The paper is studying the problem of fiscal consolidation of Japan, addressed by Abenomics, economic revitalisation policy pursued by Japan’s current Prime Minister ShinzÇ Abe. The major assumption of Abe’s strategy is to liberate the country from the long-term vicious circle of stagnation and deflation. The main objective of the article is to assess the condition and perspectives of the public finance sector in Japan in regards of the reform of social security system and consumption tax. According to the author, so far the fiscal policy under Abenomics proved to be uneffective, which may consequently undermine people’s trust in the reasonability of the government’s policy; it is, however, challenged by a fiscal dilemma: stimulation or consolidation, as well as both political and structural obstacles.

This article describes the intra-African FDI in the period of 2001–2013. Its main purpose is to identify some specific patterns of this investment and compare them with FDI models of firms in non- African countries. The analysis includes the value of FDI, as well as its geographical and branch distribution.
The research reveals that intra-regional capital flows have started to play a greater role in Africa’s FDI inflows. The geographical and branch structure of the projects of African firms differs significantly from that of firms located in non-African countries. Africa’s FDI is mainly concentrated in the western and eastern regions of the continent, in the service sector and manufacturing.

Special economic zones (SEZs) provide better conditions for doing business than areas without the specialty status. It is in this way that they are meant to attract investors, mainly foreign ones. Although such a policy approach is sometimes contested among economists, politicians seem to favour this method, particularly in emerging and developing markets. Poland has also introduced SEZs, which continue to gain in importance. The inflow of investment into a particular SEZ can be a function of not only a region’s attractiveness, but also of endogenic conditions characteristic of the zone, such as possessed land, infrastructure and its accessibility and, finally, the quality of the performance of the company managing the zone. This last factor has been the subject of our research, carried out using descriptive statistics. Test results suggest that the efforts of the companies managing the zones with regards to wooing investors (e.g. through promotions, infrastructure development) are important in increasing the flow of both foreign and domestic investment.

The aim of the paper is to present the attempts to create the regulation of foreign direct investment within the framework of international cooperation which can positively influence the growth of trade in the world. The issue of the establishment of a multilateral investment agreement has gained in importance during the global economic crisis in 2008–2009 and in the later years because of the importance of direct investment in the creation of gross domestic product of countries and the stagnation of the multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Round, which abandoned the issue of investment at a ministerial conference in Cancun in 2003 as a result of the opposition of developing countries in this matter. Developed countries, determining the multilateral trade agreements, may adopt common multilateral approaches to the issue of foreign direct investment. The success of regulating the legal protection of investors in the TTIP and TTP can create standard solutions for multilateral agreements on a global scale.

Global financial crisis and the debt crisis in the eurozone contributed to the initiation of profound changes in the banking systems of the EU countries. The aim of these changes is to increase the security and competitiveness of banks in the era of globalization. Bank capital and liquidity requirements have been raised, supervision of banks has been tightened, and the countries of the eurozone have created the essential foundations of a banking union. All these changes lead to rising costs in banks, which forces them to reduce employment, close part of the bank branches, and weaker banks to merge with stronger banks. Changes in the banking sector are also enforced by new technologies and strong competition from the shadow banking institutions. This study focuses on the analysis of the new banking regulations and structural changes in the banking sector in the EU. The author also presents major challenges faced by the banks in the EU countries.

Modern finance faces the challenge of the continuous improvement and expansion of risk measurement at the national and international level, particularly of understanding the psychological risk measures used by investors and, consequently, a need for better risk management. The aim of the study is to present the problem of the need for risk measurement, which modern finance has to confront. In order to achieve this aim, the essence of risk, uncertainty, and risk measures has been discussed. The research methods applied include an analysis of a measure of investment portfolio with the use of the value at risk (VaR) and an analysis of the DOSPERT psychometric scale with the use of psychological and financial investment risk.

