The Lower Odra enclave of the Corded Ware Culture of the

The present project has taken two spatial dimensions: regional and pan-regional. As far the regional dimension is concerned, I focused on the region of the lower Oder river. The main objective of this project was to create the fundamentals of taxonomic-chronological systematics of Corded Ware Culture materials for this region as well as summarise and verify previous achievements of studies on the aforementioned issue. However, as regards the pan-regional dimension, I attempted at discussing this region against the background of a wider communicative community– the circum-Baltic circle of Corded Ware Culture

Ownership Transformations of State-owned Enterprises with Special Consideration of Direct Privatisation in Poland in the Years 2004-2008

The main goal of this article is defining the present state of the process of ownership transformations in Polish state-owned enterprises and progress in this process during the last five years. The main research hypothesis formulated in the article was verified by means of an analysis of data published by the Central Statistical Office concerning the number of state-owned enterprises covered by ownership transformations. The accepted scope of this article encompassed: concepts, objectives and methods of ownership transformation in Polish state-owned enterprises, as well as different issues connected with direct privatization by means of passing state-owned enterprises for use against payment to employee-owned companies.Zasadniczym celem artykułu jest określenie bieżącego stanu procesu przekształceń własnościowych polskich przedsiębiorstw państwowych oraz jego przebiegu w ciągu ostatnich pięciu lat. Weryfikacja sformułowanej w opracowaniu głównej hipotezy badawczej została dokonana w oparciu o analizę danych Głównego Urzędu Statystycznego dotyczących liczby przedsiębiorstw państwowych objętych procesem przekształceń własnościowych. W kontekście przyjętego zakresu tematycznego przedstawiono pojęcie, cele i metody przekształceń własnościowych polskich przedsiębiorstw państwowych oraz problematykę związaną z prywatyzacją bezpośrednią realizowaną w drodze oddania przedsiębiorstwa państwowego do odpłatnego korzystania spółce pracowniczej

Jakie działania powinna podjąć korporacja, by „troska o środowisko naturalne” nie stała się tylko deklaracją?

Zasadniczym celem rozdziału jest udzielenie odpowiedzi na pytanie badawcze o działania, jakie korporacja powinna podjąć by „troska o środowisko naturalne” nie stała się tylko deklaracją. Poszukując odpowiedzi na sformułowane pytanie przeprowadzono analizę strategii środowiskowej firmy Apple Inc., która jest najbardziej podziwianą korporacją na świecie, odnosząc się przy tym do oceny wymiaru środowiskowego firmy i jej największych amerykańskich konkurentów z branży komputerowej – Dell Technologies Inc. i HP Inc. – w latach 2017–2020

Kredyty i pożyczki jako źródło finansowania działalności gospodarczej spółek pracowniczych

The main objective of the paper is to recognize the level of use of credits and loans as the source of financing for business activity of employee-owned companies. The formulated research hypothesis states that the majority of employee-owned companies financed business activity from credits and loans to a small extent. The empirical investigation of the constructed hypothesis has been carried out among 17 employee-owned companies in the Mazowieckie Province, which concluded privatisation agreements with the State Treasury in the years 2000–2002 on the basis of their financial statements. The empirical research proved that employee-owned companies had financed their business activities from credits and loans to the small extent.Zasadniczym celem artykułu jest rozpoznanie stopnia wykorzystania kredytów i pożyczek jako źródła finansowania działalności gospodarczej przez spółki pracownicze. Sformułowana hipoteza badawcza stanowi, iż większość spółek pracowniczych w niewielkim zakresie finansowała działalność gospodarczą z kredytów i pożyczek. Empiryczna weryfikacja postawionej hipotezy została przeprowadzona wśród 17 spółek pracowniczych z województwa mazowieckiego, które zawarły umowę o oddanie przedsiębiorstwa państwowego do odpłatnego korzystania w latach 2000–2002 w oparciu o ich sprawozdania finansowe. Przeprowadzone badania empiryczne wykazały, iż spółki pracownicze w niewielkim stopniu finansowały działalność gospodarczą z kredytów i pożyczek

