Marcin Janusz

The aim of the study was to assess the housing situation of students through their self-evaluation of living conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their expectations regarding potential changes in the student housing market triggered by the crisis, across four countries. The research used a survey questionnaire, and analyses employed structural equation modeling. Pandemic consequences were similar across countries but resulted in different housing decisions. Students combining education with paid employment were less likely to leave their residence in the academic city during the pandemic. The study provides empirical evidence of differences depending on the dominant housing market type and contributes to the international debate on housing conditions of vulnerable groups and their impact on student well-being.

This article presents research on modeling the behavior of quadruped robots, specifically Spot from Boston Dynamics, under various external conditions using fuzzy logic and machine learning. A two-stage fuzzy inference model was developed to analyze the impact of environmental factors (temperature, precipitation, visibility) and operational factors (route duration, population density) on navigation disruptions and the probability of failure. Advanced machine learning algorithms, such as Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) and neural networks, were used for precise prediction of navigation failures. The proposed model, developed using MATLAB tools, represents a significant advancement in improving navigation precision and operational efficiency of assistive robots in complex environments. These findings hold promise for applications aiding individuals with special needs.

The aim of this article is to determine the relationship between the processes of economic and social convergence in Polish voivodeships. The correlation between these two processes is still unclear and the mechanisms behind them are not fully discovered. The goal of this article requires determining whether the changes in the level of disproportions in the GDP per capita translate into changes in social cohesion and what is the nature of this relationship. Those issues are still relevant and important due to their cognitive and practical value. In view of the above, using various analysis tools (i.e., the correlation coefficient and regression function), the authors determine whether economic convergence (both β and σ) and social convergence (with the use of the TOPSIS method) is observed in Polish regions in the years 2000–2022. The obtained results allow us to state that in the analyzed period, economic and social divergence processes occurred in Poland. The constantly deepening disproportions seem to be relatively permanent and caused by differences in the demographic potential (including urbanization potential) of individual regions that are difficult to eliminate, as well as by different development trajectories during the period of political transformation after 1989.

Robots are becoming an increasingly popular element of the developing technological reality. A companion (social) robot can be defined as an autonomous machine that recognises other robots and people and engages in social interactions. Robots of this type are designed to serve people, so they often act as guides, assistants, companions, guardians, teachers and domestic pets. This study aims to define and operationalise the components and synthetically measure the social awareness (index) concerning the usability of a companion robot in everyday life. A comprehensive new research tool was developed as part of the study in the form of an original standardised interview questionnaire by the CATI/CAWI technique. Empirical studies show that an increase in social acceptance requires that potential consumers be provided with the necessary information to know the technologies better and improve their digital skills related to social robots.

The article presents students’ expectations regarding changes in the housing market after the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to switch to remote teaching was very often associated with the need to change the place of residence or return to the family home of students. This was related, directly or indirectly, to their economic situation, which deteriorated due to the loss of their job or the need to change jobs. When preparing the research tool, the focus was therefore on the subjective expectations of students regarding rental conditions after the pandemic, regarding not only rental costs, but also changes in lease agreements. During the survey period, respondents were already studying remotely, so it can be assumed that they have already developed some strategies and tactics regarding the issues covered by the survey. The article aims to signal and illustrate with available data the diversity of expectations regarding fees and provisions in lease agreements, taking into account the demographic and economic characteristics of respondents. The aim of this study was not only to demonstrate the diversity of expectations of changes in residence, rental conditions, or the amount of fees caused by the pandemic, taking into account the employment and gender of the respondent, but also taking into account their activity in the labour market. The analysis of the relationship between the expectations declared by respondents and their demographic characteristics was carried out using a correlation analysis. The analysis made it possible to verify the research hypotheses on the existence of correlations between the respondents’ characteristics and their (1) assessments of changes in the place of residence, (2) expectations regarding provisions in rental contracts, and (3) changes in the level of housing fees caused by the pandemic situation.

