Nikola Simkova | Masaryk University (original) (raw)

Papers by Nikola Simkova

13th International Conference on Strategic Management and its Support by Information Systems (SMSIS), 2019

Cybersecurity plays important role in the digital economy, namely in the coming Industry 4.0 era.... more Cybersecurity plays important role in the digital economy, namely in the coming Industry 4.0 era. In the operational technology (OT) area, the lack of workforce knowledgeable in cybersecurity is even more appealing than in IT. In this paper, we describe existing frameworks and identify a need for national qualification framework for the Czech Republic with the focus at the needs of industry in this respect.

21st International Conference on Information Technology for Practice, 2018

Cybersecurity plays important role in the digital economy. We face a serious lack of workforce th... more Cybersecurity plays important role in the digital economy. We face a serious lack of workforce that may worsen. The acute, immediate, and growing workforce demand requires establishing new cybersecurity programs or courses of study. The institutions responsible for study programs need curricular guidance. In this paper, we describe existing frameworks and identify a need for national qualification framework for the Czech Republic.

Smart City Symposium Prague (SCSP), 2019

A Smart Grid (SG) is a Cyber–Physical System (CPS) idealized with the ultimate goal to reach opti... more A Smart Grid (SG) is a Cyber–Physical System (CPS) idealized with the ultimate goal to reach optimal energy efficiency, a key enabler for the Smart City concept. SG reliability needs to be ensured by an in-depth testing process, involving software/hardware components, network communication, together with quality concerns such as security of the overall infrastructure. While there are many models for modelling/designing SGs (e.g., SGAM), there is no specific testing process model customized for the SGs needs. As such, the aim of this paper is to identify a set of software testing process models developed over the years and investigate their adaptability to SG testing requirements. To reach the goal, we categorize SG requirements from related works with the help of a concept map. Afterwards, the most popular testing process models from literature are discussed in the context of the identified requirements. From a list of 17 main testing models, six testing models (TPI Next, TMMi, Test SPICE, TIM, ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119, and MTPF) are considered as potentially adaptable to the SG domain.

Cyber-Physical Systems, 2019

Smart grids (SGs) represent a paradigm shift for the traditional electric power infrastructure in... more Smart grids (SGs) represent a paradigm shift for the traditional electric power infrastructure in terms of generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in real time. The vast use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a key enabler for the provision of smart energy services to customers. For such provision and sustainability of services, the SG infrastructure has a high level of complexity that brings an increased risk of security threats that need to be properly accounted and managed. The goal of this article is to provide recommendations for security risk management for SGs, discussing aspects of SG risk management, and the peculiarities for the planning, identification, assessment, prioritisation, monitoring, and control of security risks.

Text, Speech, and Dialogue, 2018

We describe an annotated corpus of 350 decisions of Czech top-tier courts which was gathered for ... more We describe an annotated corpus of 350 decisions of Czech top-tier courts which was gathered for a project assessing the relevance of court decisions in Czech law. We describe two layers of processing of the corpus; every decision was annotated by two trained annotators and then manually adjudicated by one trained curator to solve possible disagreements between annotators. This corpus was developed as training and testing material for reference recognition tasks which will be further used for research on assessment of legal importance. However, the overall shortage of available research corpora of annotated legal texts, particularly in Czech language, leads us to believe that other research teams may find it useful.

Technology in Society, 2019

More and more science and technology parks (STPs) are established in the world, but also the Czec... more More and more science and technology parks (STPs) are established in the world, but also the Czech Republic. Many benefits are attributed to them. One of them is also technology transfer support. This paper focuses on examining this feature of the STP using the case study of CERIT SP. This park was founded by Masaryk University in 2014 and brings together IT companies. Within the identified key areas, eight research questions have been identified. The first three questions focus on academic collaboration, supervision of bachelor's and master's theses, and engaging companies in teaching. Two more questions, dealing with technology cooperation, examine cooperation between firms and using the technical possibilities provided by the park and the faculty. Two questions related to events focus on the experience with park events as well as on the professional seminars that can effectively increase technology transfer. Both companies and park management expressed satisfaction with the status quo. In addition to evaluating how the STP can help technology transfer, the research also has a practical contribution. It provides feedback for management of the STP and inputs to manage it more efficiently.

