Innovation and the ability to transfer unique production factors (including knowledge, skills, and creativity) are a source of productivity and competitive advantage in various industries around the world . Innovative company performance depends on two groups of factors ? exogenous (i.e., technology or knowledge acquisition, knowledge spillover effects) and endogenous (such as R&D expenditures, a skilled workforce, and an organizational innovation environment as a company strategy). It also depends on the field (industry) in which a firm operates, the availability of financial resources, and the degree to which they cooperate. Each of these determinants influences national and regional productivity, and their effectiveness is influenced by development level, technological advancement, and economic context. Therefore, the project is concerned with modeling the dynamics and effects of individual drivers of productivity at the national and regional levels. Similarly, it is necessary to conduct inter-sector and international analyses of the dynamics of knowledge and cooperation effects in this area and to define their practical implications.

Knowledge spill-over effects (KSE) are based on the fact that subjects obtain benefits from the knowledge generated by other entities (e.g. other enterprises or public institutions) without spending money. They take the form of cooperation between researchers, scientific staff mobility, informal exchanges of ideas, publication of unwanted information, etc. KSEs are increasingly regarded as important levels of economic policy (that´s why municipalities support the spill-over effects from public budgets as state aid), there have been very few attempts so far to investigate the impact and efficiency of knowledge on local- and region-level economic development. Therefore, the key role of KSE and knowledge networks in contemporary regional and local development requires the design of new approaches to their mapping and analysing. The objective of the project is to design such models (analytical tools) of KSE at regional and local levels, which will model complex relations among regional and local actors by using methods of soft-computing and systems theory.

Remote and rural regions worldwide suffer from decreasing economy, unemployment and migration. The ERDI course seeks solutions to these problems and regional development keeping different development strategies is its very core. ERDI combines the knowledge alliances in regions at hand in a meaningful way empowering the excellence and co-creation of knowledge. ERDI aims at fostering students? multidisciplinary and international knowledge and skills. Thus it enhances better employability, sustainable but competitive regional economy and innovations. ERDI course works through a multidisciplinary, intra-European and transnational network of educational institutions, enterprises and administrators.

The main objective of the project would be exchange of research outputs on both sides and creation of
an international platform for research in the field of entrepreneurs´ behavior and strategies applied by
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within their business environment, i.e. comparison and
evaluation of behavioral strategies applied. SMEs are a place where regional social and economic
processes meet, they have a major impact on the surrounding region, they can become as an example
for others (?best practices?) and contribute to stability and development of the region.
As it is clear that this phenomenon applies to one both Czech and Austrian economies, there comes a
need to explore topic on both sides. This would enrich the current knowledge and it would bring a new
intercultural perspective as well.

Financial managers make decisions on asset and financial structure, expense and income as well as profit distribution. In particular, accounting information provide important support to their decision-making. However, important information on business activities and results are usually stated in verbal rather than in numerical form. The qualitative aspects help not only evaluate the current economic situation of the company but also improve company management and establish its goals. Verbal comments are also important for investors, which use them as a basis to evaluate investment opportunities. To obtain a complete picture of the financial situation, the context-sensitive information provided in various sources of text documents is thus necessary. Therefore, understanding how the information in the documents can be used to predict financial indicators is obviously of great importance. The results of this research will shed light on the role of opinion expressed by various insiders/outsiders in corporate financial decision-making.

Corporate financial distress prediction models are recognized as important early warning systems for corporate stakeholders.
Most research to date has focused on the use of financial ratios as determinants of corporate financial distress, whereas little
attention has been given to the role of qualitative information hidden in reports and news databases. Our objective is to test the
following hypotheses: (1) the use of qualitative text information results in significantly more accurate corporate financial
distress prediction models, and (2) the effect of qualitative information differs across countries and industries. Even if this work
does not support these hypotheses, the understanding of the role of text information in corporate financial distress prediction
will be greatly increased. This study is unique in that it will combine quantitative financial ratios with qualitative information
related to a company in prediction models, allowing quantitative-qualitative relations explicitly coupled to individual countries
and industries.