Tom 55 (2019): Zeszyt 1 (March 2019)

The main aim of this paper is to show how green supply chain (SC) environmental sustainability orientation and strategic alliance learning coevolve over time. Our position is that the level of interfirm learning is a determinant of the formations and mastery mechanisms evolving in a green SC. Therefore, this study discusses the environmental sustainability of the learning processes of firms’ alliances during the life cycle of the alliances. This is done in order to encourage firms to follow green innovation and green SCs through enhancing their environmental performance and increasing their competitive advantage in the global market. In addition, this study develops a research structure and test hypotheses on the basis of survey data from 342 Taiwanese firms listed on the stock market. The results indicate that green knowledge acquisition plays a prominent role in the performance of firms’ alliances, especially when implemented in a green SC management (SCM) context. Moreover, according to one of the main findings, as companies evolve through the different phases of the alliance life cycle, their situation shows high potential for creating knowledge sharing through their exploration capabilities. Finally, when firms focus their internal organizations on learning and environmental requirements, they become better able to expand their learning capacity as well as to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Development of renewable energy means that there is a growing demand for technology that helps to manage and consume it in an optimal way, using more energy when it is produced on sunny/ windy days, preferably at the place of production, and avoiding long-distance transmission. This opens the field for solutions based on the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, advanced demand management, and the concept of smart energy. The creation of a smart home energy management system (HEMS), which will help end users to manage the produced electricity, was the goal of the project entitled “e-balance – Balancing Energy Production and Consumption in Energy Efficient Smart Neighbourhoods”. Research with potential users carried out within the project showed that the existence of such systems in the home environment redefines the concept of electricity, which becomes tangible and always present in sight. Users also expected that the system would significantly reduce their electricity bills, an expectation which is not always confirmed by economic simulations. This means that the final solution will have to take account of other types of motivation and engagement, e.g., environmental ones. The paper presents conclusions from quantitative and qualitative research conducted within the “e-balance” project in Poland, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

Using a sample of 104 companies that conducted initial public offering (IPO) on the Warsaw Stock Exchange between 2006 and 2016, we investigated the relationship between the accuracy and bias of the earnings forecast disclosed in the IPO prospectus and the firm corporate governance attributes. Applying multiple Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions models, we focused on the role of the board size, the percentage of women on the board, the board age diversity measure, and the proportion of shares owned by the members of the board. Generally, our findings show that some characteristics of management and supervisory board improve the usefulness of earnings forecasts’ credibility. Especially, a more diversified board in terms of age and higher management ownership results in more accurate forecasts. This is the first study giving an insight into the role of supervisory and management board characteristics on precision of earnings forecasts revealed in the prospectus by Polish IPO companies.

The aim of this article is an extensive presentation of the fiscal policy conducted by the EU states in the years 2008–2015. The analysis concerns the legal regulations introduced at the EU level by the European Parliament and the Council, as well as the fiscal policies of governments of particular states. The first part of the article analyzes basic macroeconomic data in EU states concerning the level of debt, the level of gross domestic product (GDP) redistribution, and the level of economic growth in the analyzed period. The second part discusses the legal acts adopted by the European Parliament and the Council (the so-called ‘sixpack’ and the European Fiscal Compact), aimed at improving macroeconomic balance and ensuring supervision over the proper functioning of national finances. The third part analyzes the discretionary fiscal policies pursued in EU states. The main conclusions of this article are as follows: (i) EU countries recorded higher national debt levels and debt growth rates between 2008 and 2015 than most non-EU Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries; (ii) despite legal measures taken by the European Council and the European Commission in the form of the sixpack and the European Fiscal Compact, and despite discretionary fiscal measures such as in the form of the European Economic Recovery Plan, five EU countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) have experienced a steady increase in their national debt levels; and (iii) deep reforms in the composition and level of government expenditure are a prerequisite for reducing national debt levels and for achieving satisfactory economic growth in these countries.

This paper provides data-based analyses of recent interregional migration considering the examples of Japan and Poland. The analyses are conducted against the background of the general demographic and economic situations of both countries, in particular, regional disparities and economic growth. They aim at describing migrants’ behavior in Japan and Poland through a model consistent with the New Economic Geography (NEG) theory. Inspired by the model originally proposed by, the study constructs a migration model coherent with the NEG framework and tests the behavioral hypothesis. Interestingly, in both Japan and Poland, migrant behavior is responsive to stimuli stemming from the two following mechanisms: the relationship between the level of income inequalities and net migration toward capital regions; and similarly, the relationship between income inequalities movement and gross domestic product growth rate.