Information, 2019

The current trend in the European Union (EU) is to support the development of online dispute reso... more The current trend in the European Union (EU) is to support the development of online dispute resolution (ODR) that saves financial and human resources. Therefore, research articles mainly deal with the design of new ODR solutions, without researching the social aspects of using different kinds of ODR solutions. For this reason, the main aim of the article is an empirical evaluation of two kinds of ODR solutions in business-to-business (B2B) relationships from the perspective of a selected social category. The article focuses on: (1) comparing unassisted and smart assisted negotiation while using the artificial intelligence approach; (2) the satisfaction and attitudes of Generation Y members from the Czech and Slovak Republic towards different ways of negotiating. The conclusions of this study can help researchers to design or improve existing ODR solutions, and companies to choose the most suitable managers from Generation Y for B2B negotiation. The results show that Generation Y members prefer computer-mediated communication as compared to face to face negotiation; the participants were more satisfied with the negotiation process when using smart assisted negotiation. Through a computer-mediated negotiation, even sellers with lower emotional stability can maintain an advantageous position. Similarly, buyers with lower agreeableness or higher extraversion can negotiate more favorable terms and offset their loss.

Slovak Economic Association Meeting (SEAM), 2017

The paper presented results of the multiple case study. For simulating negotiations between the c... more The paper presented results of the multiple case study. For simulating negotiations between the companies were selected 40 students who formed pairs. Each pair consisted of one participant from Faculty of Economics, Technical University of Košice in Slovakia and one participant from Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, University of Economics, Prague in the Czech Republic. It was carried out 20 individual case studies. Half of the case studies was conducted through e-NeGotiAtion method, in which is used a genetic algorithm for selection of the most appropriate resolution to the dispute from the perspective of involved parties, and the second half in the form of free communication via e-mail. For each of these forms were completely different case studies of the dispute between buyer and seller. It was measured the participant’s personality using the Ten Item Personality Measure (TIPI) and emotions by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) instrument. Moreover, respondents assessed the process and results of the e-negotiation in a questionnaire. In the paper, this information is linked and analyzed. One of the interesting findings is that all participants using e-NeGotiAtion method were satisfied with the overall solution.

Podniková revue, 2015

Investment decision represents an important tool that can contribute to the growth of company val... more Investment decision represents an important tool that can contribute to the growth of company value, so considerable attention is devoted to the criteria applied in this process. New methods have been also appearing, but when you examine what the criteria are applied by companies in practice, traditional methods still dominate. Therefore, this paper focuses on definition and description of the most commonly used criteria that were investigated by the effect of the project. There are cost, profit and net cash income criteria, and we have also showed their mutual relations. For a better understanding of the issue, it is used an example in which a company has a choice of three variants of the investment project. Applying the criteria to measure the economic efficiency of the project we determined how the company should decide in a given situation, even if we abstracted from risk and inflation.

Slovak Economic Association Meeting in Košice, 2015

The globalization of economic activities and widespread availability of Internet access across th... more The globalization of economic activities and widespread availability of Internet access across the world resulted in e-commerce. The overwhelming share of e-commerce revenue represents transactions between enterprises and it is expected that they now growing steadily, poised for significant growth. This has led to an increase in the number of disputes arising from B2B e-commerce. The traditional judicial procedure is slow, expensive, and difficult to deal with, so other ways of dispute resolution have been searched. One possibility suitable for online transactions is Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). The aim of my paper is to highlight the importance of ODR development for B2B e-commerce and based on previously conducted research to reveal gaps in the research and also identify possible areas for further research in the context of B2B e-commerce.

