Purpose: The three goals of the article are: first, to show some arguments surrounding the notion of capitalism in theoretical perspective, and also somewhat bashful connotations since it was intro-duced in Poland after the fall of communism; second, to present some historical facts about the rise of capitalism in Poland in comparative perspective, mostly European; third, to look for cultural categories necessary for analysing the peculiarities of Polish socio-economic development as the part of so-called „the second Europe”.

Methodology: I go back to the history of European patterns of capitalist formation: Anglo-Saxon, French, German, Russian in order to show the Polish trajectory as strikingly different. Before enter-ing the Polish case, I present Mary Douglas and Aaron Widavsky’s proposal – how to analyze four cultures: individualist, egalitarian, hierarchical and fatalistic (authoritarian).

Implications: The main finding is that economic interests are always socio-cultural constructions, hence all definitions of the real life decisions (on public vs private, risk, externalities etc.) that the people make, must frame them within working life of given culture as the combination of universa-lism and particularism (of above-mentioned four cultures).

Purpose: When facing important decisions, people often ask themselves “What should I choose?” This question may involve intertemporal and risky decisions. The aim of our study was to test a potential discrepancy between the normative and descriptive perspective, that is, between “What should you choose?” and “What do you choose?”.

Methodology: In this study we assessed the rate of delay and probability discounting of 236 participants. The design was a 2 (“choose”/“should choose”) × 2 (small/large) × 5 (delays or probabilities) factorial design in delay and probability discounting.

Findings: People are less impulsive when taking the normative perspective than when they take the descriptive one. This phenomenon occurs in relation to large payoffs. However taking the normative rather than descriptive perspective makes no difference in risky decisions.

Research limitations: In further research it would be beneficial to study real outcomes as choice consequences and to control for variables that might moderate the impact of our manipulation, such as addictions.

Implications: The manipulation with the perspective may be applied not only in financial decision making. Our results may find a practical implementation to help impulsive people make more sensible decisions.

Originality: We demonstrated the internal conflict between the descriptive and normative mode in delay discounting decision making.

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: This article informs readers about the theoretical and practical origins of the behaviorally
informed interventions (BIPI), analyzes examples of the BIPI from different policy sectors and
strategies they offer for policy and regulatory design, and discusses applications and implications
of BIPI for public interventions.

Methodology: This paper is based on a review of literature, as well as an inspection of administrative
practices in OECD countries. It encompasses a systematic analysis of scientific papers from
the SCOPUS database and a query carried out at the library of George Washington University.

Findings: The traditional approach to public policy research is based on rational choice theory. It
offers limited support, because by assuming perfect rationality of policy decisions, it overlooks
existence of systematic errors and biases of human decision-making. The authors argue that behaviorally
informed public interventions (BIPI) might contribute to improving the effectiveness of
a number of public measures – regulation, projects, programs, and even entire policies.

Practical implications: The behavioral approach allows decision-makers to better understand the
decisions and behaviors of citizens, as well as to design more effective interventions with minimum
effort by adapting the existing solutions to real decision mechanisms of citizens.

Originality: By combining the concepts of traditional approach with the growing behavioral
approach, the authors aim to propose a new theoretical framework (BIPI) to be used as a tool for
policy design, delivery and evaluation.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze the factors that determine the Japanese approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) to facilitate future empirical research in the Polish conditions.

Methodology: To conduct the research, the available literature concerning CSR, managerial behaviour and stakeholder relations in Japan was studied. The research was conducted onsite in Japan after consultation with local experts, both Japanese and foreigners, specialized in Japanese management and the economy.

Findings: The Japanese approach to CSR is strongly determined by their religious, philosophical, cultural, historical, economic and legal factors. It is proof of the concept of CSR contextuality, which provokes questions about the nature of the business relations of Japanese companies with their foreign counterparts and their style of management while investing abroad.

