Problems of Incentives for Employees in the Quality Management of the Service Sector

The paper presented below concentrate on worker’s motivation problems in quality management of the services sector. The problem with motivation is particularly important in management of services. In our publication, we analyze motivation system in McDonald’s restaurants form quality of services point of view.     

Geographic patterns of Poland’s FDI: the investment development path perspective

The purpose of the present study is to incorporate geographic analysis of FDI into the classic IDP model. By supplementing the traditional analysis of the net outward investment (NOI) position with an analysis of geographic patterns in inward and outward FDI, the authors strive to offer a better explanation of Poland’s current NOI position and provide more in-depth support to some necessary policy recommendations. Hence the main contribution of this study to the international business scholarship is two-fold. It (1) further develops the IDP research methodology; and (2) provides a better understanding of the idiosyncratic nature of the IDP of Poland.     

Metrisable assessment of the course of stream-systemic processes in vector form in industry 4.0

Quality & Quantity - The goal of this paper is to present an innovative conception how to use metrisable vector structure of a manufacturing process, based on quantitative relations between the...     

Using QFD method for the ecological designing of products and services

QFD method is a method in the area of quality management. In this publication, it has been modified and used in environmental management. As an example, ecologically modiefied QFD was implemented for Bedzin district in Poland. Implementing this method in a town allows to select activities that are crucial for fulfilling ecological requirements and it leads to the improvement of the life quality of the citizens.     

The assessment of significance of benefits gained from the improvement of quality management systems in Polish organizations

The implementation and improvement of quality management systems conducted according to ISO 9001:2008 standards should bring benefits to any organization. On the basis of research conducted in 753 Polish companies, this publication presents results of analysis concerning the assessment of importance of benefits being a consequence of quality management system. The studies concerning the significance of benefits being a consequence of quality management systems in Polish companies allow claiming that financial benefits and markets ones are the most important for the management team whereas the organizational benefits are of less importance. It leads to neglecting ‘soft’ factors of quality management which are significant in TQM concept and drawing to much attention to so called hard factors- especially financial ones.     

Systemic analysis of a manufacturing process based on a small scale bakery

The main aim of the article is to present two new innovative concepts of reliability of a functioning manufacturing system in the process of making bread in small-scale bakeries. Reliability is understood as one of the representations of an operator acting on specific streams in time t_o to t. One of these represents the global reliability of a system as a function of parallel action of all the streams of the system in time t_o to t and is denoted as P_g^(t). The second representation of reliability is a scalar value, P_ss It shows a new function of global reliability of a manufacturing process as a product of system stream reliability. In order to plot the flow of the manufacturing process’s global reliability function, we need to perform detailed calculations, computations, and analysis of the differences of individual values in real time, as well as plan an algorithm of the flow of system streams. This needs a lot of effort, translating however, to a detailed picture of the process. In the analysed example, measurements and research revealed an important increase of the value of reliability in a transition from a traditional to a robotised bakery. The article also presents a new concept of the reliability of a technological process, based on the analysis of relations of elements of the following streams: energy, matter, information, time, and finances. It shows the method of specifying streams and the method for defining the reliability of important and supportive relations. Important relations between stream elements are defined as having the reliability value of one in time. Supportive relations bear the reliability within a continuum between zero and one. Important relations are designated based on research, experience, and knowledge. Stream systemic reliability P_ss is a scalar value, i.e. a number from the continuum between zero and one. The P_ss value characterises failure-free operation of the whole system. Its average value in the normative time t_n expresses the efficiency of the manufacturing system. The value P_ss is a quotient of the number of important relation and the sum of important and supportive relations. The formula for P_ss shows the method of optimising the process through the increasing of the number of important relations between the input stream components. The concept has been applied to study the efficiency of operation of a small-scale bakery. Systemic analysis of a bakery allows for important increase in the reliability of baking bread if robotisation has been implemented. The concept of systemic-stream reliability P_ss may be applied to analyse the efficiency of any technological process and optimisation of any manufacturing process.

     

Poland's Investment Development Path and Industry Structure of FDI Inflows and Outflows

ABSTRACT

This study explores changes in industry composition of FDI inflows to and outflows from Poland, using the conceptual framework of J. Dunning's model of the investment development path (IDP). The data time frame used (from 1996 to 2005) allows for identification of significant changes in FDI structure as Poland moves through stage 2 of her IDP. The leading position of the manufacturing sector in both FDI inflows and outflows is replaced by services (especially financial and trade). The last section presents policy implications focused on measures designed to redress the imbalance between the still much larger inflows than outflows of FDI.     

Emerging Profiles of Polish Outward Foreign Direct Investment

In this study, the authors identify the emerging profiles of Poland's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) at the macro- and micro-levels and propose relevant policy measures. They also set up a theoretical framework for further investigation of the identified trends and patterns. Both types of analysis—macro and micro—point to a regional focus of Poland's OFDI on Europe and to a sectoral concentration on services, followed by manufacturing. At the same time, the micro-analysis reveals a dominant role of a few largest Polish multinationals in the country's OFDI.     

Friend or Foe? On the role of institutional reforms in the investment development path of Central and East European economies

Many existing studies on emerging markets and firms have concentrated on the separate effects of institutional reforms and quality of the institutional infrastructure for attracting inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and fostering outward FDI. We argue that both these perspectives should be considered in an interplay, as there are links between inward and outward FDI in a country's economic development, which is captured by the investment development path (IDP) concept. Moreover, while predominant attention has been paid to emerging markets, little has so far been done to evaluate the sustainability of the institutional development, including later post-transition stages. We extend the IDP with insights from the institutional theory and conduct a comparative analysis of the effects of institutional reforms on IDP paths of ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) post-communist European Union (EU)-members. We find that while most of the studied post-transition economies follow a quadratic relationship between the net outward investment (NOI) position and each country's economic development, the role of institutional reforms is not in all cases accelerating the movement through the stages of the IDP. We attempt to explain the ambiguous role of institutions in an ensuing detailed discussion of the investigated countries.