Katarzyna Cheba

Modeling Transportation Preferences of Urban Residents: The Case of Poland

The paper presents the application of selected methods of multivariate statistical analysis including factor and conjoint analyses in terms of modeling transportation preferences of urban residents. The introduced methodologies can be useful tools for local authorities while designing solutions in order to improve the competitiveness of public transport to private transport. The results of the studies presented in the article are part of the research project implemented in 2010–2013 under a title. “Reference model of city logistics and the quality of life”. For the study undertaken in this paper, three medium-sized cities, located in the western part of Poland, were selected.

An Analysis of Dynamic Changes in Selected Areas of Sustainable Development of the European Union Countries

Abstract The aim of the study is to determine the pace and directions of changes (understood as: improvement or deterioration) occurring in selected areas of sustainable development of EU Member States. The paper analyzes dynamics of changes in selected areas of sustainable development monitored on the basis of headline indicators published by Eurostat from 2008 to 2015. In the paper, three variants of reference points of synthetic measure of development were considered. On the basis of the obtained results, the countries in which the improvement in the sustainable development and its deterioration can be observed were identified. The results have confirmed the existence of significant developmental disparities between EU Member States in this field, but it should be noted that the obtained results depend on the methodological approach both to the selection of features and the adoption of a specific standardization formula, as well as the considered variants of reference points. The results obtained can be utilized in subsequent years to examine the directions of change observed both from the point of view of European Union as one organization, and the individual EU Member States.

The applications of vector calculus to the study of the temporal uniformity of development of socio-economic objects

Dynamic changes observed on global markets mainly due to the economic slowdown but also as in the case of Japan the effect of natural disasters, are the main reason for the need to take into account the new operating conditions in global logistics strategies of corporations. They also have a direct impact on decisions concerning the location of foreign investment. One of the factors increasingly influencing the location decisions of investors is the stability of economic development measured not only in relation to that country, but also the entire geographic region. This is particularly important in the case of such political and economic structures like the European Union, bringing together countries with significant differences in levels of development and with different conditions and experiences of functioning. The aim of this study is to analyze the temporal uniformity of indicators which could determine the attractiveness (economic competitiveness), of the European Union as a place for the location of foreign investment. For the study of this temporal uniformity the calculus vector was used. The results confirmed the considerable temporal diversity of development of the analyzed indicators. Presented results are part of a research project called “Management methods in Japanese supply chains in Poland and the UK”, funded by the National Science Centre.