Social inclusion is one of the important conditions for sustainable socio-economic development. However, one of the paths leading to social inclusion is to ensure a high level of accessibility of institutions for people with special needs. The study described in the present paper examined the accessibility of Polish public sector bodies based on data from government reports (comprehensive study). Accessibility is a feature that should be offered as a complementary service offered to both individuals and legal entities during epidemic emergencies and beyond. The limited accessibility of public institutions is a significant obstacle to the full well-being of the population. Indicating differences in the spatial dispersion of this phenomenon in Poland was the basis for undertaking research for this article. Three areas of accessibility were tested: physical (architectural) accessibility, digital (web) accessibility, and ICT accessibility. A synthetic measure of accessibility was constructed for the study and used to rank Polish voivodeships (provinces, NUTS 2) from highest to lowest. Clustering was used to identify similar regions. The highest- and lowest-scoring regions were the Mazowieckie voivodeship (capital city—Warsaw) and the Podkarpackie voivodeship (capital city—Rzeszów), respectively. Legal accessibility requirements are the biggest driver of further accessibility improvements for voivodeships.

Rural areas, due to their importance for the economy and society, have always been a subject of efforts to understand and model the growth drivers in these areas as well as to improve the standard of living (SoL) of rural populations. One of the most important factors shaping the functioning of rural areas is the presence of small towns and the number of functions they provide for surrounding areas. The significance of this factor is especially high in peripheral regions, such as the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship in Poland. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to analyze how the number and structure of functions performed by small towns in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie region affected the standard of living of rural residents in the years 2008–2020. The first part of the analysis was concerned with calculating the number and structure of functions performed by small towns in the region, using methods developed in the framework of urban economic base theory. The TOPSIS method was then used to quantify living standards in rural areas. Finally, the results of the two analyses were compared against each other. The results of the studies show that the standard of living in rural areas usually improved with an increase in the number of functions performed by the small towns. Additionally, the structure of these functions influenced the living conditions of the rural population. However, considering the relative rigidness of the urban network within the regional socio-economic system, it leads to the conclusion that existing disparities in the standard of living will be difficult to reduce in the near future.

Diagnoza uwarunkowań procesów decyzyjnych, zachowań rynkowych oraz postaw czy preferencji pokolenia Z jest bardzo intersującym i jednocześnie ważnym problemem badawczym. Generacja Z to ciekawy i w wielu obszarach życia jeszcze nie dość eksplorowany badawczo segment konsumentów o dużym stopniu zróżnicowania i dynamicznie zmieniających się preferencjach rynkowych. Pokolenie Z to osoby kreatywne i nieprzewidywalne w swoich działaniach zakupowych. Doświadczenia z obserwacji zachowań poszczególnych generacji nie warunkują sukcesu rynkowego. Zmieniające się otoczenie i warunki funkcjonowania przedsiębiorstw muszą podejmować wyzwania analityczne w celu rozpoznania pokolenia, które jest niezwykle ważne w kontekście przyszłości gospodarki i budowania kapitału społecznego. Uwzględniając powyższą charakterystykę, ważne jest podejmowanie badań zmierzających do identyfikacji zachowań rynkowych, która będzie służyć usprawnianiu współpracy, budowaniu relacji i profilowaniu segmentów klientów reprezentujących pokolenie Z. Szczególnie inspirująca jest obserwacja tych zmian pokoleniowych z perspektywy przyszłości miast akademickich czy ośrodków edukacyjnych. Działania związane z przeciwdziałaniem rozprzestrzeniania się koronawirusa spowodowały zamknięcie lub ograniczenie części sektorów gospodarki. Na skutek decyzji organów centralnych zobligowano placówki oświatowe do przejścia w tryb nauczania zdalnego. W systemie szkolnictwa obowiązkowego, tj. edukacji na poziomie podstawowym i ponadpodstawowym, opartym w głównej mierze na pobieraniu nauki w relatywnie niewielkiej odległości od miejsca zamieszkania konsekwencje tej decyzji miały mniejsze znaczenie dla gospodarki, a w szczególności dla sektora nieruchomości. Problem ten nabrał jednak innego znaczenia w kontekście edukacji na poziomie wyższym. Edukacja zdalna poddawała często w wątpliwość konieczność pozostania w dotychczasowym miejscu pobierania nauki, pozwalając ograniczyć niepotrzebne w tej sytuacji wydatki związane m.in. z użytkowaniem mieszkań, kosztami konsumpcji. Celem zrealizowanych badań ankietowych była identyfikacja i ocena uwarunkowań zachowań rynkowych studentów UWM w Olsztynie, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem procesów decyzyjnych przedstawicieli pokolenia Z przed i w czasie pandemii. Na potrzeby niniejszej monografii zrealizowano następujące zadania badawcze: • charakterystyka pokolenia Z i uwarunkowania funkcjonowania tej generacji na rynku, • identyfikacja wartości, postaw oraz zachowań pokolenia Z na rynku, • ocena zachowania konsumentów pokolenia Z wobec trendów konsumenckich, • określenie czynników wpływających na zachowania nabywcze pokolenia Z, • analiza zachowań konsumpcyjnych przedstawicieli pokolenia Z w kontekście ich świadomości ekologicznej, racjonalizacji konsumpcji oraz akceptacji zjawiska zrównoważonej konsumpcji, • diagnoza uwarunkowań zachowań pokolenia Z na rynku nieruchomości i rynku pracy, • ocena poziomu i struktury wydatków pokolenia Z na usługi mieszkaniowe, konsumpcję, kulturę i rekreację, usługi medyczne i upiększające oraz edukację. Opracowanie składa się z trzech rozdziałów. W pierwszym z nich na podstawie dostępnych źródeł literatury opisano decyzje i zachowania rynkowe pokolenia Z. Drugi rozdział dotyczy zachowań rynkowych pokolenia Z wobec współczesnych trendów ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem postaw wobec ekologizacji życia i racjonalności decyzji konsumenckich. W trzecim rozdziale zaprezentowano wyniki badań na temat jakości życia pokolenia Z oraz zmian ich zachowań spowodowanych pandemią COVID-19. W części tej znajdują się informacje dotyczące: rynku nieruchomości i usług najmu mieszkań w Olsztynie w latach 2019–2021 (I kw.), sytuacji mieszkaniowej badanych studentów UWM przed pandemią, zmian na rynku pracy w Polsce w latach 2019–2021 (I kw.), aktywności badanych studentów UWM na rynku pracy. W rozdziale tym zawarto także dane dotyczące poziomu i struktury wydatków na kulturę i rekreację, usługi medyczne, usługi upiększające oraz edukację, a także miejsca zakupów i częstotliwości ich dokonywania. Wyniki badań mogą być wykorzystane do analizy skali i struktury potencjału rynkowego studentów oraz szacowania skali dochodów, jakie przedstawiciele pokolenia Z dostarczają zarówno do budżetu miasta, jak i budżetu wielu podmiotów gospodarczych.

