Success can be interpreted and assessed in various ways. This article proposes evaluating university success through performance and efficiency indicators, inspired by the Positioning School of Strategy and New Public Management. This approach faces challenges, such as limited economic data for Polish public universities. The article aimed to identify factors and success levels for public universities in the higher education sector. The research question, “What are the measures and levels of success of public universities?”, was divided into three specific inquiries: key success factors, performance and efficiency indicators, and success levels for selected Polish public universities. The study involved analysing international and Polish university rankings, interviewing 53 public university experts in Poland, and examining efficiency indicators for 10 selected public universities. Critical success factors (research excellence, education excellence, international cooperation) and critical performance indicators were identified. Efficiency indicators demonstrated the good financial condition of selected institutions. Critical success factors and critical performance indicators were defined, and performance and efficiency measures were used to assess the success of Polish public higher education institutions. The authors acknowledge the need for parametric and non-parametric methods to fully evaluate success. The proposed performance-oriented measurement tool can assist public university leaders in making strategic decisions.

Klaster gospodarczy to geograficzne skupisko głównie małych i średnich przedsiębiorstw, któremu towarzyszy konkurencja, zaufanie i kooperacja, a dany sektor wspierają jednostki naukowo-badawcze oraz administracja. W artykule omówiono klastry gospodarcze w ośmiu nowych państwach członkowskich UE z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Polski. Zwrócono uwagę na znaczenie klastrów gospodarczych jako narzędzia zdolnego przyciągnąć i zintegrować bezpośrednie inwestycje zagraniczne. Na podstawie wiarygodnych źródeł dokonano zestawienia inicjatyw klastrowych, z podziałem na województwa, na terenie prawie całej Polski.

Znaczenie bezpośrednich inwestycji zagranicznych dla rynku pracy województw: lubelskiego oraz podkarpackiego

The aim of the paper is to compare the process of regional convergence in Poland and Ukraine, with special regard to its direction and dynamics. Regional convergence is widely discussed in the literature, and has gained in importance in the context of European integration, especially in the past decade. Less attention is devoted to the process of convergence of regions of European states which are not associated with the European Union. The authors attempt to fill this gap, in particular to the extent to which they devote attention to the processes of regional convergence in Ukraine. In the study the authors put forward the hypotheses that the processes of regional convergence in Poland and in Ukraine occur in entirely different economic conditions, and therefore their direction and dynamics differ significantly. The target period of the analysis covered the years 2004–2013, while the scope of this research was extended into the 1990s and described in the section of the article which presents the specifics of economic growth and changes in the three-sector structures, providing the context for regional convergence in comparable countries.

The problem of movement is very important in the context of logistic management, which has been gaining importance in recent years with the increasing phenomenon of people moving to large urban agglomerations. The article presents the transport preferences of employees and students the Lublin University of Technology. IT tools were used for the analysis, such as the Analysis ToolPak add-on and PowerMap in Microsoft Excel.

Examining today's global economy provides examples that today's startup ecosystems are an important tool to support the development of an innovative knowledge-based economy. The economic transformation we are witnessing makes us realize that in the 5.0 era efficiency and productivity will not suffice. We need innovative businesses that use cutting-edge technology to deliver prosperity beyond employment and whose priorities are human-centered and sustainable. Creating the right conditions for the development of startup entrepreneurship is largely dependent on properly coordinated actions at state and regional levels. For Poland, a manifestation of the government's special commitment to fostering innovative enterprises was the establishment of startup platforms in five of the least developed regions of Poland in 2019. Startup platforms, launched with the support of EU funds, were created by innovation centers, universities, large and medium-sized enterprises, capital funds, and business environment institutions. The aim of this paper is to attempt to assess the functioning of selected startup platforms operating in Eastern Poland by answering the question of how the support provided by such platforms affects the companies using them. Among other things, the chapter presents the results of a survey conducted among startups using the support of two regional platforms – Unicorn from Lublin and Eastern Business Accelerator from Pulawy – in the first quarter of 2021.