THE IMPACT OF THE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT ON THE COMPETITIVENESS OF REGIONAL BUS TRANSPORT IN POLAND, WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES

All forms of transport in each country are regulated by the relevant regulations. Road transport is also subject to appropriate legal regulations. However, unlike other transport modes, it is a dynamically developing sector of the free market economy. In Poland, both European and Polish regulations apply to regional bus transport. It should be emphasized that important changes have recently been made in Polish regulations. These changes concern the management of public transport, which also includes regional bus transport. The article also draws attention to the ownership status of enterprises operating on the Polish regional bus transport market. There are also state-owned enterprises in Poland, which are particularly taken into account in the new regulations. This article discusses the impact of the legal environment on the functioning of enterprises in a given industry, with particular emphasis on state-owned enterprises. First of all, the importance of macro-environment for the functioning of the company and its relation to the decisions and objectives assumed are presented. The next part of the article deals with the characteristics of the legal environment as an element of the macro-annual and current research in the field of discussed issues. Then, the research methodology is presented. In the further part of the work, the results of a qualitative study covering analysis of the legal environment of bus regional transport in Poland as well as selected legal regulations concerning state-owned enterprises is presented. The aim of the presented study is to gain the inside into the knowledge of the impact of the legal environment on the competitiveness of regional bus transport in Poland with the use of emphasis on state-owned enterprises using the PEST method.