Is Polonia prepared to compete in a globalized world? Make an analysis. • You may include information such as geographic location, area, population, economy, currency, connectivity, trade integration, country risk, political system, corruption, labor force, basic salary, natural resources, Industry 4.0., Global Competitiveness Index, Doing Business Index, Index of Economic Freedom, Globalization Index, Logistic Performance Index (World Bank), Human Development Index, Gini Coefficient, Democracy Index, Free Trade Agreements (if any), clusters, special economic zones, industrial parks, others. Regarding the development of Industry 4.0, there is an initiative called “The future Industry Platform” linked to the initiative called “Operational Program Digital Poland 2014-2020”. Private and public parties can participate in this project. The main objective was to improve the competitiveness of the Polish industry while setting the conditions for the development of Industry 4.0 (European Commission, 2018). Among the main activities carried out are to make Polish companies aware of the solutions, benefits, and risks of Industry 4.0. On the other hand, the objective was also to integrate various technological solutions such as big data solutions, machine-to-machine learning, or cloud computing into the day-to-day activities of companies. Physical and virtual demonstrations of industry 4.0 technologies were carried out, in addition to consulting services for the application of technology (European commission, 2018). This project is also aimed at people living in Poland, the main objective is to improve their digital skills so that they can benefit from virtual public and private services. It was expected that all Polish homes would have access to high-speed internet, it was also expected to increase the government's virtual communication with Poles and decrease the number of people who have never used the internet (European Commission, n.d.). It is important to mention that the projection of total funds for this project was 2,172.5 million euros (European Commission, 2014). There was not so much information available about the outcomes of this project, nevertheless, according to Mizzy (2018), there is nowadays a continuation of the program called The European Funds for Digital Development 2021-2027. Their Global Competitiveness Index was in 50th place in 2021, their first competition country is Denmark (Radio Poland, 2022). The last Doing Business Report 2020 raked 190 economies in the field of business regulations. Their overall score was 76.4 and they were in the 40th position. Their best categories were: “Trading across barriers” where Poland has the first place worldwide, and “Resolving insolvency” where they ranked in 25th place. Among their weaknesses, the first category was “Starting a business” where Poland ranked in the 128th position. The second category was “Registering a property” where they ranked in the 92nd position. The index of economic freedom in Poland is 68.7 ranks it in the 39th position among the 184 countries. Compared to the last report, Poland has improved in the areas of “property rights” (72.3), “judicial effectiveness” (54.7), and “business freedom” (78.7) (INDEX of Economic Freedom, 2022). Regarding the Globalization Index, Poland had positive outcomes compared to the evolution of the world. In figure 1.1, Poland is represented by the green line and the rest of the world with the blue line. As you can see, evolution is above the average of the rest of the population (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, n.d.). This indicator is important as it shows that Poland is open to globalization and all that it entails from 1970 to the present. Figure 1.1 Globalization Index of Poland compared to the rest of the world. According to the World Bank (2018), Poland is in the 28th position in Logistics Performance Index with an overall score of 3.54. Regarding the category “customs” they scored 3.54, “infrastructure” 3.21, “international shipments” 3.68, “logistics competence” 3.58, “tracking and tracing” 3.51, and “Timeliness” 3.95. The best economy in the region is Germany with a score of 4.20. The difference between Germany and Poland is not much which means that it is a good country in logistical terms. The Human Development Index positions Poland in the 35 positions among the 189 other countries (overall value of 0.880), this puts the economy in a very high human development classification (United Nations Development Programme, 2020). Figure 1.2 Trends in Poland´s HDI component indices 1990-2019 As can be observed in figure 1.2, the HDI has been increasing over the past years, especially around education. According