Sebastian Kot

Aspects of Logistics in Biomass Supply for Energy Production

Energy production from biomass is now a very popular trend in energy generation. These initiatives are supported by the European Union legislation and state governments. Undoubtedly, the idea of renewable energy production can be justified and promising. However, it should be considered from a wider perspective of supply chain than merely focusing on the share of renewable sources in total energy production. The economic and ecological importance of biomass use to energy generation largely depends on the logistics of biomass supply to power plants. The location of biomass sources and the organization of supply are very important stages that impact on final economic results of energy production. Furthermore, the improper choice of means of transport and process organization for managing renewable sources of energy might have a negative ecological effect. Therefore, the authors attempted to analyze the cost-related aspects of biomass supply (including the seasonal biomass price fluctuation) to the analyzed power plant and the effect of this factor on financial results of energy production.

Total Productive Maintenance in Enterprise Operations Support Processes

So far the objective of the concept of TPM has been to increase the effectiveness of production by means of involvement of operative workers at different levels in the assigned tasks. As a result, an enterprise which was focused on profits coming from its basic activity minimized production loss by implementing some preventive measures with regard to technical and technological equipment. Nowadays, the application of the concept of TPM in the area of primary processes may be insufficient to realize the assigned production targets. In the paper there are characterized the support processes which, along with the use of the principles of TPM, constitute a coherent idea while aiming at minimizing loss and not only the production loss.

Identification of Information Systems Application in Road Transport Companies in Silesia Region

Rapid analysis and transport’s information transfer are extremely important in order to achieve the efficient transport system, which main task is to fulfil users’ needs and requirements. Therefore, telematics called also intelligent transport system is gaining popularity and is still expanding its field of activity. The aim of the article is to identify the information systems applied in road transport companies in Silesian Region. The authors also draw their attention to the effects and benefits of using information technology in transport companies, functions and tools used in road transport activities and identify elements which are essential in the implementation of rapid and efficient transport.

Costs Incurred by Designing and Implementing the Logistical Projects in the Activity of Companies

Under the conditions of the current economic-social development within the industrial companys management, there occurs a new function, that of logistics which has a decisive influence on the companys other functions. Thus, the industrial companys logistics is systematically approached, emphasising its elements, namely: production logistics, commercial logistics, operational logistics, sales support logistics, pilotage logistics. These costs can be deemed as being total costs that depend on the total quantity that is subject to the logistical process. Any activity of logistics within the company can be analysed by means of a questionnaire called Logitest.

Economic and social effects of novel supply chain concepts and virtual enterprises

Growing market globalization, increasing global competition, more complex products results in application of new technologies, methods and business processes – due to the abovementioned tendencies novel supply chain strategies (Lean, Agile and Leagile Supply Chains) are established. In this study these supply chain concepts are being described and compared. Virtual enterprise is a temporary alliance of enterprises that come together to share their skills, core competencies, costs and resources in order to better respond to rapidly changing market environment and dynamic customer demands. Economic and social benefits and effects of virtual enterprises for customers and production companies and service providers are also described. Optimization software has been developed for optimal formation of virtual enterprise networks and is also introduced in this study. The aim of this software application is to define virtual enterprise as the optimal combination of supply chain members.

Business Risk Management in International Corporations

Abstract Nowadays, there is a large variability in business environment, cause by economic and political circumstances. It sheds new lights on the issue of risk management in business. Companies that want to stay in the market, must in dynamically way change their exposure to risk. The article presents analysis of business risk management models in international energy companies. Also, authors’ professional experience in this industry was used. It has allowed for compilation of knowledge referring to the literature and experience of business practitioners. The authors indicated crucial areas of companies which using good practices are able to respond to changes in a flexible way.

Urban transport system in Czestochowa City

Range of transport system in Poland has changed a lot during last years. Rapid growth of car quantity and small increase of road infrastructure are basic circumstances for seeking new solutions in transport system. New projects of transport system development are also effect of Polands presence in the European Union. There are described assumptions and concepts of further transport system development for Czestochowa City. Survey of present transport problems and causes of system malfunction are shown. Finally transport system strategy for the City is presented.

Blogs Usage in Purchasing Process

Blogs are considered as modern communication medium. They are currently used as a tool of communication content strategy and present their activities in the Internet environment. Blogs allow companies to reach the target audience by distribution of complex information. The aim of this paper was to determine the current status of using the blogs in the buying process in Slovakia and Poland. Results of the questionnaire survey confirmed that the terms of the frequency of visits of the blog between Slovak and Polish customers are not statistically significant. It was further confirmed that the Slovak and Polish customers use blogs by selected activities associated with the purchasing process as well. The last finding was that the frequency of visits of the blog and by whether the customer buys based on the blog, there is a statistically significant dependence.

