Keywords

1 Introduction

The Euroregions set up within a uniting Europe are an important link in cross-border collaboration in the area of at least two countries, most often neighbours. Paradoxically, the Euroregions are quite clearly, and potentially in a multifaceted understanding, an expression of the dialectic of the movable borderland. And this is a dialectic in the Adornovian sense: one which values unidentity over identity, diversity over unity. Because a true community, as Jean-Luc Nancy wrote, is based not on ideas that absorb any kind of individual identity (such as nation, continent, law, a union of states etc.) but on their atomisation, ruling out immanence, meaning absolute identity. For a community—he argues further in the book with the revealing title The Inoperative Community (Nancy 2010)—serves its own understanding. The concept of the Euroregion is thus based on precisely this idea of community: the unification of the non-unifying. A poly-contextual community,Footnote 1 which operates by various codes: historical, geographical, linguistic. It is precisely these codes that define the Pomerania Euroregion (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany and Poland’s Zachodniopomorskie Province), which rather than a community of Poles and Germans, peoples of the East and West, North and South, ancient and modern legislation etc., is more a poly-contextual community of Pomeranian entrepreneurs, officials, residents and scholars (Wolski 2014).

This prospect of a multi-directional interpretation of the community that is the Euroregion has been reduced in this work to research on the level of collaboration (or its absence) among entrepreneurs who operate in the area of tourism, and to be more precise economic entities (micro, small and medium-sized) that offer accommodation services. Meanwhile, the subject of research on this group of companies was Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), primarily its influence on cross-border integration of Polish and German enterprises in the Pomerania Euroregion (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany and Poland’s Zachodniopomorskie Province).

The choice of the subject and scope of the research was no coincidence. It resulted from the researchers’ conviction that even though the past decades have been rich in many studies and publications referring to the question of CSR (Lockett et al. 2006; Heslin and Ochoa 2008), this idea still is not universally understood and appreciated, particularly in Poland (Spodarczyk and Szelągowska-Rudzka 2015; Szelagowska-Rudzka 2016). Meanwhile, the initiative that is corporate social responsibility suggests certain solutions for business practices (Wolska and Bretyn 2015). It does not only offer suggestions for how an entrepreneur can harmonise economic thinking with thinking about the good of society, other people, future generations etc., but also how to remain faithful to purely economic thinking, how to fulfil ones duties as an “economic person”. Looking at it another way, CSR—similar to keeping track of expenses—ensures greater consciousness, mobilises its practitioners to undertake innovative actions and to establish collaborative efforts.

The idea of CSR concentrates mainly on building relationships supporting all stakeholders who take part in economic undertakings (Bowen 1953; Freeman et al. 2006). In addition to creating positive connections among stakeholders, this concept also encompasses formal and legal factors and environmental protection on a voluntary basis. To be more precise, CSR can be described as a company focusing on seven areas: corporate governance, employee behaviourism, human rights, integrity in client relations, environmental protection, honesty in business and social engagement. In other words, for a company to be described as engaged in CSR, it must meet such basic requirements as investing in human resources, caring for the environment, maintaining relations with the business community that meet ethical and legal norms, and providing information about such actions (Wolska 2014).

In this work, the focus is primarily on the area concerning companies’ investments in human resources, based on generally known systems, i.e. the ISO 9000 Quality Management System, the ISO 14000 Environmental Management System and Social Accountability SA 8000 (Wolska and Kizielewicz 2015).

The research and its results allow us to state that the research problem is marked by an interpretive dualism, which calls for it to be discussed, on the one hand, as an undertaking that encompasses analysis indicating the degree to which Polish and German companies are orientated toward aspects of employee development. On the other hand, as a certain clear position presenting the conditions and formation of consciousness in this area in the culture of both nations—Poland and Germany. Of course, these are not unconnected, because as it takes an ever more prominent position in the economic literature, this grouping undoubtedly constitutes a useful summation of the various analyses conducted on this subject. Still, far more significant during the conduct of analyses is the question of their internal coherence and whether they can serve as a point of departure for further, deeper research.

The purpose of this article is to present the results of research on the implementation of CSR principles in the area of investment in employee development by Polish and German micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the Pomerania Euroregion, and to identify the cultural differences in this area and their influence on the employer-employee relationship. Taking as the paper’s starting point the problem’s relationship to investment in employee development, the following research hypothesis was formulated: Inspiring employees to develop their skills and to engage in long-term career planning contributes to the intensification of collaboration in regional relations.

