian models allowed robust estimation of consumer preferences from sparse data available from choice-based conjoint tasks, formerly popular self-explicated or hybrid approaches lost their popularity. In this article, it is shown that hybrid approaches can be a useful alternative to pure CBC design. A hybrid approach to CBC that combines self-explicated questions on attribute levels with individualised choice tasks is suggested and illustrated on a real example and its efficiency is compared to traditional CBC and adaptive CBC. The results of the study support the hypothesis that this approach can be beneficial under certain circumstances and yield higher model fit while keeping the questionnaire length and respondent fatigue at an acceptable level.
Keywords: hybrid approach, choice-based conjoint, Bayesian models, adaptive conjoint
Classification-JEL: C35, C91
Pages: 3-19
Volume: 2013
Issue: 4
Year: 2013
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=407.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/407
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2013:y:2013:i:4:id:407:p:3-19

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Jakub Fischer
Author-Name: Kristýna Vltavská
Author-Name: Igor Krejčí
Title: The Impact of Revisions of National Accounts on the Estimation of Derived Indicator
Abstract: The paper is devoted to an analysis of the impact of historical revisions of national accounts by the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) between 2010 and 2011. The theoretical part of the paper points out the importance of revisions of national accounts, describes the different types of revisions and summarises existing results of the revisions. The empirical part is devoted to an evaluation of the impact of the revisions on individual indicators entering the estimation of total factor productivity. While the level of hours worked was revised do wnwards, the level of fixed capital was revised upwards. Although the extent of revisions in the different years was not the same and there were also revisions of estimates of annual changes in the estimates of parameters entering TFP, the revisions of estimates of annual changes in overall productivity were not very significant, approximately a tenth of a percentage point. A significant change occurred only in the estimate for 2009. This happened not due to revisions, but using newer estimates of annual accounts for that year.
Keywords: hours worked, capital stock, national accounts, revision
Classification-JEL: E00, E22, E23
Pages: 20-33
Volume: 2013
Issue: 4
Year: 2013
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=408.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/408
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2013:y:2013:i:4:id:408:p:20-33

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Miroslav Špaček
Title: Value Driven Management of Auxiliary Maintenance Processes and Its Application in Practice
Abstract: Maintenance performance measurement and evaluation is mostly underrated by companies. Even if maintenance activities contribute to customer value indirectly, it is not far from truth that the quality of maintenance processes may be decisive for winning a competitive advantage. This paper explains the concept of Value Driven Maintenance (VDM) as an approach focused on generating company value through proper alignment and management of company processes. In order to benefit from existing company processes, it is inevitable to set these processes into a proper strategic framework and align them efficiently so that maximum synergic effects can be generated. Economy and management offer a set of tools (e.g., cost-benefit analysis, financial analysis, static and dynamic methods of investment effectiveness evaluation, Balanced Scorecard, etc.) that can be useful for maintenance performance evaluation. This paper deals with the nature of these tools as well as the approach to the implementation of these practices in a company. The emphasis is on effective management of maintenance processes, in particular methods and tools to be used for maintenance performance measurement.
Keywords: Maintenance performance measurement, value driven maintenance, Balanced Scorecard, KPIs
Classification-JEL: L11
Pages: 34-48
Volume: 2013
Issue: 4
Year: 2013
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=409.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/409
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2013:y:2013:i:4:id:409:p:34-48

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Petra Drzková
Title: Reflection of the Election Cycle in Public Procurement in Prague
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to reveal whether there is a relation between public procurement and the election cycle in Prague. The examined data cover the period from 2005 to 2011. Two hypotheses have been set in order to discover whether there is such a relation. The first one postulates that public procurement is used for construction, wellvisible investment, so as to increase the probability of being re-elected. The second hypothesis marks the effort of politicians to maximise their own benefits until the end of their electoral term as the main reason for contracting public procurement. The hypotheses are proven with the number of public procurement projects, the total amount of money spent on public procurement in a particular term, the average amount of bids and the relation between the final and expected price. Regression analysis was used as the tool for verifi - cation. The result is that it is possible to find such a relation dependence of supplies and services and the election cycle in Prague.
Keywords: corruption, public procurement, election cycle, Prague, re-election, linear regression model
Classification-JEL: D72, D73, H57
Pages: 49-68
Volume: 2013
Issue: 4
Year: 2013
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=410.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/410
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2013:y:2013:i:4:id:410:p:49-68

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Jana Švubová
Title: Analysis of the Transformation of Selected Theatres - Allowance Organisations of the City of Prague
Abstract: This paper deals with the transformation of theatres - allowance organisations of the City of Prague. The whole issue is placed in a wider context of economic policy. The paper aims to evaluate the transformation using the example of selected theatres that have been transformed; the analysis also considers allowance organisations (The Municipal Theatres of Prague). The Grant System of the City of Prague was modifi ed several times in the years 2007-2009; because of its importance for the functioning of (not only) the transformed organisations, the paper will shortly deal with its changes and successive forming too. The transformation was highly monitored by the mass media and the process was stopped after long disputes in September 2011. The goal of this paper is to summarise findings from the first (and currently last) phase of the transformation process, which could be used later in its potential completion. The "KAMF" model is used to analyse the financial situation of the theatres.
Keywords: cultural policy, allowance organisation, public subsidy
Classification-JEL: H40, H44, L32, L33, L38
Pages: 69-85
Volume: 2013
Issue: 4
Year: 2013
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=411.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/411
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2013:y:2013:i:4:id:411:p:69-85

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Marie Auerspergová
Title: Economics Students´ Language - Czenglish?
Abstract: The article deals with typical mistakes made by students of the University of Economics, Prague, in their papers under the influence of English. Interferential mistakes adopted from English into Czech are a serious linguistic phenomenon and the literature focusing on the influence of English on Czech is quite large, but more attention is paid to lexicological and morphological problems than to syntactical ones. Knowing that borrowings from other languages are natural but adopting sentence structures is not, the author concentrates not only on lexicology (usage of foreign words in students´ texts) and morphology but also on sentence structure, especially on word order, passive voice, verbal and nonverbal structures  (infinitives, participles, gerunds), and prepositional structures. Frequent interlinguistic mistakes caused by mechanical adoption of English have been sorted out into several groups according to their syntactical features, analysed and described in detail. The output is a complex of advice what to accept in students´ Czech and what not. The author encourages teachers to ask students to rewrite their papers if they are unsatisfactory from the linguistic point of view.
Keywords: lexicology, influence, sentence structure, linguistics
Pages: 86-93
Volume: 2013
Issue: 4
Year: 2013
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=412.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/412
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2013:y:2013:i:4:id:412:p:86-93