Sławomir Dorocki

Polskie gospodarstwa agroturystyczne w dobie kryzysu gospodarczego

The economic crisis of the last few years has affected each sector of the world economy in some way. Specific conditions and governmental policy introduced in Poland meant that, in comparison to other countries, the economy demonstrated considerable resistance to the crisis (Sawicka, 2011). As experts point out, a significant impact in this area was made by Polish entrepreneurs, who did not give in to the pessimistic mood. For businesses, the period of economic downturn is difficult, but also, as noted by A. Sawicka (2011), extremely mobilising. This is due to the fact that crises force the owners to review their goals and implement changes - both in relation to the management of their own company, as well as in relation to the market. The subjects of the analysis in this paper are agritourism activities, with particular emphasis on the market and entrepreneurial behaviour in times of economic crisis. The analysis was based on the results of research, conducted on a group of agritourism farms from across Poland. These studies were to identify whether respondents notice any changes in the operation of their farms, and, as a result, whether they feel any impact of the economic crisis on the functioning of these agritourism enterprises.

Family Agritourist Enterprises in Poland: Preliminary Survey Results

The main goal of the paper is the evaluation of agritouristic enterprises, as a specific type of family owned businesses, in terms of their market and entrepreneurial behaviour and the behaviour connected with generating innovation. The attempt has been made to define the advantages and disadvantages of family-run business in the opinion of the agritouristic enterprises. Achievement of the above-mentioned goal was based on the analysis of professional literature, and direct research supported by direct questionnaire surveys and individual in-depth interviews. The empirical research was conducted in the period from January to March 2012. Agritourist enterprises are self-defined as family enterprises. They can see and appreciate benefits from running a family business as well as their advantage in being innovative and strive to introduce changes in their businesses. In the opinion of the authors of this paper, agritourist farms are a very special example of family entrepreneurship. Issues analysed in this study are relatively new and poorly covered by the literature in the field. It is a certain novelty to analyse family entrepreneurship in agritourism in addition to being an interesting area of scientific exploration.

Przedsiębiorstwa agroturystyczne w gospodarce opartej na wiedzy

Agritourism enterprises represent an important branch of economic activity on the local,national and international scale. Agritourism is a significant form of farm activities diversification(Klodzinski, 2001). It plays crucial role in the economic revival of rural areas, affects the local economicstructures and their liveliness, and in the consequence contributes to an increase in the number ofworkplaces and attracting new sources of income.The main objective of this paper is the diagnosis of agritourism enterprises in Poland. It focuses on thecharacteristics and structure determining of agritourism farms offer, as well as evaluating entrepreneurial,innovative and market behaviour of agritourism enterprises in a knowledge-based economy. Thebasis for the analysis is formed on both the information from secondary sources as well as surveys andindividual in-depth interviews conducted with a sample of agritourism farms throughout Poland.

The process of transformation of academic centres as a factor upgrading the quality of human capital in the regions of France

Abstract. The article discusses the issue of spatial distribution and diversity of educational potential of Higher Education (HE) urban centres described by the number of students and HE institutions as well as their structure in terms of types in the regions of France in 1998‒2008. According to the research results it appears that the actions undertaken in order to level the socio-economic development of the regions of France, i.e. increasing the quality of human capital, resulted in an even distribution of HE centres, their high educational potential and lack of regional specificity in terms of the structure of the educational offer.

Przestrzenne zróżnicowanie rozwoju przemysłu biotechnologicznego

Today’s biotechnology is widely regarded as one of the most important sectors of infor- mation technology, a new wave of a knowledge-based economy. It is characterized by innovation and a very fast pace of development, which is connected with the involvement of highly qualified specia- lists, research centres, varied sources of information, investments, as well as interconnections to gu- arantee the flow of information. Biotechnology has got a potential wide range of applications, such as the food industry, production of genetically modified organisms, pharmaceutics, healthcare, detergents and bioremediation, forestry and agriculture. The aim of the article is to show the diversity in the development and structure of biotechnology in the world as well as in Poland. There is a huge variety in the world when it comes to the structure and space where the biotech development occurs. According to the collected data, even though the dynamic expansion of biotechnology takes place in new centers of development in Lithuania, Spain, Turkey and Slovakia, there is an obvious predominant role of highly developed countries. In Poland, biotechnology is mainly based on the potential of universities’ scientific centers and metropolitan centers. Furthermore, biotech development is determined by several factors. The distance from scientific cen- ters, location of universities, financial sources and international cooperation must be taken into consi- deration. Policy of a country is also one of the major determinants.

