Purpose: The increasing role of digitalization in the operation of enterprises actualizes the
implementation of the basic methods of proper digitalization processes. The selection of an
appropriate method to introduce digitalization is crucial, as it affects the optimization level of the business processes.

Methodology: Specific multicriteria selection method includes five steps to identify these approaches, considering the relative error for each approach, as it affects the outcome with the performance indicator of business process digitalization. The strongest criterion value is used to identify the optimal approach. The evaluation of the methods showed that the performance of the logistic, administrative, and innovative methods is not worse than the Pareto principle.

Findings: Introducing digitalization in the administrative method has the biggest impact. The chosen method showed that Human Resources processes require modification to reduce costs. A mechanism to digitalize the personnel management processes using artificial intelligence was developed.

Implications: The results of multivariate multicriteria analysis show that the implementation of artificial intelligence minimizes human factors and optimizes time and costs.

Originality: The main contribution is the development of the method for the selection of an appropriate digitalization approach, which encompasses an implementation mechanism that can be adapted to enterprises’ needs.

Purpose: The paper explores the paradigm shift occurring in the automotive retailing industry since the advent of technological innovations and different solutions in mobility. Existing studies and literature focus on the specific aspects of this changing trend, which is why this paper concentrates on the holistic changes that include various approaches to the issue of disruptive innovation in automotive retailing.

Methodology: To answer the research questions, the article utilizes qualitative research approach in combination with inductive-interpretive analysis. Interviews with eight top-level professionals from the automotive industry reveal three different perspectives on the subject. The study analyzes interview results with coding methodology and MaxQDA software.

Findings: The findings center on two components of research: major trends and impacts. The trends include the changing approach towards usership rather than ownership and to clustered habitation in mega cities. What is evident is the stark impact of such trends as the rising popularity of battery electric vehicles, autonomous cars, and mobility as a service on the dealership model of retailing. The impacts include the falling need and demand for personal cars, the rise of large fleet services like car subscription or lower maintenance needs that are expected to drastically reduce the importance of dealership.

Limitations: To further understand the trends in automotive retailing, future researchers should focus on local trends in specific regions. Another limitation is linked with exclusive concentration on experienced professionals as sources of data.

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to overview the research on inequalities in economics. The paper is based on mainstream and heterodox economic theories and approaches addressing inequality and its economic interdependence.

Methodology: Due to its positive and normative nature, inequality is a complex concept that eludes precise definition. The available application of mainstream and heterodox approach to study inequality and its economic interdependence allows for the identification of various components of inequality. Classifications that fall within the mainstream economics especially reveal less numerous and often even different types of inequalities compared to heterodox approaches. Moreover, what determines within-country inequality is the number of driving forces related to the factual and regulatory sphere of an economy.

Findings: This study does not exhaust the general debate over inequality in economics. The question remains about the state of research dedicated to the outcomes of inequality, for instance, perceived in its dynamic and historical perspective. Moreover, there emerges a need to overview the theoretical and empirical research dedicated to inequality in terms of not only its driving forces but also economic outcomes.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to position self-employment within an entrepreneurship paradigm. The authors create a structured approach to the existing concepts and definitions of entrepreneurship and self-employment, as well as interrelations between them. The text proposes a framework to analyze these two phenomena by establishing their categorization.

Methodology: An in-depth critical review of selected literature of the classical and contemporary entrepreneurship theories and definitions in the context of self-employment.

Findings: The main results of the study show major discrepancies between existing definitions and approaches in entrepreneurship and self-employment theories and the official EU definitions.

Practical implications: The findings offer a starting point for quantitative, methodologically sound, comparative studies on entrepreneurship and self-employment and their role in the contemporary labor market. The proposed categorization structures current terminological chaos and standardizes the terms and tools used in labor market statistics.

Originality: The article comprises a set of notions related to the concept of both entrepreneurship and self-employment. The text positions self-employment within an entrepreneurship paradigm and offers new arguments in the discussion on their similarities and differences. The summary offers an original idea that confronts self-employment forms with selected entrepreneurship characteristics.