Research limitations: The methodology was only supposed to gain a general view of the factors infl uencing CSR in Japan. Studying more detailed issues with the use of empirical data was complicated because of the short time available for the research (6 weeks) and the relatively low level of transparency of the Japanese companies.

Value: The study helped in understanding managerial decisions and Japanese business behaviour in the context of corporate responsibility and the ethics of its everyday operations. It was the first research thoroughly analyzing many of the determinants of CSR in Japan, which may be valuable for any counterparts cooperating with the Japanese companies and foreign researchers analyzing Japanese management systems.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to discuss the problems related to consumer time valuation and its implications. This domain remains relatively unexplored in marketing literature.

Methodology: The author approached the time valuation problem in a synthetic and interdisciplinary way. To facilitate the analysis of time characteristics as a consumer resource and temporal decisions, the comparison with money was applied, which is an approach well established in the literature.

Findings: Time can be a source of value only to selected consumers, as not all perceive time as scarce. Mental accounting for time is diffi cult; hence consumers tend to use heuristics to arrive at their temporal decisions and prefer immediate discounting of temporal benefits. Contrary to a popular adage, time is not money, at least in the context of the majority of consumers’ decisions.

Research limitations/implications: Despite growth in the number of publications, knowledge of temporal aspects in consumer behavior is limited and fragmented. Less is known about how to turn the perceived value of time into customer value. Further investigation is needed to identify consumer groups that truly value time.

Practical implications: The knowledge of temporal aspects of consumer behavior, and how consumers value time, would be of particular use in the service industry, where the “when” of customer value is usually provided in the form of “convenience”.

Originality: This study sheds light on research gaps in the literature in an under-investigated subject, examining the link between the perceived value of time and possibilities to generate value based on temporal benefits.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to answer the following question: what concepts should be used to explain how marketing contributes to value creation in business-to-business (B2B) relations?

Methodology: The method consists of: (1) using net present value (NPV) as a goal of B2B purchasing decisions and (2) analysing the supplier’s controlling system to differentiate between value drivers and value causes.

Findings: A conceptual framework of B2B value creation has been proposed. NPV-related product description is the main concept in the framework.

Originality: The study contributes to the B2B marketing theory by increasing the clarity of conceptual foundations by (1) proposing the NPV-relevant product description and (2) making a distinction between value drivers and causes of value.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present the regulatory obligations imposed by the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (hereafter: President of UKE) on telecom enterprises with significant market power in the retail and wholesale telecommunications markets.

Methodology: The decisions addressed to TP Group entities were analyzed as well as the financial statements presenting the economic volume achieved for the period 2006–2013.

Findings: In the analyzed period for entities of the TP Group were applied a range of regulatory obligations, that should result in disabling the use of their monopoly position and transfer their position between telecommunications markets. Regulatory obligations imposed by the President of UKE on TP Group entities did not affect to a signifi cant extent the situation of the group. Fluctuations of analyzed fi nancial fi gures seem to be primarily
the result of internal management decisions rather than a comprehensive range of sector-specifi c regulation in telecommunications. These researches indicate the need for a deeper analysis of the perception of the effects of regulatory actions by stakeholders in the telecommunications sector.

Originality: The text provides an interdisciplinary approach to the issue of regulation of infrastructure markets.

Purpose: The study concentrated on the process of evaluation of public programs currently implemented with the support of European Union funds in Poland. The aim was to show how the evaluation practice was adopted in the regional administration within programming and implementation of Regional Operational Programs 2007–2013 (ROP). The author analysed what types of decisions are primarily supported by evaluation and what
functions evaluation serves.

Methodology: The quantitative analysis was based on data drawn from documentation of the full population of ROP evaluations completed in 2007 to 2012, which was acquired from 16 ROP evaluation units.

Findings: The practice of evaluation was well adopted in regional administration and has grown rapidly in recent years. 236 studies, costing more than 16 million PLN, were completed by the end of 2012. However, most studies were of limited value as they concentrated on the implementation process, not on the effects and justification of intervention.

