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Social enterprises in Europe are increasingly evolving into hybrid entities, simultaneously striving to attain both social and economic objectives. This transformation aligns them uniquely with the EU's Cohesion Policy, which seeks to reduce disparities and promote harmonious development across its regions. These hybrid enterprises can play a central role in this policy framework, particularly in regions marked by economic and social challenges. The main objective of the paper is to explore potential strategies to improve the performance of social enterprises operating in economically disadvantaged regions. The Warmia and Mazury region in Poland serves as a pertinent example in this context, marked by the highest unemployment rate in the nation alongside other notably weak economic indicators. These factors contribute to its designation as a “lagging region” by the European Union, thus making it a focal point for intervention under the Cohesion Policy. A key strategy suggested for regions facing these challenges involves fostering the growth of social enterprises, which are dedicated to addressing social issues through market-driven approaches. This study presents findings derived from a survey-based methodology. A comprehensive analysis was conducted on data sourced from 104 social enterprises in the Warmia and Mazury region, employing univariate descriptive statistical techniques. These techniques included the evaluation of frequency distributions, the calculation of percentages, means, standard deviations, and the application of nonparametric tests. The analysis provided insights that indicated that social enterprises that engaged in diversified business practices exhibited superior effectiveness compared to those with a narrower scope of activities. Furthermore, the perspectives of managers of these social enterprises were scrutinised, revealing a significant trend. The managers of diversified companies possessed a markedly optimistic outlook for future financial performance. However, it is important to note a critical limitation observed in the study – even the enterprises that demonstrated success within their local region faced challenges in replicating this success in other areas, suggesting a potential constraint in the scalability of their business models.

The beginning of the 21st century brought a change in the approach to public relations (PR). Both the literature and the practice saw a shift in focus from evaluating the efficiency of communication strategies to relationship management. On the other hand, the growing interest in the use of social media in the management of many types of organizations has prompted researchers to seek the theoretical causes of this trend. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the scope of the Polish public benefit organizations' (PBO) use of the social network Facebook in managing relationships with stakeholders. The PBO is a specific form of non-profit organization, which enjoys the special privilege of collecting tax-deductible donations of 1% of personal income tax (PIT). The research covered 876 entities, which were divided into four clusters depending on their size. A database of posts was created that the organizations published in the period selected for the research. Then, the impact of the Facebook content on user engagement was analyzed. For this purpose, various statistical methods were used, i.e. descriptive statistics, statistical tests and multiple regression analysis. The results indicate that, in spite of social media's unquestionable advantages, public benefit organizations only take advantage of a small proportion of this potential. The role of the most popular service, Facebook, in increasing organizational revenue from 1% of PIT deductions seems secondary at best. Apart from that, the results showed that the rates of posting by different Polish public benefit organizations vary widely. Although some organizations were very active in this aspect, the Facebook pages of many organizations remained completely inactive throughout the analysis or showed only minimal activity. Larger organizations exhibited a much greater posting activity than their smaller counterparts.

This paper aims to identify the significance of using the stewardship concept in a specific type of Polish nonprofit organization, i.e. the Public Benefit Organization (PBO). The subject of the research were the websites of the Polish Public Benefit Organizations, and the purpose was to determine the level of implementation of stewardship strategies. Having PBO status involves the possibility of using certain privileges such as the right to receive 1% of personal income tax. However, this requires from the organization the ability to acquire and maintain relations with stakeholders (including donors). The current study applies content analysis to scrutinize the relationship between implementation of the stewardship concept on their websites and certain features that characterize organizations (e.g., their size, type of business, total revenue, etc.). The stewardship concept seems to be a particularly valuable construct in the public relations process, by explicitly emphasizing the need for the cultivation of an everlasting relationship with stakeholders. Therefore, this article explores the degree of application of the stewardship concept in Polish public benefit organizations, as well as the dependence between specific features of these organizations and the intensity of the stewardship concept application. The results have revealed a statistical relationship between the size of a PBO and the implementation of the stewardship concept (the size was identified by the level of total annual revenue, receiving 1% of personal income tax and the number of employees). However, the research suggests that the type of PBO activity does not affect the implementation of the stewardship concept.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of grants received by companies on the formation of a business model. The study covered micro, small and medium-sized enterprises based in rural areas, which received support in the form of investment grants within the Regional Operational Programmes 2007-2013 for northern Poland. The research was done using a direct survey method, and covered a total of 155 companies. The results of the study indicate that the grant obtained affected implicitly the modification of the business model elements that are placed on the left side of the template of the Business Model Canvas. However, the tendency of enterprises to undertake an innovative activity usually means changes in their business model both on the left and right side. The greatest strength of the dependence was observed in the case of relationship between the size of the company and changes in the model elements. Mediumsized enterprises were the most active in this respect, when compared to comparison to micro and small businesses, and changed the largest number of elements of the business model due to the obtained grant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]