Purpose –This paper aims to investigate the interplay between international migration, soft skills and job and life satisfaction after returns.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the dataset of Human Capital in Poland 2010–2014 representative surveys with 4040 return migrants, who worked temporarily abroad and returned to an origin in comparison with almost 70,000 stayers, who never worked abroad. In this study, Poland is treated as a strategic research site for the labor migration processes, which happened after the biggest European Union enlargement in 2004.

Findings – This study discovered that working abroad had a positive relation with cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, as well as job and life satisfaction. However, the relations differ depending on the key destination country.

Practical implications – This study discusses the implications for future research and practice, offering recommendations to organizations on how to embed employees with these resources in companies and how to support return migrants and their potential employers with the use of migratory informal human capital in personnel management and counseling.

Originality/value – This paper brings quantitative arguments about the hidden impacts of international migration on human capital by uniquely comparing the migrant population with the non-migrant population.

Purpose: The article explores links between the attractiveness of regional labor markets and internal migration as a change in the usual place of residence in Ukraine.

Methodology: Based on the migration theory of “push-pull” a study of the attractiveness of regional labor markets as determinants of the intensification of internal migration in 24 regions of Ukraine (2010–2020) was conducted with the use of integrated assessment and balance econometric modeling.

Findings: The study found that the internal migration activity in Ukraine is of urbanistic nature because the development of rural-urban area migration vectors dominates in the country. The most attractive regions in the focus of internal emigration and immigration processes are defined based on the developed rankings of the regions’ attractiveness by the system of labor market and employment development indicators.

Research limitations: This article studies a specific country and its regions, along with the local labor market. One should be careful when generalizing the results to other regional labor markets.

Originality/value: The level of regional labor markets’ attractiveness correlated with internal migration activity. The attractive regional labor market, high IT market development level, and increasing innovative-technological capacity proved the main attraction factors of these regions.

Purpose: This article’s primary purpose is to present and analyze the current state of board gender diversity and elaborate on the relatively sparse literature in this field in the Czech Republic, a post-transition Eastern European economy. The described study sought to identify and comment on the theoretical views concerning previous research in other, mainly Western European countries, by highlighting new perspectives on board gender diversity.

Design/methodology/approach: The study’s empirical analysis was based on 235 companies domiciled in the Czech Republic with 500 or more employees. We followed a selection protocol consisting of several filters in arriving at our final sample. We initially analyzed the data in relation to (a) the number of employees, (b) organization turnover, and (c) industrial classification. We calculated the mean (μ), standard deviation, (σ), and coefficient of variation (CV) of the data/variances, then tested our hypotheses through χ2, determining the significance through the p-value. Finally, we calculated the board diversity index (DI) for female/male board members.

Findings: Our findings showed that the representation of women on corporate boards of Czech Republic companies is well below the European directive target figure of 40%. There is a greater representation of women on supervisory than on statutory boards. Moreover, the research revealed that female directors are more likely to serve on boards of companies in health care, social, wholesale, retail, and administration sectors compared to the construction, manufacturing, transportation, and storage sectors. Furthermore, company turnover also plays a part in board gender diversity. Finally, we highlighted many reasons why the Czech Republic is a fertile ground for the study of board gender diversity.

Practical implications: We believe this article will be valuable to senior managers in industry and wider regulatory, corporate governance, and ethical environments, fostering diversity and equality on corporate boards. This article forms a sound foundation for future studies on board gender diversity in the Czech Republic and contributes to the ongoing discussion on any adoption of possible future quota.

Originality/value: This research presents a rare insight into the current board gender diversity structure in the Czech Republic, especially because the country is relatively under-researched in the corporate governance and gender diversity literature. Thus, the research adds to the theoretical views concerning earlier research undertaken in other, mainly Western European countries, highlighting new perspectives on board gender diversity.

Purpose: The article presents research on enterprises from various economic environments, namely the mature Finnish market and the Polish post-transformation one. Thus, our study examined how the external (international) environment affected the internationalization and business opportunities of Polish and Finnish SMEs.

Methodology: Data for the Polish sub-sample was collected from January to February 2021 using the mixed CATI/CAWI method. We used multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) to check for measurement invariance, and chi-square independence test and logistic regression to verify the hypothesis.

