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key dynamic forces impacting on business and society

Introduction

                    The progressive globalization of almost all areas of life is a complex process that brings both opportunities and threats. It leads to the integration of many entities from various countries around the world. It is influenced by political, technical, economic and social forces. The corporate social responsibility, which also takes on a global character, is particularly important. Entities that ignore this trend will soon be guilty of strategic neglect - they will not fulfill their obligations to the environment and society, and will lose the chances of achieving additional profits.

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                    The 21st century is an arena of extremely dynamic and turbulent changes, which we have become not only witnesses, but also participants. They create new challenges for the functioning of economies and the behavior of enterprises in various sectors of the economy. Processes of progressive globalization of almost all areas of life - economy, law, education, science, politics, culture, tourism or consumption patterns - have made national economies more interdependent than before, which leads to qualitatively new economic ties between individual continents, countries and their regional groupings as well as markets and enterprises. These connections result from the growing freedom and speed of concluding and executing international transactions, making on a transnational level flows of goods and services (especially financial), new technologies, resources and factors of production as well as information (including knowledge).

                    At present, it is becoming more and more important to consider the management process not through the prism of political boundaries, but the regional boundaries determined by the extent, size and intensity of various types of capital links and areas of operation of transnational corporations, as well as direct and indirect links between various economic entities.

The essence of globalization

                    Globalization is one of the most significant phenomena and processes of our time creating new opportunities, but also new threats. It concerns development, integration, eliminating all barriers, increasing interdependencies between various countries, expanding the free market economy and democracy. The term "globalization" has not been interpreted to this day. This is probably due to its very broad subject scope and multithreading, multi-dimensionality and complexity of economic, technical, social, cultural and political phenomena covered by this term. Many authors also believe that globalization processes have been known since ancient times and only undergo certain transformations in individual phases of this process. Depending on who formulates the definition of this phenomenon, he emphasizes different elements.

Several areas of globalization can be distinguished:

- globalization of finance - it is deregulation of financial markets, increasing international mobility of capital, increase in mergers and acquisitions of financial institutions, etc .;

- globalization of markets and competition as well as formulated business strategies - including integration of business operations on a global scale, global search for production factors, strategic alliances;

- globalization of technology and related research and knowledge - the development of information technology and telecommunications enables rapid flow of concepts and development of connections between various companies;

- globalization of lifestyles and models of consumption as well as globalization of culture - it means transfer and transplantation of dominant lifestyles, alignment of consumption models, media play a major role in this process;

- globalization of legal regulations - reduces the role of national and parliamentary governments, and as a result, globalization appears as a political unification of the world on the way of integration of societies in the global system.

                    Globalization is a complex process that affects not only the behavior of large transnational corporations, but also significantly affects the functioning and development of the SME sector and consumer behavior in global markets. Although the globalization process is complex, multidimensional and multi-level, it can be characterized by the following statements:

- globalization is a multidimensional process, and therefore runs simultaneously in many areas of life and is stimulated by separate, but interpenetrating various activities carried out at the same time in various spheres of human activity (social, economic or political), for this reason not all aspects of globalization have many methodological difficulties;

- globalization causes international integration of entities' activities at various levels (economies, sectors, markets and enterprises);

- globalization is essentially linked to the international interdependence of the entities;

- globalization shows a strong connection with scientific and technical progress (technical achievements serve the development of transport, communication, production of modern products, creating new services, etc.);

- globalization is a process of gradual shrinking of space-time, in which we move and act, and which causes subjective and objective phenomena, such as "contraction of the world", participation in events on all continents, high mobility of people, a wide range of products and services global, etc.;

- the dialectic nature of globalization means that the development of this process is conditioned and associated with various subprocesses and phenomena often counter-productive;

- the multilevel nature of globalization is connected with the fact that the global economy is the highest level on which various tendencies forming the discussed process are aggregated and transformed.

                    The deepening process of internationalization of the world economy and transition to its higher stage, which is globalization, is favored by many factors of different origins, character, strength and scope of impact and varying degrees of mutual interdependence. These factors are often called forces leading to globalization. Specification and graphical interpretation of them is presented in Fig. 1.

                    In addition to the cited diverse sources, premises, manifestations and determinants of globalization - which result from the impact of largely universal social, political and economic processes within individual countries or regions - one can point to specific cultural and psychological conditions as well as political ones. As an example, they can serve here the so-called post-socialist countries (like Poland), in which all activities carried out in the course of systemic transformation and freeing the impact of the market mechanism and creating conditions for the development of entrepreneurship in the national and international dimension were particularly susceptible and therefore found many supporters.[1,2]

Orientation of enterprises into situations and changes taking place in their environment as a requirement of their duration and development

                    Regardless of the freedoms, rights, opportunities, and requirements set for enterprises in the market economy, it is also necessary to pay attention to the ever-new challenges faced by enterprises and entrepreneurs with a dynamically changing economic reality. These challenges are related to the ever-increasing impact of globalization processes on the ability of the economies to function and develop today. Experience proves that competition between enterprises is constantly gaining momentum and results in the dynamics of change, which until recently was difficult to imagine. Turbulent and rapidly changing environment is today a natural environment in which practically all economic entities come to work. The consequence of this may be the statement that modern enterprises must make constant verification of their basic strategic assumptions and look for effective instruments ensuring the improvement of efficiency and the ability to react quickly to changes taking place (new opportunities, but also new threats).

