Project management and entrepreneurship competences

Competence frameworks are increasingly used in several practice fields and have been an object of research. A typical development trend has been encapsulation into a particular field, not considering the developments in related fields. Similarly, in research, learning from neighbouring disciplines has been rare. Yet, during the past decade, there have been several attempts at linking essentially related disciplines in practice, such as entrepreneurship and project management. This is a reaction to the trends in the labour market – a growing demand for people with diverse competences. In this context, converging different fields via competences deserves more attention. This paper compares the competences required for project managers and entrepreneurs; in addition, it explores the possibilities for mutual enrichment, contributing to further linking of project management and entrepreneurship conceptually. The cross-examination of competences for entrepreneurs (The Entrepreneurship Competence Framework or EntreComp) and for project managers (International Project Management Association's Individual Competence Baseline [IPMA-ICB]) reveals some quite significant, but also weak, correlations. The linguistic approach used has natural limitations, as different terms have been used to convey the same concepts. Thus, a relational linguistic analysis and conceptual analysis have also been applied. The main implication is the recommendation to integrate core project management competences into competence models for entrepreneurs. A natural progression of this work is to build a common competence model for entrepreneurs and project managers.

What Determines the Success of an IPO? Analysis of IPO Underpricing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

This article aimed to analyse the factors that influence the level of underpricing of an initial public offering (IPO) on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), based on the example of 101 companies debuting on the main market between 2010 and 2019. We discuss the theories that explain IPO underpricing and the research conducted so far on the Polish market. In the main part of the article, we present the results of our study aimed at identifying and characterising the hitherto-unrecognised factors determining IPO underpricing, which is a contribution to the current research on WSE trends. Our findings point to three variables that influence the level of underpricing: the involvement of private equity or venture capital funds in the transaction, the rate of return of the WSE Index in the 6 months before the IPO, and the amount of capital offered during the debut.

Activity of the Regional Polish United Workers’ Party Apparatus in 1970–1989

The article aims to verify whether, in the 1980s, there was a significant decrease in the involvement of the regional communist party structures in charge of economic affairs in Poland. The analysis is made on the case of the Warsaw Committee (KW) of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP). Archival documents gathered in the State Archive in Warsaw were used to perform the analysis. The protocols of the meetings of the Executive and Secretariat 1970–1989 were collected, described and analysed. Moreover, the analysis was supplemented by the Statistical Yearbooks of Warsaw (GUS, 1957–1974), the Statistical Yearbooks of the Capital City of Warsaw (GUS, 1976–1981) and the Journal of Laws of the People's Republic of Poland 1970–1989. A statistical analysis of economic activity of the KW of the PUWP in the context of macroeconomic variables and economic activity of central authorities was performed. The correlation coefficient between macroeconomic performance and Party activity indicates the convergence of both trends in the 1970s and the lack of correlation in the 1980s. The decline in engagement after 1978 was unprecedented. In this period, there was a discrepancy between the activities of the central government and the Party apparatus, which remained in place until the end of the system. Institutional mechanisms in the Principal–Agent relation weakened significantly in 1980s.

Value of Life Year and Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds: The Case of Poland

Objective The objective of this article is to examine how people value two different attributes of Value of Life Year (VOLY): life expectancy and the quality of life. The results of the first VOLY estimations conducted in Poland are discussed and compared with Polish cost-effectiveness thresholds for medical treatments in the period 2008–2020. Methodology The Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) method was used to value two attributes of VOLY: increase in life expectancy and improvement in the quality of life. Main findings The VOLY research was conducted in two populations: general and dialysis. Depending on their current health status, people value increased life expectancy and improvement in health quality differently. In light of these results, the VOLY should be differentiated. Also in the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) indicator, the weights of the attributes of length and quality of life should be varied according to different states of health. A uniform cost-effectiveness threshold is not justified from the perspective of stated preferences. Cost-effectiveness thresholds based on demand-side values should be differentiated. Current Polish cost-effectiveness thresholds are overestimated compared to valuations based on stated preferences. Contributions The article presents the first estimations of two attributes of VOLY: life expectancy and the quality of life, carried out in Poland.

