The research problem of this monograph is the difficulty in explaining - in the context of corporate philanthropy - the motives and mechanisms of creation and functioning of corporate foundations as well as their relationships with their founding enterprises in Poland. The main aim of this study is to identify, both on a theoretical and empirical basis, the motives and mechanisms of creation of corporate foundations, investigating their operating practice and relationships with founding entities in Poland. Theoretical milestones are defined as follows: 1. Investigate the state and level of scientific development world-wide in the scope of theoretical and practical bases of corporate philanthropy with special reference to corporate foundations. 2. Investigate and integrate the collective achievements of economic theories of enterprise and management science in the scope of concepts concerning the causality and the essence of the phenomenon of corporate philanthropy, including corporate foundations. In terms of methodology, the following aim was set: to determine and apply a research approach adequate for the analysis of the motives behind the creation of corporate foundations, their operating practice and relationships with founding entities in Poland. On the empirical plane, the following goals were formulated: 1. Identify the actual motives behind the practice of creating corporate foundations in Poland. 2. Investigate the actual mechanisms and rules of organisation and operation of corporate foundations in Poland. 3. Investigate the relationships between corporate foundations and their founding enterprises in Poland. 4. Investigate the benefits, problems and threats in the relationships between corporate foundations and founding enterprises in Poland. 5. Determine key similarities and differences between the current practice of corporate foundations in Poland and the global practice. 6. Determine to what extent the Polish practice of corporate foundations is consistent or inconsistent with the theory of philanthropy and corporate foundations, and investigate the causes. 7. Determine whether the Polish practice of corporate foundations can serve as a basis for the improvement of the theory of philanthropy and corporate foundations. The listed goals are completed by a utilitarian goal, which is to provide managers with information expanding their knowledge and facilitating making decisions to establish foundations and carry out philanthropic activities in an institutionalised form. In order to achieve the goals on epistemological and methodological planes, extensive comparative studies were carried out in the scope of the Polish literature and mainly English-language literature, with the use of a method of literature analysis, including a partly systematic review of literature and semantic analysis, covering, most of all, the achievements of the theory of economy and management science, including in particular the concept of social responsibility. The conduct of research on the empirical plane is based on the procedure of methodological triangulation. For the analysis of corporate foundations and their founding entities, two research methods were used: quantitative studies (including a statistical analysis) and qualitative studies. The analysis employed data collection tools, such as: techniques of direct standardised open-ended interview, techniques of individual non-standard in-depth interview, analysis of organisational documentation and non-participant observation, analysis of data from websites of the foundations and companies creating them. The entirety of the study consists of four chapters with a preface and conclusions. Chapter 1 is of a theoretical nature. In the chapter, the author presents a diagnosis of the state of cognitive knowledge of the rudiments of corporate philanthropy. The chapter includes a review of definitions and a presentation of the origin and development of approaches to corporate philanthropy taking into account its positive and negative traits as well as controversies surrounding the issue in question. Chapter one presents the essence of corporate philanthropy, defines key cognitive problems, identifies, describes and systematises the basic research areas concerning the motives behind the undertaking of philanthropic activities by enterprises. The process of philanthropy management in an enterprise is analysed, followed by a classification of forms and tools for the execution of philanthropic activities. The final part of the chapter presents the results of literature studies concerning the scale of the issue world-wide. Chapter two, which is also theoretical, detects, explores, classifies and partly explains the causality of entrepreneurial philanthropy from the perspective of economic theories of enterprise and management science, with special reference to the concept of social responsibility, which is the only one making a direct reference to the issues of entrepreneurial philanthropy. Chapter three transfers the cognitive deliberations onto an empirical ground. The issues considered therein concern the methodological bases and assumptions in the scope of methodology and tools of the original concept of conduct of research. The chapter presents the stages of the research process and a characteristic of a research sample as well as the results of quantitative and qualitative studies carried out in corporate foundations and entities establishing them. Chapter four includes a synthesis of the diagnosis of the state of cognitive knowledge of the rudiments of philanthropy world-wide, with special reference to corporate foundations; as well as a synthesis of the results of own studies in the phenomenon of creating corporate foundations, their functioning and relationships with the founding entities in Poland in relation to the results of secondary studies in the scope of theoretical and empirical grounds of corporate philanthropy and corporate foundations. The conclusions summarise the main research achievements against the background of research problems and objectives; this section presents the main results of work and research achievements, findings, limitations of the conduct of research; it also specifies the author's contribution to the theory of management science and attempts to outline research challenges.(original abstract)
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