Search results

The entrepreneurship ecosystem is one of the most important elements determining the conditions for the development of modern enterprises. The structure and tools of the system are the subjects of research and analysis by practitioners and researchers dealing with the issues of entrepreneurship. The main objective of these studies is to search for the optimal use of the potential and opportunities of the enterprise sector in relation to current socio-economic problems.

The purpose of the chapter is to present and discuss the possibilities of the impact of the entrepreneurship ecosystem on the development of enterprises in Poland.

The analysis includes directions, support instruments and an assessment of the effectiveness of activities related to supporting entrepreneurship in Poland. To prepare the chapter, a review and analysis of literature, analysis of programs and documents as well as an analysis of statistical data describing the development of entrepreneurship in Poland were used.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are an essential factor determining the development of entrepreneurship in Poland. There are visible problems related to the implementation of an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem. The experience and adaptation processes of institutions and organisations related to its functioning make the system and its elements work correctly.

As globalization intensifies, the need for tapping the capabilities of corporations’ human resources, gecome more paramount. To this end, businesses cannot afford to have their most important resource, their people, hampered by attitudes that detract from their abilities to perform at their best. This is especially relevant when there may be a misconception that being male is synonymous with management competency. The focus of this research was on exploring the attitudes towards women managers in the United States and Poland. Questionnaires were distributed to two groups of individuals within each nation, professionals and graduating business students or “future managers”. There were 157 and 295 usable responses from Poland and the United States, respectively. The results indicate that Polish women may have more negative attitudes to overcome in becoming managers in comparison to the US counterparts. Perhaps more disconcerting is the potential that “future managers” in Poland may have even more negative attitudes toward women as managers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine gender differences in job expectations among Chinese university students and how they may affect the activities of organizations in attracting and retaining talent.

Since 1972, a number of studies have utilized a job‐orientation survey instrument developed by Manhardt. This study asked Chinese university students to rate 25 job characteristics according to their importance to the rater on a five‐point scale (5 – very important, 1 – not important) in the same manner as had previously been done by Manhardt and others, subsequently. There were 101 Chinese university business students surveyed.

Results showed that the rank order of importance which male and female students placed on job characteristics was similar. In addition, there were no significant differences between male and female students on either the intrinsic or extrinsic subset of variables, indicating that both genders could be approached similarly with regard to the basic issues that comprise a human resource portfolio.

The consistency of job expectations of males and females could be viewed as a positive characteristic by firms, as it simplifies the human resource portfolio design and thus would be cost effective. Whether such consistency across genders would remain true over time (i.e. as Chinese society and culture evolves) or across all industry segments and geographic regions, or in a variety of economic conditions is an issue for future research exploration and analysis. In regard to certain extrinsic items, females seem to exhibit the philosophy that “life is more than just work” and that flexibility in regard to work design is important. Human resource portfolios would be advised to consider opportunities for cross‐training to better meet such expectations, especially for females.

This research adopts Hofstede's typology of culture as a framework to test for cultural differences regarding consumer verbal behaviors in the context of a service provider switching incident.

The study includes respondents from five countries selected to provide global diversity by including cultures from Asia, Europe, South America, and North America. Cooperation from a variety of businesses was utilized in each country investigated to survey employees.

Findings indicate there are significant relationships between cultural orientation and: the propensity of engaging in discussion of service switching incidents; communication valence; the social network that private word‐of‐mouth is shared with; the likelihood of public complaint behavior.

The sample, while five‐country in design, is somewhat limited by its representation at the extremes (i.e. most developed and least developed) and from urban populations only. Within‐country differences are also not considered. A broad range of service sectors strengthens the results, but does not allow for sector‐specific conclusions. The results of this study can assist global service providers to better understand the role that culture plays in customer verbal behaviors as well as providing direction to formulate strategies and tactics to better manage the complaint process.

As service organizations become more globally diverse, understanding the subtle influences of cultural differences becomes increasingly important for building effective customer relationships. No study to date has examined consumer post‐switching verbal behaviors across a broad range of cultural settings.

This survey‐based study examines gender‐based perspectives of job orientation, expectations, and motivations in the country of Poland.

Polish professionals were asked to rate 25 job characteristics according to their importance to the rater on a five‐point scale (5 = very important, 1 = not important). Mean scores were calculated and rank ordered for males and females separately. Two‐tailed t‐tests between male and female scores for each item tested for significant differences. A principle components factor analysis with rotation by the varimax method was performed on the correlation matrix of the 25 job characteristics.

Results show that males and females differ on 15 of the 25 job characteristics. Standard deviations of the importance ratings were examined. They were higher for males on 21 of 25 items, with a mean standard deviation of 0.96 for males and 0.87 for females. A paired t‐test ((1−(2 = 0)) resulted in rejecting the null hypothesis (p ≤ 0.001). Thus, for the respondents in this study, females as a group are significantly more homogeneous than are the males. Results of factor analysis with orthogonal rotation by the varimax method produced three factors of eigenvalues greater than 1.5, accounting for 37.3 per cent of the total variance. Factor I accounted for 17.9 per cent of the total variance and includes six job characteristics related to long term career objectives. Factor II deals with characteristics which can be classified as intellectual activity and explained 12.7 per cent of the total variance. Factor III included four characteristics related to structure and accounted for 6.7 per cent of the variance.

It would be worthwhile to extend the survey in the future to address three key issues: 1 – group respondents by years of service, for example, less than 5 years, more than 10 years, and so forth; 2 – control for salary levels; 3 – adjust for changes in the unemployment rate.

This research indicates that even though money is an important motivator (number 1 for males and number 5 for females), there are certainly other methods of motivation beyond financial ones. This is particularly significant for foreign corporations investing in Poland. Such knowledge should provide organizations that use it as a competitive advantage not tied exclusively to monetary outlays.

Poland is a developing economy which many observers believe is the most attractive emerging market in the expanding European Union. As such, the findings here should help organizations, both endogenous and exogenous, attract and retain employees.

This paper aims to present some of the key obstacles and general conditions which shape regional cooperation between municipalities of Poland's third largest agglomeration of Gdańsk, also called Tri‐City.

The paper examines the role of leadership in organizations representing business interests, and the competing and conflicting perspectives on the “right” scale to do so – local and/or regional, drawing on participatory insights into the relevant processes.

It is found that economic competition and post‐1990 neo‐liberal governance practices enhance the isolationism and rivalry between localities within the agglomeration. Any public claims to “cooperation” are mainly limited to the practicalities of public transportation. Individual actors and their personalities and policy‐making abilities play a key part in any collaborative agenda, often pushed by EU funding conditions that require institutional collaboration.

The obstacles to, and mechanisms of, city‐regional governance are very topical. The contribution of this paper is timely and offers a rare insight into the competing ambitions and “visions” in local public administration after the end of communist‐era top‐down government.