Research background and purpose:
The aim of this paper is to examine foreign direct investment (FDI) undertaken by Polish enterprises within the framework of the internationalization process, with particular emphasis on the number of foreign entities as a proxy for the degree of internationalization. The study seeks to identify the relationship between the number of foreign entities and selected firm characteristics, including expenditure on fixed assets, net sales revenue, the value of imports and exports, and the structure of employment.

Design/methodology/approach:
The research adopts a quantitative and analytical approach to assess the relationships between the number of foreign entities and selected characteristics of Polish enterprises engaged in internationalization. Pearson’s correlation coefficient is employed to examine the strength and direction of linear relationships between the analyzed quantitative variables.

Findings:
The results indicate that the development of key economic indicators—such as expenditure on fixed assets, sales revenue, employment, and trade turnover (imports and exports)—is closely associated with the growth in the number of foreign entities and the investment conditions prevailing in host countries. Polish enterprises increasingly allocate capital to Central and Eastern Europe as well as Western Europe, primarily due to cultural proximity and relatively short geographical distances, which facilitate efficient supply chain management. The findings confirm the growing importance of foreign direct investment in the internationalization process of Polish enterprises.

Value added and limitations:
This article contributes to the literature on business internationalization by integrating theoretical considerations with an empirical analysis of the relationship between the number of foreign entities of Polish firms and their selected economic characteristics. A limitation of the study is its focus on linear relationships and selected quantitative indicators, which may not fully capture the complexity of internationalization processes.