The first part of this volume broadens the understanding of contemporary

industrial policy in local, regional, national, and international contexts. The

chapter by Wojnicka-Sycz (2020) undertakes one of the most important

challenges in RIS3, i.e. the evaluation of the impact of regional SS industries

on the development of Polish regions. Based on the spatial panel models for

2012–2017, she reveals the positive impact of SS industries’ employment

dynamics on regional GDP per capita. The chapter responds to the research

gap in a direct measurement of how SS areas affect regional development.

The results provide the rationale for policy-makers to pursue these strategies

further. The chapter contributes to regional New Industrial Policy by proving

the efficiency of SS in strengthening regional performance.

Factors and barriers to the development of smart mobility in mediumsized

Polish cities are the focus of the chapter by Kachniewska (2020).

The author applies a comprehensive set of methods to tackle this issue and

identifies the conditions for smart mobility, drawing primarily on expert

opinions. The results enable a natural generalization of the identified

determinants to the similar context of Polish towns, the more important that

the research on medium cities is much rarer than studies on metropolises.

This contribution belongs to the research streams of city governance and databased

services, which are closely connected to and dependent on industrial

digital transformation. Moreover, smart mobility addresses the objective of

environmental protection, one of the crucial targets of NIP.

Godlewska-Dzioboń (2020) performs international comparisons

between Central and Eastern European Countries in 2020–2018. Particularly,

she focuses on the sectoral transformation of the employment structure in

these countries. Besides the important observations of spatial dynamics in

sectoral structures, the chapter points to the increased importance of services

relative to manufacturing in contemporary structural transformations. Thus,

it justifies the expanded scope of New Industrial Policy that encompasses

not only industry, recently refreshed with 4.0 Revolution, but also services,

particularly the digital ones.

The chapter by Czech (2020) identifies the impact of global debt on the

national amounts outstanding of credit default swap contracts (CDS) in nonfinancial

institutions. She finds the dynamics of the CDS notional amounts

outstanding in response to global household indebtedness and total non-financial

sector indebtedness in domestic banks. This contribution brings valuable

practical insights about the core and dynamics of CDS and their usefulness

in alleviating risks in international exchange. We find this input particularly

relevant for industries and enterprises operating in global value chains.

Widera (2020) performs a spatial analysis of the induced population

potential of the communes in the Opolska region in 2000 and 2018. The

econometric analysis revealed both the own potential of the communes and

the interactions with neighboring communes to develop this potential. These

findings are important to theorize about the bottom-level sources of territorial

units’ potential, both internal and those stemming from spatial interactions. We

find these conclusions relevant to understand local-level origins of regional

transformations, as well as interdependencies among local territorial units.

The next two parts of this volume present micro-level and bottomup

contexts for industrial policy. Particularly, these are the insights from

management and business research and from the research on governing

various stakeholder interests and networks.

In the second part, based on management and business theory and

empirical evidence, the authors discuss human resource and technological

challenges faced by the contemporary industry.

Potoczek (2020) performs a bibliometric research to recognize the

advancement of the process approach in organizations. She finds the research

on process improvement as emerging. The major research community in that

area belongs to the IT field, while management researchers are still a minor

group. The author recommends the increased interest from the management

field as conducive to the 4.0 transformation of organizational processes. These

results provide policy-relevant input to the understanding of how academic

research tackles digital transformation in organizational processes.

The chapter by Igielski (2020) uses a survey among a sample of large

enterprise senior managers headquartered in Poland to check whether and how

they develop employee skills for the challenges of Industry 4.0. The results

are pessimistic since they reveal the lack of adaptive and developmental

actions in this regard. Nevertheless, there is also a positive sign, namely the

awareness of the challenges posed by the 4.0 revolution. Thus, the chapter is

valuable for the recommendations as to competence development in industrial

transition to the digital economy.

Flak (2020) presents an interesting test for the system of organizational

terms as to its usefulness in the practice of motivating people and in a dedicated

software. Based on a research experiment in real-life business settings, the

author proves the applicability of theory-driven organizational terms in

software applications supporting managers in their motivating functions. The

chapter contributes important observations as to the interrelations among

managerial and technological resources in motivating employees.

Sztorc (2020) investigates lean management tools at hotels in Poland,

based on a large sample of hotel representatives. The results are helpful in

understanding the types of lean management tools, as well as their major

targets in the researched organizations. The input of the study rests in filling

the research gap as to the particular tools of lean management applied in the

hotel industry to improve services and processes. The focus of this chapter

on a particular industry provides a relevant basis for further application and

upgrading of this service sector.

The chapter by Mazurkiewicz (2020) offers an assessment of the impact

of national culture on career orientation and career values among Polish and

Chinese students of economics. Surprisingly, the value system does not differ

much between the two national samples, despite the distinct characteristics

of the two national cultures, according to Hofstede’s method. Consequently,

the author assumes national culture as moderator of career values rather than

their determinant. These results provide a contribution to the understanding

of job motivations among future corporate employees, a critical determinant

of all industrial transitions.

Kowalik (2020) investigates the economic benefits perceived by student

participants of scientific projects. Based on the survey, the author reveals

students’ recognition of scientific projects as bringing economic effects. The

study offers practical implications for young people engaging in research

activities, as well as for research policy that might acknowledge additional

important outcomes, besides purely scientific objectives.

The third part discusses how governing networks and interests can ensure

sustainable and socially responsible industries and enterprises.

Sectoral and industrial collaborations are supposed to enhance industrial

convergence (EOCIC, 2019). In this vein, Lis (2020) focuses on collaborative

attitudes in clusters and technological parks. Cluster organizations are

established to rip the localization and agglomeration economies, as well

as synergies from cooperative links. Despite some history of operations,

the surveyed Polish cluster initiatives and technology parks still reveal low

development of enterprise cooperation. The author suggests self-evaluation

of management and participants of the researched organizations to understand

the accomplished level of collaboration and derive practical implications. This

contribution is important to understand the performance of some organizational

measures of industrial policy and their real input to industrial transformation.

The chapter by Kowalczyk (2020) investigates sociocultural conditions

of CSR-practices in the construction industry of selected European countries.

Based on a survey with a large convenience sample, the author confirms the

strength of stakeholder pressure on CSR practice as well as the mediating role

of company culture in this relationship. At the same time, country differences

were indicated as significant for CSR practice and worth further explanation

of its variance. This study is valuable for the explanation of interests and

stakeholder pressure affecting a particular industry, thus determining the

development conditions of that industry.

Another industry-specific study has been proposed by Kurzak-Mabrouk

(2020), who focuses on food businesses. This chapter addresses the critical

strategic direction of NIP that refers to sustainable and responsible growth

with regard to environmental protection. The author performed the interviews

with top and middle managers of a large representative sample of Polish

food companies. The findings are optimistic, since the majority of companies

undertake the efforts towards comprehensive sustainable development

strategies voluntarily, and not only due to legal enforcement. Still, the

researched enterprises do not fully apply these strategies as yet.

Resonating with the study by Lis (2020), Flieger (2020) identifies network

types according to the collaboration maturity level in a local government unit.

The research on collaborative networks in public organizations still remains

unique. Therefore, this study fills the research gap. The author uses a casebased

approach to identify the network features that change according to

the maturity level of relationships. The findings are useful for the practice

of developing collaboration in local governments and contribute to our

understanding of the context for industrial development.