Findings: Perceiving the environment as hostile hinders internationalization for Poland only and not for Finland. According to theoretical premises and earlier studies, entrepreneurial marketing orientation (EMO) increases the probability of internationalization in both countries. However, countries differ in terms of which EMO dimensions – and to what extent – influence internationalization.

Implications: In turbulent times, such as a pandemic, respondents might take the worst moment of turbulence as a reference point while assessing environmental hostility and appraising it as favorable. Perceiving the environment as hostile hinders internationalization in some sets only. In a mature economy, resources such as human capital, managerial experience, and access to finance may help to mitigate the negative influence of environmental hostility on internationalization. Respondents in both countries perceived the EMO dimensions in a similar way, so the EMO scale proved to be invariant and useful in a different country setting. Nevertheless, the EMO dimensions that are the main drivers of internationalization were country specific.

Originality: The article presents a study on the influence of environment characteristics on the internationalization of enterprises from various economic environments, i.e. the mature Finnish market and the Polish post-transition one. Thus, the article fills the literature gap regarding comparative studies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) acting in different country sets.

Purpose: The article considers country-level governance factors (legal/regulatory system and financial development) and ownership concentration that impact the value of non-financial firms in Central European nations, specifically by describing a study done in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

Methodology: A fixed effect panel data regression analysis was applied to a strongly balanced panel data using a collection of six diverse Central European countries’ non-financial firms across the sample period of 2010–2020.

Results: According to regression analysis, the legal and regulatory system as well as financial development have a positive relationship with firm value. The firm’s value rises as the legal and regulatory system improves. Furthermore, the growth of financial markets adds to the firm’s value. However, our study reveals a negative relationship between ownership concentration and firm value, which indicates that ownership concentration is too high to allow for effective supervision, implying that more ownership concentration lowers firm value, as the expropriation theory suggests.

Originality: The study examines the value of a firm by incorporating both country- and firm-level factors, which broadens the current literature’s insight.
Implications: Overall, our findings add to the literature on the value of non-financial firms by providing new significant information. Some of the recommendations may be beneficial to the long-term success of non-financial companies.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the antecedents of consumers’ purchase intention toward local dairy products. In doing so, this article delves into the relationships between perceived quality, perceived price, customer satisfaction, brand image, and customer purchase intention in the context of developing countries.

Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, the research model was tested using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique with a questionnaire applied to 731 respondents from Saudi Arabia.

Findings: The results showed that perceived quality, consumer satisfaction, and brand image have a positive impact on purchase intention, whereas perceived price could not explain purchase intention. Moreover, consumer satisfaction and brand image appeared to significantly mediate the relationships in the research model.

Research limitations/implications: This article studies a specific country and local dairy consumption. One should be careful when generalizing the results to other food and country contexts.

Originality/value: This study investigates consumer purchase intention specifically toward local dairy products, which was a matter underexplored in the literature as opposed to studies on a variety of other local products. Moreover, the article contributes to an extension of the SOR framework onto the body of literature regarding local products.

Purpose: Capital flows, tax competition, multinational companies and tax havens weakens governments’ ability to lead independent tax policy. This race to the bottom, especially in the case of CIT rate, seems to work. Aim of the text is to show that the governments are not as powerless as it is often claimed. Despite common opinion, nation-states retain a relatively significant autonomy in creating their own fiscal policies, including tax instruments. Size of funds kept in tax havens have not been growing for few years and international cooperation of tax authorities is more and more efficient in dealing with the tax fraud.

Methodology: The study uses desk research method for theoretical reasoning to verify the research
hypothesis. Moreover, the study seeks answering if the application of EU tax policies determines national tax policy. To that end, the authors utilize time series and cause-effect analysis, as well as quantitative research for the systematization of statistical information and regression analysis for the examination of statistical dependencies. Tax competition or the functioning of tax havens naturally limits the realization of the fundamental functions of fiscal policies, although the taxation remains one
of the most crucial instruments of macroeconomic and income policy of national authorities.

Findings: The most important data on public revenues structure in different OECD countries indicate
that taxation remains one of the most crucial instruments of macroeconomic and income policy of
national authorities. We also show that impact of FDI on hosting economy is not as positive as it is
said to be. There is no relation between FDI and R&D spending and level of wages in hosting country
is even affected in the negative way by the FDI inflow. Irrespective of the regulatory details introduced at the EU level – the basic factor affecting jets coordination in the field of cooperation between tax services brings effects both in terms of the current collection of tax liabilities
and the creation of regulations that hinder tax avoidance and under statement assessment.