The aim of the article is to present theoretical research on international portfolio theory. The article describes the main research areas such as international efficient frontier, risk reduction through international diversification, the degree of risk reduction in different countries and sectors, and spread of international diversification into supra-regional level. The main objective is to present the impact of international diversification on portfolio risk based on the major international indices in the period of 2011–2015 with the use of expected rate of return and standard deviation. Portfolios from various regions of the world – Europe, the United States, and China – have been analysed. Empirical research has shown that the degree of risk reduction is connected with the level of international diversification. In the period of 2011–2015, the lowest risk characterized the S&P 500 portfolio, which in itself proved to be the most internationally diversified.

In the past few decades, an increasing significance of Islamic finance has been observed. What is distinguishable about Islamic financial institutions is the necessity of conducting financial operations in compliance with sharia, which is a religious law of the Muslims. With the share of around 80% in total assets of Islamic financial institutions, Islamic banks play a dominant role in the Islamic financial industry. Islamic banks operate mainly in Muslim countries, but they also offer services in countries inhabited by Muslim minorities. The United Kingdom is one of those countries. It is worth noting that London, which is the main financial centre of the world, aspires to be the most important centre of Islamic finance in the non-Muslim world as well. The purpose of this article is to present the evolution and the state of development of Islamic banking in theUKas well as to analyse the factors of the development of Islamic banking in this country with an indication of the problems that may inhibit that development. The article uses descriptive and analytical methods of analysis, based mainly on the review of scientific literature, market reports, and statistical data.

Currency swaps between central banks of the major economies constituted one of the most prominent instruments in the mitigation of the global financial crisis. Swap agreements have been signed on a regular basis after the crisis as well. The purpose of this article is to assess the significance of currency swaps in the provision of official international liquidity. The thesis of the article assumes that currency swaps play a significant role in the creation of official international liquidity and constitute one of the key elements of the post-crisis international monetary system. The methods applied include an analysis of statistical data concerning swap arrangements, official reserve assets and international use of national currencies as well as comparative analysis and literature study. The analysis demonstrates that currency swaps reduce the malfunction of the contemporary international monetary system in the field of international liquidity provision and, as a consequence, contribute to its greater stability.

The basic goal of the article is to analyse the impact of the changes of banks’ credit ratings on the rates of return of banks’ shares. The following hypotheses have been formulated: first, a downgrade of a credit rating exerts statistically significant negative influence on the rate of return of banks’ shares. Secondly, the impact of the changes of credit ratings is greater in developed countries. The analysis has been conducted for European banks for the period of 1980–2015 using an event study method. The sample has been divided into subsamples according to: the downgrade and upgrade of credit ratings, membership in politico-economic institutions, and the development status of countries, on the basis of the data collected from Thomson Reuters. Dependent variables are taken as daily rates of returns and independent variables are the long-term issuer credit ratings proposed by S&P.

The policy of state interference aimed at supporting export is continuously being expanded. Export credit agencies (ECAs) provide government-backed loans, guarantees, and insurance to corporations working internationally. This support plays critical role in providing access to capital, especially in developing countries. Due to the fact that officially supported export credits may seem controversial, we should pay attention to the role and importance of export credit agencies in export supporting mechanisms. The paper aims at highlighting the role of export credit agencies in supporting exports in the context of the binding OECD Agreement and intensified activities of agencies from non-OECD countries. Our analysis has shown that the activities of ECAs that consist in providing a level playing field for the competition in international market are justified. However, developed countries within the framework of OECD or WTO should get more involved in negotiations with non-OECD countries in the area of complying with the rules governing official export support.

The recent European debt crisis has generated a growing importance of the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB was forced to take measures far beyond its traditional role to stabilize monetary markets and inflation. The ECB has adopted a new function as a lender of last resort, providing banks and governments with almost unlimited liquidity and purchasing government bonds
within Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). This new role of the ECB has been hotly debated.
In Germany, the debate even reached the Constitutional Court. The article will give a survey of
the fundamentals of a lender of last resort and of the debate referring to the arguments of the ECB
and Bundesbank. It is indeed questionable whether the ECB has a mandate for its new monetary
and nolens volens fiscal role. Regardless of whether the arguments are convincing, new steps towards
new fiscal arrangements and a banking union are needed to stabilize the euro area.