Purpose: To systematize the existing approaches and tools used for measuring competitive intensity.

Methodology: Systematic literature review along with critical literature review.

Findings: Identifcation of two main approaches to measuring competition intensity: the frst pertains to research based on experts’ opinions and involves the use of questionnaires (primary sources), while the second is based on structural variables used with a variety of indexes (secondary sources). In addition, variables applied for the purpose of measuring the intensity of competition are divided into structural and behavioural.

Practical implications: The issue of measuring competition intensity occupies a prominent place in the discussion on the effectiveness of inter-organizational relationships. The fndings outlined in this paper may help managers to develop/adopt the right approach supporting their strategic decisions.

Originality: The paper provides a complex review of the existing methods and measures of competitive intensity. It systematizes recent knowledge about competitive intensity measurements.

Purpose: A wide range of approaches to defning, modelling, and measuring international competitiveness can be found in the scholarly literature across various felds of management and economics. Such number of perspectives enhances scientifc research, but confuses public debate. Despite certain defnitional ambiguities, there is a consensus that international competitiveness is a multi­ ­faceted concept that should be analysed at different levels of aggregation: company level (micro), industry/cluster level (mezzo) and national level (macro). This paper addresses international competitiveness at all three levels and tracks the interlinkages between them with the aim to fnd a common ground for understanding this economic phenomenon in a systemic perspective: as a complex whole.

Methodology: The paper constitutes an in­depth literature review, forming a basis for a new approach to categorizing the main perspectives on international competitiveness. A synthesis of the latest international competitiveness literature sources has been performed in order to categorize the existing approaches to defning, modelling, and measuring international competitiveness. Following Chandhuri’s and Ray’s (1997) two­dimensional classifcation approach (the level of analysis and the variable), the paper introduces new insights into the existing taxonomy of international competitiveness.

Findings: Based upon the developed taxonomy, the paper offers an interdisciplinary, multi­layered model of international competitiveness.

Originality: The offered fndings enhance the active shaping of modern competitiveness research directions to support the competitiveness policy on the regional and national level.

Purpose: Crowdfunding is a global phenomenon of rising signifcance and impact on different areas of business and social life, investigated across many academic disciplines. The goal of the article is to present the variety of methods applied in crowdfunding research, assess their strengths and weaknesses, offer the typology of methodological approaches, and suggest the most promising direction for further studies. Research limitations/implications: The overview renders crowdfunding studies more accessible for potential newcomers to the feld and strengthens transdisciplinary discussion on crowdfunding. Despite the broad variety of the analyzed articles that reflect the newest trends, the sample is not representative in the statistical meanings of the term.

Design/methodology: The paper is based on the review of the most recent academic and industry literature on crowdfunding and own analysis of data presented by crowdfunding platforms’ operators.

Findings: The article incorporates interrelations of methods, goals of inquiries, and types of results to propose a typology of methodological approaches that researchers currently apply to crowdfunding: from platform­centred to multi­sited. The authors discuss the advantages and limitations of the identifed approaches with the use of multiple examples of recent and most influential studies from the feld and propose the most urgent direction of future inquiries.

Originality/value: The article offers the frst review of methodologies applied in the transdisciplinary area of crowdfunding studies and connects it to broader methodological discussions about transdisciplinary research on the digital phenomena. The review strengthens the transdisciplinary dialog on crowdfunding.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to compare the phenomenon of interfirm cooperation strategy in both hyper-growth, and stable-growth knowledge and technology–intensive firms, in a country characterized by a high level of generalized trust: Sweden.

Methodology: Qualitative methods were incorporated: direct semistructured interviews with top managers in 13 ICT firms (8 hyper-growth and 5 stable-growth), analyzis of reports, corporate websites and press releases. Furthermore, interviews in 3 expert firms in the industry were conducted, facilitating interfirm cooperation.

Conclusions: There were significant differences in interfirm cooperation strategy in two distinguished groups of the frms: hyper-growth, and stable-growth. Managers’ individual approaches to uncertainty, strategy and cooperation might be more important than institutional settings. The ICT firms operate in a constantly changing global environment and local context seems to have only a minor impact on the rules of the game in the industry.

