In recent years, the Czech
corporate sector has been confronted with a confluence of several major
challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, a slowdown in
economic growth, and, in particular, new geopolitical developments associated
with the war in Ukraine, trade sanctions, and the fragmentation of global
markets. These factors have fundamentally reshaped the business environment and
have had a disproportionate impact on small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), which account for more than 99% of active firms in the Czech Republic
(Syrová & Špička, 2022).
The aim of this article is to analyze the impacts of
these new geopolitical developments on the Czech corporate sector, with a
particular emphasis on SMEs, and to identify the key factors influencing their
resilience, competitiveness, and growth prospects. The theoretical and
methodological framework of the study is based on multi-criteria
decision-making (MCDM), specifically the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP),
which is applied to four selected SMEs operating in the IT, manufacturing, and
services sectors.
The empirical part demonstrates the quantification of
geopolitical risk, economic stability, innovation potential, and firms’
adaptability, and interprets the results within the context of current
macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions. The findings confirm that
innovation, digitalization, and low exposure to geopolitical risks
significantly enhance SME resilience, whereas energy- and export-intensive
manufacturing remains the most vulnerable.
