Prezentowany artykuł zawiera analizę wyzwań metodologicznych wynikających z praktyki wycen Aktywów Geologiczno-Górniczych (AGG) wykonywanych przez Taksatorów Złóż Kopalin (TZK). Opiera się on na bazie danych zawierających charakterystykę ponad 100 wycen wykonanych w latach 2008–2015. Omówiono w nim przede wszystkim problemy wynikające z preferencji wielu uregulowań na rzecz stosowania podejścia porównawczego wskazując, że zachęcają one do dokonywania nieakceptowalnych kompromisów przy wyborze bazy danych transakcji referencyjnych. W przypadku podejścia dochodowego omówiono zagadnienia związane z koniecznością stosowania szacunków oraz przyjmowania arbitralnych założeń. Wskazano, że sama ta okoliczność nie może stanowić argumentu do podważenia wyniku z wyceny, o ile konstrukcja tych szacunków i założeń stanowi spójną całość, a możliwy błąd znalazł odniesienie w stopie dyskonta. Odrębnie omówiono rekomendowane przez autora kierunki zmian w przyszłości. Na zakończenie wskazano na ogromną, pozytywną rolę wprowadzenia Kodeksu POLVAL dla ustrukturyzowania procesu wycen i podniesienia ich jakości.

The choice of financing sources made by coal mining companies reflects a number of macro- and microeconomic factors. The paper attempts to present only those that play the most important role in mining companies’ market activities. The structure of sources of financing mining companies’ operations is presented by computing the share of equity in liabilities and shareholders’ equity, the golden balance sheet rule showing the degree of financing of non-current assets through shareholders’ equity and the silver balance sheet rule which shows the ratio of long-term capital to non-current assets. Only a few mining companies can satisfy those two rules as they finance their economic activity through equity and short-term liabilities. Mining companies are not indebted. Their caution in incurring long- -term debt results from the implementation of high volatility of financial results, which are prone to the effects of the economic situation. The basic determinants of the choice of financing sources include the structure of assets, the rate of return on assets and companies’ ability to service debt. The high capital intensity of the mining sector is reflected in the large share of non-current assets in total assets, which in some mining companies exceeds 80% of total assets. The rates of return on assets vary widely and are influenced by fluctuations in coal prices at different phases of the market situation. They also have a significant impact on companies’ ability to service debt. Empirical research conducted by the author revealed that the structure of financing sources in Polish coal mining companies is like that of global mining corporations, as are the economic relations shaping this structure.

This paper attempts to find out what is the role of competitive environment in shaping the sensitivity of growth in banking to the business cycle. To answer this question, we apply a large set of individual bank level data including over 8000 banks operating in more than 100 countries. This study uses the growth of assets, loans, deposits and leverage as proxies of bank growth and Lerner index as a proxy for the competitive environment. The analysis shows that decreased competition is associated with increased procyclicality of bank growth. However, in a perfectly competitive environment the growth turns out to be countercyclical. This effect differs between high- and lowincome countries. A perfectly competitive environment is associated with countercyclical growth in high-income countries. The opposite result is found for low-income countries. Our results for Central Eastern European countries show that increased competition is associated with enhanced procyclicality of growth.

This paper aims to improve understanding of the drivers and barriers to digital transformation in asset management. Accordingly, this paper contributes to the literature by conducting a qualitative Delphi study with 15 experts (including academia, consultancy and industry) to identify, validate, and classify the drivers and barriers affecting digital transformation in asset management. As a result of the experts’ interactions, 20 barriers were identified. The main barriers to digital transformation in asset management are the following: Misunderstanding of the strategic importance of asset management, no clear vision/strategy, existing mindset and culture, inadequate asset management system, lack of understanding of digital trends, and lack of employee knowledge and skills. The study also highlights 12 drivers that are critical to the digital transformation of asset management. These include cost reductions, opportunities in condition monitoring of assets, expected benefits in asset management processes, expected benefits in risk management and others.

