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: This study aims to verify the quality of the teacher competency inventory as a pedagogical competencies measure of teachers in higher education institutions.

Design methodology: The development and testing of the teacher competency inventory covered three phases: (1) item generation, (2) dimension identification and data reduction (factor analysis), and (3) scale evaluation. The current study tests its construct validity, using an independent samples t-test, variance analysis, and Anova in two different environments.

Findings: Results indicate that the inventory measures unitary constructs and provide its predictive capacity. The developed instrument measures levels of future-oriented pedagogical competencies with comparable reliability and validity.

Practical implications: Teacher competency inventory may be applied to teachers’ recruitment, selection, development, and performance evaluation with the goal to identify current and required levels of competencies. The inventory allows one to compare teacher competencies with the expected competency profile. Possible differences may indicate deficits or overruns in relation to the expected profile.

Originality: Teacher competency inventory is a meaningful tool to improve human resource practices – including recruitment, selection, and teacher performance monitoring – and to indicate the current and required level of competencies. The identified competency gap can help plan teacher development to increase job performance.

Purpose: This study explores the knowledge development of network-based market orientation (MO) for the internationalization of disruptive innovation (DI) by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Methodology: To manage knowledge development for DI internationalization, a business model was applied to a case study of an individual example. The studied company participated in a series of workshops and allowed on-site visits and interviews for two years in a European Union-funded project. The workshops helped the company to gather MO and networking knowledge and then apply that knowledge internally in the organization and externally, in interactions with suppliers, buyers, and other members of the buyer chain.

Findings: Although technological and market efforts usually proceed separately, this study shows that technical and MO knowledge can go together through external and internal networking.

Research limitations/implications: To overcome the limitation of having just one example in a case study, several SMEs can be included in future research to produce a comparative analysis. A further study can investigate how technical and market networks can be integrated in the knowledge development process to speed up internationalization. Managers can learn to internationalize DI by collaborating, knowledge sharing, and networking with other SMEs, suppliers, and firms in the buyer chain.

Originality: The current study contributes to DI literature by highlighting knowledge generation in SMEs from a process perspective as well as by integrating technical and MO efforts for internationalization.

Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to determine the key success factors of enterprise risk management systems, understood as the characteristics of these systems that have the greatest impact on the effectiveness of their functioning.

Methodology: Bearing in mind the most accurate determination of key success factors of enterprise risk management systems, I used several research methods. The conducted research was divided into four stages: (1) literature review, (2) financial statements analysis, (3) individual in-depth interviews, and (4) anonymous surveys. The research embraced enterprises operating in Poland.

Findings: Based on the literature analysis, in-depth interviews, and conducted surveys, a list of risk management systems’ success factors was created and sorted in the order from the most important ones – that have the greatest impact on the success of risk management – to the least important ones.

Additional analysis of financial statements of all WSE-listed companies allowed me to discern that few of the surveyed companies use mature modern ERM systems, and it enabled me to identify a group of companies that qualified to participate in the survey. Moreover, a statistically significant positive correlation appeared between the degree of key success factors’ implementation and the overall ERM implementation’s impact on the organization, while a statistically significant negative correlation emerged between the overall impact of ERM implementation on the organization and the degree of ERM implementation goals’ achievement, but also between the degree of the implementation of key success factors and the degree of the ERM implementation objectives’ implementation. Moreover, I noted that the fact of using individual features has no significant impact on the assessment of a given feature by respondents.

Implications: All factors included in the study are success factors of risk management systems. However, the surveys’ results suggest a different level of individual factors’ significance, thus a different degree of these factors impact on risk management success.

Originality/Value: The article presents an original set of key success factors in risk management systems, created based on my own research. The obtained research results can be used by managers willing to implement or develop risk management systems in their organizations.

Purpose: In order to make an informed choice of the most effective tools for ensuring the development of a competitive economy, it is important to take into account the links between macroeconomic indicators of progress and the most important components of knowledge management. In this regard, the aim of our study is to assess the relationship between knowledge management factors and economic growth in order to select the factors that most determine the positive changes in Gross national income per capita.

Methodology/results: As a result of the systematization of the main international indices, which use knowledge management factors and the authors’ correlation analysis of their relationships with GNI per capita, conclusions are made about the greatest effectiveness at the present stage of action, which results in skills development (such as the ability to work with new technologies and with people, flexibility and cooperation), innovative capacity, access to information and means of communication.