Miejsce spółek pracowniczych w procesie prywatyzacji polskich przedsiębiorstw państwowych

The article shows possibilities of creating of employee-owned companies in the privatization process of Polish state-owned enterprises in meaning of the Act of August 30 th , 1996 on commercialisation and privatization. The main goal of the article is to point at paths and methods of privatization, which realization may lead to rise of employee–owned company. Therefore, the article shows employees’ participation in the privatization process of Polish state–owned enterprises

Rynek usług pocztowych w Polsce u progu jego pełnej liberalizacji

Postal services market in Poland has been liberalising for several years. It manifests itself through reduction of reserved area (market which is reserved for the public postal operator) and through increasing of the number of private postal operators. But these changes didn't have a major impact on the transformation of the Polish postal market. This market is regulated by a government appointed body and position of public postal operator – Poczta Polska SA – is protected by law. According to the European Directive opening up the postal market to the competition, by 1 January 2011 Poland must implement new Postal Law. New law will change, among other things, organizational and financial conditions of business activity of Poczta Polska SA. Taking into consideration the fact that the current financial standing of the Polish public postal operator is difficult, it should be underlined that Poczta Polska SA will be forced to take radical restructuring action. The main purpose of this article is to recognize the situation in the postal services market in Poland in the context of its full liberalisation and opening to the competition. The partial goals of this article are as follows: – to give an overview of the postal services market in Poland, – to show prospects of changes of this market in the face of EU Directives implementation, – to present the situation and purpose of Poczta Polska SA in the context of full liberalisation of the postal services market

ESG performance and dividend stability of the world’s largest enterprises

PURPOSE: Theoretical and empirical research on corporate sustainability focuses on the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and profitability or market value; little attention is given to describing their effect on dividend policy. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to address the research gap by identifying the relationship between corporate sustainability performance and the stability of dividend payouts. To achieve this goal, we formulated a general research hypothesis that there is a positive link between an enterprise’s ESG performance and its propensity to pay stable dividends. This research hypothesis is operationalized by the following five specific hypotheses: (1) the link between the overall ESG score and the propensity to pay stable dividends is positive; (2) the link between the environmental pillar score and the propensity to pay stable dividends is positive; (3) the link between the social pillar score and the propensity to pay stable dividends is positive; (4) the link between the governance pillar score and the propensity to pay stable dividends is positive; (5) the link between the ESG controversies score and the propensity to pay stable dividends is positive. METHODOLOGY: The hypothesis was empirically verified using a logistic regression model among the world’s largest non-financial enterprises listed in the Global 500 of 2021 for the years 2012–2021. The specifications of the general model include sustainability variables such as environmental, social, and governance pillar scores, as well as the ESG controversies score, which measures an enterprise’s exposure to environmental, social, and governance controversies and negative events reflected in global media. The financial ratios, such as a return on assets, current ratio, and debt-to-equity ratio, are considered control variables in the model specifications. The research was extended by implementing descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients. All required financial and sustainability data were retrieved from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Eikon database. FINDINGS: The results of the estimation revealed that: (1) the effect of integrated ESG activities on payout stability is statistically significant and negative only in model specifications without the ESG controversies; (2) the effect of the environmental dimension is statistically significant and negative only when other particular ESG pillars are not considered; (3) the effect of the social dimension is statistically significant and negative, only when the governance dimension and the ESG controversies are not considered together in the same model specification; (4) the effect of the governance dimension is statistically significant and positive only if other particular pillars are considered together in one model specification, both with and without the ESG controversies; (5) the effect of the ESG controversies is statistically significant and positive in each model specification. Therefore, the general research hypothesis cannot be confirmed because only the fifth specific research hypothesis can be positively verified in all model specifications. IMPLICATIONS: Further research should be conducted on the relationship between corporate sustainability performance and dividend policy. It should consider not only commonly applied ESG scores but also the ESG controversies score, which was statistically significant in this research. Governments and international organizations should cooperate with companies that provide ESG data to make ESG scores, including the ESG controversies score, publicly available to all stakeholder groups, which would help to reduce the information gap. Managers should pay more attention to increasing the visibility of ESG initiatives from the perspective of risk, which they allow to avoid controversies in particular corporate sustainability dimensions. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The value added of this paper is that it investigates the relationship between ESG performance and payout policy, which was not thoroughly explored in previous studies, especially in the context of an enterprise’s controversial ESG activities. To fill the research gap in the literature, the authors incorporated the ESG controversies score as an independent variable in the model specifications, which is a novelty in research on dividend policy

