THE DEVELOPMENT OF RETAIL TRADE IN THE BORDER AREAS IN POLAND IN THE LIGHT OF SELECTED THEORETICAL APPROACHES

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, retail trade in the border zone areas in Poland has been characterized by a great dynamics of change, mainly due to unregistered cross-border trade. The present article investigates the process in the light of theoretical approaches to the problem. The existing models, however, are applied to economic conditions in which the range of activity of the commercial enterprise depends mainly on its entrepreneurship, innovation and investment opportunities. The conditions of conducting commercial activity in the border regions of Poland during the period under investigation were fairly unstable and made the entrepreneurs respond rapidly to the changes underway. This is the reason why the concept of self-organization has been used to fully demonstrate the specificity of the development of cross-border trade and its complex, multi-faceted and multi-stage character.