Originality/value: The study focuses on an analysis of tax policy. The view that taxation of international corporations is fraught with difficulties finds support in the undeniable reality of tax competition.Moreover, a large and growing share of profits is transferred to low-tax places. The prospects for taxing international companies with positive rates seem unoptimistic. Therefore, it is essential to check how the national economy is affected by the FDI inflow in OECD countries.

Purpose: We propose and test a new leadership model. Our model is an extension of the leaderplex model which proposes that leader cognitive and social complexities are linked with leader effec tiveness indirectly, in a mediation scheme, through behavioral complexity. We enhance the leader plex model with a leader’s degree of managerial discretion as the moderator of the links in this mediation format.

Methodology: We test our model with a moderated mediation approach (Baron-Kenny four-step procedure and Preacher-Hayes bootstrapping methods).

Findings: We use results of interviews with top leaders in Poland and demonstrate that a leader’s managerial discretion is a moderator affecting the mediation scheme assumed in the leaderplex model.

Limitations: The sample size is only 29 leaders. To preserve the respondents’ anonymity, their opinions were evaluated by only one researcher who interviewed them directly. The results may be country specific (Poland).

Originality: We define new boundary conditions for the leaderplex model by showing importance of a leader’s real position (managerial discretion) in an organization. Specifically, we show that the nature of the relationships between the variables of interest will change when a leader operates in one physical environment (e.g., high managerial discretion) rather than another (e.g., low managerial discretion).

Purpose: This article concerns the attitudes of Polish consumers toward the country of origin of the brand. The aim is to describe the characteristics of cosmetics brands depending on the country of origin according to the opinions of Polish consumers.

Methodology: The study covers several types of cosmetics: creams, shampoos, soaps, and lotions. The text analyzes twelve characteristics of brands and twelve countries of origin. The quantitative study bases on the Web Panel Interview method. The survey is representative of Polish adult internet users.

Findings: The study shows significant differences in the perception of the characteristics of cosmetics brands depending on the country of origin. Companies may use the positive features associated with the country of origin of the brand in the process of creating value for customers.

Research limitations: The results are valid for all brands of cosmetics from the selected country but not for individual brands. The research analyzed twelve characteristics of brands and twelve countries of origin. Thus, future research should address other characteristics and countries of origin. The opinions of Polish consumers may differ from those of other countries.

Originality: The originality of this study consists in the analysis of many differences in the perception of the brands depending on the country of origin. This article shows that the selected country of origin may be associated with many different characteristics.

Purpose: The article analyzes the possible methods of public debt management, which not only aim to meet regulatory requirements but also obtain a market premium in the form of an optimal level of the yield on government bond yields that will be profitable for the issuer. The study analyzes the situation in the public finance sector in the countries that form the Visegrád Group (V4). The authors evaluate the main regulatory requirements of EU law in the area of numerical fiscal rules and their impact on the yield on basic securities such as ten-year government bonds, which directly influences the cost of servicing long-term public debt.

Methodology: The study uses desk research method for theoretical reasoning to verify the research hypothesis. The study seeks to answer the question of whether the application of national and EU fiscal rules in V4 budgetary frameworks contributes to lower yields on ten-year bonds and thereby reduces the cost of public debt. The authors utilize time series and cause-effect analysis as well as quantitative research for the systematization of statistical information and regression analysis for the examination of statistical dependencies.

Findings: The basic parameters subject to financial assessment within the fiscal rules index are (1) the deficit of public finance sector and (2) public debt with its servicing costs. In 2005–2016, the ratio of the public finance sector deficit to GDP was shaped in such a way that most V4 countries required the institution of excessive deficit procedures and further disciplinary regulations. The assessment of the situation in the public finance sector in the area of budget deficit and public debt does not translate into the yield on government bonds of non-Eurozone countries. Model-based testing indicates that the financial markets – when deciding to evaluate or purchase government bonds of non-Eurozone countries – failed to acknowledge the implementation of fiscal rules in these countries and its possible effects.

