Sustainable competitiveness is a relatively new concept, but rising in importance in face of external shocks that have impacted the economy in the last years, like COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine or the climate changes and related energy crisis. Considering this, resilience to crisis has become one of the key drivers of a strong competitive position. These new tendencies determine the research aim of the monograph, which is to identify the competitive position of the Polish economy, taking into account the foremost components of sustainable competitiveness. The specific objectives of the monograph are to: present the theoretical background of the issue of international competitiveness in a time of crisis, with a particular focus on the significance of sustainable competitiveness and the issue of resilience and vulnerability to crises; define Poland’s competitive position, in particular to assess the development of individual factors of competitiveness, such as land and water resources, investment, labour, innovation and technological development, and institutions; identify the international competitive position of Poland compared with other European Union member states, taking into account income competitiveness, foreign trade competitiveness, and sustainable competitiveness (including its environmental and social components).

Pandemia COVID-19 i podjęte przez rządy i organizacje międzynarodowe decyzje i działania w diametralny sposób zmieniły warunki konkurowania w gospodarce światowej. Jedną z kluczowych cech umożliwiających osiągnięcie wysokiej pozycji konkurencyjnej stała się odporność (resiliance) na kryzys, wzrosło również znaczenie zrównoważonego wymiaru konkurencyjności. Te nowe tendencje wyznaczają główny cel badania, którym jest wyznaczenie pozycji konkurencyjnej polskiej gospodarki w dobie pandemii COVID-19, z uwzględnieniem najważniejszych elementów składających się na konkurencyjność zrównoważoną. Cele szczegółowe to: przedstawienie podstaw teoretycznych zagadnienia konkurencyjności międzynarodowej w dobie kryzysu, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem znaczenia konkurencyjności zrównoważonej i zagadnienia odporności (resiliance) i podatności (vulnerability) na kryzysy, określenie zdolności konkurencyjnej Polski, w szczególności ocenę stanu rozwoju poszczególnych czynników konkurencyjności, takich jak: zasoby ziemi i wody, inwestycje, siła robocza, innowacje i rozwój technologiczny oraz instytucje, wyznaczenie międzynarodowej pozycji konkurencyjnej Polski na tle innych państw członkowskich Unii Europejskiej, z uwzględnieniem konkurencyjności dochodowej, konkurencyjności w handlu zagranicznym oraz konkurencyjności zrównoważonej (uwzględniającej elementy środowiskowe i społeczne).

The aim of the article is to present the possibilities that qualitative classifications of industries and goods introduce to the analysis of structural changes in the economy, as well as to assess changes in the international competitiveness of Polish merchandise trade in the long term. The article presents a review of the literature and the results of authors’ own research on the structure of Polish merchandise trade. The study uses Lall’s classification of goods which is relatively innovative and rarely used in the existing literature. By using this classification and the analysis of revealed comparative advantages (RCA) we also managed to assess the competitiveness of Polish exports. The research shows that since Poland’s accession to the European Union, the international competitiveness of Polish trade in terms of its technological level has changed only slightly. After the growth in the first years of Poland’s EU membership, the share of high technology products in the export structure stagnated in the 2010s and was still lower than that of medium or low technology products. Throughout the researched period, the RCA for high-tech products remained on the “foreign” side.

Purpose – The purpose of the article is to examine if over the last 25 years the technology intensity of China’s export of goods has improved along with the increase of its value and, therefore, if the share of technology-intensive goods in the structure of Chinese export of goods has increased. Research method – The article reviews the literature and conducts empirical research on the structure of export of goods from China in the years 1995–2019 using the Lall classification and foreign value added statistics. Results – In the years 1995–2019 technological intensity of Chinese export of goods improved. High technology products have become the main export category. However, China relies – to a large extent – on the imported intermediate goods in its production of medium and high technology products, which confirms the higher share of foreign value added in the export of medium and high technology goods than in total export. This indicates that the level of technology intensity of Chinese export of goods is lower than it would appear from the physical structure of export according to the Lall classification. Originality /value /implications /recommendations – The physical structure of China’s export was analysed using the Lall classification and statistics on the content of foreign value added in export, which are relatively innovative and not widely used in Polish literature.