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Cohesion Policy has provided new impulses for development in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) that continue to be challenged by regional disparities. This paper investigates the effects of the European Union Cohesion Policy on regional development. After presenting historical development patterns of the investigated area and opportunities afforded by this policy, its effects on a variety of indicators are analysed for the period 2007–2014. The analysis allowed confirming positive effects of EU Cohesion Policy on the development of CEE regions. However, these effects differ across the investigated area. Moving forward, it will be crucial to develop institutions and policies characteristic to each region that are stable and efficient without external funds.

Clusters are places that facilitate knowledge sharing and dissemination among firms and institutions working in functionally-related fields. Structural changes that take place within clusters over time influence knowledge-related processes and require new approaches towards external knowledge sourcing. In this paper, we use a mixed-method approach to investigate different knowledge sources that firms use at different stages of a cluster life cycle. The empirical research comprises the investigation of two clusters that specialize in the same kind of economic activity, i.e. in the furniture industry, but are at different stages of their life cycle. These are, a mature cluster – the Livenza district in Italy and a growing one – the Kępno cluster in Poland. The analysis revealed that firms in a mature cluster use a greater variety of external knowledge sources and more knowledge-intensive sources than those in growing clusters do. This may be explained by more homogeneous and well-established knowledge pools at later stages of a cluster life cycle and/or by higher competition between firms offering similar products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We model a self-gravitating disc in Keplerian motion around the primary black hole in the binary black hole system OJ 287, employing a consistently general-relativistic approach. Our models satisfy either geometric requirements on the disc or the requirements on its mass density found by Lehto, Valtonen, and their coworkers. It is plausible that essential observational features of OJ 287 can be obtained via the general-relativistic description of the Bondi–Hoyle–Lyttleton transits through the disc, within the framework of radiation hydrodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The co-location and networking of firms and institutions, also known as clustering, positively influences the innovativeness of firms. The cluster literature provides a single-sided understanding of how clusters function due to an overemphasis in the literature on clusters in high-tech and developed economies at the expense of clusters in low-tech industries in less-developed regions. Applying social network analysis (SNA), this paper studies two furniture clusters in the Wielkopolska region of Poland. The findings demonstrate that: (1) the critical factor is the impact of institutionalization on the mechanisms of knowledge flows, Marshall's externalities and, in consequence, innovativeness of firms; and (2) the underlining clusters do not show a tendency to build cluster-external linkages, opposing the dominant premise in the cluster literature. In the absence of national and international relations, managers of small and medium-sized firms and local institutions are the main sources of novelty for the clusters at the sustaining stage of their life cycle. The findings pave the way for initiatives aiming at creating and developing knowledge networks in lagging and catching-up regions in Europe, particularly those specialized in low-tech sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article seeks to identify socio-economic conditions that affect the demand of individual consumers for cars and to analyse the spatial differences of those conditions. To achieve this objective use was made of methods and models of spatial econometrics. The analysis conducted embraced all poviats in Poland (the secondlevel unit of the Polish administrative division, equivalent to LAU-1, previously called NUTS-4) and covered the years 2010-2015. The findings show that the primary factor affecting the demand for new cars in Poland, other than the price, was the level of wealth of potential consumers. A complementary role was played by the demographic situation, the level of local development and the level of satisfaction of the needs for a motor vehicle. An in-depth analysis in the form of geographically weighted regression (GWR) showed there to be spatial variations in the conditions identified, which might explain the wide differences in the level of motorisation and the demand for new cars in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge flows are widely believed to be a phenomenon of clusters, and inducing them is one of the chief objectives in establishing and promoting cluster initiatives (CI). However, not many studies discuss how these flows and their effects may differ depending on the mode of CI creation and on the role of public authorities in this process. The main aim of this article is to compare mechanisms of knowledge flows in bottom-up and top-down cluster initiatives. The results of an empirical research involving two case studies in western Poland, obtained through the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA), allowed stating that in bottom-up cluster initiatives firms which were innovation leaders played a prime role in disseminating technological and business knowledge, while in the top-down initiatives the most important were representatives of universities and research centres as well as formal coordinators of cooperation. Policy implications stemming from these results were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]