In the article problems related to human labor and factors affecting the increasing use of

industrial robots are discussed. Since human factors affect the production processes stability,

robots are preferred to apply. The application of robots is characterized by higher performance

and reliability comparing to human labor. The problem is how to determine the real

difference in work efficiency between human operator and robot. The aim of the study is to

develop a method that allows clearly definition of productivity growth associated with the

replacement of human labor by industrial robots. Another aim of the paper is how to model

robotized and manual operated workstation in a computer simulation software. Analysis of

the productivity and reliability of the hydraulic press workstation operated by the human

operator or an industrial robot, are presented. Simulation models have been developed taking

into account the availability and reliability of the machine, operator and robot. We apply

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) indicator to present how availability and reliability

parameters influence over performance of the workstation, in the longer time. Simplified

financial analysis is presented considering different labor costs in EU countries.

The paper aims to test the hypothesis whether high tariffs lead to a high efficiency of electricity suppliers. The authors test this hypothesis on a case of 29 Ukrainian electricity distribution companies. Using the data envelopment analysis and correlation coefficients, grouping the super-efficiency scores, the authors found that in most regions of Ukraine the increase in tariffs no longer leads to increased efficiency. This indicates a weakness of tariff policy in most of the electricity distribution companies. The case showed that rising tariffs can cause a decline in revenue, net income and an increase in accounts payable. This does not allow the electricity distribution companies to provide high efficiency.

Apart from this, despite improving the financial performance of most companies, the electricity distribution industry in Ukraine as a whole remains unprofitable. However, the high percentage of foreign investors in this industry indicates a significant potential for increasing the efficiency of Ukrainian energy companies. The government control of the electricity distribution companies more often provides medium efficiency, while the management by foreign investors often provides a high efficiency. The absence of the major owner and the presence of blocking stakes in any investor (government, domestic or foreign investors) has a negative impact on the efficiency of energy companies.

Although the case is limited to one country and 29 companies, this study can serve as a model for wider testing of the research hypothesis in other markets and countries.

This article examines the localness of commercial names in Finland and focusses specifically on the names of grill food kiosks and products. There are two research objectives: firstly, to determine the number of local names that occur in the material, and secondly, to analyse how these names work as indexes of localness. This article explores the claim by sociolinguist Barbara Johnstone that particular linguistic forms can index meanings along a variety of dimensions and some forms may index locality. Furthermore, these types of linguistic forms can be used in discourses that shape people’s senses of place and the social identities associated with place. Of the 15 names of kiosks, almost all names, a total of 13 names, can be interpreted as manifesting local characteristics. Most of the kiosk names include a local place name. Of the product names, more than half (46 out of 84 names) are to be construed as describing something local. Although most of the local names in the group of product names include a local place name, personal names are also rather common. In addition, local dialect or slang is also visible in the product names. Another type of reference to a region appears in two kiosk names and in some of the product names. These names constitute a special case and demonstrate how local history can be incorporated in names creatively.

