The role of local formal and informal institutions in microfirms' development : evidence from Poland

Microfirms play a significant role in the Central/Eastern European economies, comprising 86% of the total amount of active firms. Development of microfirms is influenced by the local entrepreneurial environment. This article discusses the role of the local formal (regulations, local acts of law) and informal (customs, social norms and values) institutions in the development of microfirms. Synthetic exploration of the coexistence of formal and informal institutions on the example of Masovian and Swietokrzyskie voivodeships in Poland has been carried out. To present a multifaceted perspective, the following research methods were used: a survey among formal local institutions, individual indepth interviews with microfirms’ owners and Regional Chambers of Commerce and also a case study on the local law acts. The findings suggest that the development instruments used by formal local institutions are inadequate for the needs of MF's. Furthermore, the crucial role of family support, and the importance of knowledge sharing has been found

Smart Document-Centric Processing of Human Oriented Information Flows

Usually people prefer to focus on creative rather than repetitive and schematic work patterns. Still, they must spend a lot of time complying with the procedures, selecting the information they receive and repeatedly restoring the previous state of work. This paper proposes the Mobile INteractive Document architecture (MIND) - a document-centric uniform interface to provide both effective communication of content and coordination of activities performed on documents. MIND documents are proactive, capable of initiating process activities, interacting with individuals on their personal devices and migrating on their own between collaborators. Each MIND document is a mobile agent that has built-in migration policy to control its own workflow and services enabling proper processing of contained information. The architecture supports users in the implementation of procedures, and selection of services needed to work on the document. A Personal Document-Agent (PDA) is a further development of MIND aimed at preserving continuity of state of individuals' work to support their creativity and comfort of their daily work

Do interactions between formal and informal institutions matter for productive entrepreneurship?

Motivation: Institutional and Entrepreneurship theory pays attention to institutions and their influence on productive, unproductive and destructive entrepreneurship in transition economies. However, according to the literature, it is not only institutions that matter for productive entrepreneurship, but also the interaction between formal and informal institutions. Moreover, transition economies needs the productive entrepreneurship ‘to catch-up’ with world leaders.Aim: The aim of this paper is to advance institutional research through the development of a better understanding of the relation between formal and informal institutions and their influence on productive entrepreneurship in transition economies like CEECs.Results: The paper demonstrates that strong formal and informal institutions, the ‘invisible hand’ of the state, as well as the complementary and accommodating relations between formal and informal institutions are necessary for productive entrepreneurship in transition economies

EU Legal Migration Policy: Are There Prospects for Progress or Is It at a Standstill?

The aim of the article is to attempt to identify the state of, and prospects for, the development of the common policy of the European Union regarding legal migration from third countries. The subject of interest is, above all, legal economic migration, which is crucial from the perspective of certain demographic processes taking place in the EU, the changes and needs of the Community's labour market, and the challenges posed by the digital transformation. The adopted hypothesis assumes that, within the framework of EU migration and asylum policy, policy as regards legal economic migration is still an underdeveloped area and remains in the hands of individual Member States. Initiatives undertaken in this area remain overshadowed by the main focus of the common migration and asylum policy, namely the development of a common asylum system and the prevention of irregular migration. Policy regarding legal economic migration in the near future will mainly be created by Member States and play out on the domestic stage due to the lack of direct motivation for its development at the Community level. In this case, the strength of particular stakeholders' interests is not balanced out by any direct and easily identifiable benefits to be gained from the adopted common solutions

The Impact of Interplay Between Formal and Informal Institutions on Corporate Governance Systems: a Comparative Study of CEECs

The central point of this paper is to present the results of comparative case study research concerning the impact of the interplay between formal and informal institutions in the corporate governance systems (CGS) of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). Particular focus was put on the values of the corporate governance codes (CGC) of CEECs, as well as on transparent ownership structures, transactions with related parties, the protection of minority shareholders, independent members of supervisory boards, and separation between the CEO position and the chairman of the board of directors. The main subject of interest concerns two research areas: the character of the relationship between formal and informal institutions, as well as whether the interplay between them is relevant to the CGSs of CEECs. Moreover, the author investigates whether the CGCs of CEECs consist of regulations that are compatible with the values set up in preambles using research methods such as individual case study or deductive reasoning. The conclusion presented in the paper was drawn on the basis of a review of the literature and research on national and European corporate governance regulations, as well as the CGC of CEECs. The primary contribution this article makes is to advance the stream of research beyond any single country setting, and to link the literature on the interplay between formal and informal institutions related to CGSs in a broad range of economies in transition (‘catch up’ countries) like CEECs. This paper provides an understanding of how the interplay between formal and informal institutions may influence the CGCs of CEECs

Civil liability for artificial intelligence products versus the sustainable development of CEECs: which institutions matter?

The aim of this paper is to conduct a meta-analysis of the EU and CEECs civil liability institutions in order to find out if they are ready for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race. Particular focus is placed on ascertaining whether civil liability institutions such as the Product Liability Directive (EU) or civil codes (CEECs) will protect consumers and entrepreneurs, as well as ensure undistorted competition. In line with the aforementioned, the authors investigate whether the civil liability institutions of the EU and CEECs are based on regulations that can be adapted to the new generation of robots that will be equipped with learning abilities and have a certain degree of unpredictability in their behaviour. The conclusion presented in the paper was drawn on the basis of a review of the current literature and research on national and European regulations. The primary contribution that this article makes is to advance the current of the research concerning the concepts of AI liability for damage and personal injury. A second contribution is to show that the current civil liability institutions of the EU as well as the CEECs are not sufficiently prepared to address the legal issues that will  start to arise when self-driving vehicles or autonomous drones begin operating in fully autonomous modes and possibly cause property damage or personal injury