Luboš Smutka

Milk consumption is a very important part of consumers’ daily diet due to its positive health effect. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the market of milk and dairy products. The paper analyzes the development of milk consumption in V4 countries, which was described by using regression functions. The data were obtained from the statistical offices of chosen countries. Based on the achieved results it was found that in Slovakia and Hungary milk consumption is very low, but in the Czech Republic and Poland consumption is recorded in the range of recommended doses and is sufficient. Looking to the future, based on the described trend of consumption, it is possible to assume that the situation in the Slovak Republic will be accompanied by unfavorable developments and in comparison with other V4 countries, Slovakia will consume the least milk and dairy products per capita. Moreover, a questionnaire survey orientated on the level of milk consumption and consumer behavior was conducted on the sample of 518 respondents. Average Slovak consumers consume daily 1 glass of milk, 20 g of cheese, 70 g of curds, and 250 g of sour-milk or other dairy product. Depending on the level of consumption, 3 consumer segments were defined for which different consumer behavior was identified, especially in the issue of factor assessment. In general, however, it is concluded that the quality and price of milk and dairy products are crucial for consumers to make their choice.

Acknowledgment
This paper is supported by the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure within the project: Demand-driven research for the sustainable and innovative food, Drive4SIFood 313011V336, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

This paper aims at comparing the management perspectives with the audit conditions in the Visegrad Group (V4) countries (the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Poland, and Hungary) in the following areas: legislation governing the auditing, statutory duty of auditing, mandatory rotation of auditors in public interest entities, requirements on auditors and professional activities, and audit supervision organizations. The paper also tests the hypothesis whether there is a relationship between the size of the accounting entity and the auditor’s opinion.
The methodology is based on the statistical analysis of the data using the Chi-square test of independence applied to a sample of 800 randomly selected accounting entities from all V4 countries (200 per each country in question).
The results demonstrated significant differences in the management approaches to financial reporting, especially in the area of the statutory duty of auditing. In addition, quantitative research was conducted to determine whether there is a relationship between the size of the accounting entity and the auditor’s opinion. At the 5% significance level, no such dependence has been found for any of the V4 countries, but at the 10% significance level, the dependence has already been proved in case of the Republic of Poland and Hungary.
The practical value of the obtained results is the knowledge of how to manage accounting standards for business entities in the V4 countries, as well as to determine the statutory duty to audit financial statements. These results might be of a special practical importance for business managers, tax authorities, and auditors operating in the EU countries.