Totally implantable central venous access ports

Całkowicie implantowane systemy dożylnego podawania leków (tzw. porty dożylne) stanowią niezwykle dogodne rozwiązanie u chorych poddanych chemioterapii. Metoda ta znajduje coraz szersze zastosowanie. Rocznie 700-1000 dorosłym chorym w Polsce wszczepia się port donaczyniowy. Z inicjatywy krajowego konsultanta w dziedzinie onkologii klinicznej odbyło się spotkanie uzgodnieniowe w celu ustalenia zasad bezpiecznego stosowania portów w Polsce. W spotkaniu uczestniczyło 26 ekspertów z 17 ośrodków onkologicznych. Rezultatem spotkania stało się uzgodnienie zasad przedstawionych w formie standardów i zaleceń. Uzgodnienia dotyczyły wskazań do zastosowania portów, kwalifikacji chorych, warunków technicznych implantacji i okresu obserwacji po zabiegu, zapobiegania i leczenia powikłań infekcyjnych i powikłań zakrzepowych, szkolenia personelu obsługującego porty, informacji przekazywanej chorym.Totally implantable central venous access ports are very useful in chemotherapic treatment. It gains wider application. In Poland they are implanted in 700-1000 patient annually. National Consultant in Clinical Oncology at meeting with 26 experts from 17 oncologic centers established the principles of safe implantation of ports in Poland. The meeting resulted in report on standards and recommendations containing: recommendation on ports application, patients’ qualification, implantation technics and follow-up observation, prevention and treatment of infection and thrombotic complication, professional staff training and information for patients

Comparison of reorganized versus unaltered cardiology departments during the COVID-19 era: a subanalysis of the COV-HF-SIRIO 6 study

Background: Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, numerous cardiology departments were reorganized to provide care for COVID-19 patients. We aimed to compare the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admissions and in-hospital mortality in reorganized vs. unaltered cardiology departments. Methods: The present subanalysis is a multicenter retrospective COV-HF-SIRIO 6 study that includes all patients (n = 101,433) hospitalized in 24 cardiology departments in Poland between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020, with a focus on patients with acute heart failure (AHF). Results: Reduction of all-cause hospitalizations was 50.6% vs. 21.3% for reorganized vs. unaltered cardiology departments in 2020 vs. 2019, respectively (p < 0.0001). Considering AHF alone respective reductions by 46.5% and 15.2% were registered (p < 0.0001). A higher percentage of patients was brought in by ambulance to reorganized vs. unaltered cardiology departments (51.7% vs. 34.6%; p < 0.0001) alongside with a lower rate of self-referrals (45.7% vs. 58.4%; p < 0.0001). The rate of all-cause in-hospital mortality in AHF patients was higher in reorganized than unaltered cardiology departments (10.9% vs. 6.4%; p < 0.0001). After the exclusion of patients with concomitant COVID-19, the mortality rates did not differ significantly (6.9% vs. 6.4%; p = 0.55). Conclusions: In cardiology departments reorganized to provide care for COVID-19 patients vs. unaltered ones, observed: i) a greater reduction in hospital admissions in 2020 vs. 2019; ii) higher rates of patients brought by ambulance and lower rates of self-referrals; and iii) higher all-cause in-hospital mortality for AHF due to COVID-19 related deaths