2 Research Methodology

In setting up research that would allow the demonstration of the research hypothesis and the achievement of the main goal, it was determined that first of all, these questions would be presented hypothetically in the structural model (a path model) illustrated in Fig. 1. This model assumes that CSR is a theoretical construct that contains a latent variable,Footnote 2 which affects the innovative activities of businesses and their willingness to engage in cross-border relationships. In the model shown in Fig. 1, this is expressed using arrows. It must be pointed out that this model presents questions which will not all be discussed in detail in this work, though it will provide a basis for fundamental research concerning aspects of employee development.

Fig. 1
figure 1

The structural model

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The structural model as a whole can be valued using statistical methods related to modelling of structural equations. The model of structural equations, mainly in light of its helpful and in effect practical version of a multi-dimensional and -parametrical view, allows us to test research hypotheses with very complex relationships among the variables. The strong points of this model are first and foremost the possibility of free depiction of dependency paths among the variables, and the ability to depict a theoretical construct as a delayed variable. But because this method is rather complicated, and most importantly very time consuming, for the sake of greater transparency and legibility the complex model has been divided into smaller partial models, which can be evaluated statistically using linear regression. And thus, for example, we have adopted:

Partial model 1: describes the dependency between the attributes of the company, the country of origin and the introduction of the concept of CSR. In a linear form, we can introduce the following regression comparisons:

(in each specific partial model, and thus 1 and 2, “a” is the constant, while “b1” “b2” are regression coefficients).

  • Partial model 1: CSR = a + b1∗attributes of the company + b2∗country

  • Partial model 2: presents the dependency between the engagement of the companies in the form of cross-border business and the variables in the form of CSR, the country and the details of the enterprise. In this case the regression equation looks like this:

  • Partial model 2: Cross ‐ border business = a + b1∗CSR + b2∗attributes of the company + b3∗country

2.1 The Research Concept

In line with the theoretical concept adopted thus far, the work was based on the test research used in formulating the hypothesis (Bortz and Döring 2003). A standard survey was used for information collection. As part of the survey, primarily subjective individual opinions were collected, not objective assessments (Loew and Clausen 2010). The decision to place the stress of the research on subjective evaluations was made because not all respondents are fully knowledgeable on the subject of CSR, and objective assessments require fundamental preparation. This is also why these questions were taken into account during the formulation of the survey. Data evaluation was performed using statistical analysis software (R).

The basis for developing the questionnaire was the structural model. The priority during preparation of the survey was capturing the earlier articulated theoretical modes such as CSR, innovativeness, cross-border business and the structural parameters concerning the country: Germany/Poland, the size and age of the company. During the formulation of the questions, generally known methods of survey construction were used, which nevertheless were slightly modified to suit the needs of the research area. This applied first of all to questions related to declarations of the introduction of CSR in a company and the related expectations and benefits. The creators of the surveys made great efforts to ensure that the questions in this area didn’t suggest the responses, because they realised that respondents often tend to give the answers that they believe the researchers expect. Naturally, this problem cannot be fully eliminated, but we attempted to minimise it by formulating the questions in such a way that they applied to concrete circumstances or activities.

Another problem that appeared during the creation of the surveys was its bilingual nature. Many similar concepts and definitions have different meanings in Polish and German, or are used in a given language in a very specific way. Thus the researchers had to make great efforts to formulate the questions in a clear, comprehensible way. They also attempted, for particular questions, to find concepts and definitions in the two languages that applied as much as possible to the same issue.

The intention of the authors was also to formulate questions as briefly as possible while still making them comprehensible, making it possible to use them during in-person, telephone and online research. During the surveys that were taken, the main focus was on ensuring the survey was checked by employees in terms of its comprehensibility and the time required to fill it out. Particularly during in-person research, it turned out that many theoretical problems related to the idea of CSR were not known to the respondents. This required many explanations from those conducting the research. This became particularly visible in surveys conducted among owners of small and micro enterprises.

2.2 Measurement Models

Insofar as the variables related to the country and the attributes of the company (size and age) can be perceived as relatively objective, i.e. intersubjectively understood concepts, or theoretical constructs that relate to questions such as corporate social responsibility, innovativeness and cross-border relationships (as assumed earlier) turned out to be the subject of subjective assessment among the respondents. As a result, the survey became a certain kind of “test” of the respondents’ assessments of their own companies. To summarise, the assessments made by the respondents often differ from the “objective” values regardless of their definition. This is why one usually starts with the assumption that assessments oscillate around the real value, taking into account the normal error distribution (probabilistic test theory) (Bühner 2010).