Financial centres are places of high level of capital concentration and dynamic activity of financial institutions. The aim of the article is to analyse the development of Asian financial centres and their position in the global financial system by analysing the ranking of the main financial centres in the world. To achieve this goal, specific economic indicators obtained by the Z/Yen Institute and published in a form of a recurring ranking of the key financial centres in the world, namely the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), were analysed. The thesis of the article states that contemporary changes in the global financial systems are driven by globalisation and enhanced liberalisation of capital flows in the countries which were not counted among the main global financial centres, but since they have begun to experience dynamic economic growth, they increasingly perform as significant economic actors and places of capital accumulation and transfer, and trade. The analysis concerns particularly the financial centres in Hong Kong, Singapore, and China (Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen), which are influenced greatly by China‘s active role in the financial market.

The aim of this article is to evaluate the Project Bond Initiative, which is one of the main elements of the Connecting Europe Facility for financing priority infrastructure projects in transport, energy and ICT. In 2012–2016, the pilot phase of the initiative was conducted, qualifying eight projects to receive support. The essence of this initiative is to divide the debt bonds issued in connection with the financing of the project into a senior tranche and a subordinated tranche, and then for the European Investment Bank to grant financial support or a guarantee to the subordinated tranche. This guarantee is to improve the credit quality of the senior debt to the level expected by institutional investors, thereby facilitating the raising of funds for infrastructure investments through the bond market. The results of the pilot phase confirm that the Project Bond Initiative may be an effective tool to stimulate investment in infrastructure and commitment of long-term investors to such projects, however, it has weaknesses to be considered before its full implementation. The article is based on literature studies, examination of the EU legislation and case studies of projects supported under the pilot phase of the initiative.

Globalization of business processes, increasing degree of freedom in terms of trade and progressive economic integration of individual countries are the factors conducive to the formation of various forms of business cooperation which lose their national character, becoming international economic units of growing economic and technical potential. In the following paper, the author focuses the attention on the problem of the impact of the tax system exercised on the economic activity of companies, both in national and international terms. In this context, the issue of the interaction between the tax policy and the real economic sphere in the aspect of the intensification of economic activity and achieving competitive advantage on the international arena has been discussed. The conclusion states that low tax burden may constitute an important factor stimulating investments in a country with a mild tax regime, job creation and dynamic economic growth.

This paper examines the impact of the reductions in interchange fees in the United States of America and the European Union. First, the author describes payment card schemes and interchange fees. The focus of this analysis were the regulations of the amount of interchange fees that issuers receive in the United States and the European Union, as well as the legal acts that regulate this subject. The United States experience with the Durbin Amendment provides a useful test case for understanding the costs of interchange fees and interchange fee price controls, so the impact of those regulations on card scheme participants were described. The paper ends with conclusions in which emphasis was placed on ensuring adequate protection to cardholders.

The paper focuses on FX prime brokerage (FXPB) service, provided by brokers (mostly large banks) to their clients, which consists in enabling them to trade with other banks using their prescreened credit and in their name (e.g. by providing them with access to electronic platforms that are only available to a limited group of dealers). The aim of the paper is to indicate the role of prime brokers in the creation of forex turnovers. The methodology used in the paper is based on the analysis of specialist literature and data collected by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) from market-makers (the most active financial institutions making different foreign exchange transactions, often named ‘reporting dealers’). The results of the survey of the global forex market organized by the BIS are provided regularly once every three years, last time in April 2013. The results of the April 2016 research will be published in December 2016 or next year. As previous BIS analyses didn’t touch the problem of prime-brokered transactions in the global forex market (there is a lack of advanced statistics on prime-brokered transactions in the forex market), the paper focuses on data from April 2013 only. FX prime brokerage service has been contributing to the growth of the forex market from the very introduction of FXPB to the banking offer in the early 1990s. From many years there has been a tendency to make the foreign exchange market more open and to facilitate investors to access its services. FXPB enables smaller financial institutions (mainly hedge funds) to trade with large commercial and investment banks, which would remain out of their reach without the help of FX prime brokers. The growth of the foreign exchange market turnover is due to the growing activity of the customers of prime brokers.