Originality: The study focuses on a unique comprehensive analysis of national fiscal rules employed in individual V4 countries and their impact on the yield on government bonds throughout the entire EU membership of the V4. What holds the greatest cognitive value in this article is the answer to the question of whether Eurozone membership impacts the valuation of a country’s public debt.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore the phenomenon of an advanced form of internationalization: foreign direct investment (FDI) in a distant location. We label this transaction “adventurous FDI”, and explain how this new concept is related to, yet distinct from, other widely studied theories: born global companies, the LLL model, and the Uppsala model. We propose a theoretical typology of adventurous FDI based on two critical factors for risk­taking: distance and embeddedness.

Methodology: We present a theoretical proposal of a typology of AFDIs. To support our proposal, we illustrate the typology with examples from a longitudinal study of foreign direct investments undertaken in the years 2007-2009 by Polish frms. Selection of the time period for this study is justifed by the fact that the number of FDI transactions and AFDIs has almost doubled in the observed time period. We apply methods of social network analysis to identify embeddedness of FDIs and use geographic distance measures to classify transactions on a distance scale.

Originality: Current theories of foreign direct investment (FDI) focus broadly on either gradual learning or instant globalization. We identify a new category which we term “adventurous FDI”. The distinctive features of adventurous FDI includes the exploration of many unknowns related to distant locations and the use of advanced internationalization forms. We propose that embeddedness in country networks is instrumental to adventurous FDI, as the rapid learning inherent in such network arrangements enables frms to overcome the ambiguity associated with vast geographic, psychic, and cultural distance.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine a structure of brand personality at an ecological level and to develop norms for positioning a particular brand in relation to other brands by means of brand personality scales.

Methodology: We present the results of a study in which 1,642 participants aged 15 to 82 (mean 35.3; 51.9% females) were involved. Each respondent marked three to four brands from different categories of goods and services on a 20-item adjectival list for measuring brand personality. As a result, 6,548 descriptions of 224 brands from 46 categories were collected. Findings: Our analyses show that the structure of the differences among brand personalities on the Polish market can be described in terms of four dimensions: competence, spontaneity, subtlety, and egoism. The established dimensions explain 85% of the variance. A distribution of the results within the scales applied served as a basis for establishing specifc norms for each of the four scales.

Limitations: The norms established have a country-level character and are inclusively adequate and reliable for companies that purchase products and services on the Polish market.

Originality: Our study presents a new, ecological approach to thinking about brands. Namely, it enables a more precise determination of the position of a certain brand in relation to many other competing brands and allows for a more effcient use of the potential for constructing brand personality.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to explore and compare reporting practices on provisions for liabilities in different countries.

Methodology: The research was limited to the types of provisions that are addressed in the International Accounting Standard 37 – Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets. For the purpose of the study, fnancial statements of the biggest public companies in Great Britain, Germany and Poland have been chosen to be taken into consideration. The following detailed issues have been explored: – Presentation of the types of provisions in a statement of fnancial position and additional notes to a fnancial statement, – Presentation of the amounts of provisions made, used, and reversed during a given period and the effects of changes in the discount rate, – Scope and quality of descriptions of the nature of obligations presented by entities. The results of the analysis have been viewed from two perspectives – the areas of compliance and non-compliance of reporting on provisions with IFRS have been identifed and a comparison of the extent of compliance with particular requirements between companies from different countries has been developed.

Findings: The results of the analysis have revealed that companies from selected countries demonstrate different levels of compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Substantial differences in the scope and the quality of descriptive disclosures on provisions have been also identifed.

Originality/value: The study contributes to the research on cross-country differences in reporting practices and indicates the need for a further analysis of the underlying determinants.

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.

Objective: The aim of the present study is to examine whether the European Union budget comprises significant resources for financing measures relating to social cohesion. The analysis is based on the contents of the Europe 2020 Strategy.
Given the constraints of space and for the sake of clarity of the argument, the author focuses on the role of the EU budget rather than all measures aimed at social cohesion undertaken by EU institutions or targeted by policies of individual Member States.

Methodology: Documents, studies and reports published by the European Commission constitute the main source of information. In addition, the author has taken into account macroeconomic data demonstrating the deterioration of the social situation since 2009, as well as the instruments that the European Commission has deployed since 2013 in order to respond to post-crisis challenges.

