Entrepreneurship and innovativeness of small and medium-sized construction enterprises

The construction industry is a key industry in any economy. Due to its specific characteristics, the industry is of substantial importance to the development of other sectors. Competition is highly intense, and the industry itself is susceptible to changes in market circumstances that force the entities operating in it to continuously take actions to enhance their competitiveness by, among other things, introducing innovative solutions. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the level of innovativeness of enterprises in the small and medium-sized (SME) sector in the Polish construction industry and to identify the factors that influence this level of innovativeness, which relates to the location of the business and managers’ awareness of the significance of innovation in shaping a firm’s competitiveness. Qualitative research was conducted on a sample of 608 companies. The obtained results demonstrate that construction companies from the SME sector in Poland are characterized by a level of innovativeness that is similar to that found in other enterprises, which is a consequence of the relatively high awareness of the significance of innovation to obtaining a competitive position among the managers of these companies. An analysis of the innovative activities of these companies by location shows, in turn, that entities operating in regions that are less economically developed and less attractive in terms of investment are more innovative.     

On the forecasting performance of a small-scale DSGE model

Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models have recently become standard tools for policy analysis. Nevertheless, their forecasting properties have still barely been explored. In this article, we address this problem by examining the quality of forecasts of the key U.S. economic variables: the three-month Treasury bill yield, the GDP growth rate and GDP price index inflation, from a small-size DSGE model, trivariate vector autoregression (VAR) models and the Philadelphia Fed Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF). The ex post forecast errors are evaluated on the basis of the data from the period 1994–2006. We apply the Philadelphia Fed “Real-Time Data Set for Macroeconomists” to ensure that the data used in estimating the DSGE and VAR models was comparable to the information available to the SPF.Overall, the results are mixed. When comparing the root mean squared errors for some forecast horizons, it appears that the DSGE model outperforms the other methods in forecasting the GDP growth rate. However, this characteristic turned out to be statistically insignificant. Most of the SPF's forecasts of GDP price index inflation and the short-term interest rate are better than those from the DSGE and VAR models.     

What Drives Shareholder Reaction and Wealth Effect in Block Trades? Evidence from the Warsaw Stock Exchange

The main objective of this article is to present the determinants of shareholder reaction to block trades and their wealth effect on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The positive abnormal returns obtained for the entire sample indicate that block trades create shareholder value. Shareholders reacted positively to block trades without a control transfer in the Polish market, and their reaction was stronger than in the US market. Abnormal returns of block trades concluded at a discount were twice as high as those for the entire sample. Moreover, cross-border block trades had a negative impact on shareholder value creation, as did financial investors as an acquirer. However, cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs) were driven up by the relative power of minority shareholders (ocean) prior to the transaction. The absolute size of the block acquired by an investor was also observed to have a positive impact on price rises and abnormal returns.     

The Citizens' Right to Information and the Duties of a Democratic State in Modern IT Environment in the Light of the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the ISI Declaration on Statistical Ethics

Modern information technologies, particularly the technology of very large data bases, Internet and modern mass media, have changed the processes of production, storage and dissemination of information. These technologies have a direct impact on the practical realization of citizens' rights to information. In democratic societies, in modern IT environment, information is produced and disseminated by many social and economic entities. Many producers and disseminators of information do not know or do not obey the criteria which should be met by any information delivered to the public. In this paper the advantages and the threats for the citizens' rights to information generated by the distribution and globalization of information processes in modern IT environment are discussed.
It seems that for the protection of the citizens' rights to information, there is the need for specification and codification of quality criteria and standards for information produced and disseminated with the use of modern IT. Official statistics may and should play an important and active role in defining those criteria and standards. Professional ethics of statisticians and of official statistics seems to be the proper basis for that. Ethical principles of statistics are formulated in two basic documents: The fundamental principles of official statistics adopted by the UN Statistical Commission in 1994 and the ISI Declaration on statistical ethics adopted by the ISI in 1985.     

Detecting Some Dynamic Properties of the Euro/Dollar Exchange Rate

Financial prices and returns have been the subject of empirical and theoretical analysis for many years, and their dynamic properties and other characteristics are still of interest. Many different tools have been applied to describe financial markets. The presented paper is addressed to examine the euro/dollar exchange rate and the related financial returns in the context of detecting exact and stochastic unit roots, and in the consequence, modelling them using time varying parameters model. The estimated STUR models are compared with standard ARMA-GARCH representations. We also examine causal relationships in the Granger sense. Upon the results of causality testing, some ADL-GARCH models are built, which are further used to examine their forecasting performance.     

Personality,Risk Perception,Benefit Sought and Terrorism Effect

Risk perception can affect travel decision‐making. It is subjective and variable among different people. The purposes of this study are threefold: it examines the relationship between personality and risk perception, risk perception and benefit sought and finally tests to see whether willingness to travel alters after a terrorist attack and how this differs across different personalities. To do this, a random sample of 475 British households was selected to facilitate the analysis. The findings show that there are differences in terms of people's personality and risk perception. Benefit sought and risk perceptions are partially related, but not in the context of terrorism attacks in seaside resorts, where terrorism creates an atmosphere of uncertainty that leave the door open for fear, and the lack of ability to control the risk stops even the most confident traveller. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Risk management system in business relationships—Polish case studies

The article discusses the problem of risk management in business relationships. The authors' research (including a case study analysis of 5 different relations) enabled them to identify and characterize the risk management systems based on a combination of formal control and relational mechanisms. In the authors' research it has been assumed that relational risk has a negative influence on the cooperation results and therefore it should be a subject of management. The main objective is not to avoid taking risk in relationships, but to reduce it to the minimum possible level. Companies' cooperation, including partnerships with different entities and participation in business networks, is an immanent characteristic of contemporary business. Therefore managers should look for the most efficient methods of dealing with additional relational risk and opportunistic behavior of potential partners.In the paper the case study analysis of five relationships of companies operating on Polish market was presented. The main objective was to demonstrate the relation between the level of trust and the intensity of formal control (including contract and formal monitoring). The range of social control applied in analyzed relationships was also an important issue of consideration.The research presented in the paper indicated that companies located in Poland in order to reduce relational risk aimed at diversification of its partners or full integration. Managers often underlined their fear of being dependent on one particular partner. This phenomenon could comprehensively decrease the advantages of intensive and deepened inter-organizational cooperation in Poland. Furthermore, the research demonstrated the decisive role of relational mechanisms and limited significance of contract in business relationship risk management. However, relatively higher importance of contract was observed in unbalanced relations between partners representing diverse bargaining power. A positive relationship between application of relational tools and cooperation results was identified as well.The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the nature of the relationship risk management system and the role of particular mechanisms that enable to reduce risk and its negative influence on cooperation results.     

Productivity,innovation and convergence in Poland1

This paper provides evidence on factors driving productivity growth in the new EU member states, focusing on Polish manufacturing industries. The results obtained indicate that companies in Poland benefit significantly from transfer of technologies accumulated in more developed economies. No strong evidence is found on immediate technology transfer. The significant effect of domestic innovation activity is mainly due to its impact on the speed of convergence and is particularly strong in high‐tech industries, relatively privatized industries and industries initially further from the technological frontier.     

Innovation Activity of the Polish Manufacturing Enterprises

This paper presents the results of analysis of innovative activities in the Polish manufacturing enterprises. Using data for the years 2006–2009, the effectiveness of innovative activities is estimated under two groups of models. The results indicate the significantly positively impact of soft expenditures on innovation activity and ineffectiveness of material outlays. Additionally, a significant, positive effect is demonstrated of the support from the European Union upon the efficiency of innovative activities in the Polish companies.