The considerations described above meant that the questions concerning CSR, innovativeness and cross-border business were interpreted in this research as test scale positions, which together were treated as a source of total value for a given theoretical construct. Still, the question of how far selected questions were actually useful to adequately describe a given construct requires critical analysis. Thus it was decided that in this case, the most important are analytical operations such as position analysis (selectiveness, difficulty level, verification of assumptions with a normal distribution) and reliability analysis (Bühner 2010).

Assessment of the difficulty of the questions was performed in the research by analysing the frequency distributions and comparison of the average values of the questions. Confirmation of the assumptions with a normal distribution was carried out for each individual question based on a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test and for all questions together using Mardia’s test.

The selectivity of the questions was checked using part-whole correlation. It is also defined during reliability analysis using Cronbach’s Alpha, as a result of which no other calculations were necessary here.

It must be stressed that reliability analysis is usually carried out by applying the Cronbach’s Alpha method (Bühner 2010). A Cronbach’s Alpha ratio of 0.8 is usually considered good. A value of 0.7 and above is as a rule seen as acceptable. Because the Cronbach’s Alpha method is not free from certain distortions, it is generally recommended to verify it by other methods of reliability analysis. For this reason as well, the authors of the work also applied confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

2.3 CSR

For the purpose of defining the degree of implementation of the concept of CSR in companies, questions were formulated that reflected five elements that are included in the CSR concept (employees, suppliers, clients, relations with the local community and environmentally friendly behaviour). The survey questions were formulated as statements, which the respondents could agree or disagree with, on a scale of 1–5. The gradation was to make it possible for respondents to take informal procedures into account as well. The full measurement model is presented in Fig. 2. The direction of the arrows indicates that the hidden variable describes the shaping of the value of the question, and not the other way around. Meanwhile, the circles indicate the presence of error variables.

Fig. 2
figure 2

The CSR measurement model

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To sum up, the deliberations conducted in this section indicate that the total value for CSR can be defined as the sum of particular variables (in this case as a non-averaged indicator) or as the sum of the values of the coefficients—for example from confirmatory factor analysis or using analysis of the main components (an averaged indicator).Footnote 3

2.4 Attributes of the Company

As we have said, the research covered micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Because experience indicates that in the case of this type of research, companies are reluctant to provide detailed information on their commercial and financial situation, the research was limited to registering the size of the company, restricted to the number of employees and the company’s turnover. For the purpose of more precisely assigning the data acquired on the size of the companies and their commercial and financial situation, the rules for dividing companies into micro, small and medium-sized that are generally in effect in the European Union were used. Because these rules are generally known among businesspeople, it can be assumed that their responses were reliable.

Considering that some of the questions concerning innovation activities could be related to positive responses for newly formed entities as well, a control question about the year of the company’s founding was introduced.

2.5 Scope of Random Sampling

The scope of random sampling results from the model selected and the expected influence of the independent variables. Using power analysis and applying so-called effect sizes, it is possible to describe the essential scope of random sampling that will suffice to confirm the hypothesis of the test. In the case of linear regression, it is possible to use the “f2” effect size described by Cohen (1988). This describes the change in the coefficient of determination “R2” caused by the addition of a given variable and thus the variability additionally explained by this variable. The effect size “f2” is defined thus:

$$ \frac{R_{AB}^2-{R}_A^2}{1-{R}_{AB}^2} $$
(1)

with the coefficient of determination R2AB in the full model, and the determination coefficient R2A in the partial model.

According to Cohen, an “f2” value of 0.15 means that 15% variance of the dependent variable can be explained with the help of indicators (independent variables), which is recognised as the average statistical effect.

For the purpose of calculating the range of the random samples, it is customary to start from a test strengthFootnote 4 at a level of 0.8. This value means that any random sample with a significant relationship at a probability of 80% can also be identified as significant. Next, it is essential to describe the level of significance at which a given hypothesis can be accepted as confirmed. In this case, a value of 5% is usually adopted. Additionally, the number of indicators is taken as another parameter. On the basis of these partial models it can be seen that altogether as many as five predictors must be evaluated, because the attributes of the company are described using at most three parameters (number of employees, turnover, age of the company). After establishing such assumptions, it is possible to designate the necessary range of random samples. The calculations were carried out using G*Power software (Erdfelder et al. 1996), and the necessary size of the random samples was set at 92, assuming that it is necessary to define materiality for all five predictors.

