Spółki z kapitałem zagranicznym w sektorze usług

The article attempts to outline the position of companies with foreign participation in the service sector in the transforming Polish economy in the period of on-going servicisation and globalisation of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The assessment was made on the basis of the number of entities, the resources of employed factors of production (personnel, assets), and the value of revenues. Their structure, dynamics and share in the nationwide potential, resources and revenues have been presented. The study does not contain an assessment of productivity and profitability. Results of the analysis point to an active involvement of companies with foreign participation in the processes of transformation and servicisation of the national economy. They are also an indication of those companies’ expansion into almost all sections of services (excluding education), especially in electricity, gas and water supply (although in this case the starting-point level was low), in telecommunications, in transport, in trade and in financial intermediation. As a result of this expansion, the relevant companies are ranking high among service market entities, making up one third of total revenues of firms keeping books of account. That figure is much higher than their share in the capital stock and, in particular, in the number of staff employed in the service sector, which indicates an advantage in terms of productivity but also sluggish (in fact declining) demand for manpower. The expansion of companies with foreign participation on the domestic service market was accompanied by transformations in the structure of their revenues, especially a rise in the share of transport and communication services and electricity, gas and water supply services to the disadvantage of trade.