The Persistent Legacy of the Fallen Empires. Assessing the Effects of Poland's Historical Partitions on Contemporary Social Norms Regarding Education

This paper refers to the historical experience of Poland in order to demonstrate the importance of former institutions on present regional differences in the norms regarding education. Previous studies revealed significant discrepancies between the scholastic achievements of students in different regions in Poland, ones that correspond to the partition of the country by its three neighbours (Austria, Prussia, and Russia), lasting from the late 18th century to the close of WWI. In particular, students in the former Austrian partition perform better than their peers in the two other regions. In this study, a self-designed survey of parents is used to operationalize different kinds of norms regarding education. As it turns out, parents from the region formerly under Austrian rule show more trust in educational institutions, more belief in the formative role of schooling, and less conviction in the material returns from education. The results show that contemporary discussions on the geography of educational achievements need to take into account the broad cultural context of education.

Classification of Open-End Investment Funds Using Artificial Neural Networks. The Case of Polish Equity Funds

In this study we utilise artificial neural networks to classify equity investment funds according to two fundamental risk measures—standard deviation and beta ratio—and to investigate the fund characteristics essential to this classification. Based on a sample of 4,645 monthly observations on 37 equity funds from the largest fund families registered in Poland from December 1995 to March 2018, we allocated funds to one of the classes generated using Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF). The results of the study confirm the legitimacy of using machine learning as a tool for classifying equity investment funds, though standard deviation turned out to be a better classifier than the beta ratio. In addition to the level of investment risk, the fund classification can be supported by the fund distribution channel, the fund name, age, and size, as well as the current economic situation. We find historical returns (apart from the last-month return) and the net cash flows of the fund to be insignificant for the fund classification.

Economic Dynamic Modelling of Climate Policy in Poland

Poland is responsible for 9% of CO2 emission in the European Union (EU), making it the fifth biggest emitter in the region. The energy sector is dominated by electricity produced from coal (around 70%). The country currently uses massive subsidies to boost the coal sector. We propose a dynamic intertemporal hybrid general equilibrium model to simulate the economic effects of sector regulations and new policy targets within environmental taxation scenarios, by accounting for a complex set of linkages between the energy sector and other components of the economy. Our simulation results suggest that positive economic growth is possible with a realistic energy mix, but it will not offer considerable emission reduction, as required by the European Commission. In the short-time horizon, the best choice is renewable energy sources indicated by less capital-intensive technologies (such as biomass). In the long-time horizon, more capital-intensive technologies (such as wind turbines) will be a better choice for economic growth. Carbon tax plays a crucial role in optimal energy mix targets, since its elimination ceteris paribus implies negative economic growth.

Economic impact of the EU Eastern enlargement on New Member States revisited: The role of economic institutions

The paper analyses the economic implications of the accession of New Member States (NMS) to the European Union (EU) in 2004 and 2007. The estimation effects of integration with the EU were carried out as a comparative case study using the synthetic control method (SCM) proposed by Abadie and Gardeazabal. Compared to previous studies analysing the effects of accession to the EU (Campos, Coricelli and Moretti), we check for the importance of the quality of economic institutions for the matching process of the analysed economies with their comparators. The results of the econometric analysis show a positive impact on the country performance 6 years and 12 years after accession to the EU. The gains from accession are large but not universal. For 5 of the 10 analysed countries the difference in levels of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) against the counterfactual is at least 30%.

Application of the Contingent Valuation Method in Water Resources Protection

The option of using the contingent valuation method (CVM) to assess residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for upgrading the quality of water resources in their communes is discussed in the article. Surveys were conducted using the direct interview method. The analysis included the application of CVM to examine the potential for financing projects that are focused on reducing the eutrophication process of the Baltic Sea, financing the construction of municipal sewage treatment plants in selected communes in Greece and Poland and financing the upgrade of sewage disposal and treatment standards in Śniadowo in north-eastern Poland. For authorities of a given area, the CVM is an instrument supporting the decision-making process regarding investments in water resources’ protection.