Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz

Steady development of technology, specifically of the Internet, fundamentally changed the conditions in which enterprises operate. Barriers for expansion abroad have been significantly lessened. One of the most important consequences of currently forming Internet-based economy is a process of reduction of the advantage the international corporations had over smaller, innovative companies that used modern information and communication technologies. Appearance and development of this kind of subjects – micromultinationals (mMNEs) – suggests a need to modify the traditionally used internationalization models. The aim of this paper is to analyse the workings of mMNEs in the Internet-based economy and to single out their most important characteristics, basing on the chosen examples. In order to fulfill this goal, an analysis of source texts was conducted, along with implementation of comparative analysis, deduction, and descriptive method. MMNEs are new, distinct entities that came into being as one of the consequences of market changes due to the emergence of Internet-based economy; their expansion poses a lot of challenges and needs further deep research.

The ageing society and the necessity to meet the needs (including transport ones) of elderly people are a challenge for an increasing number of countries, including the EU Member States and Poland. Different types of modern ICT solutions are being proposed as a way of improving the meeting of the needs of elderly people in order to prevent their social exclusion. The growing popularity of solutions and services that use information and communication technologies (mainly the Internet and mobile applications) can also be observed in transport services and is perceived as a means to better meet transport needs. The aim of the article is to examine the extent to which seniors use ICT solutions to meet their transport needs when, for example, obtaining access to a car or car ride. A literature review, statistical data analysis and results of primary survey studies carried out on a sample of U3A students were used. The results of the analysis do not allow generalization on the entire population of elderly people but point to some interesting conclusions. For instance, at least one of the considered solutions (e.g. sharing travel by car as a driver or passenger) was used by almost two-thirds of those that responded using the Internet. Also, the solutions given were rated rather positively by the respondents in terms of their usefulness and ease of use. Those findings, apart from indicating further directions of research, allow for a cautious statement that these types of solutions can actually serve to better meet the transport needs of seniors.