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At the time of increasing globalization and homogenization of the global markets, the development of information infrastructure technology and world market becomes accessible not only to large multinational companies but also for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This has resulted in increasing competition in the domestic market which domestic firms have to face. Therefore the process of internationalization of business is a step that allows businesses performing their activities in the domestic market to enter foreign markets and to exploit the opportunities and potential which these markets offer. The paper is focused on the draft of the method for quantification of the factors, which determine the success of the SMEs in foreign markets. In the proposed method the multidimensional assessment of indicators of success of SMEs in foreign markets are used, ie. not only the proportion of sales from exports is observed, but also the profitability of international activities in an absolute and in a relative rate. Other indicators of success are the satisfaction of the company management with international activities and the success of achieving defined targets for business activities in foreign markets. Evaluation is made up of both the objective and the subjective indicators of success. Among the objective indicators of success is included the intensity of international activities of SMEs, which is detected as the sum of revenues generated from international activities in relation to total sales company, the profitability of international activities, (ie. whether the foreign activities are profitable or not), and the relative profitability of international activities, where it is ascertained whether the foreign activities generate higher profit than the activities at the domestic market. The next subjective indicator of success is the success of objectives - it was found how many objectives related to operations in foreign markets has been achieved. Another indicator is the subjective satisfaction of the company management with existing activities on foreign markets. Overall performance on foreign markets of the company is quantified using an assessment of objective and subjective indicators of success. Using the defined evaluation it will be possible to determine which of the SMEs are more and which are less successful in foreign markets. Finally, this evaluation will be used for future research aimed at identifying characteristics affecting the success of SMEs in the foreign markets.

The aim of this paper is to present results of the research focused on the examination of differences of selected psychological characteristics between a group of 144 employed people and a group of 121 unemployed people. The following personality characteristics were measured and compared: action versus state orientation (behaviour control (resp. behaviour regulation) after the experience of failure and in the processes of decision-making and behaviour planning), perseverance in the conception of Sense of coherence and social support. We found out that after having lost their job, people of higher education could better plan their decision-making and actions and they had a better ability to cope with an actual situation (Sense of coherence). The research further showed that females were unemployed more often as compared with males and that the loss of job had a worse effect on their mental state. Compared with unemployed males, the females were more experience-and feeling-oriented and their Sense of coherence showed more prominent decline. Unemployed people had a lower level of action orientation after previous failure than employed people. This conspicuous decrease of orientation to action is given apparently by the loss of the job itself and not by the duration of unemployment. The number of people composing the social support decreases with the increasing age of males. Of all the researched predictors, which were employment/unemployment, duration of unemployment, gender, education and age, gender acts (co-acts) most on the selected personality characteristics - action versus state orientation, Sense of coherence and social support.

The paper deals with the conception of the professional manager. In the current Czech management environment the terms of professionalism and professional manager are not defined, understood and respect properly. The paper was written on the basis of a primary research among 112 middle and top managers in the Czech Republic.
The beginning of the paper focuses on the introduction of the method used for the research and then follows the evaluation process of the respondents' answers. These answers were noticed and transformed into the electronic form for the subsequent evaluation process, which is described in detail in the results part. The categories were stated on the basis of recurrence of the characteristics in the answers, and the frequency of these characteristics was measured.
The outcome of the paper is the specification of the term 'Professionalism' and the characteristics of the term 'Professional Manager' by above mentioned research. The research results are discussed with the literature review in the concluding part, and the opportunities for the further development are given.

Although the statutory minimum wage is not a new category, in the Czech Republic we encounter the definition and regulation of a minimum wage for the first time in the 1990 amendment to Act No. 65/1965 Coll., the Labour Code. The specific amount of the minimum wage and the conditions of its operation were then subsequently determined by government regulation in February 1991. Since that time, the value of minimum wage has been adjusted fifteenth times (the last increase was in January 2007).
The aim of this article is to present selected results of two researches of acceptance of the statutory minimum wage by Czech enterprises. The first research makes use of the data collected by questionnaire research in 83 small and medium-sized enterprises in the South Moravia Region in 2005, the second one the data of 116 enterprises in the entire Czech Republic (in 2007). The data have been processed by means of the standard methods of descriptive statistics and of the appropriate methods of the statistical analyses (Spearman correlation coefficient of sequential correlation, Kendall coefficient, χ² - independence test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and others).