Magdalena Dej

The crisis and beyond: the dynamics and restructuring of automotive industry in Poland

The paper considers the effects of the crisis on the restructuring of automotive industry in Poland and its possible impact on the long-term prospects of the sector in the country. The dynamics of Polish automotive exports and the performance of various automotive suppliers located in Poland, depending on their size, ownership, position in supply chain and labour costs, are explored. This is followed by the analysis of foreign and domestic company strategies as well as the regional effects of the changes in the industry. The factors behind the upgrading processes, new plant locations and delocalisation are discussed.

Wykorzystanie energii geotermalnej w Polsce

Geothermal energy is one of the renewable sources of energy, which is extremely important from the point of view of the idea of sustainable development. In modern Poland, the use of geothermal energy is so far limited. There are several plants that use geothermal energy for heating purposes, but the cost-effectiveness of this type of investment is low. For several years, a rapid development of so-called thermal parks has been observed, which is related with a newfound fashionability of the healthy lifestyle. Particularly advantageous geological conditions in the region of Podhale, as well as the significant tourist popularity of this area in general all year round, make this type of investment substantially profitable. In other parts of the country, only a few relatively small thermal parks are operational and development is not easy because of the high start-up cost and difficulty of providing adequate financial resources

Relocation of Economic Activity Within Major Metropolitan Areas in Poland—Scale and Key Characteristics

Company relocation processes are a very complex field, with a major impact on economy on a local, regional and global scale. On the local scale, company relocation occurs very often across major metropolitan areas. Research on this subject has been conducted both in Western Europe and the USA for several decades now, yet studies in this area in Central and Eastern Europe are limited. The current study focuses on company relocation in major metropolitan areas in Poland in the years 2001–2013. The objective of the article is, therefore, to describe the processes of relocation of business entities in five Polish metropolitan areas from the point of view of the characteristics of the companies relocating. The considered characteristics include company age, its size and type of business. The question of the distance of the relocation is also considered. Our research has confirmed findings noted by researchers in the Netherlands and the USA in terms of companies’ decision to relocate depending on tenure and size, as well as sectors that tend to be most mobile. At the same time, our study prompts new questions which need to be answered by advanced research in the future. Particularly important is the question of the economic consequences of relocation processes, at both a local and a broader, regional level. It is therefore essential to carry out further in-depth research.

Large Dominant Enterprises Versus Development of Rural Mountainous Areas: The Case of the Polish Carpathian Communes

This chapter focuses on selected aspects of local impact of dominant enterprises in nonmetropolitan rural areas in the Polish Carpathian Mountains (Carpathians). It has been shown that companies localized in the Carpathians and possessing a dominant share in local labor markets do not possess such positions in the sphere of their local impact. It has also been argued that Carpathian communes where large enterprises are present differ significantly from each other from the point of view of their levels of development. The research has confirmed that dominant enterprises do not exert a significant local impact, as they are focused on taking advantage of a cheap, local labor force. The influence of a large company depends on the specifics of its activity and the features of the community.

Entrepreneurship of Inhabitants vs. Economic Activity of Large and Medium Enterprises in Rural Areas of Selected Historical Regions of Poland

Entrepreneurship of Inhabitants vs. Economic Activity of Large and Medium Enterprises in Rural Areas of Selected Historical Regions of Poland In the past historical periods, each particular region of Poland was developing -- in a sense -- as separate organism; some of them were achieving a relative rise in the economic hierarchy, whereas some other were plunging in backwardness. These disparities have remained very distinctive until today, especially between the rural areas of different parts of the country. The aim of this paper is to determine diversifications of economic development level in four selected regions of Poland (Little Poland -- pol. Małopolska, West Pomerania, Lower Silesia and the Lublin Region), measured as the localisation range and characteristics of big and medium enterprises in rural areas. Another objective was to observe the relation between localisation and characteristics of those enterprises and the general initiative of local inhabitants. The analyses carried out for this paper have served to create a typology of communes, depending on the number of workplaces in big and medium enterprises in this areas, as well as the general initiative of inhabitants, which then enabled the assessment of economic disparities between rural areas of selected Polish regions.