Wpływ wielkości nakładów inwestycyjnych w sektorze B+R na regionalne zróżnicowanie tempa rozwoju Francji

The following article refers to the relationship between the rate of economic development anda share of a section related to the services for companies in France. The text discusses twoproblems: the influence of the size of investment in innovation on the GDP growth in regionalsystem of France and the influence of the structure of expenditure in R&D section on theregional differentiation of development rate of France. The analysis is based on the value ofGDP per person employed and the size of investment in innovation in the years 1991–2004.The analysis of numeral data is based on statistical methods by means of correlation and timeseries. The analysis proves that there is a relationship between the investment in education andgrowth rate of GDP. According to OECD report, the influence of innovation on economicgrowth rate can be tenfold. Capital expenditures in innovation in higher education seem to bethe best investment influencing the GDP increase. It should be emphasized that all thementioned regularities are characterized by a large regional differentiation all over the France.

CHANGES IN THE RANK OF WORLD ECONOMIC CENTERS IN THE UNITED STATES – PRESENT STATE AND PERSPECTIVES

The purpose of the study was to determine the level of resilience of the command and control function via its dominant sector in cities in the United States and forecast the level of resilience for the period up to 2025. Changes in the WECI index were used to analyze this issue. The index is calculated based on standardized values of financial data of companies located in major metropolitan areas with a special focus on economic potential and the variety of sectors present. The number of corporate headquarters decreased in most cities in the U.S. (designated world economic centers) in the period 2006 – 2016, while the resilience of their main sectors increased. The most important WECs in the United States today are New York, Chicago, Houston, and San Jose. Research has shown that the resilience of U.S. cities tended to increase in a lagging manner with respect to the market value of U.S. companies following the 2008 global financial crisis. The forecast for 2025 suggests that the leading WECs in the U.S. will be New York, Chicago, San Jose, and San Francisco. No spatial patterns were noted in future changes in WECI values. Both decreases and increases in WECI values occur more or less evenly across the United States. Changes in U.S. WECI values also do not appear to be related to a one specific sector of the U.S. economy.

Międzynarodowe korporacje biotechnologiczne i farmaceutyczne na świecie

Contemporary, life science (including biotechnology and pharmacy) are regarded as one of the most significant and the fastest developing sectors of innovative (knowledge-based) economy and as the most important factors of socio-economic development. Biotechnological and pharmaceutical corporations are located mainly in the proximity to the world-class universities, providing access to a highly skilled workforce and research infrastructure and it is associated with a high risk investment resulting from rapid technological changes. The subject of the conducted research are international corporations selected from the list of 2 000 biggest corporations in the world of the Forbes Magazine. The aim of the research is to determine the location and economical potential changes of the international biotechnology and pharmaceutical corporations. Nowadays, the importance of biotechnological and pharmaceutical corporations is growing. Biotechnology develops rapidly because of the aging of the society, civilisation illnesses, growing economies. The main regions famous for developing biotechnological and pharmaceutical corporations are highly developed countries such as the USA, Western European countries, Japan. However, the relocation of the industry is noticeable (location of production and clinical trials), searching for new markets and more friendly legal policy (China, India). Research and Development infrastructure, highly developed human capital and infrastructural factors (including ethical and legal ones) are the main factors of the development of biotechnology.

Eastern European cities as command and control centres in a time of economic crisis

This article describes the command and control function of eastern European cities based on the financial performance of the largest corporations with headquarters in the region and the impact of selected sectors on this function. Research has shown that, despite the global economic crisis of 2008–2012, the revenue and net income of the companies studied have increased to some extent. Currently, the strongest “command and control cities” in eastern Europe are Warsaw and Prague. The sector that exerts the greatest influence on the regional command and control function in eastern Europe is the consumer business and transportation sector. The economic crisis has also produced a geographical pattern in eastern Europe that runs counter to current global trends: companies in the region currently tend to concentrate their headquarters in fewer cities, which is becoming common in other parts of the world. The article employs a standardization method based on the mean and standard deviation of financial values for each corporation studied.

Dynamika funkcji kontrolno-zarządczych miast Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w czasie spowolnienia gospodarczego

Large corporations are an important aspect influencing the status of the city in the international context. The aim of this article is to determine the level of development of the command and control functions of cities in Central and Eastern Europe. These functions are defined on the basis of revenues from sales and net income of 600 corporations whose headquarters are located in Central and Eastern Europe for the years 2008 and 2012. The impact of each sector was also examined. During the economic slowdown in 2008–2012, revenues from sales and net income of the examined corporations slightly increased. The highest level of development of control and management functions has been observed in two capitals: Prague and Warsaw. In addition, a decrease in the number of cities in which the head offices were located was noted, which is different from the trend observed on a global scale.