Thus, the purpose was to conduct a minimum of 100 surveys on randomly selected respondents, which were carried out in more or less even proportions (60 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland’s Zachodniopomorskie Province and 53 companies in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany) (Fig. 3).

The entities were asked to describe their actions related to employee development. The question was formulated as follows: “Please indicate to what degree specific actions in company-employee relations are carried out in your company.”

CS03_02:

Our company has developed complex rules to limit and prevent risks to employee health.

CS03_03:

Our company ensures opportunities for further professional education, or if necessary for requalification, for all of our employees.

CS03_05:

Our company encourages our employees to get involved in charitable activities.

CS03_06:

In our company there is a system for handling complaints, suggestions and ideas for change from our employees.

CS03_07:

Our company supports our employees in maintaining work-life balance, e.g. through flexible working hours.

3 Research Results

3.1 Characteristics of the Research Sample

To give a certain context to the questions raised in the surveys, the results achieved in each section of the work are presented in two forms. All figures and tables show the number of companies answering each question (aside from Figs. 4, 5 and 6), while the comments describing and summarising the research are presented in percentage terms.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Number of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises surveyed from Zachodniopomorskie Province and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

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Fig. 4
figure 4

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises surveyed in Zachodniopomorskie province and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by number of employees

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Fig. 5
figure 5

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises surveyed in Zachodniopomorskie province and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by annual turnover

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Fig. 6
figure 6

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises surveyed in Zachodniopomorskie province and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by length of time operating on the tourism market

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The description of the structure of the enterprises subjected to analysis was created based on the following factors: the size of the entity measured by number of employees, level of turnover and length of time in operation.

The analysis based on the number of employees indicated that more than half the entities surveyed were micro enterprises, with up to 10 employees. Another 26.5% were small enterprises, with 10–49 employees, while the rest were medium-sized. The breakdown of surveyed companies by number of employees is presented in Fig. 4.

About three-quarters of the companies surveyed had annual turnover of EUR 2 million or less, while about 16% were between EUR 2 million and EUR 10 million. Only 0.88% of surveyed companies indicated that their turnover was more than EUR 10 million. The structure of respondents by annual turnover is presented in Fig. 5.

Meanwhile, the question about the length of operations showed that a clear majority (about 63%) of companies surveyed have been on the market for more than 10 years, 30% from three to 10 years, and 6% have been operating for less than 3 years. The structure of surveyed companies by length of operations is presented in Fig. 6.

3.2 Execution of CSR Actions: Employees. Research Results

The purpose of the research was to measure the level of execution of CSR concepts in the area of the company’s employees. The research results achieved from Polish companies were compiled and compared with the results from German companies in Table 1.Footnote 5 The responses received from the surveyed entities are presented as average values.

Table 1 Implementation of CSR activities: employees—average value of responses from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Zachodniopomorskie province and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
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The results from 62% of German entities and 46% of Polish ones showed that they set maintaining work-life balance as a goal. The result of the analyses presented in Fig. 7 demonstrates that 26% of the Polish companies and 7% of the German ones provide no support at all to their employees in maintaining work-life balance.

Fig. 7
figure 7

Our company supports our employees in maintaining work-life balance, e.g. through flexible working hours

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Figure 8, meanwhile, shows the results of research on the question of training employees to increase their environmental awareness. It turns out that about half the Polish entities said they conduct no such training. The situation is different for German companies, where it can be noted that the structure of responses shows a normal distribution. About 44% of German entities partly conduct training of their employees to increase their environmental awareness.

Fig. 8
figure 8

Our company conducts training to increase employees’ environmental awareness

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In summary, it must be noted that in the case of declarative responses by the surveyed entities in this part of the research, it is possible that respondents assessed their actions too highly. Still, even in a situation where the level of responsibility was inflated by respondents, it can be understood that the entities consider issues related to employee development to be important.

