Preface
Dear Reader,
We present you with the 27th edition of the “Journal of Management and Financial Sciences”. We hope that its content will make a valid contribution to the development of economic thought and foster a better understanding of complex issues discussed in it.
Paper by Anna Dąbrowska, Mirosława Janoś-Kresło and Małgorzata Radziukiewicz “Polish Consumer on the Market of Fair Trade Products” discusses selected results of empirical studies conducted in 2013 within the framework of research project Polish Market of Fair Trade Products financed from the NCN funds, concerning
the Fair Trade idea and Polish consumer behaviour in the market of Fair Trade products. They demonstrated that Fair Trade idea is not a subject of interest to wider circles of Polish consumers.
Next paper “Role of Virtual Platform Operators in Transforming Consumer Goods Market” by Wojciech Paprocki discusses various business models in analogue and digital economies and the impact of their dissemination upon market changes. It describes the entering of the market and fostering the position of e-commerce leaders, with Amazon.com playing an increasingly prominent role. The Author highlights potential effects of a dominant market position of such an operator.
The aim of the next article “Issues Related to the Loans Action in the Opinions of the Customers and the Employees of a Commercial bank – United Bank S. C. in Ethiopia” by Piotr Feliks Borowski, Sufa Gemechu Balcha and Mahteme Girma is to investigate the cooperation between United Bank and firms in the loans field. The value of the research stems from the information gained from direct access to real cases from bank activities and from conducted interviews with both sides involved in the loan process. Direct deep interview and questionnaire are the formal mechanisms for gathering sensitive information.
The authors of the next paper Krzysztof Borowski and Małgorzata Lukasik in their article “Analysis of Selected Seasonality Effects in the Following Metal Markets: Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium and Copper” test the hypothesis of monthly, the day-of-the week and weekend effects of the precious metal markets quoted on the London Metal Exchange for gold, silver, platinum and copper. Calculations presented in this paper indicate the absence of the monthly effect on gold, silver, platinum, copper markets but proved occurrence of monthly anomaly in the month of September on palladium market. In the analysed period day-of-the week effect has not been observed for any of the studied metal markets but the weekend effect has been registered on the gold and copper markets.
Paper “FDI Inflow to Special Economic Zones in Poland” by Tomasz Dorożyński, Janusz Świerkocki and Wojciech Urbaniak aims at examining whether location in a particular region could be a factor determining the inflow of foreign direct investment to the Special Economic Zones. The study uses statistical methods.
Their calculations have shown statistically significant positive relationships between FDI inflow to SEZs and coefficients that describe the attractiveness (collective and partial) and economic advancement of voivodships.
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