Financial Security as a Basis for the Sustainable Development of Small and Medium-Sized Renewable Energy Companies—A Polish Perspective
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe canonical financial variance analysis conducted in the article looked at renewable energy companies in Poland, showing their low financial security. The research showed that the profitability of the operations of these companies was low and liquidity ratios indicated a limited ability to repay short-term liabilities. Debt and profitability ratios were key to assessing financial security, and renewable energy companies differed in these ratios.
Renewable energy companies in Poland are characterised by low financial security.
Profitability of operations of these companies is at a low level.
Liquidity ratios indicate a limited ability to repay short-term liabilities.
Debt and profitability ratios are important for assessing the financial security of renewable energy companies.
There are variations between renewable energy companies, such as solar and wind power plants, in terms of debt levels and profitability.
I feel that the paper would gain in value if the literature survey section was expanded to include an analysis of the use of renewable egenergy in european countries. I miss this - we have an overview.
And this is my only request to the authors, I evaluate the rest of the publication positively and make no comments
Author Response
Authors would like to thank Editor and Reviewers for their time and work in the evaluation of our manuscript. In attachment I enclose the manuscript corrected according to comments.
We expanded the Literature Review section to include an analysis of how renewable energy is used in European countries. Following the Reviewer's advice, we have added information on renewable energy in European countries in Part 2.1.
Best regards
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsComments:
1. Some of the former cases from other parts of the world (e.g., individual analysis on financial security at small and medium-sized renewable energy business firms) could complement the literature review in Section 2. This will provide an inclusive and global assessment of the research that you have conducted. It might be useful right now to give an update on recent changes or, in conjunction with similar research results, help to elaborate on your results.
2. Discussion In the Methods section on canonical variate analysis (Section 3.3), some parts could benefit by additional clarity, as follows: Explain the statistical methods more explicitly, especially why Canonical variate analysis and not other multivariate stuff. Readers will be able to appreciate the methodological strength of your work this way.
3. The figures are great for getting an overall idea about your results, and you need the descriptive statistics (section 4.1), yet we have left them as they are and would recommend organizing your tables differently to make them easier to read. Use the following statistics more images like graphs, charts. As it can show us the data in a manner that is faster and simpler to understand so that significant trends can be easily identified.
4. Describe which economic and political factors you consider in your analysis (this comes in Section 5 of the questionnaire on economic conditions impacting financial security) Giving readers a heads up about the external conditions that were used for surveying will make your conclusions much more liberal and easier to understand at a higher level in context of the findings.
5. Conclusions: (Section 6)—to further substantiate your results in a way that relates, as a matter of fact, to policymakers and the renewable energy industry. Your recommendations on the basis of what you found would be invaluable in advising small and medium-sized renewable energy firms to improve their financial security.
6. While the study does have some limitations, explaining them in more detail would be helpful. Specify constraints with respect to data collection, sample size (n), or methodological restrictions. Also, provide explicit suggestions for the next phases of research, which could go beyond this and examine the financial dynamics of renewable energy firms under different economic conditions.
Best regards,
Author Response
Authors would like to thank Editor and Reviewers for their time and work in the evaluation of our manuscript. In attachment I enclose the manuscript corrected according to comments.
We would like to respond to the comments in the review as follows:
Taking into account the Reviewer's suggestions we have made the following changes in the revised manuscript:
- Some of the former cases from other parts of the world (e.g., individual analysis on financial security at small and medium-sized renewable energy business firms) could complement the literature review in Section 2. This will provide an inclusive and global assessment of the research that you have conducted. It might be useful right now to give an update on recent changes or, in conjunction with similar research results, help to elaborate on your results.
Answer for a comment:
Information about the renewable energy sector in other countries has been added to section 2.1.
- Discussion In the Methods section on canonical variate analysis (Section 3.3), some parts could benefit by additional clarity, as follows: Explain the statistical methods more explicitly, especially why Canonical variate analysis and not other multivariate stuff. Readers will be able to appreciate the methodological strength of your work this way.
Answer for a comment:
The paper explains the reason for using the linear transformation to canonical variates. However, when constructing a canonical variate diagram for a data matrix divided into different groups, we construct orthogonal axes from the canonical variates. In addition, it should be mentioned that the canonical variate analysis takes into account two sources of variation related to the industry and the analyzed year. It was shown in equation (1), in the section Statistical Methods.
- The figures are great for getting an overall idea about your results, and you need the descriptive statistics (section 4.1), yet we have left them as they are and would recommend organizing your tables differently to make them easier to read. Use the following statistics more images like graphs, charts. As it can show us the data in a manner that is faster and simpler to understand so that significant trends can be easily identified.
Answer for a comment:
The main reason for not using a skeletal box plot is i.e. the lack of an essentially homogeneous sample of individual variables for the whole dataset. The fact, that no trends could be identified is shown in Tables 2 and 3. We treat this as a brief characterisation of the dataset. In the proposed approach we divide the datasets into predefined groups of companies, which is the main basis and assumption of the canonical variable analysis. Based on the results of the canonical variable analysis, we formulate conclusions. Of course, it is possible to present the corresponding canonical variable analysis with appropriate figures - but in practice this would significantly increase the volume of the paper and I am afraid it would distort the message of the proposed analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to compare all indicators simultaneously (highlighting differences between groups), not to analyse each index separately.
- Describe which economic and political factors you consider in your analysis (this comes in Section 5 of the questionnaire on economic conditions impacting financial security) Giving readers a heads up about the external conditions that were used for surveying will make your conclusions much more liberal and easier to understand at a higher level in context of the findings.
Answer for a comment:
Information on the economic conditions preceding the years in which the research was carried out has been added. Detailed economic conditions necessary for the formulation of conclusions are presented in the data collection section.
In addition, economic conditions have been added to the discussion section. We would like to specify, that they were presented in Part 3.1 when describing the assumptions for the selection of the research period. Due to Reviewer’s suggestion information on economic conditions has also been added to the discussion.
- Conclusions: (Section 6)—to further substantiate your results in a way that relates, as a matter of fact, to policymakers and the renewable energy industry. Your recommendations on the basis of what you found would be invaluable in advising small and medium-sized renewable energy firms to improve their financial security.
Answer for a comment:
We would like to point out that in the last part of the article - Conclusions - some recommendations have been made for specific groups of renewable energy companies to improve their financial security.
- While the study does have some limitations, explaining them in more detail would be helpful. Specify constraints with respect to data collection, sample size (n), or methodological restrictions. Also, provide explicit suggestions for the next phases of research, which could go beyond this and examine the financial dynamics of renewable energy firms under different economic conditions.
Answer for a comment:
Regarding comment 6, we would like to emphasize, that we have included companies that only produce green energy. Therefore, the number of companies publishing data in the National Court Register is limited. It should also be noted that the production of green energy in Poland is mainly concentrated in companies whose electricity production is on the basis of non-renewable energy sources. These companies were not surveyed.
Best regards
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
