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Maritime tourism is one of the fastest growing tourist branches, bringing significant revenue to the cities and ports that develop it. Baltic cruises generates about 20% of all maritime tourist traffic. However, Polish ports, as shown through the example of Gdynia, have a small marketshare. The article presents results of the analysis of changes in the volume of traffic of cruise ships and the number of tourists arriving in Gdynia. The undertaken research is aimed at assessing and indicating the direction of changes in maritime tourist traffic in Gdynia in the years 1997–2016. The subject of the study are changes in the number of visits of cruise ships and tourists in the port of Gdynia. The data for the analysis of the traffic volume of the cruise traffic come from the reports and information from the Port of Gdynia Authority S.A. in Gdynia and cited in the literature. The work used basic statistical methods, including the analysis of changes in the volume of tourist traffic in particular years. It has made it possible to indicate a decisive decrease in the number of visits made by cruisers in Gdynia in the analyzed period, with the number of tourists stabilizing at 80–90 thousand per year in the last four years. However, this number results from the fact that Gdynia had visits of larger cruisers in last years than it was in the previous period. The location of the port in Gdynia and the lack of significant investments in port infrastructure for maritime tourism lead to the stabilization of tourist traffic at the present level.
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The article presents the changes in the supervisory paradigm and the latest legal regulation on insurance market aimed at prevention of misselling. First, the concept, form and scale of this phenomena were briefly described. There were analyzed some regulations of Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) 2016/97 of 20 January 2016 implemented into Polish legal system, in aspect of their influence on reduction of misselling and inadequate sales to the needs of customers. In particular the norms imposing on distributors to act in the best interest of their consumers, necessity to recognize consumer’s needs and expectations and the compensation system for agents were considered. The conclusions indicate fundamental reconstruction of consumer protection model on insurance market. The implementation of Insurance Distribution Directive will not cause the unification of consumer service between various channels of distribution but will reduce the conflict of interest between contract sides and the unsuitability of insurance products. The efficiency of regulations will depend on the ability of executions by supervisions authority first of all. Research methods used in the article include analysis of literature and legal regulations.
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The participation of private partners in the implementation of public tasks contributes above all to increasing the effectiveness of management in the public sector and accelerating the development of territorial units. Public-private partnership (PPP) is a tool that supports infrastructure development while reducing public expenditure. First PPP deals were made in 2009. Since then local government units remained the main initiatiors of the projects. The article aims to assess the use of public-private partnership in Poland in the years 2009–2019. The study also takes into the account the obstacles which impede the development of PPP in Poland. Local governments have implemented the largest number of projects in the field of transport infrastructure in Poland. The most active were public entities located in the regions with the best economic development. The obstacles that limit the PPP initiative are mostly financial, legal, attitudinal. Lack of knowledge and skills also obstructs the development of PPP. Overcoming these barriers requires increasing knowledge of PPP projects in order to promote public-private cooperation as a modern way of implementing public tasks.
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The aim of the study was to determine the reasons for implementing non-cash payment services in small and medium enterprises, with focus on mobile payments. The basis of the study were secondary and primary data. Data were obtained from the reports of the National Bank of Poland, Polish Financial Authority, Central Statistical Office, payment card systems. The research period covered the years 2015–2019. In order to examine SME enterprises decisions regarding the introduction of mobile payment methods carried out were surveys inspired by the technology acceptance theory model. As the analysis showed more entrepreneurs notice the growing market demand for mobile payments and changes in surrounding environment. Customers’ interest in this form of payment were of great importance.
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Tourism is one of the basic sectors of the European economy. Tourism initiatives funded by the European Union promote entrepreneurship and development of regions. The author emphasizes the role of education in this field as it can create entrepreneurial attitudes and improve the quality of human capital. The aim of the article was to present the legal basis and competences of EU institutions in the field of tourism and the European funds financing tourism projects. The author presents tourism projects financed from the EU funds in Małopolskie Voivodeship in relation to Poland. Therefore, the article is divided into three parts. The study refers to the programming period of 2007–2013. In the light of the conducted considerations, we can see that tourism sector has not been a preferential one for a long time in the EU policy. There is still a lack of financial instruments entirely oriented on tourism projects. The most important role in the Małopolskie Voivodeship played projects in the category of business development, science and education, as well as work and social integration. Tourism projects played a smaller role in the total number of projects supported by EU funds. However, it is important that many tourism projects are international and support regional entrepreneurship.
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The construction sector is characterised by high volatility in the financial situation of the entities operating in it (general contractors, subcontractors, material producers and wholesalers). This affects how the industry is assessed by banking and insurance institutions that provide construction companies with access to guarantees and external financing. A difficult market, even during a bull market, volatile economic situation, multi-stage execution of contracts mean that the construction sector has problems with maintaining financial liquidity and debt service. The considerations carried out allow to conclude that the recent years have not been easy for the construction industry, which was due to many factors. The implementation of unprofitable infrastructure contracts, difficulties in dialogue with an investor of public funds, as well as a limited number of tenders adversely affected the financial results of companies in this sector. The analysed construction companies from the group listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange maintained their good financial condition in the analysed period. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of five companies in the construction industry listed on the WSE on the basis of selected financial information for 2014–2019. These data will be analysed in terms of dynamics and average growth rate using the ṝ, method, the essence of which results from the fact that only the initial and final expression of the chronological series determines the numerical value of the average growth rate. The actual chronological series can be thought of as “a geometric progression with a variable quotient”. The study is descriptive and empirical.
