Vol. 4 No. 2 (2020)

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to present the next issue of the Research Papers in Economics and Finance published by the University of Economics and Business in Poznan, Poland. We have selected five articles from different parts of Europe.

This issue opens with a great paper, which received excellent reviews, written by Hubert Witczak, entitled “The systemic-praxeological approach to the methodology of primary scientific activity of the management science system”. According to the author, methodology is a subsystem of the core of primary scientific activity of Msc (the scientific methodology of management science) comprising the components of scientific practice focused around the scientific method (methods). Its objective domain extends beyond the cognitive function (C), encompassing value assignment (A), determination of post-diagnosis scientific action (R), decisions about scientific models (N) and implementation of scientific models (I) – CARNI system. The main factors defining and providing focus to the methodology system are scientific problems, aims and methods. From this perspective, according to the author, scientific reasoning and inference are not separate scientific methods, but rather necessary ingredients of any scientific method, and therefore – scientific methodology. The relationship between the scientific methodology of management science (Msc) and practice is threefold: 1) MSc follows practice; 2) MSc precedes practice; 3) mixed.

The second paper entitled “International mobility of students in modern conditions of transformation in the global market of services (regional aspect)” has been written by two authors: Olena Bulatova and Оleg Zaikovsky from the Mariupol State University in Ukraine. In this paper the authors identify the waves and substantiate the factors of international student mobility in the context of the transformation of the global market of educational services. In the development of international student mobility, three main waves have been identified, the development of which is due to geopolitical and geoeconomic factors of influence. With the development of international student mobility, the institutional drivers of this process have been transformed from research and finance to innovation. The leaders in attracting foreign students are highly developed countries. The change in the number of foreign students is unequal among the leading countries. The main directions of foreign student flows are formed from China. Changes in American migration policy, as well as Brexit have significantly affected the reduction of foreign students in the leading countries – the United States and the United Kingdom.

The next paper concerns “The Belt and Road Initiative as a tool for promoting EU-China trade. Poland’s case”. This paper has been written by Alina Szypulewska-Porczyńska from the Warsaw School of Economics, Poland. The author examined the nature of the main barriers affecting mutual trade and the composition of Poland-China trade. According to the author, in the light of the significant increase in non-tariff barriers on EU manufacturing products exported to China and the railway transport infrastructure performance in Poland, priority should be given to efforts to reduce trade barriers. The BRI could become an effective tool for improving the business environment for EU exporters. By contrast, the BRI project is more suitable for China and the EU as a whole than for Poland in terms of commodity structure of bilateral trade.

The fourth paper has been created by three authors: Volodymyr Tkachenko from The London Academy of Science and Business, England, Iryna Tkachenko from the Academy of the State Penitentiary Service, Ukraine and Polina Puzyrova from the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design, Ukraine. It concerns “Fundamentals of financial and economic security management of Ukrainian enterprises”. The financial and economic security of an enterprise is a complex system that includes a certain set of internal characteristics aimed to ensure the efficiency of corporate resources use in each direction of activity. According to the authors, the content and structure of the financial and economic security system depend on the specifics and nature of the activity of the enterprise, its potential, the markets that it operates, as well as its management. The financial and economic security system of an enterprise must be comprehensive and independent from similar systems of economic entities.

The whole issue ends with a great paper entitled “Examining market concentration levels of available global financial commodity products” which has been written by Subhakara Valluri from the Institute of Economics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland. The author found disparities in the commodity product offerings in various financial markets across the world along with their market concentration levels. The study showed that the ratio of commodity products available in exchanges is not consistent across various regions of the world. During the analysed period between 2012 and 2016, Asia noted tremendous growth in terms of commodity contracts trade volume, followed by Europe. North America showed moderate constant growth as the market had been well-developed before Asia and Europe. Although Africa and Turkey showed a good growth rate, still these countries need further development in order to catch up with the total number of traded contracts. Surprisingly, Latin America depicted a negative growth rate.

Yours faithfully,

dr hab. Piotr Lis, prof. UEP – Editor in Chief