Science and technology parks (STPs) allow gathering companies together and try to create space fo... more Science and technology parks (STPs) allow gathering companies together and try to create space for knowledge transfer. They are constantly evolving so it is necessary to define the desirable objectives in terms of collaboration with a university to achieve. In this paper, the key areas are described to help better understanding of academic-industrial collaboration and make it more effective. The study primarily focuses on the CERIT Science Park. Each STP is unique and therefore the defined areas can serve as a basis for creating specific areas for a specific park. Next possible research can be focused on defining general quantitative questions for key areas and explore their use and effect in multiple STPs. Academic-industrial collaboration Based on International Association of Science Parks (IASP) definition, Science and technology park (STP) is an organization, managed by specialized professionals. The organization provides space for transferring knowledge and technology through university, laboratories, companies, and markets. Space is intended to increase quality, innovation and provides also other value-added services. The main aim is to increase the wealth of its community. These parks provide a real sense of community, allowing companies in the same or relevant fields to cluster, network and even collaborate, which helps to create a unique environment.

Science and technology parks (STPs) have been a phenomenon of recent years. Their main objective ... more Science and technology parks (STPs) have been a phenomenon of recent years. Their main objective is to increase the wealth of the community by supporting innovation and competitiveness of their companies. The goal of the paper is to reveal potential research using the literary review applicable to conditions in the Czech Republic and at the same time within the available data to identify the current state of STPs in the Czech Republic. The benefits of STPs are described in the first section. The second part deals with the analysis of the current state of STPs in the Czech Republic. Expanding research can be by an enrichment of STPs through a manual supplement of the catalogue, which was the basic data source for the analysis. It is also possible to use a combination with a questionnaire survey to determine the level of technology transfer and knowledge support in STPs.

The growth of Business-to-Consumer electronic commerce (B2C e-commerce) increases the frequency o... more The growth of Business-to-Consumer electronic commerce (B2C e-commerce) increases the frequency of disputes from these transactions between traders and consumers. The European Commission has adopted several recommendations, directives and regulations to promote online dispute resolution (ODR). As a result, the EU ODR platform is accessible to consumers and traders since 15 February 2016. The aim of this paper is to assess results of this platform during 13 months after its creation. Statistics on this website shows that 28506 complaints were registered. The most complaints originated from Germany, United Kingdom and Spain. Percentage of cross-border complaints was 36.84%. The most complaints from the perspective of the sector appeared in Clothing and footwear (11.21%), Airlines (8.54%) and Information and communication technology (ICT) goods (7.91%). The role of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) entities together with possible modification of the ODR platform is also solved in the paper.

There has been much interest in studying the capital taxation because capital is the driving forc... more There has been much interest in studying the capital taxation because capital is the driving force of the economy. Capital taxation systems have been developed in different conditions, which resulted in their heterogeneity. For comparison countries, it is important to determine the indicator reflecting the level of the tax burden on capital. The aim of this paper is the analysis and comparison of the tax burden imposed on capital among the V4 countries. For this purpose, we use the traditional indicator calculated as a share of revenue from capital taxes to GDP, the implicit tax rate on capital by Eurostat and the effective average tax rate by ZEW. Applying these methods helped us to the finding that the value of capital taxation in the V4 countries is lower than the EU average. Thanks to the EATR, we can describe the factors that caused the change in the tax burden on capital, so this approach is the most appropriate for comparing countries in this area. Keywords: corporate income tax, effective average tax rate, implicit tax rate on capital, tax burden on capital, the V4 countries

The rise in number of B2B e-commerce transactions inevitably leads to a corresponding rise in dis... more The rise in number of B2B e-commerce transactions inevitably leads to a corresponding rise in disputes over those transactions. Traditional methods of dispute resolution (litigation, arbitration or mediation) in the offline world, do not address the requirements of online users involved in disputes over online transactions. In response to the demand for dispute resolution procedures which recognize the online user's desire for a fast and flexible mechanism which has a global reach, various research have been performed worldwide. This literature review discusses studies on online dispute resolution. The results indicate four main topics – initiatives, methods, factors, effectiveness and effective system. The complexity of ODR and its implications for future research is discussed.