The average values of the responses on activities aimed at limiting and preventing risks to employee health showed similar results. Still, it must be noted that about 47% of Polish companies indicated that they completely implement such actions. Meanwhile, in the case of German companies, such activity is often conducted only partially—this response was given by about 38% of the German entities surveyed. The responses are presented in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9
figure 9

Our company has developed complex rules to limit and prevent risks to employee health

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A significant aspect of social responsibility, which can create tangible value in the workplace, is various types of investment in employees, including through training. Both Polish and German companies gave similar responses in the area of ensuring opportunities for further professional development of their employees. The results for this question are presented in Fig. 10. But it must be noted that in reality about 33% of companies from Poland indicated that they do not conduct such activities at all, and 13% ensure opportunities for professional education only to a small degree. In the case of companies from Germany, the percentage that don’t make continuing education of their employees available was about 21%, while 13% acted in this area to a small degree.

Fig. 10
figure 10

Our company ensures opportunities for further professional education, or if necessary for requalification, for all of our employees

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The results seem to correspond with the results of the comparative research conducted in 2011 in Pomorskie province in Poland and the Kalmar region in Sweden, as well as the results of the 2014 research conducted by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP 2015). The 2011 research (Nikodemska-Wołowik 2011) showed that 43.8% of entities in Poland and 34.3% in Sweden did not encourage their employees to develop their skills and long-term career plans (e.g. through training). The research commissioned by PARP in 2014 as part of the Human Capital in Poland project indicates that only 46% of micro, small and medium-sized businesses continuously invest in employee development, and the clear majority do so through occasional, short-term activities. Thus, it can be stated that a lack of activity in this area is a typical characteristic of small and medium-sized enterprises, in which the employer most likely does not perceive advantages from investing in employee development.

The research also indicates that about 33% of Polish entities and 19% of German ones do not encourage their employees at all to get engaged in charitable activity. The structure of respondents’ answers in the area of encouraging their employees to join in charitable activities is presented in Fig. 11.

Fig. 11
figure 11

Our company encourages our employees to get involved in charitable activities

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In the area of systems for managing employee complaints and suggestions, the Polish and German companies showed similar responses. The majority of the entities—about 33% of Polish companies and 39% of German companies—reported full implementation of such a system. The responses to this question are presented in Fig. 12.

Fig. 12
figure 12

In our company there is a system for handling complaints, suggestions and ideas for change from our employees

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3.3 Partial Model I: The CSR Model

On the basis of the results achieved, using a linear regression, an estimation model was constructed that is intended to show the influence of company size and country of origin on engagement in CSR principles (Fahrmeir et al. 2009).

$$ \mathrm{CSR}=\mathrm{a}+\mathrm{b}{1}^{\ast}\mathrm{business}\ \mathrm{properties}+{\mathrm{b}2}^{\ast }\ \mathrm{country} $$

Using a “step” procedure, the following estimation model was created:Footnote 6

$$ \mathrm{lm}\left(\mathrm{formula}=\mathrm{scCSR}\sim \mathrm{LANGUAGE}+\mathrm{UN}02,\mathrm{data}=\mathrm{x}\right). $$

Coefficients

 

Estimate

Std. Error

t value

Pr(>|t|)

Intercept

3.0406

0.1176

25.858

<2e−16*****

LANGUAGEpla

0.2842

0.1366

2.081

0.04035***

UN02 10 to 49

0.3144

0.1568

2.005

0.04804***

UN02 50 and more

0.5760

0.1941

2.968

0.00385 ****

  1. Signif. codes: 0 ‘*****’ 0.001 ‘****’ 0.01 ‘***’ 0.05 ‘**’ 0.1 ‘*’ 1
  2. Residual standard error: 0.6439 on 89 degrees of freedom
  3. Multiple R-squared: 0.1482, Adjusted R-squared: 0.1195
  4. F-statistic: 5.162 on 3 and 89 DF, p-value: 0.00246
  5. f2 pol = 0.04
  6. aThe constant may be interpreted as the average value for German companies employing fewer than 10 people. LANGUAGEpl shows the divergence in the case of Polish companies. The β coefficient (β-Koeffizient) designates that Polish companies show a higher value, by an average of 0.2842. In the case of companies with 10–49 employees, the average value is higher than for the group with 1–9 employees by 0.3144, while in the case of companies employing 50 or more people, the comparable indicator in relation to companies with 1–9 employees is higher by 0.576.

This model allowed us to form the following conclusions:

A positive relationship can be observed between the size of the company (measured by number of employees) and its social responsibility. This means that the larger the entity, the more socially responsible it is, and the greater the scope in which it applies CSR principles. Meanwhile, the company’s country of origin has only a small influence on implementation of CSR principles, including in the area of increasing employee qualifications.

