Radosław Wolniak

Assessing the quality of corporate social responsibility reports: the case of reporting practices in selected European Union member states

The organization may communicate its engagement in sustainability and may presents results achieved in this field by creating and publishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Today, we can observe a growing number of companies issuing such reports as a part of their annual reports or as stand-alone CSR reports. Despite the increase in the number of such reports their quality is different. CSR reports do not always provide complete data that readers desire, which in turn intensifies the problem with the evaluation and comparison of the organization’s results achieved in this scope. Differences also occur between reporting models used in different EU countries caused by, inter alia, differently applied EU legislation on the disclosure of non-financial information in different Member States. This paper is one of the first attempts to perform a quantitative and qualitative analysis of corporate sustainability reporting practices in several European Union countries. The purpose of this article is to present the current state of CSR reporting practices in selected EU Member States and identify the differences in the quality and level of this kind of practices, taking into account the mandatory and voluntary model of disclosure. The study included separate CSR reports as well as annual reports with CSR sections and integrated reports published in 2012 in six selected EU Member States. The authors have used a specific evaluation tool in the examination of the individual reports. The assessment questionnaire consists of seventeen criteria grouped into two categories (relevance and credibility of information). In order to assess the quality of examined reports, the authors aggregated the indicators related with the reporting practices. The findings show that the quality level of the studied reports is generally low. Referring to its components, the relevance of the information provided in the assessed reports is at the higher level than its credibility. The study also indicates that the legal obligation of CSR data disclosure has a positive effect on the quality of CSR reports.

Proposed model of cooperation between the business incubator center and a local university based on best practice in USA and Poland

This paper describes the cooperation between business incubator centers and the 8 academic programs at local universities. Students and faculty from four different majors, 9 Engineering, Business, Information Science Technology (IST) and Communication provided 10 comprehensive assistance to new start-up and existing companies. At the same time, the 11 students were gaining valuable experience learning the complexity of entrepreneurial 12 ventures. Students were also developing the ability for cross-disciplinary oral and written 13 communication. 14

Innovativeness and creativity as nature and nurture

The paper describes the concept of innovativeness and creativity 10 from the perspective of nature and nurture. There is the description of basic 11 concepts influencing the innovativeness and creativity from the human nature and 12 educational point of view. 13

Innovativeness and creativity of the workforce as factors stimulating economic growth in modern economies

The paper describes an analysis of the current educational processes 12 from the perspective of encouraging or discouraging innovativeness and 13 creativity. The paper also analyzes the factors either promoting or limiting 14 innovativeness and creativity in the workplace and everyday life. The conclusions 15 include suggestions for creating an innovativeness friendly atmosphere which 16 tolerates failures and celebrates successes. This type of culture and environment 17 promote economic growth. 18

Logistics in the management of municipal waste

The article describes the system of municipal waste management. The logistic processes, collection and disposal of waste have been also presented. Municipal waste was tested on three export routes. Particular attention was paid to the problems encountered in the first link of the municipal waste management logistics chain.

The influence of nonconformities on welding process performance

Nonconformities are core elements which affect welding process performance. They are, among others, the result of technical and organisational reasons and they occur on different stages of the process. Fulfilling the requirements of quality management systems based on PN-EN ISO 9001 and PN-EN ISO 3834 supports reducing the risk of nonconformities occurrence and as a result, limits their consequences. The aim of the article is to illustrate the influence of nonconformities on welding processes and on welding construction performance.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE LEVEL OF SATISFACTION WITH THE SERVICES RECEIVED AT THE BUSINESS INCUBATORS IN USA AND POLAND – PRE-INCUBATION AND INCUBATION STAGE

Abstract The paper concentrate on the problems of customers satisfaction from services in incubator centres in USA and Poland. The aim of the paper is to analyse the level of satisfaction of Business Incubation Centre on the example of two incubator centres one from USA (Hazelton CAN-Be in Pennsylvania and second in Gliwice Poland). The analysis was conducted in pre-incubation and incubation stage. The analysis was conducted on example of survey analysis in both incubator centres. On the base of achieved results we assessed the priority of customers in each incubator centre.

The Hidden Factors of Public Administration in Poland

Public sector has a great importance for the contemporary society. It is the quality of provided services that is becoming more and more significant in its functioning. The main aim of public institutions is to serve the local society and provide services at the highest level. The authors of this article have surveyed the quality level of service provided by the Municipal Councils in Silesian voivodeship. The analysis was conducted on the basis of research done by means of questionnaire based on the Servqual methodology. Twenty eight variables were included within the scope of the research. The aim of the paper was to conduct an extrapolation analysis of hidden factors of 28 attributes of service quality in public administration. On the basis of the hidden factors analysis attributes were divided into five factors. On the basis of the research, it can be observed that when studying service quality by means of Servqual method, a classical division of variables in Servqual method into five areas can be unquestioningly followed. It should be remembered that this division was created for financial services and it does not have to be right for other service sectors.

Global Perspective for Protecting Intellectual Property – Patenting in USA and Poland

Abstract Paper addresses the different methods for protecting intellectual property in modern knowledge-based economies. The focus of the paper is a comparison between the procedures for applying for patents in Poland and the United States. The comparison has been made from the perspective of the cost of obtaining and maintaining a patent in Poland, the United States and some other countries. The comparison has also been made from the perspective of the procedures for applying for a patent in different countries based on the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The paper also includes a comparison of the time needed for processing the patent application. Low cost provisional twelve-month patent pending protection available in the United States is also being discussed. The paper also provides some guidance and recommendations for conducting a patent search in order to validate the originality of the invention.