Competitiveness in International Trade in Knowledge-Intensive Services – The Case of Poland

The paper uses the Eurostat and WTO databases. The analyzed period for international transactions is usually 2000-2010, but for Poland the 1994-2010 period was used, i.e. since the European Agreement entered into forceW pracy wykorzystywane są bazy danych Eurostatu i WTO. Analiza obejmuje okres 2000-2010 dla transakcji międzynarodowych, oraz 1994-2010 dla Polski (od 1994 roku wszedł w życie Układ Europejski)

Competitiveness of the New European Union Member States in International Trade in Knowledge-intensive Business Services

The paper uses the WTO database. The analyzed period covers the years 2000–2013, because data on particular categories of ‘Other business services’ have been available only since 2000. The analysis refers to the 12 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007

International Creative Product Exchange

The aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate international trade in creative products with respect to the position of Poland in this exchange. In the introduction some definitions of creative industries and the concept of creative economy are presented. Then the classification of creative products in international trade and some problems with collecting data relating to international trade in creative products are discussed. In further work an empirical analysis of international trade in creative products is carried out. This work is divided into two parts. The aim of the first part is to indicate main tendencies and key players in international creative products exchange. The aim of the second part is to analyze the position of Poland in this exchange. The empirical analysis is based on the first database and report relating to international creative products exchange, published in 2008 by UNCTAD.Celem publikacji jest analiza międzynarodowego handlu produktami kreatywnymi, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem pozycji Polski w tej wymianie. Na początku przedstawione są definicje kreatywnych produktów/ przemysłów oraz koncepcja gospodarki kreatywnej. Następnie omówiona jest klasyfikacja produktów kreatywnych w statystykach handlu międzynarodowego oraz problemy związane ze zbieraniem danych dotyczących międzynarodowego handlu produktami kreatywnymi. W dalszej pracy przeprowadzona jest analiza empiryczna międzynarodowej wymiany produktami kreatywnymi. Ta część pracy podzielona została na dwie części. Celem pierwszej części jest wskazanie głównych tendencji oraz najważniejszych uczestników międzynarodowej wymiany produktami kreatywnymi. Natomiast celem drugiej części jest analiza pozycji Polski w tej wymianie. Analiza empiryczna oparta jest na pierwszej bazie danych oraz raporcie dotyczących międzynarodowej wymiany produktami kreatywnymi, opublikowanych w 2008 roku przez UNCTAD

Innovation in Services - Theoretical Approach

The aim of this article is to present the evolution of theoretical studies on service innovation. The author also attempts to put these different approaches to service innovation into order and to indicate the possible forms of service innovation that emerge from these researches. In further part of the article the issue of the availability of statistical data and its relevance to the possible forms of service innovation, as well as some changes that has been implemented recently in order to improve this relevance, are discussed.Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie ewolucji teoretycznych badań nad innowacjami w usługach. Autorka podejmuje również próbę uporządkowania różnych podejść do kwestii innowacji usługowych oraz wskazać możliwe formy tych innowacji, wyłaniające się z analizowanych badań. W dalszej części artykułu, podejmowana jest kwestia dostępności danych statystycznych oraz ich adekwatności, jeśli chodzi o możliwość zastosowania do analizy różnych form innowacji usługowych. Omawiane są również wprowadzone ostatnio zmiany, mające na celu poprawę adekwatności tych danych

Creative products in international trade statistics

Changes in international statistics relating to the methods of classifying trade transactions in goods and services are analyzed in the further part of this paper. The author of the study makes also an attempt to evaluate if these changes are aimed at increasing the inclusion of embodied services and services delivered electronically into the value of international trade in services.Celem publikacji jest wykazanie, iż większość produktów wytwarzanych przez "przemysły kreatywne", to w rzeczywistości kreatywne usługi zawarte w towarach, a w międzynarodowej wymianie produktami kreatywnymi dominują produkty usługowe. W dalszej części publikacji analizie poddano zmiany w statystykach międzynarodowych, dotyczące sposobu klasyfikacji transakcji w handlu towarami i usługami. Autor publikacji podejmuje również próbę oceny tych zmian, pod kątem tego czy zmierzają one w kierunku zwiększenia stopnia włączenia usług zawartych w towarach oraz usług przesyłanych w formie sygnału elektronicznego do wartości międzynarodowego handlu usługami

