Page 178

AD ALTA

JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

demonstrate that economic factors predict reputation (Sabate and
Puente, 2003) less is known about non-economic factors
influencing reputation.

In modern, globalised world is often mentioned term know-how,
which for business represents certain intangible wealth, which is
possible to be used and transferred into something tangible. It
represents source of investments into business, in form of direct
participation in transformation process, or sale. We consider
know-how as knowledge, wisdom, information from different
areas, production, research and development, technological
processes. Know-how in business is expressed in form of
different procedures, solution methods, which helps to eliminate
deficiencies, to improve real production status, to improve
working conditions and environment. Results of successful
application of know-how are benefits such as profit, increased
competitive ability of business, expansion of foreign markets.
Currently, there is preferred know-how in area of environment
that is exchange of knowledge, experience in order to improve
and protect environment. Businesses try to connect production
know-how with environmental know-how. They implement into
production process policies decreasing emissions, harmful
substances and contribute towards production of more ecological
products. We could also point out another connection of
environmental know-how and other modified item of intangible
assets – eco-design. In production of products with eco-design
there is applied knowledge and processes, know-how, for
successful entrance of product on a market.

We could establish, that know-how represents source of
economic benefits from quality for businesses. They are an
indirect part of the product, they asses it and in process of
commercialisation they create profits. If product is accepted by
market, interest on market grows and product is exported to
international markets and hence its share on both domestic and
international market increases. In advanced economies,
investment in intangible assets – knowledge and intellectual
property, for example-exceeds that of tangible, such as factories
and equipment (Haskel and Wallis, 2013)

Industrial design has primary function to fulfil needs of today’s
generation – material, esthetical, functional, while it cannot omit
future generation to do the same. It is necessary to protect design
as it creates added value of the product. Customers perceive it
and it can be a mean for sales. Design protection should be part
of business strategy of every producer. Why do we protect
design? Design represents business property of any company,
which is able to increase commercial value of a business.
Registration of design encourages fair competition, which
supports production of products. It is crucial for businesses to
keep documents of design registration, as it is important in
proving ownership and author rights.

According to the resource dependence or resource based view
(RBV), assets, skills and capabilities create value for the firm
that leads to a sustainable competitive advantage and superior
financial performance (Barney, 1991). Resources used to create
a competitive advantage are categorized as tangible (e.g.,
financial assets, capital, production capability, etc.) or intangible
assets (e.g., intellectual property, trade secrets, corporate
reputation, culture, employee know-how, etc.) (Hall, 1993).
These resources create value and meet the following conditions:
1) It is valuable due to its ability to add financial value to the
firm (sources of differentiation); 2) It is rare (only some firms
have it); 3) It is imperfectly imitable by other organizations; and
4) there are no substitutes (Barney, 1991). Culture and reputation
are considered intangible assets because each add value through
differentiation, is rare, difficult to imitate, and without
substitution (Barney, 1991; Hall, 1993; Fombrun, 1996; Porter,
1996; Roberts and Dowling, 2002; Kaplan and Norton, 2004).
Significant part of company value (potentially more than 60%) is
represented by intangible assets. For many of these companies
brand presents majority of this value. These data, of course, are
not currently monitored or assessed in most of financial reports.

3 Methodology and data

In research of collected background material there were used
especially methods of analysis, method of synthesis, comparison,
monitoring, induction and deduction. In processing of scientific
part we have used also special methods, mathematic – statistical
and method of directed interview. In scientific part there was
also applied combination of stated methods with an aim to obtain
high quality incomes of research and to obtain possibly most
relevant information. Application of statistical methods for
questionnaire assessment and obtained dependencies we reached
further subjects for scientific researches.

Objects of research are small, medium sized and large
production businesses in Slovak Republic, businesses which
meet recommendation of European commission 2003/361/EC:



Number of employees according to following
classification:

- microbusiness (0 – 9 employees),
- small business (10 - 49 employees),
- medium sized business (50 - 249 employees),
- large business (250 and more employees).



For small and medium sized businesses annual turnover
does not exceed 50 mil. €,



For large businesses annual turnover exceeds 50 mil. €,



For small and medium sized business annual balance (asset
volume) does not exceed more than 43 mil. €,



For large businesses annual balance (asset volume) exceeds
43 mil. €.

As these are categorical data, we used area of statistical analysis
of categorical data. There are two alterations of questions asked
for both questions (yes/no). Appropriate test for mentioned type
of variables is Persons chi-quadrat-test of independence, which
was applied in analysis. Core of the test is comparison of
consensus of theoretical frequency with real researched
frequencies and assessing importance of differences between
them (Sodomová, 2013).

Another method applied in analysis of questions submitted in the
questionnaire was Correlation analysis exercises statistical
methods and practices to assess intensity (tightness) of free
(statistical) dependence between quantitative variables and to
assess quality of equalizing by regression functions (Pacáková,
2009).“ In the following part of the article we interpret synthetic
results of research.

Critical area:

[(r-1).(s-1)] while

α is chosen level of

importance, or (1-

α) is responsibility. χ

[(r-1).(s-1)] value

can be found in statistical tables, or in statistical software.
If inequality is valid, we accept hypothesis H

hence we can

confirm dependence. If inequality is not valid, we do not have
enough evidence to dismiss hypothesis H

hence dependence

between symbols A and B cannot be confirmed.

In level of importance 0,1:

[(r-1).(s-1)] =

0,90

[(2-1).(2-1)] = 2,718

12,39 > 3,718

Inequality is valid = we accept H

With reliability 0,90, or on level of importance 0,1 we accept
hypothesis, that between variables 8 and 11 there is statistically
important dependence.

4 Results and discussion

Based on questions answered within the questionnaire we found
out that the biggest share of intangible asset elements in
transformation process represents know-how with 34%. In
deeper understanding we regard production know-how, which is
not a result of scientific activities, but it represents production
processes, formulas, knowledge, technical parameters,
technology applied in production process. Production businesses

- 178 -