The research objective was to present the significance of the coronavirus pandemic in the context of starting a business, by business students. The empirical basis was fabricated upon the results of a survey conducted at the Poznań University of Economics and Business. The research was dynamic and conducted in two stages: in February 2020 (just before the first lockdown in Poland) wherein 243 students were surveyed and in March 2021 (a year after the first lockdown), in which 270 students were surveyed. The respondents were asked, among other issues, to describe their professional experience, as well as perspectives and plans concerning setting up and managing their own company. In addition, factor analysis was used to deepen the findings. The pandemic has significantly influenced students’ professional plans, including, above all, an increased desire to start their own business. In addition, of particular importance for students at the beginning of their professional career is the flexibility and ease of adaptation to changing conditions in the business environment. The research was limited because it was based only on students of Poznań University of Economics and Business. Extending the research to other social groups such as students of other universities, the unemployed, graduates of technical / vocational schools, economically active people, elderly people, etc. would allow to explore the reasons and conditions for setting up a business. The article shows how students’ perspectives and attitudes towards setting up their own businesses have changed. The results of the research may be of particular interest to entities such as public administration, local governments, labour offices and all institutions which are focused on education and career shaping.

The aim of the research is to analyse selected attitudes related to entrepreneurship and to present their significance assessment according to students of economic faculties. The empirical basis is built upon the results of the research conducted in March 2021 on a group of 270 students of the Poznań University of Economics and Business. As part of the questionnaire and using the 5-point Likert scale, the respondents assessed various features, skills and abilities that, according to the respondents, are key in the context of an entrepreneurial attitude. In addition to the general statistical analysis of the response, a factor analysis was also carried out that aims to reduce the number of variables to a few, the most important ones that highly describe the analysed problem. Based on the research conducted, it can be concluded that from the students’ perspective, the entrepreneurial attitude profile consists of a combination of personality types such as precursor, creator, rival, individualist, risk-taker. The research was limited because it was based on one academic centre (Poznań University of Economics and Business). Extending the research to other areas of higher education (e.g. law, medicine, psychology, computer science, mechanics) would allow the conclusion to be drawn on a wider scale and provide more insight into the nature of the phenomenon. The value of this study lies in the fact that it presents a coherent framework to explain the diverse characteristics of entrepreneurial attitudes in the business school environment.

Kompetencje przedsiębiorstw jako kombinacje zdolności, umiejętności, wiedzy oraz technologii umożliwiają tworzenie unikatowych i trudnych do skopiowania narzędzi, dzięki którym podmioty mogą rywalizować na rynku. Jednak ze względu na zmienny, dynamiczny charakter oraz możliwość ich skopiowania w długim okresie przez konkurentów muszą być stale rozwijane. Celem artykułu jest identyfikacja potrzeb w zakresie rozwoju kompetencji przedsiębiorstw. Badania empiryczne zostały przeprowadzone z wykorzystaniem metody badania ankietowego oraz wywiadu bezpośredniego na próbie 162 podmiotów zlokalizowanych w Polsce i funkcjonujących w jednym z sektorów przetwórstwa przemysłowego. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań, w ramach których przedsiębiorcy oceniali stopień potrzeby rozwoju poszczególnych kompetencji przedsiębiorstw. Uzyskany materiał empiryczny został poddany analizie czynnikowej umożliwiającej zredukowanie liczby zmiennych oraz wyodrębnienie czynników, które w istotny sposób tłumaczyły analizowany problem badawczy. Na podstawie wyników badań można stwierdzić, że przedsiębiorstwa przetwórstwa przemysłowego w pierwszej kolejności dostrzegają konieczność rozwoju kompetencji, które będą oddziaływać na wizerunek firmy zarówno w branży, jak i na rynku.

The purpose of this chapter is to present the traditional methods used in operational man-agement. The methods described include benchmarking, outsourcing, Just-In-Time, kaizen, Total Quality Management, MRP I, MRP II, and core competencies developed in various periods of the 20th century to improve the planning process and efficient management of the flow of resources, goods and information. Benchmarking consists of comparing the processes and practices used by one’s own enterprise with those used in enterprises considered to be the best in the analysed field. Outsourcing means separating from the organizational structure of the enterprise some functions performed by them independently and transferring them to other entities for execution. Just-In-Time is used to reduce work in progress and inventory levels in production and warehouse processes. Kaizen and TQM are based on the continuous diagnosis and improvement of all elements of the company. MRP methods are based on computer systems and clearly defined, inter alia, the volume of demand, order fulfilment time and provide other data relevant to the company’s logistics system and its operations. Core competencies are company-specific skills that are difficult to copy or win over to competitors. The authors focused primarily on the presentation of the main goals, principles of operation, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the selected methods in operational management.

Climate change, resource depletion, technical progress, growing consumer awareness and changing requirements causes companies to look for new production methods. They may concern various areas of the company’s activity, starting from product design, procurement organization, optimization of production processes, control of manufactured products and services, through improvement of work organization and reduction of production costs, and ending with the implementation of modern solutions based on digital technologies. The purpose of implementing new production methods is to improve labour mobility, optimization of the use of raw materials and resources, costs reduction, increase efficiency, productivity, etc. In the literature, there are many different types of methods that can be used by modern enterprises. It is practically impossible to present all methods in this study. The authors focused on the presentation of selected methods, which are characterized on the one hand by innovation and, on the other hand, by the possibility of implementation. Particular attention should be paid to methods focused on environmental aspects. This group presents basic information on environment-conscious manufacturing (ECM), life-cycle assessment (LCA) and waste management and recycling. These methods allow to implement the concept of sustainable development and are directly related to the 17 goals set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and adopted by UN member states. In the group of methods related to next generation production management, the focus was on Matrix shop floor control and cooperative manufacturing. Of particular importance is cooperative management, because cooperation in practice is considered as a specific resource and one of the most important factors of a competitive position. The next group of methods concerned production planning and control. Drum Buffer Rope (DBR) and theory of constraints (TOC) were discussed as part of it. From the company’s point of view, methods related to manufacturing processes are very important, including group technology (GT) and cellular manufacturing (CM). Another group focused on commercial aspects, including demand chain management (DCM) and competitive intelligence (CI). The chapter also presents methods related to auxiliary software support, advanced organizational manufacturing and focused on product design. In the first case, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was discussed, in the second, virtual enterprises (VE) and World Class Manufacturing (WCM) were presented, and in the third, the assumptions concerning the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and House of Quality (HOQ) method were shown. Additionally, Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Computer-Aided Process Planning (CAPP) are discussed within the framework of methods focused on cost and quality manufacturing.