Findings: The perception of these factors as determinants of economic development and the appropriate direction of the levers of economic policy will result in achieving the greatest economic efficiency on the basis of the development of the knowledge economy.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to indicate which information originating in accounting is important for ensuring the information transparency of bankruptcy proceedings.
Methodology: Based on the literature review and the analysis of international legal acts, we determined priority types of information from accounting used in bankruptcy court proceedings. These types included information on the costs of insolvency proceedings, the assumption in the financial statements that there was no going concern, and the book value of assets. A survey was then conducted on a group of specialists in the field of bankruptcy.
Findings: Respondents indicated information on the costs of bankruptcy proceedings as the most important. However, other accounting information under study also received a high assessment from insolvency specialists. The obtained assessments of individual quality features are characterized by high reliability confirmed by low standard errors.
Research implications: Accounting evolves as a response to the information needs of accounting information users. Therefore, knowing these needs may contribute to changes in the requirements regarding the scope of information from accounting that is used in bankruptcy proceedings.
Originality/value: In-depth knowledge of various aspects of the economic side of the bankruptcy phenomenon is part of the current trend in minimizing the negative effects of bankruptcy.

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.

Introduction: Crowd logistics is a widely accepted concept in times of the growing popularity of
sharing economy solutions. The popularity of e-commerce and a tendency to provide same-day
delivery are the main reasons for their development. Developing those trends requires new products
and services, now available on the market, known in the transport area as crowd logistics solutions.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to provide a tool for assessing crowd-logistics solutions, taking
into consideration customers’ requirements. The text includes groups of environmental, economic,
and social criteria to facilitate the choice of the best crowd logistics solution for freight transport.

Methodology: The research is based on the critical analysis of different sources (literature, European
Commission reports, other reports and analyses) and practical solutions in the field of crowd logistics.
The main data analysis method is the Analytic Hierarchy Process, usually used to evaluate variants
in decision-making processes. This method was chosen because of the variety of data types (quantitative and qualitative) and formats, its popularity, universality, and replicability.

Results: This paper contains ready-to-use weights for the assessment of crowd logistics solutions.
The proposed set of criteria and weights can be a useful tool for customers to evaluate the sharing-
-economy services landscape in the areas they manage.

Purpose: Analysis of theoretical views and empirical research concerning the relation between IT reliability and the innovation level of organizations. Implications: Findings enable us to indicate the direction of further promising research that should concern the relationship between IT reliability and innovation in the context of stages of the innova tion process and different types of innovation, which should be analyzed separately.

Methodology: The pilot (sample: 100) and main (sample: 400) survey was conducted in 2017 among SMEs located in Poland. Findings: The empirical analysis shows that there is a relation between IT reliability and innova tion level. Moreover, information reliability appears as a factor that may influence the organization’s ability to create innovations. Furthermore, service reliability proves to correlate with innovation level as well, which provides additional conclusions that support the realization that service is an important feature, which may also influence employees’ ability to employ IT appropriately and efficiently, thereby supporting the generation of innovation.

Value: The article presents a new factor that may influence the possibility of creating various types of innovations. Usually, papers focus on IT systems, while the relationship between IT reliability and innovation allows us to look deeper into this relationship.

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 purpose of the paper is to better understand why some SMEs who pursue a niche strategy on the international scale are more effective with a differentiation via innovation while others with marketing differentiation.

Methodology: Therefore, the paper studies the effectiveness of different points of differentiation (innovation, marketing) of hidden champion type of companies: (1) from the perspective of the unknowns of the key success factors in the specifc market segment, and (2) from the perspective of the professional mindset/education of the strategist.

Findings: The results show that differentiation via innovation positively impacts frm performance when there are many market unknowns over key success factors, whereas marketing differentiation positively impacts frm performance when there are few market unknowns over key success factors. On the other hand, when top management earns a business education, the impact of marketing differentiation on frm performance is signifcant, positive, and strong. The effectiveness of differentiation via innovation does not depend on education.

Research limitations/implications: These results mostly consider the hidden champion type of companies, which prefer not to reveal themselves or their data to the public. The transferability of this research is thus limited.

Originality/value: This paper studies the hidden champion type of companies, which usually receive little attention from researchers, through the lens of differentiation via innovation and marketing differentiation as two distinct ways of competing as their effectiveness is contingent on the market unknowns.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse selected aspects of the marketing strategy of the frst and biggest network of self-service shops with organic products in Poland – Organic Farma Zdrowia.

Methodology: The adopted methodology involves a qualitative approach. The case study is based on an analysis of company documents and marketing communication, especially that offered on its website and in its social media channels.

Findings: The company specializes in distribution of organic products in Poland. It has gone through organic growth, acquisitions, attracting a Dutch investment fund, and entering the NewConnect stock exchange. It operates based on the model of multichannel distribution, combining physical and online retailing. The assortment consists of 4,000 products, including organic food, cosmetics, and cleaning aids. The company has managed to create 3 own label product lines. The online retailer belonging to the company (organic24.pl) is organized in a professional way, although some improvements are possible. In 2015, the company engaged in ambitious marketing projects.

Practical implications: The fndings may be useful for the Organic Farma Zdrowia company as certain modifcations in its marketing communication are recommended. Other companies operating in the sector may also beneft from the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the business in question. Furthermore, our case study may offer a framework of reference for researchers interested in this area.

