Synopsis New Challenges in Economic Policy, Business, and Management by : Anna Ujwary-Gil
The first part of this volume broadens the understanding of contemporary industrial policy in local, regional, national, and international contexts. The chapter by Wojnicka-Sycz (2020) undertakes one of the most important challenges in RIS3, i.e. the evaluation of the impact of regional SS industries on the development of Polish regions. Based on the spatial panel models for 2012–2017, she reveals the positive impact of SS industries’ employment dynamics on regional GDP per capita. The chapter responds to the research gap in a direct measurement of how SS areas affect regional development. The results provide the rationale for policy-makers to pursue these strategies further. The chapter contributes to regional New Industrial Policy by proving the efficiency of SS in strengthening regional performance. Factors and barriers to the development of smart mobility in mediumsized Polish cities are the focus of the chapter by Kachniewska (2020). The author applies a comprehensive set of methods to tackle this issue and identifies the conditions for smart mobility, drawing primarily on expert opinions. The results enable a natural generalization of the identified determinants to the similar context of Polish towns, the more important that the research on medium cities is much rarer than studies on metropolises. This contribution belongs to the research streams of city governance and databased services, which are closely connected to and dependent on industrial digital transformation. Moreover, smart mobility addresses the objective of environmental protection, one of the crucial targets of NIP. Godlewska-Dzioboń (2020) performs international comparisons between Central and Eastern European Countries in 2020–2018. Particularly, she focuses on the sectoral transformation of the employment structure in these countries. Besides the important observations of spatial dynamics in sectoral structures, the chapter points to the increased importance of services relative to manufacturing in contemporary structural transformations. Thus, it justifies the expanded scope of New Industrial Policy that encompasses not only industry, recently refreshed with 4.0 Revolution, but also services, particularly the digital ones. The chapter by Czech (2020) identifies the impact of global debt on the national amounts outstanding of credit default swap contracts (CDS) in nonfinancial institutions. She finds the dynamics of the CDS notional amounts outstanding in response to global household indebtedness and total non-financial sector indebtedness in domestic banks. This contribution brings valuable practical insights about the core and dynamics of CDS and their usefulness in alleviating risks in international exchange. We find this input particularly relevant for industries and enterprises operating in global value chains. Widera (2020) performs a spatial analysis of the induced population potential of the communes in the Opolska region in 2000 and 2018. The econometric analysis revealed both the own potential of the communes and the interactions with neighboring communes to develop this potential. These findings are important to theorize about the bottom-level sources of territorial units’ potential, both internal and those stemming from spatial interactions. We find these conclusions relevant to understand local-level origins of regional transformations, as well as interdependencies among local territorial units. The next two parts of this volume present micro-level and bottomup contexts for industrial policy. Particularly, these are the insights from management and business research and from the research on governing various stakeholder interests and networks. In the second part, based on management and business theory and empirical evidence, the authors discuss human resource and technological challenges faced by the contemporary industry. Potoczek (2020) performs a bibliometric research to recognize the advancement of the process approach in organizations. She finds the research on process improvement as emerging. The major research community in that area belongs to the IT field, while management researchers are still a minor group. The author recommends the increased interest from the management field as conducive to the 4.0 transformation of organizational processes. These results provide policy-relevant input to the understanding of how academic research tackles digital transformation in organizational processes. The chapter by Igielski (2020) uses a survey among a sample of large enterprise senior managers headquartered in Poland to check whether and how they develop employee skills for the challenges of Industry 4.0. The results are pessimistic since they reveal the lack of adaptive and developmental actions in this regard. Nevertheless, there is also a positive sign, namely the awareness of the challenges posed by the 4.0 revolution. Thus, the chapter is valuable for the recommendations as to competence development in industrial transition to the digital economy. Flak (2020) presents an interesting test for the system of organizational terms as to its usefulness in the practice of motivating people and in a dedicated software. Based on a research experiment in real-life business settings, the author proves the applicability of theory-driven organizational terms in software applications supporting managers in their motivating functions. The chapter contributes important observations as to the interrelations among managerial and technological resources in motivating employees. Sztorc (2020) investigates lean management tools at hotels in Poland, based on a large sample of hotel representatives. The results are helpful in understanding the types of lean management tools, as well as their major targets in the researched organizations. The input of the study rests in filling the research gap as to the particular tools of lean management applied in the hotel industry to improve services and processes. The focus of this chapter on a particular industry provides a relevant basis for further application and upgrading of this service sector. The chapter by Mazurkiewicz (2020) offers an assessment of the impact of national culture on career orientation and career values among Polish and Chinese students of economics. Surprisingly, the value system does not differ much between the two national samples, despite the distinct characteristics of the two national cultures, according to Hofstede’s method. Consequently, the author assumes national culture as moderator of career values rather than their determinant. These results provide a contribution to the understanding of job motivations among future corporate employees, a critical determinant of all industrial transitions. Kowalik (2020) investigates the economic benefits perceived by student participants of scientific projects. Based on the survey, the author reveals students’ recognition of scientific projects as bringing economic effects. The study offers practical implications for young people engaging in research activities, as well as for research policy that might acknowledge additional important outcomes, besides purely scientific objectives. The third part discusses how governing networks and interests can ensure sustainable and socially responsible industries and enterprises. Sectoral and industrial collaborations are supposed to enhance industrial convergence (EOCIC, 2019). In this vein, Lis (2020) focuses on collaborative attitudes in clusters and technological parks. Cluster organizations are established to rip the localization and agglomeration economies, as well as synergies from cooperative links. Despite some history of operations, the surveyed Polish cluster initiatives and technology parks still reveal low development of enterprise cooperation. The author suggests self-evaluation of management and participants of the researched organizations to understand the accomplished level of collaboration and derive practical implications. This contribution is important to understand the performance of some organizational measures of industrial policy and their real input to industrial transformation. The chapter by Kowalczyk (2020) investigates sociocultural conditions of CSR-practices in the construction industry of selected European countries. Based on a survey with a large convenience sample, the author confirms the strength of stakeholder pressure on CSR practice as well as the mediating role of company culture in this relationship. At the same time, country differences were indicated as significant for CSR practice and worth further explanation of its variance. This study is valuable for the explanation of interests and stakeholder pressure affecting a particular industry, thus determining the development conditions of that industry. Another industry-specific study has been proposed by Kurzak-Mabrouk (2020), who focuses on food businesses. This chapter addresses the critical strategic direction of NIP that refers to sustainable and responsible growth with regard to environmental protection. The author performed the interviews with top and middle managers of a large representative sample of Polish food companies. The findings are optimistic, since the majority of companies undertake the efforts towards comprehensive sustainable development strategies voluntarily, and not only due to legal enforcement. Still, the researched enterprises do not fully apply these strategies as yet. Resonating with the study by Lis (2020), Flieger (2020) identifies network types according to the collaboration maturity level in a local government unit. The research on collaborative networks in public organizations still remains unique. Therefore, this study fills the research gap. The author uses a casebased approach to identify the network features that change according to the maturity level of relationships. The findings are useful for the practice of developing collaboration in local governments and contribute to our understanding of the context for industrial development.