The article deals with the subject of an important component of energy management, which is the performance of energy efficiency audits in companies. Using the case study analysis, the role of the energy audit was analyzed in the context of improvement of energy efficiency in selected production companies. The essence of legal requirements following from the implementation of the amended Energy Efficiency Act was presented. Specifically, problems and challenges, which refer to the method of implementation of the audit obligation in economic practice, were discussed. Furthermore, the issue of quality and usefulness (in the decision-making process) of prepared reports was raised. It was found that there were indications to claim that the obligatory energy audit of companies is not an instrument for the improvement of energy efficiency, which is always used optimally. The fault in this situation is partly attributable to the state, audit bodies and the company management. In this case, not only is the ineffective communication an issue here, but also the insufficient level of knowledge regarding energy management, as well as haste. The amendment of the Energy Efficiency Act (within just one year) imposed the necessity to conduct an energy audit on a specific group of companies. In principle, because all the entities, to which the obligation referred, had to take actions almost at the same time, numerous issues appeared. Some managers learned about the obligation to conduct the audit from companies who themselves had come out with a proposal to carry it out. This proves the lack of the proper information flow between the government administration authorities and the companies. Again, it turned out that practitioners did not keep pace with the implementation of actions, which were a consequence of numerous (and not always well thought-out) changes in the law. Haste in the fulfillment of the statutory obligation affected a high price spread of the bids sent during tenders, related to the performance of an energy audit. Bureaucratic regulations regarding tenders became another obstacle in the correct performance of the tasks. The entrepreneurs themselves, without clear guidelines on what to expect after the performed energy audit and what a report should look like, on many occasions, selected the “cheapest” bid – not always thinking too much about the qualitative consequences of such a decision. Some certifying bodies – taking advantage of an opportunity and the satisfactory combination of circumstances – offered unprofessional audit services of questionable quality. In the presented conditions, it is difficult to expect real, systemic and desirable results (economically, ecologically and socially) with regards to the energy efficiency both in the micro-, meso- and macr-economic scale. It is worth considering changes in the Energy Efficiency Act and spread the obligation to perform audits over different years according to clearly defined (in cooperation with business) criteria. If relevant actions are not taken, the situation of a temporary Eldorado on the market of energy audits will repeat in 4 years. Again, the consequence may be the poor quality and questionable usefulness of reports from energy audits of companies both at the business level and the ecological-political level. It is necessary to counteract all forms of unfair competition to interdisciplinary and specialist bodies which take actions to improve the energy efficiency of organisations. The creation of appropriate business conditions will have a positive impact on the improvement of energy efficiency. In this context, it is necessary to take actions, which enable the optimization of both the process of the implementation of obligatory legal regulations and voluntary (industry) norms and standards.

Coal mining is one of the most important sectors of the Polish industry. It can be said that the coal is a national raw material. This results in Poland being a pioneer in the European Union in terms of coal mining as well as its use in the production of electricity and heat. There are many companies in Poland which have been established and developed around the coal mining industry aimed at coal extracting. The operations of those companies depends on the condition of the mining companies and their cooperation with them: commercial, service and advisory, called referred to as “mining supporting companies”. The article focuses on the results of a survey carried out in mining supporting companies, such as mining machinery and equipment manufacturers, mining-related service companies and mining-related research and development institutions. The authors evaluated the relationship and dependence of those companies on the mining industry. It was assumed that the measure of the mining supporting companies condition is the overall quantity of public related payments contributed to the state budget and local budgets. In the article, the authors raised the problem of the size of losses for public finances, as a result of the significant limitations of financial flows from the mining companies. The surveyed companies are those associated with the Polish Mining Chamber of Industry and Commerce. As a result, the authors prepared conclusions regarding the dependence of the mining supporting companies on the situation of the mining subsector.

Energy is a basic industry for any economy and ensures the country’s security, including economic

security. The purpose of the article is to analyze the reform of the energy sector in Ukraine

for successful integration into the energy sector of the European Union. The state of the energy

industry from 2003 to 2018 is analyzed. The following main reasons for the decrease in electricity

generation in Ukraine are identified – a decrease in production volumes, the annexation of Crimea

and the anti-terrorist operation in the east of Ukraine, a decrease in the volume of energy output

from Thermal Power Plants due to aging capacities, difficulties with raw materials, low efficiency,

which, however, has a good effect on the environment due to a decrease carbon dioxide emissions.

The directions of reforming the electric power industry of Ukraine are considered in the context of

“industry-market-company”. Four electricity market models are analyzed and the new model of the

competitor’s market for electricity in Ukraine with contract market, spot market, the balancing market

is substantiated. The structure of the segments of the new electricity market and the participants

are proposed. More than half of the electricity market is provided by nuclear power, which ranks

the 5th in the world in terms of installed capacity. The analysis of the performance indicators of the

nuclear company for 2007–2019 showed significant reserves for the company’s growth, which are

being successfully implemented through strategic development projects and phased corporatization

of the company as a tool of unbundling. The main challenges of implementation a new market

model are analyzed and solutions are proposed.