Development of information society in Poland in the light of its accession to the European Union

Celem tego artykułu jest analiza procesu budowy społeczeństwa informacyjnego w Polsce na tle działań podejmowanych w Unii Europejskiej i na tle zaawansowania tego procesu w pozostałych krajach UE.The aim of this paper is to analyze the process of information society creation in Poland. A comparative analysis is made against other European Union countries. In the first part of the paper the EU actions in the field of information society creation are presented. Against this background such actions in Poland are discussed. In further work the statistical data concerning the use of ICT in Poland are analyzed, among companies and among households. And finally the situation in Poland is compared with other European Union countries. At the end the author presents some conclusions: - despite of increase in the use of ICT in Poland during last years, the level of development of information infrastructure and services is still lower in Poland than on average in the EU; - this gap is specially visible in the case of households with low income (relatively high percentage of households), in rural areas and in small towns; - the cost of Internet use and computer equipment are main barriers to the development of wider Internet access, however very important and alarming barrier is also low information consciousness among Polish society; - the poor use of European Union funds for information society creation can’t help Polish economy in reducing the gap between Poland and more advanced EU countries

Przyczyny mniejszej aktywności firm usługowych w obszarze działalności innowacyjnej

The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors that may have impact on the lower level of service firms’ innovation activities, that can be found from empirical data on innovation activities (mainly Community Innovation Surveys). We can distinguish two categories of such factors. The first category, including factors such as: a much lower attention given to the issue of service firms’ innovation activities, an intangibility of services and service innovations, and the problem how to measure service innovations, may contribute to the underestimation of service firms’ innovation activities. On the other hand factors such as: an ease to imitate service innovations and a poor system of intellectual property rights protection in service firms, as well as a weak connection of service firms with national innovation systems may discourage service firms to spend more and become more active in the field of innovation activities. All these factors are the subject of analysis in the paper. To identify them, it seems very important, both for further research and for innovation policy, especially in the light of increasing convergence between manufacturing and service sectors, and the increasing importance of service innovations in both sectors. Finally, the author analyzes and evaluates the actions that have been taken recently in order to improve the quality of data on service firms’ innovation activities

Is the Knowledge‑intensive Business Services Sector Crisis‑robust or Crisis‑resilient? A Comparative Study of European Union Countries

The paper examines the crisis robustness and resilience of the knowledge‑intensive business services (KIBS) sector. The hypothesis is tested that the KIBS sector is crisis‑robust rather than crisis‑resilient. The study covers 2000–2021, divided into two crisis periods (the global financial crisis and the COVID–19 pandemic) and three non‑crisis periods. The growth rates of value added and employment for the sectors and periods covered by the study are compared. The study is based on data from Eurostat, and it refers to the EU–27, making it possible to carry out comparative research between EU countries, as well as between the EU members before 2004 (i.e., the EU–14 or ‘old’ members) and those who joined in 2004 or later (i.e., the EU–13 or ‘new’ members). The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of crisis resilience and crisis robustness in both scientific research and policy strategies, as well as to pay more attention to the issue of crisis robustness. It also makes a contribution by indicating that KIBS have significant potential to contribute to building crisis resilience and crisis robustness in the companies that use them and in the whole economic system. The empirical results demonstrate that the KIBS sub‑sectors, i.e., computer and information services and professional, scientific and technical services, are crisis‑robust, which is not the case for the manufacturing sector. The KIBS sector’s ability to maintain stable growth during crisis periods is more visible than for other service industries. The Polish sector of professional, scientific and technical services showed the most stable upward trend through all analysed periods. Poland also recorded impressive growth in value added in computer and information services during the pandemic period, but when considering the whole period, other countries achieved better results, e.g., Romania