The article presents findings from the multidimensional comparative study focusing on the implementation of the Smart City concept in selected cities of the Visegrad Group (V4). V4 has been established by its member states (Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary) in a joint effort to break from the communist past and develop the common democratic values of the European Community. Aforementioned efforts involved meeting other important goals, such as socio-economic convergence processes including reaching better living conditions for V4 citizens. At present, strategies that aim to improve the wellbeing of citizens are manifested by Smart City concepts and are being implemented in V4 cities. The main research task in this article is to answer the question regarding regional (state) divergence in Smart City implementation in selected cities. The results of the study show that the best Smart City implementation scores are shared by Czech Republic towns. Polish cities (Kielce, Rzeszów, Lublin) located in the eastern regions of the country (which are also eastern border regions of the European Union) have the worst Smart City implementation scores, according to the value of the synthetic measure.

The present work examines the standard of living among the Polish municipalities of the Euroregion Baltic—an institution engaged in cross-border cooperation which is striving to improve the standard of living in border areas. The time span of the study extended to the first full year after Poland’s EU accession (2004), and to the 15th anniversary of the accession and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Euroregion Baltic (2019 in both cases). All 38 Polish municipalities (NUTS 5) of the Euroregion were covered by the study. Using a synthetic index of standard of living based on Hellwig’s development pattern method, the municipalities were grouped into four classes according to their index value. Hierarchical methods were used to identify which municipalities had the most similar standards of living. The highest standard of living was recorded for the small, tourism-oriented town of Jastarnia and for strong urban centers (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Olsztyn, and Elbląg). Rural municipalities, especially those situated near the Polish-Russian border (Kaliningrad Oblast), had lower standards of living. The results show a progressing polarization in the standard of living, manifested by a widening gap between first-class municipalities and the other classes. This stratification was attributed to multiple factors, including the endogenous potential of the communities.