The aim of the article is to identify the areas of using Facebook – one of the most popular social  networking websites. The analysis has been based on empirical data gathered among individualn users in several foreign markets (China, Poland, Spain, Germany, Russia, the United States, Turkey). Empirical quantitative research has been carried out in which paper and electronic inquiry  forms (CAWI) have been filled out by the respondents. Four areas of using Facebook by individualn users have been distinguished: communication, education, consumer behaviour, and work. The obtained indicators of Spearman rank correlation between the frequency of using Facebook and the distinguished areas are very diversified, both among the studied groups and the areas of use. The results show the peculiarities of particular groups in terms of using Facebook.

In the 2010s, we have been witnessing new price tendencies in international trade involving, among others, an absolute fall in the nominal prices of many primary commodities, including oil. The study aims to present the main directions of the change observed for the two basic commodity groups (primary commodities and manufactured goods) in international trade in the current decade, as well as their drivers. The results indicate that the major factors influencing those price tendencies include: a growing supply of primary commodities as a result of the 2000s commodity boom, a fall in the global demand for those commodities (especially in China and other developing countries), lower engagement of financial investors in commodity markets, and appreciation of the US dollar. The study used descriptive statistics; the linear correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to identify the impact of changes in the USD exchange rate.

Not only global but also regional links have strengthen considerably in the recent years. Globalization can be both a threat and an opportunity for international companies. To take advantage of the globalisation changes, companies must rethink their strategies and seek new tools that would help them stimulate innovation and growth in international markets. Managers should avoid strategic myopia, which arises as they merely follow the established tools, step by step, without a wider understanding of a concept. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of strategic management in international business and to present an expansion of the PESTEL method. The conceptual paper introduces a new tool in strategic management theory: REGLO analysis, an improved version of PESTEL analysis which marks out globalisation and regionalisation forces that are a great part of today’s external environment. Moreover, the article emphasizes the need for improvement of some popular strategic management tools that are used by the majority of companies in the current decade.

The article attempts to identify the key changes in the system of organization and management of transnational corporations (TNCs) that result from the implementation of the network internationalization strategy. The article is divided into three parts. The first part highlights the differences between the network internationaliastion strategy (NIS) and Strategic Corporate Entrepreneurship (SCE). The second part presents a global business network as a structure resulting from the implementation of the NIS. The last part makes reference to the author’s own research results concerning models of internationalisation of TNCs (for a group of 252 corporations classified as Top 100 non-financial TNCs in the years 1991–2014). The subject of the study were development paths of TNCs according to the adopted business integration models as well as the structure of the established relationships and accumulated capital. The result of the interpretation of the results is the identification of a set of key elements of the enterprise architecture of the surveyed TNCs. The summary shows the relevant parameters for the effective implementation of the NIS visible in business models of the most powerful TNCs as fundamental factors of development.

This paper has been devoted to the presentation of the current situation of multinational corporations from emerging economies (EMNCs). The research methods applied include the statistical analysis of data describing the operations of EMNCs and multiple case study of selected enterprises. The main conclusion drawn from the study concerns the worsening performance of the analysed firms. The main reason of the faltering financial results are the characteristics of industries in which EMNCs operate. Many large firms from emerging countries are strongly dependent on natural resources. Recent decline of demand from China caused strong global overcapacity of commodities. Moreover, the EMNCs are still influenced by the economic situation in their home economies. It is associated with the fact that their operations are not truly global yet. An additional reason is the lack of sustainable growth strategies which hinders the growth of the firms.