Originality: This is the frst study to examine the strategy and marketing activities of Organic Farma Zdrowia, a major player in the sector of organic food distribution in Poland.

Purpose: The increasing pace of technological progress, hyper-competitiveness, volatility of markets, dominant in the contemporary society all cause signifcant changes in the approach to innovation and lead to the emergence of a new generation of models of innovation processes. An open innovation model is based on a systematic search for as well as research and use of various sources of opportunities for innovations that offer commercial potential. The main objective of this article is to analyse the possibilities of application of models of open innovation in management of micro, small, and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Poland. This article intends to explore the essence of open innovation by values, its inception, and conditions for its implementation in the management process specifc to the SME sector.

Methodology: The study has been based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted among business managers/owners responsible for innovation development of SMEs in Poland (16 interviews in total).

Findings: SMEs usually do not have their own research and development (R&D) departments, but need external support and R&D solutions tailored to their needs. SMEs need innovations and skills, which requires close cooperation with different partners. In order for SMEs to beneft from innovation processes, a structured cooperation not only with scientists and researchers, but also with other market partners needs to be established and intensifed. It changes both the creation of intellectual capital and the ways to manage it.

Originality: The new approach in the context of management of innovation is now one of the key challenges faced by smaller businesses. It is necessary to make changes in the approach to integration of external sources of innovation with the potential and resources at the disposal of a given company.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the topic of knowledge safety, defned as the state of knowledge being safe from loss, leakage, attrition, oblivion, waste or theft. The paper frst presents a theoretical background and review of previous studies on knowledge loss and ways of overcoming it, and then illustrates the topic of knowledge safety with ten case studies from the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector.

Methodology: The paper is based on an analysis of Knowledge Management (KM) literature devoted to knowledge loss and its potential types in companies, and on the results of case study research. Knowledge safety was frst defned and contrasted with other terms, and then examined in 10 selected SMEs. The research resulted in a clarifcation of what SMEs understand by the term of “knowledge safety” and what kind of measures they take to ensure it.

Findings: As the analysis shows, the examined SMEs attribute diversifed signifcance to the issue of knowledge safety. For some of them, such problem does not exist at all and they state that they can ensure knowledge safety in all aspects of their operations. Some companies perceive it mainly through the safety of the knowledge stored in electronic databases, while others link it with the human factor only.

Research limitations: Research results are limited to ten companies operating in Poland. As such, they cannot illustrate the whole picture of the existing small or medium-sized companies.

Research implications: The fndings of both literature review and case study analysis indicate that there is a need to further examine the issue of knowledge safety by analysing the potential factors which may endanger knowledge safety and the methods to eliminate such risks.

Practical implications: The paper examines important aspects of knowledge safety and provides guidelines on how it can be ensured by managers or owners of SMEs.

Originality/value: The term of knowledge safety has been absent from the related literature so far. The paper defnes it and explores both the theoretical and the practical aspects thereof. The paper also suggests further research possibilities in this area.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the concept of social value added (SVA) as a tool for measuring the effectiveness of the activity of not-for-proft cultural institutions. Findings: The modifcations presented in this article make it possible to adapt economic value added (EVA) to the needs and specifcity of not-for-proft public cultural institutions. Applying a modifed EVA parameter, that is SVA, in cultural institutions may facilitate the process of management and the measurement of effective utilization of resources of these entities.

Methodology: A direct application of the measure of economic value added (EVA) in the case of evaluation of non-proft activity of cultural institutions would be impossible because of the specifcity of such organizations, which – as distinct from standard enterprises – are not oriented on generating fnancial gains. The article covers several successive modifcations of EVA, which lead eventually to the measure of social value added (SVA). This parameter represents the difference between the social impact of an evaluated institution and the social cost of capital involved in the conducted activity. A positive SVA means that the activity carried out by the institution subject to evaluation is socially viable. The method of SVA calculation presented in the article has been supported by a numerical example.

Originality/value: Published sources seldom tend to cover the tools improving management process or making it possible to measure the effects achieved by public cultural institutions. The solution discussed in this paper is a contribution to the body of reference literature in the said scope.

Purpose: Miles and Snow’s conception of strategic types is the most popular and extensively studied typology of strategic choices. Consequently, in recent years it has been related to organizational performance measures. Despite numerous studies conducted in different environmental and organizational settings, the research results of relationships between strategic types and organizational performance are ambiguous. In this paper, we seek to advance the knowledge regarding how a chosen strategic type affects organizational performance measures in the transition economy of Poland.

Methodology: Using quantitative research results, on the basis of data from 96 organizations we statistically test four research hypotheses.

Findings: Research results reveal the existence of “clear” strategic types in majority of companies but highlight moderately strong relationships between declared strategic type and organizational performance. In turn, they suggest that Prospector and analyzer strategic types promise slightly higher performance than Reactor and Defender types.

Originality: This research project on strategic types in SMEs in a transition economy is one of few dealing with this topic that have been conducted in Eastern European countries to date.