One of the most popular forms of implementing accounting tasks (especially in the case of SMEs) is to outsource them to specialized external entities. Even though the range of these tasks is clearly defined by law, organizational and technical solutions may vary. One of the more significant trends in this area is progressive virtualization of the information flow which, among other things, allows for improved communication with customers. The article is part of these considerations. It presents the results of questionnaire research whose aim was to determine the attractiveness of virtualization of communication with customers and the need of providers of accounting services to modernize their IT systems. The study was conducted among 114 respondents from southern Poland. The results show that the attractiveness of virtualisation of accounting services is assessed at a relatively high level.

The natural environment is one of the important elements shaping the development of a business enterprise in the ever-changing reality. Each business entity which wants to become a pro-environmental enterprise has to implement properly the essence of the eco-development concept inside its organisation. Organisational culture and competitiveness constitute two significant functional areas of business enterprises. Exposed to the influence of eco-development, these areas adopt the shape of the eco-developmental organisational culture and eco-developmental competitiveness of business enterprises. Both these areas are complementary to each other and together create a coherent system.

The objective of the article is to present the essence and structure of an eco-developmental organisational culture in the eco-developmental competitiveness of business enterprises. It includes the following theses: (i) An eco-developmental organisational culture is shaped by both soft and hard factors;and (ii) The factors of an eco-developmental organisational culture (as a constituent of eco-developmental competitiveness) shape the eco-developmental cultural competitiveness of business enterprises.

The article is based on the results of the author’s empirical research (a survey of a sample of 200 Polish business enterprises in the Świętokrzyskie Province) preceded by a thorough study of the literature on the subject.

The aim of this article is to examine the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the United States during the period of 1980–2015. It was analyzed the flows and stocks of these investments, their structure with the division into the main sectors of industry, the major investment partners and the branches of industry in which the United States are connected with the rest of the world through manufacturing processes.

On the basis of the size and structure of FDI flows between the United States and its’ major investment partners it can be concluded that developing countries are not the major investment partners for the United States, even in “manufacturing” investment outflow, but the developed countries have a more important position in the area. In the past the main motives for FDI were: market-seeking and efficiency-seeking. The main motive which drives the investments from emerging markets to the United States during the last several years is the strategic asset-seeking. The state policy in the United States towards the FDI should be very subtle.

Abstract

In world economy, which develops dynamically the meaning of human capital which has a significant influence on building competitive advantages in contemporary enterprises of all countries becomes more and more important. The intention of the authors of this article was to specify the role of human capital in obtaining competitive advantages by small and medium-sized companies of the Podkarpackie region in Poland in the opinion of managers.

To achieve this objective, a survey was conducted among 300 enterprises from the trade, service, construction and production industries. The managers of these enterprises, emphasized in answers they provided, that building a permanent competitive advantage is definitely dependent on the quality of human resources and their use during the course of business activity regardless of its nature.