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This article is about the image of politicians created by mass media, which differs depending on the ideological closeness between the candidate and the type of media. The media creates its own symbolic universes to form in their consumers’ minds premade interpretative schemes, which eliminate the need for individual thinking and will to recognise the truth about empirical reality. The author made use of the presidential election in Poland, which took place in 2020, and the two candidates who made it to the second round: Andrzej Duda and Rafał Trzaskowski. The author took into consideration two national dailies: “Gazeta Wyborcza” and “Nasz Dziennik” issued between 29th June 2020 and 11th July 2020. This article introduces a hypothesis that claims that the analysed dailies did not hide their sympathy for a particular candidate and were critical towards his competitor. Further, it examines how these newspapers included more critical or affirmative texts than ambivalent or neutral ones. In this article, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used.
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The aim of the article is to present profiles of the entrepreneurial behaviour of women who in the years 2013–2020 set up a business in Legnica (Poland) and to determine whether the COVID‑19 pandemic (in Poland its beginning is considered to be March 2020, when the first case of infection was confirmed) had an impact on the entrepreneurial decisions of women in Legnica – in relation to the number and types of companies they founded. Analyses, based on the desc research method and deduction, were made on the basis of statistical data obtained from the Central Statistical Office – based mainly on REGON and the PKD statement. Detailed implementation of the task allowed to indicate the types of economic activities that were most often chosen by women in Legnica. Moreover, indicated are the number and types of economic activities that in 2019 and 2020 were created and liquidated in the year of their registration by women in Legnica. It was also found that the COVID‑19 pandemic did not significantly change the directions of entrepreneurial activities, but there was a decrease in the number of company registrations in the studied group, as well as in the total number of activities established in the years covered by the study.
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This research investigates the influence of dividend pay-out ratio on share prices of quotedcompanies on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) between 2014 and 2020 across fifteen (15)companies. panel least square estimation, through the use of Hausman’s test, was used to analyze thedata. In the econometric model, dependent variable (proxy by the market share price) was regressed onthe following explanatory variables of earning per share, dividend yield, return on investment, dividendpayout ratio, and retention rate. This research discovered a joint significant relationship betweenearning per share, dividend yield, return on investment, dividend payout ratio, retention rate and market share prices. This research therefore recommends that; Furtherance to the findings of this research, firms may be well aware that dividend payment may not necessarily be a factor that affect market share price.
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The study investigate the nexus between financial leverage and profitability with specific reference from top-40 JSE firms. This study originate from emerging countries. It is on this background that this study attempts to investigate the connection between financial leverage and profitability from a South African viewpoint. The system generalized method of moments (GMM) was used to analyze the relationship between financial leverage and profitability. The sample of 21 of the top-40 JSE firms from 2011 to 2019 was used. The secondary data for the article were collected from Iress INET BFA database. The results of the study revealed that financial leverage has negative influence on profitability of top-40 JSE companies. Whereas other variables such as liquidity, firm size, and growth opportunity are also negatively influences profitability. The study is restricted to the top-40 JSE companies only which means cannot generalise the finding to all listed companies on JSE and different sectors of the economy. The study suggests that directors and managers should control and manage leverage as they improve the variety and the quality of the firm’s profitability. This results might be beneficial for future researchers, manager and investor as a point of reference.
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This article examines the relationship between ownership concentration as a proxy to alleviating agency costs on the performance of the JSE-TOP40 listed companies from 2010-2018. The two-step generalised method of moments methodology was employed to examine the nexus. The results revealed that foreign ownership does not influence company performance. Whereas performance was found to deteriorate with increase in managerial ownership. In many instances, companies are encouraged to align the managerial ownership with company performance by choosing to shorten or prolong the irvesting period. Therefore, future studies might need to empirically study the same relationship accounting for management share option schemes.
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A memoir about Dr. Ryszard Piasek – a filmmaker, reporter, social activist and film producer.
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For more than two centuries the Albanian factor in Macedonia has been a dynamically changing reality. The last decade of the 20th century is associated with the international consolidation of the Republic of Macedonia, whereas during the first decade of the 21st century the country faced “significant” international problems and confrontations between the Macedonians and the Albanians, as well as the dilemma of its further steps towards membership in the European and North Atlantic structures.
