The purpose of the article is to determine the relationship between the level of competitiveness of resources and the financial performance of social cooperatives. In the preliminary analysis, based on the results of survey, we use the data provided by 57 respondents. For in-depth analysis we involve the data from the EMIS Intelligence database of 20 Polish social cooperatives. Using the Spearman's rank correlation we investigate the relationship between the rating of the level of competitiveness of tangible (physical, technological, financial) and intangible (human, relational, knowledge) resources and the cooperatives' financial performance, i.e. the rating of profitability and revenues. Initially, the research results proved that there are average relationships between the rating of profitability and the rating of competitiveness of tangible (0.38) and intangible (0.42) resources. However in the in-depth analysis, based on objective data, even a weak correlation between either tangible or intangible resources and the revenues was not found. The article also discusses the obtained results along with identifying the likely causes of this situation.

Application of new and contemporary information and communication technologies for rural and agricultural development has been advancing quite rapidly over the last decade. Modern agriculture is a promising pathway to increase the sustainability of farming by increasing farm profitability, reducing manual labour, and reducing environmental impact. The paper discusses an approach to modernity and its influence on profitability in agricultural cooperatives in Poland. Precisely, its purpose is to investigate the links between the income and the level of value and modernity of machinery and equipment, as well as the propensity to monitor and implement technological innovations in Polish agricultural cooperatives. The analysis is based on data collected by survey method from 28 APC operating in the opolskie voivodshipthe south-western region of Poland. It reveals a moderate willingness of Polish cooperatives to invest in agricultural machinery and equipment and to monitor and implement technological innovations. Simultaneously, it shows that the cooperative income does not depend on this willingness or on the cooperative members' opinion about modernity of machines used by them. However, it proves the existence of high positive correlation between the value of machinery and equipment and the income in cooperatives.

Polish credit unions have been operating on the Polish financial market for nearly twenty five years and have been providing services to nearly two million of their members, which may be an indicative of their competitiveness. The analysis of their situation points out that the market is heterogeneous and diversed by the unions' size, number of members as well as the quality of their resources. Due to the fact that environmental factors for most Polish credit unions are similar, it is necessary to search for reasons of differences in the achieved competitive position within these organizations. In this context, the question arises about the factors that cause some credit unions to achieve significantly better competitive positions than others. A literature review suggests that the intangible resources might have an influence on the achieved competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to empirically verify the relationship between intangible assets and the competitive position achieved by Polish credit unions. The author conducted a study in which she examined whether the intangible resources of credit unions could differentiate them in terms of achieved competitive position. The article is a presentation of the results of research in this area.

Cooperatives are relevant entities of socio-economic country development. In agricultural sector they play a significant role. However, there can be observed clear differences in market position between cooperatives from different countries. The objective of this paper was to investigate the differences in financial standing between Polish and Czech agricultural cooperatives. The analysis consisted of comparison of the following indicators: total assets, fixed assets, total labilities, net profit, total revenues and ROE. The Emis Intelligence Emerging Markets Information Service was used the obtain the data from approximately 200 Polish and 80 Czech agricultural production cooperatives (APCs). The results of the U-Mann-Whitney test confirmed the existence of statistically significant differences between Polish and Czech cooperatives. In considered period (2013)(2014)(2015)(2016), total and fixed assets, total liabilities, net profit, as well as total revenues were higher in Czech cooperatives, while ROE was lower. The findings provoked the authors to formulate five propositions of possible reasons of this phenomenon for further analyses.