• Energy Research
• 8. Economic growth close
• University of Szczecin close

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly affected the economic situation of many countries, which is worth considering not only globally but also in the context of specific industries. An asset that is particularly sensitive to negative economic changes is goodwill. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of the pandemic on the quality of financial disclosures concerning goodwill in consolidated financial statements of groups of chosen strategic sectors in Poland. We investigated the implications of the pandemic on the frequency and scale of goodwill impairment in relation to 23 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange from the Energy, Mining, and Fuel Index. We identified the research gap in this area. For the purposes of this study, two research hypotheses were formulated: (H1) during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a slight improvement in the quality of goodwill disclosures in the consolidated financial statements of groups in the energy, fuel, and mining sectors; (H2) The COVID-19 pandemic caused a decrease in goodwill due to impairment losses in the consolidated financial statements of groups in the energy, fuel, and mining sectors. The hypotheses were verified on the basis of the above research sample. In order to verify the first hypothesis, we tested 81 consolidated financial statements for the years 2018–2021 based on a self-developed index of the quality of disclosed information. To verify the second hypothesis, we analyzed the frequency and scale of the estimated loss of goodwill during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the deterioration of the financial condition of the same research sample. The conducted research shows that the quality of disclosures regarding the goodwill in the examined sample has changed slightly. Contrary to our expectations, the pandemic did not materially reduce the value of goodwill. This means that the first hypothesis was verified positively, while the second hypothesis had to be rejected.

Energy and climate policies play an increasingly important role in the world in the era of climate change and rising energy prices. More often, the importance of the development of the energy sector and climate protection is seen from the point of view of the expenditures that will need to be absorbed in the economy, with the potential for increased energy prices. However, it should be remembered that this is also related to the issue of fuel poverty and the inability to meet basic energy needs by parts of society. The aim of the paper is to assess the importance of macroeconomic policy instruments in reducing fuel poverty, using Poland as an example. It will be examined whether and how the government influenced this phenomenon (directly or indirectly), through which instruments, and which instruments (fiscal, monetary or energy-climate policy) played the most important role in shaping the scale of fuel poverty in Poland, with an emphasis on the role of monetary and fiscal policy instruments. The analysis covered the period from 2004 to mid-2021. The results of the research showed that in Poland there is a lack of policy directly aimed at reducing fuel poverty, and the government affects the scale of fuel poverty indirectly mainly through macroeconomic policy instruments, i.e., fiscal and monetary policy instruments. The main and most effective instruments for reducing fuel poverty in Poland are social transfers. Other instruments that have a statistically significant impact on this poverty rate are the level of tax burdens and short-term interest rates. The analysis also revealed some opportunities for effective fuel poverty reduction policies. It was proven that in addition to fiscal policy, monetary policy, which would stimulate a decrease in short-term interest rates, is also an effective way to reduce the fuel poverty rate in Poland.

The business model is understood as a way of generating revenue and creating value. This article aimed to define the framework and detailed characteristics of the business model in corporate reporting in the energy sector. The study also addressed the issue of value creation and examined the correlation between reporting information about the business model and the value of the enterprise, calculated using selected accounting measures. The research was conducted in 2021 on all listed companies in the energy sector included in the WIG20 index in 2019–2020. The research methodologies included critical analysis of the literature, analysis of the content of corporate publications, comparative analysis, analysis of phenomena and synthesis of results, Spearman’s rank correlations, and graphical data presentation. The originality of our research concerns directing attention to the disclosure and reporting of information about the business model in corporate reports in the energy sector in Poland. This is the first such study in Poland conducted on companies in the energy sector; therefore, it is treated by the authors as a pilot study. The results show that companies in the energy sector included in the WIG20 index do not disclose information about their business models in reports and the structure of published reports is very diverse, which makes it even more difficult to compare financial and non-financial data. Enterprises in the energy sector disclose financial and non-financial information in financial statements and the reports of the management board on the activities of the company and the capital group. The financial information disclosed by the companies most often included financial and productive capital. Energy companies are reluctant to disclose information about by-products and waste.

Innovation is a very important attribute of energy companies. Its level largely depends on employees’ attitudes and behaviours, which are determined on the one hand by individual factors (e.g., psychological contract) and on the other hand by organisational factors (e.g., human resources (HR) practices). The aim of this article is to identify the relationship between pro-innovative HR practices, psychological contract and employee attitudes—commitment and job satisfaction. The research was conducted in a company which is one of the leading Polish electricity suppliers. Data were collected using a proprietary survey questionnaire. The research involved 402 HR professionals responsible for shaping and implementing pro-innovative HR practices in the company. Hypotheses were tested using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM). The results indicate the existence of a positive relationship between pro-innovative HR practices, psychological contract and employee commitment and satisfaction. Furthermore, they indicate that organisations wishing to increase employee commitment and job satisfaction should strengthen and implement existing psychological contracts. One way to do this is to invest in pro-innovative HR practices, such as competence development, knowledge sharing or creativity-based candidate selection, as they have been shown to be good moderators of these relationships. The obtained results may be of particular importance for HR management specialists and managers responsible for shaping desired attitudes and behaviours of employees.