Przedmiotem artykułu są problemy dotyczące zasad i sposobów ustalania wynagrodzenia za użytkowanie górnicze. Przeanalizowano obecnie obowiązujące przepisy prawa, regulującego zawieranie umów o użytkowanie górnicze złóż będących własnością Skarbu Państwa (stanowiących tzw. własność górniczą). Scharakteryzowano zasady i sposoby (algorytmy) stosowane przez właściciela złóż dla ustalenia wynagrodzenia za przekazanie tych złóż w użytkowanie górnicze. Wskazano, że kluczowe, stosowane w praktyce wzory nie wynikają wprost z zapisów prawa co budzi szereg uzasadnionych wątpliwości i niesie przedstawione w skrócie zagrożenia. Ponadto wskazano, że istnieje druga kategoria złóż będących własnością Skarbu Państwa, jednak nie jako własność górnicza ale konsekwencja posiadania przez niego szeregu nieruchomości, z prawem do złóż kopalin wynikającym pierwotnie z Kodeksu Cywilnego. Przeprowadzono ich analizę porównawczą zasad i algorytmów ustalania opłat za ustanowienie użytkowania górniczego z jednej strony oraz opłat za użytkowanie wieczyste nieruchomości gruntowych położonych na złożach kopalin należących do Skarbu Państwa i samorządu terytorialnego. Przedstawiono argumenty przemawiające za daleko posuniętą harmonizacją obu analizowanych opłat. Oznacza to, że punktem wyjścia dla ich wyznaczenia powinna być wartość rynkowa złoża, a nie nawet najbardziej skomplikowany wzór o charakterze uniwersalnym. Wycena złóż kopalin jest procesem złożonym wymagającym kompetencji w kilku dziedzinach: geologii, górnictwa i finansów. W konsekwencji powinny mieć zastosowanie wytyczne Polskiego Kodeksu Wyceny Złóż Kopalin (POLVAL), które definiują zarówno sam proces przeprowadzania wycen jak i osoby kompetentne do ich przeprowadzania. Końcowym wynikiem analizy są propozycje nowelizacji przepisów i oparcia ustalania wynagrodzenia za użytkowanie górnicze na podstawie wartości rynkowej złoża kopaliny. W podsumowaniu sformułowano wnioski i postulaty.

The paper presented intends to fill up a gap in surveying the Hotelling Rule by taking a company based, microeconomic approach based on analyses of annual reports. Using selected data three fundamental hyphothesis are tested:
1) growth rate of margins (“net margins” including a capital charge) per unit realized by mining companies must exceed a rate equal to their cost of capital,
2) output shall follow deviations from the Hotelling growth line,
3) margins shall follow a path set by individually defined expected rate of return.
The analysis was based on 5 leading gold producers, responsible for ca 15–20% of global primary production, all of them public and listed on a stock exchange for the entire period of 2004–2019/2020. As margin shall grow at a rate compensating individual risk of a company in consideration, they shall not be homogenous. At 1st step industry WACC was adopted to calculate a normalized capital charge. The calculations revealed no support for Hotelling Rule. There is no evidence that over a period of above 15 years margins follow any path determined by a growing expotential function, following a compound rate. Subsequently it was checked whether output volume is corrected due to development of actual versus expected (resulting from the Hotelling Rule) margin values. Selected companies were near indifferent to this parameter while taking decisions in area of volumes supplied. Neither there is no evidence of relation between changes in output and margins. Finally, it was checked whether differences between expected and actual margins’ growth paths could be described by a linear function, resulting from consequent adoption of a risk rate component. Here neither any evidence was found. In conclusion no support for the Hotelling rule was identified.

