Zbysław Dobrowolski

In modern business, the phenomena of “nepotism” and “cronyism” are often observed, which are usually associated with corruption in the public sector and abuse of public resources. However, these phenomena are international in scale, and no country or sector of the economy is free from them. Existing research does not identify shared and contradictory interests of individuals based on nepotism or cronyism. This study aims to fill this research gap. A research hypothesis was developed and tested in order to determine a point from which nepotism and cronyism are not beneficial to their perpetrators. The research data included Poles and Albanians. According to Transparency International (2022), the obtained results showed that Polish society is currently less vulnerable to corrupt practices than Albanians. Moreover, it was substantiated that relative altruism operates as the mechanism that explains nepotism or cronyism practices. Individuals involved in nepotism or cronyism perceive these practices as a tool to reduce the risk of their operations failing. However, the phenomena lead to long-lasting reciprocity, like in the case of corruption. This study contributes to a better contextual diagnosis of organizations and helps develop preventive strategies.

The study aims to determine whether auditors can use a business model canvas in their operations and how it increases the auditing value. This paper uses qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews with 37 internal auditors from Poland. It shows that the current channel of communicating audit assumptions with requesters is insufficient to facilitate audit processes. The auditors’ communication with their clients is limited by being in their knowledge area. The study presents a modified business model canvas, which fits auditors’ needs. The proposed changes rely on a different sequence of the traditional Osterwalder’s Canvas building blocks. Besides, modified Osterwalder’s model includes Mission, Impact, and Accountability blocks. These blocks, added to the model, make aware audit parties that the auditors are mission-focused and impact-driven on audited organizations and their environment. Adopting the business model canvas framework in the audit process showed potential, as auditors can better explain audit goals and limitations. The study fits the literature related to firms because it emphasizes that creating the process understandability for external parties is a crucial performance point.

Although the theory of soft budget constraints is widely presented in the literature, little is known about the factors of soft budget constraints in public hospitals in Poland. This study is relevant because many Polish hospitals struggle with serious debt problems. The study aims to systematise the regulatory and legal provision of soft budget restrictions in the activities of healthcare institutions, particularly public hospitals in Poland, and to assess the impact of these restrictions on their further functioning. An analysis of hospitals’ regulatory and legal activities shows the implementation of various soft budget restrictions. On November 20, 2019, Poland returned to the soft budget constraints, which functioned immediately after the introduction of reforms in the late 90s of the last century. As of 2021, out-of-pocket costs for treatment have decreased to 19.56%, but costs are gradually increasing and in 2020, according to the World Bank, they amounted to 71.89%. The provision of medical services mainly by public hospitals owned by local governments and scattered healthcare debt make it difficult to liquidate an inefficient public hospital in the event of its default. The study proves that the main reason for not eliminating the soft budgetary constraints of hospitals through their commercialization was the inconsistency of the carried out reform of commercialization of hospitals with the financial condition of local authorities.

Acknowledgment
The authors thank the Institute of Economic and Financial Expertise in Łódź for financial support in publishing this paper.

The additive economy should be the productive basis toward which the national economies aspire. This paper aims to deepen the theoretical issues of the additive economy forming and its key components: additive technology and additive manufacturing. Additive technology is defined as a set of methods and tools based on which the production of products occurs by adding only the useful part of natural substances to the final commodity and creating no waste. Additive manufacturing is a system of interconnected processes of transforming natural substances into finished products based on additive technology. The additive economy is a system of trade and industries based on additive manufacturing. The study analyzes competitive advantages (direct prototyping, saving materials and energy, the ability to work without human participation, dematerialization of transportation and storage of products) and challenges of the additive economy (building an organizational network of production systems; forming solidarity economy; developing new social institutions; social development of a person). The paper formulates the key directions of economic systems restructuring to an additive economy formation, including restructuring energy production types, energy networks, and interface sphere and change of the structure of primary resources. The general debatable problem of the economic systems restructuring to the additive economy is the formation of new social institutions capable of providing necessary solutions.

Acknowledgment
The study is prepared in the framework of the research project “Restructuring of the national economy in the direction of digital transformations for sustainable development” (№0122U001232), funded by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine.