This paper deals with the theoretical and empirical relations between living standard, quality of life, globalization and international competitiveness of countries. While economists are not convinced that competitiveness of countries is a useful concept, because firms and industries compete economically and not countries, the general public, journalists and politicians seem to feel that competitiveness is important. E.g., one of the goals of the European Union is to become the most competitive economy in the world. Furthermore, economists argue, that economic globalization has the potential of increasing economic welfare for all. In this case, the general public is more sceptical. Finally, the general public but even other scientists than economists, seem to believe that living standard and the quality of life are only weakly related to each other. The following results can be mentioned. We found strong positive correlations between our main variables. Our hypotheses are with other words supported.

This paper attempts to design a reliable method for the determination of the amount of compensation for non-contractual use of property. The compensation is equated with the concept of economical and usually means payment being effected service. This applies mainly to pay for work done or made available or acquired right to the conditions specified in the contract. The compensation for non-contractual use of property should, therefore, account for the anticipated income from a lease or rent agreement that would have been concluded if the owner’s rights to property had not been limited. In a market economy, the amount of compensation should be determined based on market data, but this approach can be fraught with problems. The authors discuss practical problems associated with the determination of rental income generated by agricultural property, and they propose a modified method for determining the amount of compensation for non-contractual use of property.

Contemporary scientists try to determine new or so far not appreciated factors contributing to regional development in order to explain social and economic processes influencing regional disparities. A wide set of potential determinants is considered. One of them is creativity, examined on the level of individuals. There exist quite many supporters of the idea that creativity contributes generally to development, as well as to regional development. A relationship between theses phenomena can be proved statistically, as it was performed in the study with use of Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Nevertheless it needs taking into account that creativity concerns wide range of activities, for example artists usually not associated as contributors of economic or regional development. However, there still remains some area to speculations: to what extent development in some areas attracts creative people to them (so opposite relation to the fact that creative people are determinants of development)? Maybe from some critical point, a development level is a determinant of high density of creative people in some areas? An answer seems not to be easy and requires further research.

The paper presents a comparison of nine agricultural holdings which are dairy farms located in the Kąkolewnica Commune. The analysis was based on results of a survey carried out in the years 2008–2010, and used to prepare a description of the holdings in terms of their area, cultivation structure, cattle stocking rate, economic size and profitability coefficients. The multidimensional cluster analysis was applied to make simultaneous comparisons of the holdings taking into accounts all the characteristics studied. It was found that the holdings could be divided into two groups. One group consisted of the farms with the greatest area, which were also similar to each other in terms of the variables studied. The second group was made up of holdings covering an average or small area, which were more or less different. In this group, holding 9 differed most from the remaining farms. The holding had a much greater area, a higher stocking rate of cattle and greater crop plant harvest volumes. However, these values were not great enough for the holding to be incorporated into the cluster of the holdings covering the greatest area.

The market of mineral fertilizers is one of the most important markets of agricultural production means of industrial origin. The specific character and importance of mineral fertilizers in agriculture makes it worth to pay special attention to the issues related to their purchase by agricultural producers. This paper presents results of empirical research concerning the importance and impact of a fertilizer brand on purchase decisions made by farmers. The results of the research concerning the extent of recognition of compound fertilizer brands among farmers were also shown. The results of the research demonstrated that a fertilizer brand, as a factor shaping farmers’ behaviours in the examined market, depends on the age of agricultural producers and the area of agricultural holdings. As it appears from the correspondence analysis performed, a very large influence of a fertilizer brand on purchase decisions was characteristic of the agricultural producers running agricultural holdings with an area of 30–49.99 ha and 100 ha or more.

The main aim of this research was to conduct consumers’ attitudes and behaviour toward beef and to get know factors influencing purchase decisions as well as barriers discouraging consumers to choose this kind of meat. The research was conducted on 10 groups of consumers: housewives aged 35–65. The research was run by means of focus study. The results indicate that beef is perceived to have positive nutritional, health, and sensory attributes and it is bought for special family occasions. However, popularity of this meat is severely restricted because of barriers deep-rooted in consumers’ minds: (1) price – beef is much more expensive comparing to other kinds of meat and it is less efficient; (2) it needs a lot of consumer commitment – it is rather difficult to prepare and time-consuming so some consumers cannot cope with this type of meat and do not have the guarantee of obtaining the desired culinary effect. The last factor mentioned by consumers was (3) lack of acceptance among children – female consumers state that children usually do not like this kind of meat due to its sensory properties.

The study provides the results of the analysis of the relation between the numer of the granted certificates of management systems, chosen macroeconomic data and indicators characterizing the EU27 member states. The strongest correlations were noticed between the number of gathered certificates and such factors as: employment in medium-sized enterprises, the value of trade and the value of foreign investments, the area, the population and the weak correlation was noticed with the inflation. While the problem of the influence of the certification on the activity in the microeconomic scale was described in details in literature, it is hard to find a lot of studies in which the relations between the number of the certified organizations in the country and its macroeconomic condition were analyzed.