Research limitations: This study was a qualitative explorative approach as an introduction to further empirical research.

Originality: The study presents an interfirm cooperation phenomenon incorporating different perspectives and settings. It contributes to alliance portfolio literature (forming and managing of alliance portfolio in a different context/country/industry), and enhances understanding of firm strategies characterized by different growth rates.

Purpose: This article provides an understanding of international retailers’ successes and failures when expanding in the Polish market. Accordingly, the objectives of this article were to define and identify what are the critical factors of success and failures of international retailers’ strategies while expanding in the Polish market according to the retailers themselves.

Methodology: Adopting an interpretative research approach, this article elaborates a multiple explanatory case study design to discover how existing theory on internationalization compared to how internationalization is experienced and conceptualized by practitioners in their natural contexts.

Findings: Twenty cases were studied among which were found four successful retailers and two who had failed. Coding of categories highlighted five critical success factors and five critical failure factors. Pricing strategy, necessity of adapting operations to local market, learning by doing, e-commerce and early entry timing appeared as factors of success or at least as “facilitating factors.” Choosing the inappropriate entry method, underestimating competition, developing the retail network and retail environment at a slow pace and not giving enough means of abnegation led to failures in Poland.

Originality: This article contributes to filling two main gaps identified in the literature review. Many different theoretical approaches exist but no conclusive framework has emerged. Besides, most concepts were developed and tested on western European countries and nothing proved adequate to the specific retail landscape of eastern Europeans countries such as Poland.

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to test whether and to what extent the concept of CSV can be utilized in the marketing strategy of companies, and more precisely, whether and to what extent it can be used as a criterion for positioning the company in the market.

Methodology: The authors analysed the case of the Partnership for Health from the perspective of one partner, grocery retailer Biedronka. In addition, we have conducted consumer research among students to fi nd out if consumers have a positive perception of products with a social mission.

Findings: The research fi ndings indicate that, according to the respondents’ perception, products with a social mission could comprise a basis for a positioning strategy for Biedronka, but for now, many customers do not even know that Biedronka offers such products in cooperation with its partners. The lack of a promotional campaign aimed at educating buyers had a negative impact on project awareness. It can even be stated that its potential wasn’t exploited from a marketing viewpoint.

Research limitations/implications: The major limitation of the conducted research is the sampling procedure. The authors introduced their own scale for measuring the consumers’ approach to products with social missions. This scale can also be used for implementation of similar projects.

Originality: In the subject literature there is a cognitive gap connected with the use of CSV concept in corporate marketing strategies. The authors determined how this concept could be used in marketing with special regard to the positioning strategy. Additionally a special scale was designed for measuring consumers’ approaches to products with a social mission

Purpose: This paper aims to match subjective and objective measures of organizational innovativeness and test correlative relationship between the two.

Methodology: The research adopts a quantitative approach, and applies correlation analysis to identify interdependencies. The study has been done in the aviation industry, as organizational innovativeness has so far been described especially in high-tech industries – however it has not been investigated within aviation industry yet.

Findings: The results show that the discussions over reliability of research based on subjective measurements techniques are not unfounded. The evidence suggests that subjective measures are not correlated with objective measures, and the outcomes of third-party investigations differ considerably. Therefore decisions about measurements techniques should be deliberate, thought out, theoretically grounded and justifi ed. In general, methodological recommendations provided by this paper could be boiled down to the ascertainment that accurate and reliable assessment of organizational innovativeness should use a set of objective measures addressing all stages of the innovation process.

Originality: It should be noted that this study was restricted to only one industry and prone to some common bias. The aviation industry sample was relatively small and purposefully selected, disallowing conclusive statements made outside of this empirical setting. However despite the limitations this paper provides some signifi cant contribution to evaluation and research on innovativeness. It compares two approaches to measurement and empirically proves which approach is more suitable in case of such a highly innovation-intensive sector like aviation. Moreover, it introduces a new in Polish research tool for subjective assessment of organizational innovativeness namely the questionnaire developed by Wang and Ahmed (2004).