Purpose – The purpose of this article is to present the results of empirical research concerning the identification of the impact of the transfer of companies from the alternative market to the regulated market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange on their operating and net performance.
Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted based on the empirical data of the companies that changed the listing place on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Data regarding the years before the transfer were collected from the prospectuses of companies prepared mandatorily in connection with the transition to the regulated market. Data regarding the years of the event and subsequent years were obtained from companies’ annual reports. As in other studies in the analysis, the operational metrics were used (operatingreturn on sale, operating return on assets, total asset turnover), which was further extended to net profitability ratios (net return on ale, net return on asset, net return on equity). The significance analysis was based on the Student’s t-test and Wilcoxon’s test.
Findings – The results show that before the transfer from the alternative market to the regulated market, companies improved financial performance. As a result of the change of listing venues, the results already collapsed in the year of the event. The downward trend continued in the following two years, with a noticeable improvement in the third year after the transfer.
Originality/value – The literature lacks such studies based on the Polish market. To the best knowledge of the author, this is one of the first studies in Poland showing the changes in operating and net performance of companies changing the stock listing venues. The research is based on a large group including all companies that have changed listing venues since the beginning of the alternative market in Poland. The article presents an original empirical result that can be used both by managers and investors in their decisions.

Purpose – The article investigates the patterns of asset impairment recognition in search of signs of “big bath” earnings management practices across an internationally diversified sample of public companies. It also elucidates the incentives that may underlie such practices and explores possible safeguards embedded in the existing corporate governance mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach – The article applied static panel and binary logit models to an international firm-level panel dataset of 1045 public companies observed between 2003 and 2018.
Findings – Our empirical results suggest that recognition of asset impairment has no determinate impact on earnings volatility. Investigating the possibility of “big bath” earnings management practices, the authors found no impact of asset impairment recognition on total senior executive compensation in firms, which pay performance-based remuneration. The quality of corporate governance has appeared to impact the firms’ intertemporal proclivity to recognize asset impairment with those having the more entrenched and
management-controlled boards being more likely to time impairment recognition by delaying it during exceptionally good and exceptionally bad years. While generally unlikely, recognition of asset impairment in a period with a recorded negative operating performance is found to be closely associated with key executive departures.
Originality/value – The article corroborates the salient role of corporate governance mechanisms in shaping the intertemporal patterns of asset impairment recognition. The possible remedies to the phenomenon should be derived therefrom.

Purpose: Self-employment is considered one of the responses to precarious employment, particularly among those who lost jobs during an economic crisis. Although starting a new business is widely available, operating new ventures remains challenging. This article aims to explore the premises of self-employment success, namely self-employment intention and proactive coping as crucial predictors of further performance.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors recruited participants among initially unemployed individuals who participated in the entrepreneurial program aimed at creating self-employment. Since entrepreneurs are expected to have specific personal characteristics important for performance, the authors assessed proactive coping as the key factor for self-employment intention.

Findings: The results depicted proactive coping as crucial in performing own ventures in the long run, which suggests that self-employment intention may change over time.

Practical implications: Proactive coping is particularly appropriate for self-employed at any stage of the entrepreneurial process because it maintains the intention to perform own business. Thus, the findings underline the need for proactive coping training for entrepreneurs, particularly those previously unemployed.

Originality/value: As the self-employment intention may differ in time, the importance of being proactive in operating small businesses increases.

Purpose: The article evaluates the associative relationship between international supervisory board experts and foreign ownership, along with the experts’ influence on the financial and operating performance of firms. The study was based on data collected for 257 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2010–2015.

Methodology: The dataset was built as a panel, and then generalized least squares regression models with a fixed or random effect were employed to test hypotheses.

Findings: The findings of the study clearly show that the presence of investigated firms in foreign markets positively affects company performance. Moreover, models with dependent variables ROA and ROS show that supervisory board members with foreign experience positively affect profitability indicators of firms that do not operate on foreign markets. The data analyses reveal that international experts are more effective advisors for companies that conduct no business activities on foreign markets. Furthermore, the results show a positive moderate association between the share of international experts in supervisory boards and the share of foreign ownership in the company.

Originality: The article contributes to the understanding of determinants and consequences of the presence of international experts in supervisory boards and company internationalization.

Objective: The objective of the article is to fill a research gap regarding the impact of psychic distance on the initiation of relationships by managers from Poland-based firms and to analyze the psychic distance’s influence on firm performance.

Research methodology: The article is based on quantitative research conducted among managers from 201 Poland-based companies operating in foreign markets. The study used a structured questionnaire consisting mainly of closed questions. The dataset contained companies representing all sizes, industries, and ownership status from all over Poland.

Findings: Two types of companies were identified following managers’ (un)willingness to initiate relationships with actors located in psychically distant markets. The study conclusions reveal that psychic distance matters for Polish managers and that business activities conducted in psychically distant markets are often perceived as more complex than in close markets. These activities involve additional risk, but they bring companies better performance.

Limitations: The limitation of the study is that the measurements are based on the subjective perceptions of psychic distance. The research was conducted in Poland only.

Originality: The article is a pioneer work on the psychic distance paradox among Polish managers from a diversified group of companies (from small to multinational). The article seeks to identify to what extent Polish managers perceive psychic distance as an important factor in the decision-making process concerning the initiation of relationships with foreign partners.

Purpose: Despite the importance of innovation, the full innovation potential of companies operating in the industrial sector of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) seems not to have been unlocked yet. Thus, the primary purpose of the study was to explore the key elements of company innovation policies applied on the way to successful innovation.

Methodology: The article presents results of an empirical quantitative analysis. The data has been collected through an anonymous online and postal survey. The analysis focuses on 345 companies active on foreign markets and involves a Mann-Whitney U test and a regression analysis.

Findings: The conducted analysis points to the importance of the degree of interorganizational network embeddedness for the performance of companies active on foreign markets. It shows that the higher the degree of the overall network embeddedness (measured with adaptations, trust and mutuality), the higher the company’s perceived performance relative to its competitors.

Research limitations: The research was burdened with such limitations as respondents experiencing time pressure and the use of only one source of information (the interviewees).

Originality: Despite much general evidence, the study attempts to complement the rare qualitative studies on innovation in CEE. It was carried out as a response to the lack of an in-depth study covering such recurrent challenges in the feld of company innovation policies as disruption, portfolio balancing, integration, intangibilities’ management, and play.