Conclusions: It can be roughly estimated that more than 40 percent of total resources within the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 shall be allocated to the social cohesion policy. Opportunities afforded by the implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy include primarily the definition of objectives whose priority is indisputable and the introduction of the hitherto neglected analysis of certain socio-economic indicators, classified by country or region and, in certain cases, examined in more detail than required by the European Commission. The monitoring of objectives is conducive to the introduction of new solutions and implementation tools, as exemplified by the new instruments within the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020, as well as the adjustment of available funds in light of the most pressing challenges. The European Semester has facilitated the task of comparing progress in strategy implementation by individual Member States, as well as the provision of recommendations for each of them and an individualized approach.

Research implications: This article contributes to the discussion on further integration of the European Union's social dimension, with particular emphasis on the need to work out a common approach to immigration policy.

Originality: The author presents her own opinions regarding current events in terms of the post-crisis social cohesion policies of the European Union, taking into account the European Commission’s financial instruments.

Purpose: To analyse the impact of the Polish fiscal regime on the general revenue of the country, and specifically to establish whether the cumulative tax burden borne by Polish households is progressive or regressive.

Methodology: On the basis of Eurostat and OECD data, the author has analysed fiscal regimes in EU Member States and in OECD countries. The tax burden of households within different income groups has also been examined pursuant to applicable fiscal laws and data pertaining to the revenue and expenditure of households published by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).

Conclusions: The fiscal regime in Poland is regressive; that is, the relative fiscal burden decreases as the taxpayer’s income increases.
Research Implications: The article contributes to the on-going discussion on social cohesion, in particular with respect to economic policy instruments aimed at the redistribution of income within the economy.

Originality: The author presents an analysis of data pertaining to fiscal policies in EU Member States and OECD countries and assesses the impact of the legal environment (fiscal regime and social security system) in Poland on income distribution within the economy. The impact of the total tax burden (direct and indirect taxes, social security contributions) on the economic situation of households from different income groups has been calculated using an original formula.

Purpose: This research aimed to identify the prevalence and particular characteristics of export-driven growth as opposed to those of the domestic market. It examined how the relative dynamics of export sales vs. domestic sales were affected by internationalization intensity (FSTS), age of the fi rm, early internationalization, size of the firm and industry technological level. Similarly, it examined the impact of sales growth and its direction
(domestic vs. export-driven) on company performance.

Methodology: The analysis was based on panel data from approximately 300 manufacturing firms in the Mazovia region of Poland that were engaged in sustained export operations during 2003 to 2010. Several hypotheses were tested regarding factors affecting the growth dynamics of regular exporters as well as their performance (productivity).

Findings: This research proved that only a small percentage (less than 10%) of fi rms reached the status of regular exporter. Although regular exporters engaged in international operations shortly after their foundation, they formed a distinct category of early internationalizing fi rms. For the management of young, ambitious ventures, achieving regularity in their initial export operations represented a major challenge.

Implications: Regularity of international sales is crucial for export performance, both at the enterprise and country levels. This implies that export promotion efforts should concentrate on growh-oriented firms, specifically to assist them in reaching regular exporter status shortly after initiating sales outside the domestic market.

Originality: The analysis of the internationalization process was expanded by adding the regularity dimension, which has been rarely addressed in the extant literature.

Purpose: The paper presents results of research on determinants of selection of the moment of starting running own business.

Methodology: The method of questionnaire research (partial) was used in the paper. 60 students of full-time studies in Poland, who were selected at random, took part in the research. The research constitute continuation of the researches on entrepreneurship conducted by the SES students of full time studies at the University in Szczecin since 2003.
Data obtained from presented research were compared in the paper with international material, which was collected in the previous editions (obtained from the Lithuanian, Latvian, Russian, Ukrainian and Hungarian students).

Conclusions: Results of the conducted research let positively verify the hypothesis that actual tendency of individuals to set up own business appears after few years of professional career – what explains quite substantial disproportion between percentage of people declaring willingness for setting up own business and actual percentage of self-employed in the working population. Preferences concerning this scope have infl uence on shaping the level of self-employment in a given country.

Practical implications: The material contained in the paper can be useful for appropriate public services, which deal with support of development of self-entrepreneurship of citizens, because of the fact of paying attention to analyzed relationships.

Originality: The results of presented research constitute an attempt of filling the gaps, which occur in the literature of subject concerning entrepreneurship. There are not papers concentrating on the issues of factors determining moment of choice of setting up one’s own business.