Chapter 22: Polish Companies and the Uncertainty Over Brexit’s Regulatory Void: Adaptive Strategies Toward the Unknown

Brexit has caused a visible disruption to the established and accepted web of rules governing European markets. Our study, based on a survey of Polish firms operating in the UK market, aims to identify Polish firms’ perceptions of Brexit and select characteristics of groups of firms exhibiting similar perceptions of uncertainty. The perception of uncertainty itself was measured along two separate dimensions – uncertainty about future arrangements between the EU and the UK and uncertainty about institutional agility in the UK. The results are analyzed using the cluster method. The findings identify three types of firms that we have named as alarmist, the concerned, and the oasis of peace, within which the largest group are companies that view Brexit as a non-significant threat (the oasis of peace), unlike the other two groups (alarmist and the concerned). Those perceived differently are mostly firms having larger size, greater involvement into the British market and longer-term experience in that market.