Dynamic and most often unexpected changes in the world economy, constant development of technology, unstable political situation in many regions, and growing migration of people resulting in increased cultural diversity at workplaces are among the challenges that contemporary enterprises have to face. All these circumstances influence companies seeking opportunities to achieve competitive advantages, both internationally and domestically. Turbulent environment requires managers who are equipped with both traditional managerial hard skills, and soft skills, including cultural intelligence. In the literature, cultural intelligence as an important attribute of global managers has been primarily considered and analysed regarding managers delegated to work abroad. However, increasing cultural diversity of the population of certain countries results in the growing importance of culturally diverse staff working also in companies operating in a domestic environment. It means that managers have to face many complex problems related to effectively leading culturally diversified teams. The main purpose of the paper is to highlight the importance of cultural intelligence as an attribute of global managers working abroad. Effective managers can manage an intercultural workforce and gain competitive advantage from cultural diversity regardless of the country they work in.

The aim of this paper is to empirically investigate the level of subsidiary autonomy in various decision areas relating to after-sales service, distribution, sales and marketing, procurement, production, research and development, and finance. The paper presents the results of a field survey carried out in 2012 through the direct interview and questionnaires sent by mail to Polish MNE subsidiaries operating abroad. The research results revealed that the subsidiaries of Polish MNEs are given a significant degree of decision-making freedom. In the majority of the listed areas the subsidiaries possessed a high degree of autonomy, claiming to take full or partial responsibility for their decisions. Only financial decisions remained predominantly under the control of the parent company. The empirical findings also showed that the age of the subsidiary influenced the extent of autonomy delegated to the subsidiary – foreign units with a longer period in the host country markets had a greater degree of autonomy.

The aim of this article is to verify empirically the hypothesis concerning the importance of innovations for firm involvement in export activities using firm-level data for Poland and the probit model. In this article, we examine whether it is possible to confirm the predictions of the Melitz [2003] model with respect to the occurrence of a positive relationship between firm productivity and the likelihood of exporting, taking into account the research and development activity of firms and other firm characteristics that may be important for their export activity. The selection of explanatory variables such as firm size, the use of human capital, spending onR&Dand firm internationalization measured by the share of foreign capital and the use of foreign licenses is consistent with other empirical studies based on firm-level data. We also try to analyse the importance of different forms of innovation for the export activity. Our empirical results clearly confirm the role of R&D spending, while the results obtained for various forms of innovations are less clear-cut.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the relationship between innovation cooperation with domestic and foreign science-based partners (research and scientific institutions), and the innovation efficiency of Polish firms, as well as the role that firms’ size and absorptive capacity play in this relationship. The analysis covered 7,783 large and medium-sized manufacturing firms (CIS survey PNT-02). 2,795 of them declared the introduction of process and/or product innovation in the years 2008–2010, and among them 745 showed cooperation with institutional partners. The results of the structural model (SEM) indicate that both the absorptive capacity and size are important determinants of cooperation with those partners. The study revealed a statistically significant relationship between innovation cooperation and innovation efficiency, measured as the percentage of sales of innovative products in total sales.

In the modern world economy business development is influenced by globalization and regional integration. As a result, companies operate in the environment characterized by a tightening competition and rapid technological progress. Several studies conducted at both company and national level reveal a significant impact of innovation activities on the condition of individual enterprises as well as the whole economy. In relation to the above, the purpose of the article is to examine the level of innovation activity undertaken by Lithuanian companies and to show its similarities and differences in relation to EU companies. The first part of the article brings up the theoretical foundations of innovation, while the next parts use secondary data obtained from the Lithuanian Department of Statistics and Eurostat in order to provide the level of innovation activity. The article uses statistical and comparative analysis.

The scientific purpose of the study is to attempt to compile the views of scholars on born-global enterprises. Attention was paid to a widely accepted conceptual apparatus associated with this phenomenon. The empirical part of the paper is based on a case study regarding technology start-ups. The author gives examples of endogenous factors influencing the early internationalization of new ventures as well as the impact of the business ecosystem on the growth of bornglobal enterprises. The qualitative case study analysis of the knowledge-based micro companies from the IT industry has shown that technology start-ups have been able to successfully compete on the global market. The provided examples confirm that endogenous factors and external environment undoubtedly play an important role in both the building of entrepreneurial orientation and the process of early internationalization. Case studies in the area of global technology startups should develop the existing theory and provide explanations of the hitherto unrecognized phenomena.