Knowledge-intensive business services and their contribution to the economic competitiveness of selected European Union countries

According to the three-sector model of economic growth, the development of a service economy is envisioned as a result of increasing consumer demand for various services, together with growing GDP per capita. However, technological progress has contributed to the structural transformation of economies based on knowledge, innovation and new technologies, which has been accompanied by increasing demand for services supporting production processes, in particular those related to new technologies and knowledge. As a result the dynamic development of a group of services called ‘knowledge-intensive business services’ (KIBS) can be observed, and they have become the main driving force behind the shift to the new service economy. A review of the literature demonstrates the growing interest in KIBS and their contribution to productivity growth and innovativeness. However, the research to date has explored these issues in a fragmented way, i.e. they have focused either on their impact on productivity or innovation performance, and in addition the ones referring to innovation are all based on micro data (for a given branch or group of branches, usually in one country). The present paper fills this gap, because it is the first comprehensive examination of the impact of KIBS on the competitiveness of different sectors that use these services in their business processes and on the competitiveness of the entire economy resulting from their impact on productivity and innovation. Due to the variety of definitions of KIBS used in the previous studies, this paper compares the impact resulting from KIBS usage in reference to both the broad and narrow definitions of KIBS thereof. The research also examines the relation between the intensity of KIBS usage within a domestic economy and the international competitiveness of its KIBS sector. It is also the first work in this field relating to the Polish economy, and the first one to compare the importance of KIBS for the development of the service economy, as well as the contribution of KIBS to the competitiveness of two groups of the EU countries which are at different levels of economic development: (1) Finland, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland – countries regarded as among the most competitive or most advanced in the development of a service economy in the EU; and (2) Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – the Visegrad countries, which have undergone a similar path of transformation and integration with the EU. Studies conducted in the paper are based on data for each country coming from the same source (WIOD database, OECD STAN Database, WTO database, Eurostat Database), which ensures their comparability between countries. All studies are preceded by detailed theoretical foundations.Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Wydatki przedsiębiorstw na usługi finansowe jako źródło wzrostu gospodarczego w krajach Unii Europejskiej

The aim of this paper is to study and compare the importance of intermediate demand for financial services for the growth of production in the European Union countries. In the study the methodology introduced by Jorgenson et al. (1987) is used. This assumes that changes in the production (in real terms) result from changes in intermediate inputs of raw and manufacturing materials and services, as well as in factor inputs (labour and capital) and in total factor productivity. The advantage of this method is the ability to calculate the contributions of different components of intermediate inputs (including service inputs – total or with respect to particular service categories) to production growth in the whole economy and in individual industries. The study is carried out with respect to financial services, but their contribution to economic growth is compared with the contribution of knowledge-intensive business services that have been already recognized as affecting economic and productivity growth. The data used in the study come from the World Input-Output Database. The analysed period covers the years 1995–2009, owing to the availability of relevant data.Celem pracy jest zbadanie i porównanie znaczenia wydatków przedsiębiorstw na usługi finansowe dla wzrostu produkcji w krajach Unii Europejskiej. W badaniu wykorzystano metodę dekompozycji wzrostu produkcji według Jorgensona et al. (1987), która zakłada, iż zmiany produkcji wynikają ze zmian wielkości wydatków przedsiębiorstw na zakup surowców, materiałów, usług i czynników produkcji (pracy i kapitału) oraz łącznej produktywności czynników produkcji. Zaletą tej metody jest możliwość obliczenia wkładów wydatków na zakup materiałów lub usług (ogółem lub dla poszczególnych kategorii) we wzrosty produkcji w całej gospodarce oraz w poszczególnych działach. Badanie przeprowadzono w odniesieniu do usług finansowych, jednakże znaczenie usług finansowych dla wzrostu gospodarczego porównano ze znaczeniem usług biznesowych opartych na wiedzy, które postrzegane są jako mające wpływ na wzrost produkcji i produktywności. Dane wykorzystane w badaniu pochodzą z WIOD (World Input-Output Database). Okres badawczy to lata 1995–2009, z uwagi na dostępność danych