Economics and Management 5 (1) 2013

New economy” is a term to describe the result of the transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. It is a set of new phenomena, processes and economic, financial and cultural dependency, based on new technologies. This relatively new concept applies particularly to industries where people depend more and more on computers, telecommunications and the Internet to produce, sell and distribute goods and services. The purpose of this article is to identify opportunities, as well as dynamic factors in the context of managing the formation of the new economy in the Republic of Belarus.

Keywords:
new economy  Belarus 

The principal aim of the paper was to determine the forecast of monthly average USD buying rate. However, the specific objective of the study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the quality of forecasts obtained with different methods. In the study data from the period from January 2010 to September 2012, from the website of the National Polish Bank were used. First, the data were collected, then the analyzed time series was decomposed. Next, the forecast of monthly average USD buying rate was determined with the usage of such methods as the modified model of naive method and the Holt model. Afterwards the assessment of the quality of the forecasts and recommendations of forecasting models were built.

Keywords:
exchange rate forecast  Holt model  modified models of naive method  the quality of forecasts 

Changes in the financing system of the university as well as the demographic crisis had caused that some universities have already experienced difficulties, while others look to the future with anxiety. For a long time universities have been aware of the demographic crisis, and that the loss will deepen. The main aim of the article is to describe the subject matter concerning changes that occur in higher education with which universities must face the public.

Keywords:
finance  public universities  intellectual property  commercialization of knowledge 

The main aim of the article is to describe the subject matter concerning changes that occur in higher education in the context of the university finance. Now we can observe a tendency to change the 'traditional' model into a model of cooperation between higher education and the socioeconomic environment. Commercialization of the research performance has become at least as important as education or research activity. So what are the Universities of the 21st century going to be like? In the paper the attempt was taken to take a close look to these changes through the thorough analysis of income structure of colleges in Poland. However, these are the universities as independent entities that will have to decide by themselves if and to what extent they are going to change.

Keywords:
public finance  public universities  academic entrepreneurship 

The purpose of this article is to indicate that sports sponsorship is accepted and attention catching instrument of promoting cities and regions. Therefore, it is reasonable to use it as a mean of marketing communication by the authorities of the city of Bialystok. To complete the posed assumptions, this publication is on one hand based on the theoretical analysis of the basic issues covered in the literature (described as the essence of promotion and sports sponsorship) and on the other hand the empirical verification of the accepted methodological assumptions. The results of the survey conducted on the Internet to a moderate extent confirmed the research hypothesis. This fact is supported by the average level of sports sponsorship visibility among respondents outside the region of Podlasie.

Keywords:
promotion  promotion-mix  promotion of cities and regions  sponsorship  sports sponsor-ship 

Organizations willing to sustain competitive advantage, must endeavor to innovation. Not only they need to offer innovative product or production method, they also must focus on relations with environment and effective operational management. Speed of acting, environmental scanning and innovation are tools used by organizations in turbulent environment. Multidimensional model of high speed management allows measuring and monitoring dynamic capabilities in all areas (dimensions).

Keywords:
high speed management  dynamic environment  environmental scanning  multidimen-sional model  value migration  innovation  information  speed 

The purpose of this article is to analyze the possibility of using an artificial neural network to model the value of social capital in companies from IT market. Training data were collected and calculated on the basis of financial report published quarterly by Prokom Soft-ware SA and Asseco Poland SA. The values of social capital in those companies were calculated by Fundamental Equation. The artificial neural network had been trained in STATISTICA Automated Neural Network 10.0 (SANN). The research contributed to developing the draft of the model for estimating the relationships among seven input variables and output variable, i.e. the value of social capital.

Keywords:
artificial neural network  neural network training  social capital 

With the development of economy and the improvement of living standards of people, traveling has become one of the most important elements of lifestyle. In the process of tourism development, more and more research is focused on the analysis of aspects related to the development of tourism, especially tourism products offered on the market, as well as the preferences of their customers. The purpose of this article is to analyze the tourism preferences of the inhabitants of Bialystok. The main method applied in the conducted research was a diagnostic survey, carried out with the usage of the questionnaire technique. The results of this study indicate that leisure and entertainment tourism are the most popular among respondents. During their tourist trips most respondents are accompanied by friends or their partners and family. The respondents most frequently acquire information concerning the future recreation locations from the Internet or from friends and family. Folders and directories are an important source of information for them as well. When selecting a holiday destination the respondents are mostly driven by the attractiveness of the environment, at the same time paying attention to the price of the offer. When organizing a tourist trip, the respondents often use the services of travel agencies, but most frequently they organize trips themselves. As a means of transport the respondents indicate mainly the car. Among the leisure activities, the respondents gener-ally prefer meeting friends, as well as visiting monuments and museums. The citizens of Bialystok are equally willing to participate in short and long term trips. On the basis of the comparative analysis of the obtained results with the results of the research conducted by the Institute of Tourism in 2011 it should be noted that despite many differences in other spheres of life, the inhabitants of Bialystok have similar tourist preferences as the rest of the of the Polish society.

Keywords:
tourism  tourist preferences 

Landscape services are the subject of market transactions, including tourism. Therefore, they are defined in categories of natural capital. The search of balanced ways of economic development of regions requires detailed research into the possibilities of providing ser-vices by landscape systems. Research into the assessment of the market value of particu-lar landscape capitals have already been carried out. However, research into the utility of landscape capital seems to be of particular importance. It is due to the fact that the diver-sity of landscape results in various levels of capital and in varied economic utility. The article evaluates the tourism utility of leisure function of different types of landscape capi-tal. Utilities of various landscapes have been arranged into hierarchy according to their basic typological diversity. The position of leisure tourism in the strategy of region’s de-velopment has been described. The research has been carried out with the use of Analytic Hierarchy Process.

Keywords:
utility  landscape capital  leisure functions of landscape capital 

The main aim of the study was the development of basis for initial analysis of social net-working websites role in the process of users’ information acquisition about selected des-tinations in podlaskie voivodeship. The opinions of guests of selected agrotourist farms of hajnowski district concerning their preferred sources of information taking under consideration selected social media services were analyzed. The obtained results suggests that 29% of respondents used the social networking websites services as a main source of information of agrotourist farms. The quality of content published on the profile is important indecision making process about choosing the place of leisure. The directions of further researches were indicated.

Keywords:
social networking websites  information  agrotourist farms 

Public infrastructure (in the meaning of its technical type) is undoubtedly one of the most important elements of social and economic region development. In the article you can find detailed analysis including different technical elements of public infrastructure, such as roads, municipal cemetery, street lighting and so on and so forth. The text is divided into two parts: theoretical and empirical. The first section contains a statutory and litera-ture description. In the second part you can find respondent characteristics and analysis of the research carried among Grajewo urban borough inhabitants. The conclusion shows the main directions of infrastructure development in Grajewo.

Keywords:
public infrastructure  technical infrastructure  urban borough Grajewo  research  inhabitants  development