Income inequality in non-communicable diseases mortality among the regions of the Slovak Republic

AIM A great amount of non-communicable disease deaths poses a threat for all people and therefore represents the challenge for health policy makers, health providers and other health or social policy actors. The aim of this study is to analyse regional differences in non-communicable disease mortality in the Slovak Republic, and to quantify the relationship between mortality and economic indicators of the Slovak regions. METHODS Standardised mortality rates adjusted for age, sex, region, and period were calculated applying direct standardisation methods with the European standard population covering the time span from 2005 to 2013. The impact of income indicators on standardised mortality rates was calculated using the panel regression models. RESULTS The Bratislava region reaches the lowest values of standardised mortality rate for non-communicable diseases for both sexes. On the other side, the Nitra region has the highest standardised mortality rate for non-communicable diseases. Income quintile ratio has the highest effect on mortality, however, the expected positive impact is not confirmed. Gini coefficient at the 0.001 significance level and social benefits at the 0.01 significance level look like the most influencing variables on the standardised mortality rate. By addition of one percentage point of Gini coefficient, mortality rate increases by 148.19 units. When a share of population receiving social benefits increases by one percentage point, the standardised mortality rate will increase by 22.36 units. CONCLUSIONS Non-communicable disease mortality together with income inequalities among the regions of the Slovak Republic highlight the importance of economic impact on population health.

A Cross-Country Comparison of the Characteristics of Polish and South African Women Entrepreneurs

IntroductionEntrepreneurship development has been identified by many experts as the key to economic success (Luthje & Franke, 2003, p. 135; Veciana et al., 2005, p. 167; Grid & Bagraim, 2008, p. 711). Traditionally, women were not considered as part of the business world as this was a more male orientated sector (De Bruin et al., 2006, p. 568; Bird & Brush, 2002, pp. 41-42) but this phenomenon has begun to reverse in the past few decades. A noticeably growing number of women are becoming involved in the business sector and many new ventures are being started by women entrepreneurs. Research indicates that in the fast growing sector of individual and collective entrepreneurship, women may hold the key to advancing the slowing global economies (McAdam, 2013, p. 3). Entrepreneurship has been a popular topic for decades and vast amounts of research on this field have been done, but it was not until the late 1970s that gender specific research was initiated (Greene et al., 2003, p. 1). Although there might be some entrepreneurship traits, characteristics and management styles that are the same regardless of gender, it has been proven by leading experts in the field of female entrepreneurship that there are clear differences in growth patterns, financing strategies, industry choices and motives for starting a business (Bird & Brush, 2002, p. 43; Greene et al., 2003, p. 2; Brush et al., 2006, p. 586; Carter et al., 2006, p. 1). Furthermore, researchers have found that women are more risk and debt averse, that some women might need more assistance with regard to self-esteem and confidence than male entrepreneurs and that women face different structural obstacles, lifestyle issues and individual embedded mindsets when compared to men (Carter et al., 2006, p. 1; Botha et al., 2007, p. 164; Barsh & Yee, 2011, p. 6). Bird and Brush (2002, pp. 47-50) identified the following fundamental differences between male and female entrepreneurs: reasons for starting a business; the choice of business; what characteristics are needed to run a business; how they finance their startups; governance structures; growth patterns and some aspects of the entrepreneurial process. Establishing your own company, most often alone, can be very difficult. Therefore, certain characteristics are important to overcome problems attendant to conducting business. The purpose of this study was to identity the most important characteristics that women entrepreneurs felt they needed to have as part of running their businesses. This was done by making use of similar qualitative studies conducted in Poland and South Africa, both of which are classified as efficiency-driven economies by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) (Kelley et al., 2016, pp. 97, 104).1.Literature review1.1.Entrepreneurship definedEntrepreneurship research is still developing as a management science. In investigation, an attempt to introduce theoretical aspects of entrepreneurship with particular reference to the evolution of behaviours of enterprising women was made on the basis of an analysis of literature sources. That it is still developing as a management science is especially visible when entrepreneurship research is compared to the disciplines from which it emerged, requiring it to develop its own methods and theories (Bygrave, 1989, p. 8). Over the last few decades, many definitions for entrepreneurship have been developed. Dating back to the 1930s, one of the earlier definitions by Schumpeter considers an entrepreneur to be an individual who creates new products or services in new or existing markets; he defined entrepreneurship as one of the most important factors of economic development (Schumpeter, 1960, p. 12; De Bruin et al., 2006, p. 586). Kirzner (1985) further defines an entrepreneur as an individual who can optimise information in such a way that it leads to the discovery of new and improved opportunities (Korpysa, pp. 465-477). …