This article focuses on mobility of companies in the European Union in the light of the Court of Justice’s judgment in the C-106/16 Polbud – Wykonawstwo sp. z o.o. case. The Court of Justice has once again interpreted the treaty provisions relating to the EU freedom of establishment in the context of cross-border conversion of companies. The in-depth analysis of the case from the substantive law perspective as well as from the conflict-of-law perspective has raised some doubts with regard to the background of the judgment. Therefore, the article assesses whether the cross-border transfer of a seat took place in the Polbud case or the cross-border conversion, or possibly a new company has come into existence. Most of the analysis is aimed at exposing the risks related to the companies’ mobility under the rules adopted in the Polbud judgment, in particular in the absence of respective European and national regulation.

The paper deals with the issue of financial efficiency, measured by the arithmetic rate of return, of indirect financial investments in the area of strategic raw materials (hard coal, copper, crude oil). Two forms of indirect investments were analyzed: shares of natural resources companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and futures contracts for strategic commodities: hard coal, copper and crude oil.

The time of the analysis is the first 6 months of 2019 and 2020. The year 2019 was regarded as an analysis of the period of economic growth, and the year 2020 was the analysis of the period of economic crisis. The comparisons were made in two dimensions. Firstly, it whether indirect commodity investments show the characteristics of efficiency resilience to the time of the economic crisis was checked (by comparing the achieved rates of return in the two analyzed periods). Secondly, which of the analyzed forms of investment (stocks, contracts) gives better investment results during economic growth and economic crisis was compared.

As it was shown in the paper, indirect commodity investments do not show an above-average rate of return neither during economic growth nor economic crisis. The achieved rates of return on shares compared to changes in the WIG20 index in the analyzed first half of 2019 were negative. Only one company showed a positive and significantly higher than the market rate of return. Very similar results were achieved by the analyzed companies in 2020.

On the other hand, the analysis of prices and rates of return on commodity futures contracts showed that in the period of economic growth it is effective to take a long position on crude oil contracts and a short position on hard coal contracts. In a period of economic crisis, the opposite position is profitable due to the observed growth in hard coal prices and a significant drop in crude oil prices.

The answers to the research questions posed in the paper do not provide indications for recommending indirect forms of investment in commodities as an alternative to analogous forms of other sectors of the economy. The analysis shows that the impact of the economic situation on the efficiency of commodity investment is most noticeable for crude oil, and the least (among the analyzed commodities) for indirect copper-based investments.

The concept of a Ship Management is vaguely known in the Polish law and legal doctrine although the role of the Ship Manager has become quite complex through the years. It started in the eighties when there was a deep change in the shipping market as many shipping companies became bankrupt and mortgagor banks had to turn to ship managers for help.

Thirty years ago in 1988 BIMCO published the first Ship Management Contract which provided the market with a standard document striking a fair balance between the rights and obligations of the owners and the managers, giving some uniformity in the widely used in-house contracts, particularly in the apportionment of liability between parties.

After the implementation of the ISM Code in 1998 and creating the entity called “Company” as a subject responsible for a safe operation of a vessel the ship manager’s role rose extremely. It caused, among other factors, that BIMCO issued the world wide known form of contract named SHIPMAN 98, which was then superseded by its new version issued in 2009.

The main goal of this article is to bring a reader closer to the issue of a Ship Management and the Ship Manager through a Polish translation of this modern BIMCO form named SHIPMAN 2009.

The Vladimir Lenin Steelworks and other state-owned enterprises in Nowa Huta, the eastern district of Cracow, ran a number of holiday centres all over Poland and encouraged their staff to spend their leave in those places with their family members and colleagues. This form of organized leisure was also promoted by the press. So for example Głos Nowej Huty, a weekly issued by the Workers’ Council of the VL Steelworks, published articles showing the attractions and, occasionally, problems of individual holiday homes. At the same time readers were encouraged to file in their application in good time. The publicity contributed to the success of this type of organized leisure — the number of people who took up this offer increased year on year throughout that period.