The aim of the article is to determine the degree and the trends of the transnational corporations’ R&D concentration process on the geographic and industrial level. The analysis was conducted based on the concentration ratios and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in the group of a thousand TNCs with the highestR&Dexpenditures in the years 2003–2014. It demonstrates a high degree of geographic and industrial concentration. In addition, the studies have shown that among TNCs, a stronger concentration is associated with the country of origin than with the industrial sector in which the company operates. Despite an overall slight decrease in the intensity of concentration in the analysed period, there was a reversal of this trend in recent years, namely the increase of the industrial concentration since 2010 and of the geographic concentration since 2013.

The objective of this paper is to identify the trend in the investment activity of Polish companies in the Czech market and to evaluate this phenomenon. The research was carried out mainly on the basis of the analysis of statistical data, including data gathered by the National Bank of Poland, the Czech National Bank, and the Polish Central Statistical Office. Research shows that companies under the Polish capital control demonstrate greater interest in the Czech market than the ones under a foreign one. Horizontal, market-seeking oriented projects dominate among Polish investments in the Czech Republic. Polish investment projects developed in the Czech market can be classified as classic FDI.

This paper presents an overview of the two factors affecting the development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region: human resources and the legal framework, making reference to the pertinent literature and an existing theory. The authors base their research on the survey conducted among the representatives of social enterprises across the seven Baltic Sea Region countries and focus group interviews. The results of the study show that there is a great disparity in the level of support offered to social entrepreneurs from the researched countries and that the same human resources theories could be applied to traditional and social enterprises. The study has also shown that social enterprise legislation is not the key factor in the development of a social economy in the researched countries, but further work on an adequate legislation is needed.

The article discusses the changes in the competition strategies of entities in the air transport market in recent decades. The subject of the analysis is cooperation between air carriers and between carriers and airports. The aim of this article is to prove that many changes which have taken place in the supply of air transport services were a response to globalization. Such a change is especially visible in the tendency to consolidate the supply side of the air transport market or in the increasing importance of cooperative competition strategy. In a global competition, the dominant position in the market of passenger air transport can be gained only by entities able to implement suitable strategies of competition. The article argues that such a strategy must allow for achieving a competitive advantage, a higher level of economic efficiency and effective takeover of demand. This, in turn, is enabled by entering strategic alliances and undertaking cooperative agreements with other entities in the air transport market.

An observation of the market in the recent decades shows a definitely growing need for internationalisation of enterprises in the international arena. This is a consequence of the increasing globalisation of markets and competition, which is forcing companies to seek new buyers outside of their home country. The article contains the results of an empirical research conducted in the second half of 2015 in the Greater Poland region as part of the research project ‘Competitive strategies of enterprises of the food sector in the Greater Poland region in the era of globalisation’. The aim of this study is to identify the type of international orientation and forms of internationalisation of the companies analysed. Theoretical implications have been based on literature studies and subjected to empirical evaluation in the course of a questionnaire survey.

In the recent years, the European Union has been gradually introducing changes leading to the liberalization of the European defence equipment market and the reduction of the impact of protectionist policies on countries’ defence industries. In Poland, this practice is visible, e.g., in the changing of the rules for military orders and conducting transactions offset. This article aims to assess the impact of these changes on the functioning of the national defence industry in Poland. The rating is the result of interviews with the experts dealing with this issue in 2014 and 2015 and the effect of an analysis of the recent literature. The results of those studies indicate that Polish defence industry will be subjected to changes in the coming years. These changes will bring both positive and negative impact on the functioning of the industry. Ultimate effects of these changes, concerning in particular the export and import of the products of this industry, will balance themselves out. Therefore, we don’t have to expect neither a sudden economic collapse of this industry nor its rapid development.