to the last Gini Coefficient, Poland had a score of 30.2 in 2018 (WorldBank, 2018). The democracy index reveals that Poland is in the 51st position of 167 economies, with a score of 6.80 (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2021). On the other hand, the first identification of clusters in Poland was made in 2007 and 24 clusters were discovered. Afterward, the government promoted the formation and cooperation networks of these and in 2011 there was a "boom" in the creation of clusters, approximately 75 clusters were founded. According to analysis, the largest number of clusters is in the ICT sector, followed by manufacturing, medicine, architecture, and construction. It is important to mention that the largest cluster in Poland (200 members) is in the Podlaskie province and is in the metal processing sector (Knop, 2019). In the following figure, it can be observed the Special Economic Zones in Poland. Figure 1.3 Special Economic Zones in Poland. 3.5 Local market adaptation (if any) Since the company presented is in the B2B field, a very marked adaptation is not necessary to enter the Polish market. No information on the subject was found on their official website, however, it is evident that there was a level of adaptation to Polish culture when the negotiations were running. 3.6. Corporate Social Responsibility (if any) Their initiative related to the environment is called "Net Zero" which has the objective of reducing carbon emissions and cataloging itself in the "low carbon business" field. The target year is 2050 and they have a structured action plan that is divided into three stages. The first stage will focus on improving the efficiency of the plants and including lowcarbon raw materials in their processes. The second stage will focus solely on adopting renewable and sustainable energy in its processes. Stage three is a gradual decrease in carbon emissions under the Less Carbon Portfolio Strategy and improvement of the environmental impact of existing products (SK Innovation, n.d.). Regarding its social policies, there is the initiative called SHE that focuses on the safety of its workers. They want to create an environment of continuous improvement and preventive activities for their workers (SK Innovation, n.d.). On the other hand, they report that human rights are fulfilled throughout their entire value chain because they have social responsibility (SK Innovation, n.d.). 3.7. Public opinion (e.g. imitation, social conflicts) Regarding social conflicts, no information was found on the internet, however, it is believed not because they are a socially responsible company that cares about its internal and external stakeholders. 3.8. Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on a chosen foreign company According to Lee (2020), the company reported an operating loss of 26 million dollars due to covid-19, however, they expected to gradually recover the lost margins in 2021. https://www.funduszeeuropejskie.gov.pl/en/site/learn-more-about-european-funds/lookthrough-the-documents/operational-programme-digital-poland-for-2014-2020/ https://ati.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2020-06/DTM_Poland%20_vf.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/atlas/programmes/20142020/poland/2014pl16rfop002 https://europe-cities.com/2022/05/18/monitoring-committee-of-the-operational-program-ofdigital-poland-2014-2020-ministry-of-funds-and-regional-policy/ https://www.polskieradio.pl/395/7786/Artykul/2984314,Poland-drops-in-globalcompetitivenessindex#:~:text=Poland%20has%20fallen%20three%20spots,Ranking%2C%20news%20outlets%2 0have%20reported.&text=Poland%20is%20in%2050th%20place,to%20the%20imd.org%20web site. https://www.doingbusiness.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/country/p/poland/POL.pdf https://www.heritage.org/index/country/poland https://kof.ethz.ch/en/forecasts-and-indicators/indicators/kof-globalisation-index.html https://lpi.worldbank.org/international/scorecard/line/128/C/POL/2018/C/DEU/2018#chartar ea https://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/Country-Profiles/POL.pdf https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?locations=PL&name_desc=false https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/eiu-democracy-index2021.pdf?mkt_tok=NzUzLVJJUS00MzgAAAGDWhBlxfqM9cMZEewC0HoBG0xhm9PFkxb_IqDsjlxRZgDssKgB0pHGt7yS48UFv94hU4ZW0C_jXaFfmK_5TbL23wtQarQv22nFbg8ZTnHQrrcPg https://researchleap.com/development-clusters-poland/ https://www.paih.gov.pl/why_poland/investment_incentives/sez# http://eng.skinnovation.com/esg/sc.asp https://www.reuters.com/article/sk-innovation-results-idUKL1N2HL01F https://skinnonews.com/global/archives/10535