All the restructuring programs that have been implemented in Polish bituminous coal mining as a primary way to reduce mining costs relied on the increased concentration of mining operations. Those efforts especially involved a significant simplification of existing or newly developed structures for accessing or cutting the deposits intended for extraction; implementation of advanced mining technologies, and upgrading of machines used in mine faces. However, in order for these to deliver the expected results, it is important to organize mining operations in such a way so that those advanced, and usually very expensive, mining-related fixed assets – machinery and equipment – are used sensibly. In order to define a reasonable production capacity of each longwall face, it is necessary to apply various criteria related to the mining and technical aspects, occupational safety, and organizational and economic aspects. Only then will it be possible to evaluate the expected effects in the field of concentration of mining in a mining company and in the mines which form part of such enterprises. Decisions in this respect should always be made at the planning stage, based on analysis results. The aim of this article is to explore the factors involved in concentration-related decision-making in mining companies, including the underlying mining/technical, organizational, and economic/ /financial aspects. A mining company is understood as a group of related mines, the primary business operations of which include bituminous coal mining, processing, and trading.

Knowledge management is a process aimed at enriching and effectively using knowledge assets in various areas of business operations. It also applies to manufacturing enterprises that offer tangible products combining it with the art of processing information and intellectual assets into added value for the customer. A characteristic feature of manufacturing enterprises is assigning their employees a double role: a knowledge user and, at the same time, an internal source of specialist knowledge. In the situation of dynamically changing market conditions, there is an additional need to acquire new knowledge (in practice: often to buy knowledge) from the company’s environment. A solution in the above-mentioned scope in Poland may be digital repositories of science assets as tools for knowledge transfer to SMEs. Research institutes are an important element in the process of knowledge transfer from scientific units to the economy (e.g. they offer their services in open access). The paper presents the concept of such a repository preceded by a diagnosis of the existing state, an analysis of the recipients of the deposited content and the examination and analysis of the requirements of potential users of the repository.

The article proposes the use of a synthetic indicator in spatial research. In the construction of synthetic indicator, it assumes that the indicator should not only specify the synthetic value based of on empirical data, but also show its structure. The structure of the indicator should answer the question to what extent individual empirical measures influence to the value of a synthetic indicator. Using the rules of statistical grouping, four groups of voivodships with different economic potential were distinguished. Research shows that on the synthetic indicator of voivodships (in particular groups) were affected to a varying extent by the values of empirical variables: number of employees, value of fixed assets, value of gross domestic product, number of economic operators.

Prezentowany artykuł dotyczy możliwości i celowości wykorzystania podejścia kosztowego do wyceny aktywów geologiczno-górniczych. Autor koncentruje się na AGG Typu I i II tj. związanych z pracami geologiczno- poszukiwawczymi oraz dokumentowaniem złoża kopalin, upatrując w nich właśnie obszaru zastosowania omawianego podejścia. Analiza obejmuje trzy najczęściej wykorzystywane metody wyceny: wartości szacunkowej, wielokrotności wydatków na prace geologiczne oraz Killburn'a, wskazując ich zalety, wady oraz potencjalne błędy w ich stosowaniu. W konkluzji autor wskazuje obszary, w których zastosowanie wyżej wymienionych metod znajduje uzasadnienie i pozwala na osiągnięcie wartościowych wyników wyceny.

Management and Production Engineering Review (MPER) is a peer-refereed, international, multidisciplinary journal covering a broad spectrum of topics in production engineering and management. Production engineering is a currently developing stream of science encompassing planning, design, implementation and management of production systems. Orientation towards human resources factor differentiates production engineering from other technical disciplines. The journal aims to advance the theoretical and applied knowledge of this rapidly evolving field, with a special focus on production management, organisation of production processes, management of production knowledge, computer integrated management of production flow, enterprise effectiveness, maintainability and sustainable manufacturing, productivity and organisation, modelling and simulation, decision making systems, project management, innovation management and technology transfer, quality engineering and safety at work. Management and Production Engineering Review is published under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Production Engineering and Polish Association for Production Management.

The main purpose of Management and Production Engineering Review is to publish the results of cutting-edge research advancing the concepts, theories and implementation of novel solutions in modern manufacturing. Papers presenting original research results related to production engineering and management education are also welcomed.

We welcome original papers written in English. The Journal also publishes technical briefs, discussions of previously published papers, book reviews, and editorials.

Letters to the Editor-in-Chief are highly encouraged.