                    Enterprises always function in a certain external environment, i.e. in connection with other enterprises, in a specific region and finally in conjunctions with the state. The environment affects companies, creates opportunities and opportunities for them, sets requirements and imposes restrictions on them, but also the enterprises affect the external environment, bind them together and, to a greater or lesser extent, determine its nature.

                    The environment in which modern enterprises function becomes more and more complex and changeable, imposes on everyone an absolute necessity to adapt. On the one hand, the number of business entities and institutions that affect the functioning of individual enterprises is growing, on the other, there is a constant widening of the scope of business connections with the environment. The scope of these connections is currently not limited to the technical and economic sphere, but it is expanding into the sphere of social, political and cultural problems.

                    As the complexity and variability of the environment increases, the possibilities of affecting enterprises are significantly limited, and their dependence on the environment increases. Changes occurring in the environment precipitate enterprises from the state of internal and external balance. Every enterprise, to exist and to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage, must be in a state of equilibrium through appropriate adjustment and anticipatory processes directed in and out. That is why the managerial staff is permanently in the face of the need to make current and prospective economic decisions changing the scope, methods and logic of the functioning of enterprises in order to ensure and restore internal and external balance to enterprises.

                    Past experience and practice prove that the market is a verifier of economic activity, forcing the right response of the company, and thus determines the price and sense of implementation of change programs. The market economy therefore requires from the enterprise the flexibility of operation and adaptability, the growth of entrepreneurship and the ability to adapt not only to changes already occurring on the market, but also to changes anticipated or expected.

                    It follows that the activity of enterprises in the era of globalization of the market and in the conditions of the new economy is equal - and perhaps even to a larger extent - determined by what is happening in its evolving environment than by what is happening in itself. An enterprise that does not want to, can not, or for some reasons cannot adapt to the market and new economic challenges, ceases to develop, over time loses the ability to satisfy the needs of the environment and is therefore doomed to failure.[2,3]

Corporate social responsibility in the global market

                    The chances of achieving success in the global market have enterprises that have directed their strategic activities towards undertakings helping societies from different countries around the world in dealing with the troubles they are afflicting. The area of ​​corporate social responsibility and sustainable development will undoubtedly influence the functioning of enterprises in the global market, bringing with them both threats and opportunities. Currently, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects cannot be ignored, but the reason for this is not just a kind of fashion, common practices within the PR, which somehow impose altruistic attitudes on contemporary enterprises. Of course, all charitable initiatives, widely publicized, of great importance to beneficiaries should not be condemned, but it is also important that they would benefit the donor - they have helped to strengthen the company's position and even allowed to achieve above-average profits. It is desirable to adopt an active attitude towards issues of social responsibility and treat it not as an obligation ,but as an opportunity for many mature enterprises. An increasing number of entities on the global market perceive the importance and benefits of social involvement implemented in correlation with the strategic goals of business entities. Undertaken actions may lead to innovative solutions, solve problems related to the natural environment, create a new product or service, and even make life easier for clients. Well thought-out CSR practices not only solve a given social problem but also bring tangible benefits to the enterprises that have undertaken them. The concept and operation in the field of corporate social responsibility are definitely global - they go beyond national borders.

                    An example of the activity of socially engaged global businesses is the cooperation of enterprises with the sector of social organizations within the framework of a hybrid value chain [Drayton, Budini, 2011, pp. 56-62]. The concept is based on cooperation between corporations and social enterprises and is very important for people responsible for the company's strategy. Hybrid value chains lead to the creation and development of markets on an unprecedented scale, resulting in the emergence of new products or services from sectors such as education, medicine, energy, transport and finance. The sector of social organizations creates jobs three times faster than other employers in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries and is nowadays described as equally innovative as the profit-making sector.[4]

Summary

                    Globalization is growing more dynamically, affecting almost all sectors of the economy around the world. The development of global markets bypassing the social aspect would bring a lot of damage and dangers. Profit-oriented enterprises should care for improving the quality of life in poorer regions and protecting the environment as part of the hybrid value chain. It brings benefits to both companies, social organizations and clients with lower incomes. It is worth noting, however, that well-thought-out and properly implemented CSR programs generate added value also for the donor. The enrichment of enterprises is their greatest contribution to the functioning of society. New jobs are created then, the quality of life of people receiving regular income increases, health and education are improved, new businesses are created, and local budgets grow.

References

1.       Mintzberg H., .Lampel J., Quinn J.B., Ghoshal S.: The Strategy Process- Concepts, Contexts, Cases, Person Education Limited 2003, Essex England

2.       Smith I. (2011), Organisational quality and organisational change, „Library Management", vol. 32, no. ½

3.       J.J. McMillan, Why Corporate Social Responsibility? Why Now? How?, [w:] The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility, red. S. May, G. Cheney, J. Roper, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007

4.       M. Heald, The Social Responsibilities of Business, Transaction Publisher, New Brunswick - London 2005