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This paper represents a study on the portrayal of major events related to the Ukraine war within two news agencies – „Pervîi pridnestrovskii” (well-known by the population on the left bank of the Dniester) and „Jurnal TV”, the first news television channel in the Republic of Moldova and still popular on the right bank. This study was conducted using comparative methods, quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the coverage of the Ukraine crisis in daily news bulletins, with a focus on its early period - the first calendar month from 24.02.2022 to 24.03.2022.Researching the precise formulations chosen and the presentation methods of events used by both news agencies has revealed how easily public opinion formation can be guided by focusing on certain dimensions, implicitly pursued through the goals of news portals. Thus, an information bubble was observed that opted to omit the existence of an aggression event, focusing strictly on campaigns and humanitarian missions (especially local ones). In contrast, another information space highlighted the aggressive and violent aspect faced by Ukrainian citizens, in addition to the humanitarian and rescue dimensions.The paper concludes with some relevant findings and presents an argumentative framework for the necessity of conducting such a study, both for the national and international context.
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The study examined effect of ownership structure on financial performance of listed consumable goods companies in Nigeria between 2013 and 2022. Specifically, the study examined the effect of managerial ownership and foreign ownership on return on assets of listed consumable goods companies in Nigeria. The study employed secondary source of data and the data were collated from financial reports of sampled 10 listed consumable goods companies. In bid to accomplish this, panel regression analysis was employed, having considered the fixed effect model as the most fitted data estimator, the result revealed that managerial ownership has a positive effect on return on assets with coefficient of (0.502224) and statistically significant (p=0.03057<0.05) Similarly, foreign ownership has positive effect on return on asset with coefficient of (0.383082) and statistically significant (p=0.04110<0.05) Based on the findings of this study, the study concluded that both managerial ownership and foreign ownership have positive effect on the financial performance of the selected consumable goods companies in Nigeria. The study therefore recommended that, the management of consumable goods companies should improve on their insider’s ownership.
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Entrepreneurship can contribute to the well-being of the society by creating innovative products and services that can meet the needs of customers and improve their quality of life. Entrepreneurs can also support local communities by engaging in social development projects and creating jobs, which help raise the standards of living. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report annually tracks the evolution of international entrepreneurship. The paper aims to identify various components related to entrepreneurship in order to outline an overview of the publications that integrate global entrepreneurship monitor data. The bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviewer software based on 1.063 articles extracted from the Web of Science database. The results of the paper highlight the exploration of the constituent aspects of entrepreneurial research, identifying the analyses that were based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports from 2004 to 2023.
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The professional development of teachers has been an interesting area for educational researchers. The educational transformation initiated in South Africa since 1994 due to the new democratic dispensation necessitated a process of reskilling the entire South African teaching corp. For schools to achieve their goals of effective teaching and improve learning, professional development should be at the top of the pedagogical agenda. Drawing from teacher professional development theory, the study explored how the Council for Educators’ point system policy functions and whether the policy promotes teacher professional development. For the researcher to explore and understand the views of participants, a qualitative approach, which was analytic, descriptive and interpretive, was deployed. Data was collected through the use of semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study show that there is a discrepancy between what the policy aspires to do and the teachers’ praxis. In addition, the findings conclude that in the main, most teachers in this study demonstrate inadequate comprehension despite the fact that the policy has been in operation for five years. Based on these findings, it can confidently be argued that the policy does not enhance teacher professional development.
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The present study focuses on the transformations that human society goes through in pandemic periods, ie when the survival of the human species is called into question. During this time, in the archaic religious societies, they resorted to the help of the founding gods, and in the ancient societies proliferated the divinities responsible for healing diseases, the gods of medicine, all these societies being eminently religious, which required a certain religious type of behavior in any situation of life. The current pandemic has also imposed certain behavioral changes for the secularized contemporary man, who has partially lost his religious landmarks. The period of pandemic, which automatically involved isolation, was for some an opportunity for meditation and a time of introspection on their own human condition, ie a chance not to be missed to approach God. For the believers, the pandemic with the supposed isolation, had the disadvantage of stopping them from attending Holy Services, especially during Lent and Easter, in 2020. Believers, belonging to monotheistic religions, have adapted to the restrictions imposed and the attending of the religious services went online. Here we can notice the danger of becoming too used to the online, which,in the future, could lead to an absenteeism from the place of worship. The next period will shed light on the changes in the religious behavior caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The article contains a bibliometric analysis conducted on the basis of bibliographic data from the years 1996–2022, extracted from the Scopus database (May 2022). The method used involved steps beyond the traditional counting of publications and citations as well as drawing conclusions based on reading the content of academic papers. Complete biographic datasets were used for advanced analyses performed in the program CiteSpace. The state of research into digital culture may be described as follows: (1) it constitutes a new area of research that has seen particularly intensive development for the last 15 years or so; (2) systematic research is conducted by a small set of researchers; (3) they publish the findings of their research in a small selection of journals (around a dozen) and in books; (4) books contribute most to the development of such research (mainly around a dozen of the most popular ones); (5) the subject-matter of this research embraces mainly such issues as: copyright law, critical digital studies, digital art, network society, digital media, digital modernity, information technology, digitalisation, influencers, the internet era, memes, new media, social media, social networks, video games, and visual culture.
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