The issue of taxation has become more important due to a significant share of the government reve... more The issue of taxation has become more important due to a significant share of the government revenue. There are several ways of expressing the tax burden of countries. This paper describes the traditional approach as a share of tax revenue to GDP which is applied to the total taxation and the capital taxation as a part of tax systems affecting investment decisions. The implicit tax rate on capital created by Eurostat also offers a possible explanation of the tax burden on capital, so its components are analysed in detail. This study uses one of the econometric methods called the hierarchical clustering. The data on which the clustering is based comprises countries in the EU27 for the period of 1995 – 2012. The aim of this paper is to reveal clusters of countries in the EU27 with similar tax burden or tax changes. The findings suggest that mainly newly acceding countries (2004 and 2007) are in a group of countries with a low tax burden which tried to encourage investors by favourable tax rates. On the other hand, there are mostly countries from the original EU15. Some clusters may be explained by similar historical development, geographic and demographic characteristics.

The growth of B2C e-commerce increases the frequency of disputes from these transactions between ... more The growth of B2C e-commerce increases the frequency of disputes from these transactions between businesses and consumers. Judicial procedure is slow, expensive, and difficult to deal with. Therefore, the European Commission has adopted several recommendations, directives and regulations to promote online dispute resolution (ODR). The aim of this paper is to assess how the EU countries have implemented these rules and also the status of the ODR platform, which will be operational on 9 January 2016. This description can be useful for businesses because it identifies the requirements in this area which should be incorporated into their strategy.

Investors' decisions are not based only on the statutory tax rate in the country, but also on a r... more Investors' decisions are not based only on the statutory tax rate in the country, but also on a range of other aspects, such as depreciation of fixed assets, treatment of foreign source income, property taxes paid by firms, as well as treatment of dividends paid by companies and taxes on wealth and capital gains at the level of individuals. These aspects are incorporated into the model created by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). This model provides a comprehensive look at the issue of tax competition, therefore the paper deals with describing and explaining its construction. The benefit is description of the effective average tax rate (EATR) in the Slovak conditions, evaluation of its development and changes by the different types of assets and the ways of financing, as well as forecasting its level based on the change in the corporate income tax rate. The indicator, which represents the level of capital taxation, is complicated to determine. EATR means the significant progress on this issue.

Paper deals with a comparison of two methods of online dispute resolution the first is previously... more Paper deals with a comparison of two methods of online dispute resolution the first is previously proposed e-NeGotiAtion method and the second method is using e-mail communication for negotiation. For this purpose , it was carried out multiple case study. In this paper is presented the first part of the multiple case study focused on selected characteristics of a participant (e.g. age, sex, personality factors, positive and negative affectivity) and their impact on the process, result and satisfaction with online dispute resolution. It can be concluded that the process of e-negotiation, regardless of the type of used method, brings satisfaction respondents with lower Extroversion and also females with higher Agreeableness. In a case of satisfaction with the overall solution, sex does not play an important role. All respondents negotiating through e-NeGotiAtion method were satisfied with the overall solution.

B2B electronic markets represent for companies a huge number of potential partners in e-procureme... more B2B electronic markets represent for companies a huge number of potential partners in e-procurement. It brings great possibilities to the modern commercial world, but also disputes from these relationships. Online dispute resolution (ODR) not only settles disputes but also builds trust among participants. Developing a successful ODR process has become multidisciplinary , so the application of artificial intelligence in the legal field (AI & Law) is also used for ODR. Using genetic algorithm for disputes from B2B relationships would be useful, but its application is still missing in this area. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to design of ODR process using this approach in B2B relationships. Presented conceptual design consists of a procedure, in which is used a genetic algorithm for selection of the most appropriate resolution to the dispute from the perspective of both parties.