3.4 Cross-border Relationships: Employee Flows

The next stage of the research focused on identifying the actions undertaken by the companies in the area of cross-border relationships. It must be noted that the Polish and German respondents answered in divergent ways. In particular in the case of one question (“Our company employs people from Germany/Poland) their responses diverged significantly. In this case, the German companies showed a higher level of responses confirming the employment of people from Poland.

The characteristics of the companies in terms of their innovative activities is presented in Table 2.

Table 2 Cross-border cooperation in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises from Zachodniopomorskie province and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern—structure of responsesa
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As Fig. 13 shows, only about 7% of companies from Poland employ workers from Germany. The situation is different in the case of German companies, among which about 43% employ workers from Poland.

Fig. 13
figure 13

Our company employs people from Germany (question for Polish companies)/Poland (question for German companies)

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3.5 Partial Model II: The Cross-border Operations Model

The empirical material collected allowed the construction of a model explaining the influence of a company’s country of origin, size and degree of social engagement on the degree of engagement in cross-border collaboration.

Theoretical model:

$$ \mathrm{Cross}\hbox{-} \mathrm{border}\ \mathrm{operations}=\mathrm{a}+\mathrm{b}{1}^{\ast}\mathrm{CSR}+\mathrm{b}{2}^{\ast}\mathrm{business}\ \mathrm{properties}+\mathrm{b}{3}^{\ast}\mathrm{Land} $$

Estimation model:

$$ \mathrm{lm}\left(\mathrm{formula}=\mathrm{scCOOP}\sim \mathrm{LANGUAGE}+\mathrm{UN}02+\mathrm{I}\left(\mathrm{UNAGE}\hat{\mkern6mu} 2\right)+\mathrm{I}\left(\mathrm{UNAGE}\hat{\mkern6mu} 3\right),\mathrm{data}=\mathrm{w}\right). $$

Coefficients

 

Estimate

Std. Error

t value

Pr(>|t|)

(Intercept)

4.360e+00

2.370e−01

18.398

<2e−16 *****

LANGUAGEpl

9.723e−01

2.290e−01

4.246

5.44e−05*****

UN02 10 to 49

7.603e−01

2.709e−01

2.807

0.00618****

UN02 50 and more

1.537e+00

3.300e−01

4.657

1.14e−05*****

I(UNAGE^2)

−2.473e−03

1.130e−03

−2.189

0.03131***

I(UNAGE^3)

4.292e−05

2.324e−05

1.847

0.06814

  1. Signif. codes: 0 ‘*****’ 0.001 ‘****’ 0.01 ‘***’ 0.05 ‘**’ 0.1 ‘*’ 1
  2. Residual standard error: 1.078 on 87 degrees of freedom
  3. Multiple R-squared: 0.3507, Adjusted R-squared: 0.3134
  4. F-statistic: 9.4 on 5 and 87 DF, p-value: 3.445e-07
  5. f2 pol = 0.19
  6. f2 CSR = 0.001
  7. f2 UN02 = 0.24

The model presenting the influence of a company’s country of origin, size, scope of operations and degree of social engagement on the scale of engagement in cross-border cooperation allows us to draw the following conclusions: there is a positive relationship between company size (measured by number of employees), country of origin and scale of cross-border cooperation. This means that the larger the company, the more it is engaged in international cooperation (the more it works with foreign entities). Additionally, Polish companies show greater engagement in cross-border cooperation.

We also confirmed the presence of a small negative, non-linear relationship between the period of a company’s functioning (its age) and international cooperation. This means that the longer a company has been on the market, the smaller the scale of its engagement in cross-border cooperation.

Meanwhile, the degree of implementation of CSR principles by a given company has no influence on international cooperation. In a step regression this variable is eliminated.

4 Conclusions

Bearing in mind the need for reliability and transparency in the results of our inquiries, a range of measurement techniques was developed (described in the second and third sections of the work), allowing us to compare the theoretical assumptions with the results by conducting a diagnosis using standard questionnaires. The evaluation made through this analysis provides a basis to state that:

  1. 1.

    The measurement techniques developed to describe the level of implementation of activities that are significant for CSR, employee development and cross-border relationships demonstrate internal coherence and can also be used in other research.

  2. 2.