Implications: This study focused on quantitative aspects of the knowledge production process (evaluation reports). It omitted the question of actual evaluation use, which together with evaluation process quality and development of evaluation culture should be a subject of further investigation.

Originality: This study was the fi rst review of ROP evaluations in Poland. It went far beyond the scope of data collected previously by the Ministry of Regional Development and proposed novel categorizations of evaluation subjects that may be useful for other than ROP evaluations.

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).

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to describe concepts and assumptions of predictive marketing analytics in reference to decision making. In particular, we highlight issues pertaining to the importance of data and the modern approach to data analysis and processing with the purpose of solving real marketing problems that companies encounter in business.

Methodology: In this paper authors provide two study cases showing how, and to what extent predictive marketing analytics work can be useful in practice e.g., investigation of the marketing environment. The two cases are based on organizations operating mainly on Web site domain. The fi rst part of this article, begins a discussion with the explanation of a general idea of predictive marketing analytics. The second part runs through opportunities
it creates for companies in the process of building strong competitive advantage in the market. The paper article ends with a brief comparison of predictive analytics versus traditional marketing-mix analysis.

Findings: Analytics play an extremely important role in the current process of business management based on planning, organizing, implementing and controlling marketing activities. Predictive analytics provides the actual and current picture of the external environment. They also explain what problems are faced with the company in business activities. Analytics tailor marketing solutions to the right time and place at minimum costs. In fact they control the effi ciency and simultaneously increases the effectiveness of the firm.

Practical implications: Based on the study cases comparing two enterprises carrying business activities in different areas, one can say that predictive analytics has far more been embraces extensively than classical marketing-mix analyses. The predictive approach yields greater speed of data collection and analysis, stronger predictive accuracy, better obtained competitor data, and more transparent models where one can understand the inner working of the model.

Originality: Authors describe the importance of analytics which enhance the decisions that the company makes as it executes strategies and plans, so that the company can be more effective and achieve better results. The key factor that enables to execute marketing strategies accurately and build competitive advantage in the future includes predictive modeling. The ability to predict probable futures allows us to shape the future, rather than
merely survive whatever it brings.

Purpose: The goal of the text is to show a number of challenges which major central banks must face today. Impressive engagement of the central banks in counter-crisis policy leads to many controversial decisions and its results are not clear both for economic theory and for real economy. For now, one cannot show a full overview of the policy of central banks – on the one hand, thanks to the expansionary monetary policy, recession was quite shallow and the risk in financial markets has declined, but on the other hand, few side effects of this policy can be mentioned, which can jeopardize economic stability in the future.

Methodology: The paper has a theoretical character. The findings are based on a literature review and an analysis of the major macroeconomic data.

Findings: The text indicates the most important areas which have to be investigated by central banks. There are serious doubts about issues like: inflation targeting as a fundamental part of monetary policy, the efficiency of monetary policy instruments and the side effects of loose monetary policy.

Originality: The text presents quite a new approach in analyzing macroeconomic policy by indicating important gaps in contemporary economic knowledge according to which economic policy is conducted.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to identify the important role of the family in shaping the values and attitudes of the young generation and especially to answer the question of whether family can be a democracy.

Methodology: This article reviews the current positions on democracy in the family, and the results of the discussion that took place during the conference: “Time to develop. Strategic thinking in work and everyday life”. The subject of the discussion was decision-making issues and achieving objectives in family life.

Findings: There is no doubt nowadays that family is important for a child, or regarding the significance of the development and educational environment of a child. The personality of a child is greatly influence by the parents. However, this influence only lasts for several years. Specific parental attitudes affect the school achievements of children, as well as the development of emotional stability and socio-emotional maturity, the formation
of self-image and that of the peer group.

Originality: The analysis of the problem is only an attempt to signal the important role of family decisionmaking, the development of values and sophistication in the young generation, as well as taking responsibility for one’s own actions. Based on the analysis of the family, the changes taking place in this area could be seen as a necessary effect of changes in the social system.