Volume 56 (2020): Edition 1 (March 2020)

The purpose of this article is to examine the changes that have occurred after Poland’s integration into the European Union (EU) internal market for services after 2004 considering the legal changes adopted in the EU relating to the free movement of services, namely, the Service Directive. An examination of the Directive’s outcome and the development of the market integration process permit the conclusion that the changes in regulatory trade barriers have had a relatively limited impact on the changes that have occurred in EU–Polish ties concerning services trade. These were predominantly shaped by structural and macroeconomic factors. From an analysis of the structure of Poland’s services trade, a picture emerges of a deepening asymmetry between the exports and imports sides of Poland’s participation in the internal market.

It is a common knowledge that the eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) was an extremely important undertaking for both the New Member States (EU-10) and the “old Union” countries (EU-15). One of the most important effects was significant acceleration of the development of mutual trade links, including changes in their commodity structure. In the study presented in this article, we attempted to verify the hypothesis whether, as a consequence of the eastern enlargement, the EU-10 and EU-15 markets were increasingly treated by the exporters and importers from Poland as a single market. In analyzing changes in the similarity of import and export structures, we calculated “Euclidean distance” (in 2004–2017), the measure based on absolute differences of individual structure indices. We compared the results for Poland with the other New Member States operating on the single European market. We found that for more than a dozen years Polish exporters and importers have contributed to the increasing similarity of the structures of their respective countries’ trade and the EU patterns mostly shaped by the EU-15. The results reflect the ongoing unification of the foreign trade system and its arrangement toward the recognition of both areas as a single market.

The high-technology sector has a particular importance in the development of modern national economies. It affects both the level of competitiveness and innovation. This was a prerequisite for the study to assess the competitive position of the advanced technology sector in the European Union (EU) countries. The starting point of the discussion was the definition of the concept of competitiveness, the competitive position of the advanced technology industry, and the classification of the high-tech sector. Based on the selected indicators, the competitive position and the rank of countries have been established. As for this, the indicators of the export share of the advanced technology sector in the intra-export market, the profitability of the high-tech sector, and the degree of export–import coverage were used. Based on the adopted indicators, a synthetic indicator of a competitive position has also been calculated which enabled determination of the most competitive country in the EU in reference to the industry. This enabled the identification of factors influencing the competitive position of the advanced technology sector in the EU member countries.

This article aims to quantify the institutional similarities between industrial relations systems in 11 Central and Eastern European countries (CEE11), on the one hand and each of the four models of capitalism in Western Europe identified by Amable [2003], on the other hand. The comparative analysis was performed on the basis of six variables. Three of them represent inputs or institutional determinants of industrial relations. Another three variables represent outputs or the labor market performance. For each variable, the similarity coefficients between CEE11 countries and four reference EU15 economies representing Western European models of capitalism were calculated. Based on these coefficients, the hexagons of similarity were built.

The analyses led us to some general observations. In 2005, most of the countries in the region developed industrial relations systems similar to the continental model, what can be interpreted as a strategy to meet the requirements imposed on these countries in the process of European integration. After accession, most of the countries abandoned “social partnership” ship and started the cruises to the Anglo-Saxon model.

The aim of this article is to determine the current state of impact of various forms of intangible assets on the internationalization process. For the purpose of the paper meta-analysis was adopted as a method of the study. English-language peer-reviewed journal articles were analyzed only with the help of: EBSCOhost, ScienceDirect, Emerald, JSTOR, ProQuest and Wiley Online databases. The search was aimed at newest papers (after 2012), however some older articles (with regard to their value) were included in the analysis as well. Based on the conducted analysis, there was observed a significant and positive link between the level of employee education and internationalization probability and extent. The effect of the wages on internationalization is stage dependent. Under certain assumptions there is a positive and strong relationship between R&D intensity and internationalization. Advertising spending do not foster the process of internationalization. The practical contribution of this research is twofold. First, it provides valuable insight for practitioners which intangible assets and how foster various modes of the internationalization process. Second, it describes upon which conditions the interrelation between firm intangible assets and internationalization is significant and positive.

So far, very little attention has been paid to the roles of foreign subsidiaries located in Poland and if or how these roles have evolved. Simultaneously, there exists strong empirical justification for assuming these roles have been evolving over the years. Through a literature review and empirical case study of a foreign subsidiary located in Poland, this study analyzes the evolution of the subsidiary role and indicates its relations with groups of external and internal determinants. The case study examines a 10-year period of operations of a foreign subsidiary active in the automotive industry. The results indicate that the evolution of the subsidiary role encompasses factors such as markets served, functional areas of operations, and complexity of operations. The presented case study describes the complex relations among factors related to the subsidiary, HQ, and environment concerning the evolution of the subsidiary role.