    Larger entities, defined mainly by number of employees, systematically implement and broaden the range of the concept of CSR, and thus are more socially responsible. This regularity was observed both in Poland and in Germany.

  3. 3.

    The degree of implementation of CSR principles in small and micro enterprises does not translate significantly into active international collaboration.

  4. 4.

    There is a positive relationship between the size of the company (measured by number of employees), the entity’s country of origin and the scale of cross-border relationships. This indicates that as in previous cases, the larger the company, the more it is engaged internationally. Nevertheless, Polish companies evinced slightly larger engagement in cross-border relationships.

  5. 5.

    There is a slight negative, non-linear relationship between a company’s age and its international relationships, which demonstrates that the longer a company has been operating on the market, the smaller the scale of its international engagement.

The above summary indicates that the basic output variable is the size of the company, and that together with growth in the number of employees and their professional education, the number of actions with significance for the idea of CSR increases. The surveys also allowed us to state that in many small companies, the concept of CSR was unknown, as there was no formally established programme to introduce it; meanwhile, many companies carried out actions that fit within this programme. The results of the research also showed that companies’ interest in introducing the concept of CSR in the Pomerania Euroregion (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Zachodniopomorskie Province) is growing, on both the Polish and the German sides. Ever more companies also identify it with credibility, stability, innovativeness and market success.

To sum up, as was stressed earlier, the research conducted both in Zachodniopomorskie Province and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern indicates that particular tasks that fit within the area of CSR are implemented unevenly by companies. This is related to factors including the quite frequent disproportion that occurs between the condition of the micro and small enterprises, concentrated as they are on a small area, orientated toward relationships abroad, and the level of certain institutional solutions. One consequence of this is the persistent peripheral character of many border areas, which is measured not so much by physical distances as by social and economic distances, which in turn reflect the degree of disintegration of the socio-economic space of the two states. Interpreting these dependencies and making them more precise, it follows that:

  • In the case of the declarative character of responses given by entities surveyed, there exists the possibility of an inflated assessment of their own activities. Still, even if the respondents inflated the level of their responsibility, it can be assumed that the entities believe responsibility in the area of market relationships with business partners to be important.

  • Despite the declared good knowledge and control of their operations’ environmental impact (particularly in Poland), the entities surveyed (particularly in Poland) do not educate their employees about their impact on the environment and do not explain to their employees how they can behave in an environmentally friendly way.

  • The entities surveyed do not perceive benefits from investing in employees, particularly in Poland: As many as 1/3 do not offer any opportunities at all for continuing professional education or requalification of employees.

The growth of interest in international collaboration is a natural consequence of the ever greater significance and strengthening of such typical attributes of the contemporary world as the internalisation of economic and social life, and international integration, particularly in its economic dimension. All of these phenomena mean that it is increasingly difficult to set boundaries dividing the so-called internal affairs of particular countries from the area of foreign affairs. Additionally, looking at the development of various components of particular economies exclusively or primarily in a certain limited scope, with the need for international cooperation, through the lens of internal needs and conditions, is less and less justified. This applies to areas including tourist infrastructure, whose development has traditionally been treated as primarily an internal problem of each country, though of course it is connected, to a certain limited degree, with the need for international cooperation.

The slow construction of CSR strategies by companies operating primarily in Poland (in Germany such initiatives were undertaken earlier) translated into low innovativeness and negligible collaboration between the two countries. Still, this can be compensated for to a certain degree by a broadening of the infrastructure links that encourage the development of local, inter-state social and economic ties. But this is dependent on many factors. Some of them are economic and political. Observation of the processes taking place in the Pomerania Euroregion (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Zachodniopomorskie Province) confirms the thesis of slow and delayed evolution in relation to the political events and economic phenomena that conditioned these transformations. Although more than 12 years have passed since Poland’s accession to the EU, and the related freedom of movement for people, goods and services, in the relationships between companies in Poland and Germany in the area of tourism services, including those offering accommodation, traces are visible of the earlier lack of connections and the lingering stereotypes that discourage cooperation.

For this reason, intensifying actions related to the concepts of CSR, innovativeness and cooperation of companies operating in the area of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Zachodniopomorskie Province in each of its areas, and thus also training and preparation of employees, must be based on three fundamental spheres: institutional, political and social. Meanwhile, the changes taking place in one domain are not irrelevant to what is happening in the rest. Thus, to achieve the desired effects, both short- and long-term, these actions should be based on simultaneous introduction of improvements in all areas of management.