National Economy, April 2004

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Contents of No. 4/2004

1. Piotr Pajewski – Economic Foundations of Mergers and Acquisitions The summary
2. Sylwia Zajączkowska-Jakimiak – The Role of Human Capital in Technological Knowledge Transfer Through Foreign Investment The summary
3. Wanda Karpińska-Mizielińska, Tadeusz Smuga – Economic Situation of Hotels and Restaurants Sector Enterprises in the Years 1999 – 2003 The summary
4. Mirosław Moroz – Implementation of e-Business Solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises The summary

PROSPECTS FOR EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

1. Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski – Integration with the European Union and the Labour Market in Poland The summary

FROM THE WORLD ECONOMY

1. Joseph E. Stiglitz – Information and Paradigm Change in Economics (Part II)

CONFERENCES – POLEMICS – REVIEWS

1. Czesław Bobrowski – Master of Applied Economics - Tadeusz Smuga
2. Czesław Bobrowski - Editor and Columnist of “Gospodarka Narodowa” – Anna Jarosz

Piotr Pajewski – Economic Foundations of Mergers and Acquisitions 

Mergers and acquisitions transactions have become an almost everyday feature of economic life. However, according to some studies approximately 50% of such transactions do not bring expected results. According to other studies, only some one third of mergers can be considered successful. This article is an attempt to explain why companies merge despite such a high failure risk for this type of transactions. The reasons for mergers and acquisitions have been presented in a breakdown into three major groups: the reasons of owners and managers, market and marketing reasons and financial reasons. Such a breakdown allows for a detailed analysis of particular factors making up the final decision to merge with another firm. Obviously, the hierarchy and rank of specific reasons for mergers and acquisitions has been changing over years. Nevertheless, merger transactions always constitute a deliberate and effective strategy for maintaining or speeding up the growth rate of a company, strengthening its market position or rationalising costs. For companies they are often the only effective way to survive on the world market and to face international competition. Therefore, irrespective of the frequently voiced opinions that mergers motivated by prevailing trends are carried out without sufficient justification, and the costs involved exceed by far the possible gains, such transactions are still to be the case to a greater or smaller extent.

Sylwia Zajączkowska-Jakimiak - The Role of Human Capital in Technological Knowledge Transfer Through Foreign Investment

Access to global knowledge resources is indispensable for improvement of competitiveness of the economy. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the channels through which international diffusion of technological knowledge takes place. Nevertheless, FDI do not always involve transfer of technological knowledge. There is a feedback effect between absorption capacity between the FDI level and saturation with knowledge. Human capital is a key factor here. On the one hand, FDI inflow depends on access to strategic assets in the host country, especially to human capital. On the other hand, the activities of transnational corporations, being the main carrier of FDI, may contribute to increased formation of strategic resources. The scale of advantages from knowledge transfer a FDI hosting economy can obtain grows with the level of its advancement. They depend mostly on an appropriate level of endowment with human capital and on involvement of enterprises and the economy in research and scientific activities.

The article provides an analysis of the economic situation of the Hotels and Restaurants (HORECA) sector. Within this analysis, on the basis of GUS data and own empirical research, indicators have been selected in order to describe the situation of enterprises in the entire sector including microcompanies. The analysis also takes into account internal variation within the section and the data have been disaggregated into specific groups of NACE activities. Statistical data analysis has been supplemented with results of empirical pilot research carried out in 2003 in two voivodships (Pomorskie and Podlaskie) differing from each other in terms of the level of economic development, including development of tourism. The study covered such issues as the number and structure of entities by section, sales revenues, investment activity, cost level indicators, employment and wages.

The part of the article illustrating results of empirical research is focused on presentation of opinions of entrepreneurs concerning their financial situation and prospects for changes on the Single European Market. Other problems have also been tackled, such as perception of barriers to development, conditions of market operation with special reference to the “hidden economy”, as well as factors of competitiveness. The analysis was also carried out in regional perspective.

Mirosław Moroz - Implementation of e-Business Solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises

The article proposes a model of e-business solutions implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises. The presented scheme of e-business solutions implementation for a small firm covers the stages of preparation for implementation, implementation itself, as well as operation of internet technologies.

The final part of the article is devoted to description of conditions for e-business solutions diffusion. Among the variables which determine dissemination of e-business we should mention organisational, sociological, technical and legal factors. The article also addresses the present situation in Poland in the context of the proposed e-business diffusion model.

Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski - Integration with the European Union and the Labour Market in Poland 

The article takes up a comparative analysis of labour markets in Poland and in the EU Member States, and presents the expected impact of EU membership on the Polish labour market. Poland’s accession to the EU comes in a period characterised by a difficult situation on the Polish labour market (high and sustained unemployment, obsolete structure of employment). EU membership should be used to support the national policy in the field of employment and unemployment. The impact of EU membership on situation on the Polish labour market depends on the time-span of the analysis. In a short-term perspective (two-three years) the effects of factors adversely affecting the labour market situation (trade deficit, accelerated structural change and re-allocation of labour force, implementation of technological progress and labour productivity growth) may dominate over the effects of factors acting towards improvement of the situation on that market (negative balance of foreign migrations, increased inflow of foreign direct investment, transfer of funds from the EU to Poland, programmes for improvement of labour force mobility). In the medium and long term the strength of impact of both groups of factors should be reversed, hence a favourable influence of accession on the labour market situation in Poland can be expected.