The research reported here aims to investigate the pro-environmental behavior of respondents in the context of the concept of homo socio-oeconomicus. The main research question addressed in this paper considers the pro-environmental behavior of Generation Z representatives, due to the fact that this age group is believed to display different behavior patterns. In order to identify the differences in the pro-environmental behaviors of Generation Z, the results obtained from this group have been confronted with declarations of respondents from an older group (aged 25 to 65). It is worth noting that in the research on pro-environmental behavior of households in Poland conducted so far, Generation Z has not been taken into consideration as a separate demographic, so this study aims to make a contribution to the existing research gap. The data on the surveyed population were obtained through a standardized research questionnaire. The survey was carried out using the internet surveying technique—computer-assisted web interview (CAWI). This paper uses descriptive, tabular and graphic methods to analyze and present the collected materials. The basic measures of descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the dataset, i.e., mean, median, mode, Pearson chi-square test and Mann–Whitney U test. The conducted research has shown that the representatives of Generation Z are less engaged in pro-environmental behavior than people from the older age group. Their pro-environmental actions mainly included turning off lights when leaving a room and choosing public transportation as the basic means of transport. For the whole surveyed sample, the most highly rated pro-environmental behaviors included those imposed by legal regulations and those whose implementation brings financial benefits in the form of lower maintenance costs. The main motivating and demotivating factors determining pro-environmental behavior were predominantly economic in nature.

The European Union dairy sector plays a significant role in supplying dairy products to consumers all over the world. The aim of this study was to examine changes in the return on equity as one of the main financial indicators determining the economic viability of EU dairy farms in the years 2004–2020. The analysis based on the DuPont model was used to determine the main drivers of return on equity in dairy farms from the five studied EU countries. The research results show that (1) the lowest return on equity in the years 2004–2020 was calculated for average farms from the Netherlands, and the reason for this phenomenon was the use of significant assets in the production, mainly resources that are very expensive in the Netherlands—land and human labor; (2) the highest return on equity was characteristic of dairy farms from France, and the factor strongly determining the favorable value of this ratio was the high degree of financing assets with low-interest loans and credits; (3) despite the lowest production potential and small scale of milk production, average Polish farms in the years 2004–2020 were characterized by a relatively high return on equity, which ranged from 4.97% to 14.9%.

The aim of this research was to examine whether trust influences the functioning of various forms of collective entrepreneurship in rural areas. The study focused on organizations which are most common in rural Poland: agricultural producer organizations, rural women’s circles, and local action groups. Hence, the survey sample included people engaged in these types of collective entrepreneurship. Data collection was based on a standardized questionnaire distributed online utilizing the computer-assisted web interviewing method. The statistical analysis of the empirical material obtained from 132 respondents involved Pearson and Spearman correlation and principal component analysis. The conducted research shows (1) the superior role of personal trust over institutional trust in the emergence and functioning of the studied forms of collective entrepreneurship in rural areas, (2) the greater importance of social than economic factors determining the functioning of rural collective entrepreneurship, (3) the positive impact of generalized trust on trust placed in the forms of entrepreneurship covered by the analysis, (4) the increase in trust over time of cooperation, and (5) the impact of trust on the functioning of collective entrepreneurship, in both the economic and the social dimensions, with a slight advantage of the latter. By focusing on trust, this article contributes to the literature on the role of trust in developing collective entrepreneurship in rural areas. The authors point out that this article only opens the space for a discussion on trust in the concept of the economics of trust.

This study aims to present changes in the competitive positions of the dairy farms from EU countries with the highest milk production in 2020. The assessment was based on data from the FADN system for the years 2014–2021 and covered average and large dairy farms from five EU countries: Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy, and Poland. To assess the competitive positions of dairy farms from the selected EU countries, we developed the Synthetic Measure of Competitive Position based on the resource-based theory of enterprises. The conducted research showed that: (1) average dairy farms in Poland had the lowest production potential resulting from their possessed resources. (2) The highest value of the Synthetic Measure of Competitive Position for 2014–2021 was achieved by average dairy farms from Germany and their position in the ranking strengthened throughout the analyzed period. (3) The same analysis conducted on the group of large dairy farms showed that the competitive position, measured with the Synthetic Measure of Competitive Position, was the highest in the case of Polish dairy farms.

This study aims to identify the conditions for the development of social farming in the province of Mazovia, and to present the opportunities and barriers to the establishment of care farms in Poland. The study involved the method of desk-based literature review and the method of descriptive statistics. The paper provides an analysis of various forms of social farming functioning in the European Union and discusses the possible directions of care farming development depending on the degree of involvement of various institutions. In addition, the study focuses on the most important conditions for the development of care farms in the province of Mazovia, which include the dichotomy of socio-economic development, the spatial polarization of demographic processes and the ageing population. In 2013, the ageing index (the number of persons aged 65+ per 1,000 children aged 0-14) for the province of Mazovia was 993, however, it is expected that in 2035 it will be 1,758, and in 2050 it will reach 2,382. In 2050, the proportion of people aged 65+ in the population of Poland will reach 32.7%. Consequently, the demand for certain services e.g. in the field of health care and social care will be increasing. Unfavourable demographic processes like depopulation and undesirable processes affecting the age structure will mainly affect districts located in the peripheral areas of the province. Even though, currently there are not any care farms operating in Mazovia, there seems to be a great interest in this form of economic activity.

Principles of the experience economy in designing an agritourism product | Anna Sieczko, Anna J. Parzonko, Wioletta Bienkowska-Gołasa | Agricultural Journals