Preface
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to present you with the 36th edition of the Journal of Management and Financial Sciences. This edition is devoted to issues related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, public finance and foreign direct investments.
The articles published in the current issue were written by representatives of leading academic centres from Poland and Europe. They constitute the result of theoretical studies deeply embedded in empirical studies of the Polish, European and world economy.
In the first article Wojciech Paprocki discusses an important topic concerning offering support to man in his/her intellectual effort, which is a new phenomenon typical of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Today, new technologies are deployed in the cognitive process. According to the author, only a human being – seeking his or her position in the aquarium carved in stone – is able to make references to the axiological system and shape his/her own ethical and altruistic attitudes. By exhibiting individual wisdom, man can use available knowledge
for his or her own benefit and this of the community.
The aim of the article by Jolanta Maria Ciak is to present a brief overview of national and supranational fiscal rules and reference to the existing situation in the public finance in Poland. The article presents the analysis of the source literature, legal acts and statistical data.
Carsten Hilgenfeld, Nina Vojdani, Frank Heymann, Evamarie Wiessner, Bettina Kutschera and Chris Bünger claim that for the international exchange of goods, an exact estimated time of arrival, especially in case of delays, is of great importance. Using global data of the automatic identification system a grid node is generated. The sum of such nodes and their connections form a routing graph. As an example, with one node of in total more than 100,000 nodes it is described how this point gets the maximum vessel length and draft assigned.
The purpose of the paper by Marzenna Dębowska-Mróz, Ewa Ferensztajn-Galardos, Renata Krajewska and Andrzej Rogowski is to present the results of their research carried out as part of the project entitled Strategy for urban development of the Radom Functional Area.

These studies concerned the recognition of transport behaviours and preferences of users commuting in Radom. The research was carried out in traffic generators performing the most important urban functions and defining the specificity of socio-economic processes in Radom.
The goal of the article by Michał Suchanek is to assess whether the choice of transport mode used when commuting is connected with other types of proactive behaviour of the citizens. In particular, the author wishes to determine if people choosing a car as their mode of transport tend to be generally less active than people choosing public transport or active commuting.
The next article by Wojciech Gonet and Hanna Wolska concerns the analysis of the consequences of making further legal transactions with entities which should not be disclosed in public registers due to the invalidity of legal transactions on the basis of which the entry in the public register has been made.
In the next article, Tomasz Dorożyński, Bogusława Dobrowolska and Aneta Kuna-Marszałek focus on the institutional aspects and their role in attracting foreign direct investment. Hence, the objective of the paper is to assess institutional quality in 17 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and to examine the relationship between the quality of institutions measured with the synthetic index of institutional quality and foreign direct investment inflow.
Rafał Grabowski, in his paper written based on surveys published in the foreign subject-matter literature, discusses students’ perception of the importance of competencies and skills needed in the accounting profession. Generally speaking, two main conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. Firstly, the comparison of the subject-matter literature is difficult because the importance of skills is tested against a wide variety of methods plus the scope and type of skills included in these studies vary often to a substantial degree. Secondly, despite the above-mentioned limitations, surveys suggest that students realise that nowadays technical
bookkeeping skills are not enough to work in accounting.
We hope that the content will make a valid contribution to the development of economic thought and contribute to a deeper understanding of complex issues discussed in it. We wish you a pleasant reading.
Ryszard Bartkowiak,
Chairman of the Scientific Council and Dean of the Faculty
Michał Matusewicz,
Vice-Chairman of the Scientific Council and Vice-Dean of the Faculty