The increasing role of emerging technologies, such as big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive technologies, cloud computing, and mobile technologies, is essential to the business process manager profession’s sustainable development. Nevertheless, these technologies could involve new challenges in labor markets. The era of intelligent business process management (BPM) has begun, but how does it look in real labor markets? This paper examines the hypothesis that the transformation of the business process manager profession has been caused by certain determinants that involve the need for an improvement in BPM skills. The main contribution is a model of the dimensions of the impact of digital technologies on business process management supplemented with skills that influence the business process manager profession. The paper fills the gap in research on perspectives of the impact of digital technologies on business process management, considering both a literature analysis and labor market research. The purpose of the literature review was to identify the core dimensions that drive the use of emerging technologies in business process management. The labor market study was conducted in order to analyze the current demand for core skills of business process managers in the Polish labor market with a particular emphasis on the intelligent BPM concept. Additionally, to study the determinants that slow down the iBPM concept’s development, the digital intensity level of the enterprises and public administration units in Poland was studied. Finally, a fuzzy cognitive map presenting the core determinants of the business process manager profession’s transformation is described.

Following the environmental concerns such as global warming, climate change, and environmental degradation, scholars and policymakers discovered energy utilization as the key factor in these issues. Therefore, economies are paying more attention to green finance and eco-innovation to reduce energy usage and enhance energy efficiency. The prime objective of this study is to explore whether the mentioned variables exhibit any influence on the energy efficiency target achievement. In this sense, the current study explores the association of green finance and eco-innovation with energy intensity in the group of seven economies from 1990 to 2020. By using panel data approaches, this study employs diagnostic tests that confirm the heterogeneous slopes and the existence of panel cross-section dependence. Also, the cointegration tests validate the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between the variables. Based on the asymmetric distribution of the data, this study employs the method of moments quantile regression. The empirical results reveal that green finance and eco-innovation significantly reduce energy intensity across the selected quantiles. Control variables such as urban growth and trade openness also adversely affect energy intensity. However, economic growth is the only significant factor that enhances energy intensity. The results are robust as validated by the panel quantile regression and the Granger panel heterogenous causality test. Based on the findings, this study recommends that green finance be promoted and environmental-related technology innovation be encouraged to achieve the goal of energy efficiency in developed economies. This study also provides additional policies appropriate for environmental recovery.

The aim of this analysis is to identify the possibility of treating eco-innovation in micro and small enterprises as a factor influencing the energy efficiency of the economy. In order to obtain an answer to such a research question, quantitative research was carried out among Polish enterprises from the SME sector (N = 400). Accordingly, the CATI technique was applied. The selection of enterprises was random and took place in the non-returnable drawing process. The criterion for selecting the sample was the size of enterprises, but in order to ensure the possibility of drawing conclusions based on a sufficiently large research sample, its structure (300 micro and 100 small enterprises) assumed the study of small enterprises in a proportion greater than their actual share in the population of enterprises. As a result of this research, the existence of a relationship between the improvement of the company’s competitive position and its activity in the field of eco-innovation implementation was confirmed. It is shown that the behavior and attitudes of entrepreneurs largely determine the very decisions regarding the use of specific types of eco-innovation, as well as the areas in which they brought about changes influencing the improvement of the competitive position of the surveyed companies. Differences in these decisions can be observed in micro and small companies. This article justifies the notion that the impact of the scale of micro and small companies is important in shaping the energy efficiency of the economy.

Nowadays, sustainability is one of the strategic goals of smart cities. They are the essential solution to creating the sustainable future. On the other hand, the smart city is intended to deal with the problems of energy management. This paper examines the influence of the smart sustainable cities concept on energy management from the labor market perspective. The paper fulfills the research gap about energy manager profession transformation considering smart sustainable city concept. The aim of the paper is to create an up-to-date holistic energy manager skill model with a focus on emerging technologies. The skill model reflects the synergy of two methodological approaches: the theoretical and practical approaches. Descriptive statistics are used to present the labor market research results. It is concluded that the core elements of the smart sustainable city concept have an impact on energy management are sustainability and big data. The labor market research also draws differences in the amount and structure of demand on energy manager skills by countries, but at the same time similar skills requirements are found. The skill model of the energy manager profession is built around several main groups associated with specific knowledge, social skills, and behavior skills. The findings of the present research can contribute to knowledge and practice by applying it in the process of developing energy manager competency models in commercial and non-commercial enterprises as well as in education programs and training courses.

The main goal of the paper is to analyze the selected macroeconomic, trade-related and social-related indicators concerning Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey (collectively named as MINT) from 2000 till 2017, especially in comparison with BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The outcomes are to be the confirmation basis, if the MINTs could play more important role in the global economy in the near future. Conducted statistical data and report based research has proved that there is no convincing evidence of such process, especially taking into consideration the resent economic and political issues in Mexico and Turkey.