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Strategy and strategy formulation in Hungarian SME practice
19-32Views:157This study deals with the second phase of a two-year research program focused on modelling the lifcycle of small ventures operating in the Hungarian market. The results of the first phase were published in the March 2006 issue of Competitio. The goal of the second phase was to analyze the role of strategic thinking and strategy formulation at small ventures in different phases of ther lifecycles. The strategy making approaches as described by Henry Mintzberg and strategic positioning models of Micheal Porter were used to generate hypotheses. Strategy making practices and typical market maneuvers are described in detail. Key weaknesses and development problems are highlighted. Basic Business models built on srtategic behavior are recommended as a starting point for further research.
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Is the strategic thinking characteristic of SMEs in the North Hungarian Region? – experiences of a survey
88-100Views:111Regional differences can be observed in the economic importance of small and medium sized enterprises. The research covers the small and medium enterprises within the North Hungarian Region, based on a questionnaire carried out in the autumn of 2011. We examine the existence of a conscious strategic vision of the future and their innovative capability. The low economic activity, the low proportion of industrial enterprises, which is below the national average, and low professional skills are typical of the region. Those managers who have a conscious strategy reported above average profitability. We revealed a correlation between the depth of strategy knowledge and the existence of a formalized strategy, paying attention to the role of education and skills. The knowledge and the acceptance of innovational cooperation opportunities (innovational nets) are at a low-level in the region. Besides strategic thinking, one key element for strengthening the sector is continuous renewal, innovation, observing best practice, and imitating it.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: D220
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Literature analysis of the language challenges and the responses thereto of European multinational companies
Views:42Language diversity is an inherent part of international business transactions,
despite the dominance of English. The challenge for management, HRM, and
employees in multinational companies is to find the right strategy. Multinational
organizations can be categorized using the EPRG (ethnocentric, polycentric,
regiocentric, geocentric) model, according to how they define their relationship
with subsidiaries, and how they operate in foreign markets. Using this model,
conclusions can also be drawn from their applied language strategy.JEL code: F23, Z13
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The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Development Lifecycles, the Short-term Plans and the Strategy of the Actors in the Hungarian SME Sector
29-43Views:174This study was prepared in the third phase of a multi-year research project. The goal of the program was to analyse the growth trajectories and strategies of Hungarian SMEs. Research in the first phase was focused on the specific periods of typical company lifecycles, the second phase dealt with strategic thinking, methods of strategy formulation and the content elements of strategies. The findings and conclusions were published in the journal Competitio. The present study is a report on the findings of the third phase of the research program. It describes the consequences of the recent economic and financial crisis on SMEs. It describes how unexpected and radical changes in the business environment influenced the development of firms, how managers reacted, and how they considered short and long
term factors in their decisions.JEL classification: L21, L26, M1
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Just-in-Time system in terms of real options
Views:96The value creation process in a company and the competitive position are critically influenced by corporate resource allocation and proper valuation of investment alternatives. After the Second World War, capital budgeting and strategic planning emerged as two complementary but different systems for resource allocation. The real options approach developed in the ’80s may provide a useful tool for making a connection between capital budgeting and strategic management. Real options are implicit managerial and operating flexibilities embedded in many non-financial assets and liabilities. In a wider sense: “A real option is the investment in physical assets, human competence, and organisational capabilities that provide the opportunity to respond to future contingent events” (Kogut-Kulatilaka, 2001). This paper shows that Just-in-Time (JIT) system as management philosophy can be regarded as a knowledge-based or capability-based implicit strategy rather than a simple, easy-toimitate best practice approach. Moreover, implementation of JIT can be considered as a strategic investment. The presentation focuses on how the relation among strategic investments, developed technological systems and corporate strategy can be expressed through the real options view.
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Protecting the Architectural Heritage and Economic Strategy
18-28Views:111This essay advances five theses explaining the desolate state of the architectural heritage in Hungary. It also addresses the issue of why two decades of transition was not sufficient to remedy the shortcomings of four decades of socialism. In the second part of the study we attempt to draft a strategy that could help overcome these difficulties. It aims at a combination of business, municipal and civil society activities guided by a nationally coordinated plan. Following these guidelines the architectural heritage in Hungary could be transformed into an asset instead of a liability, as has been the case in many other European countries.
JEL classification: I38, O21, P20, R11
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A kulturális és kreatív iparágak a világ legfrekventáltabb régióiban
Views:174This study touches on and organises the definition of the creative industry, creativity and the differences in terminologies used within the creative economy. These help to form and idea of which areas different countries or regions consider dominant from the developmet point of view. Beyond this, the study describes the attempts to map out the conceptual system of the creative economy and its statistical measurement. It therefore examines the statistical, economical and social characteristics of the creative industries, in accordance with the Europe 2020 Strategy and other professional documents. It aims to provide a comparative analysis of different regions' creative industries. Lastly, regarding to Hungary, it defines future tasks.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: Z1
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The timing of the EMU accession
45-62Views:199Following the Eu-accession the next major challenge is the preparation for and finally the introduction of the single currency for the Central Eastern European countries. In this paper, I analyze the legal, economic and political factors regarding the preparedness of the whole region, with special emphasis on Hungary. After taking the pros and cons of the official "as soon as possible" strategy into consideration, we can conclude that there is no convincing case for further postponing eurozone entry. Additionally, putting off the date indefinitely or ambiguously could result in growing economic uncertainty and dangerous financial instability. In the case of Hungary, it is very likely that the country would suffer serious loss of reputation and credibility were it to put off the target date a second time, i.e. beyond 2010. Lack of strong political commitment could unfortunately easily lead to a postponement of the adaption of the single currency. The potential implication might well be debated, but no doubt would be serious in terms of reputation and economic development.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classification: E42, E58, F33
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The Risks of Global Financial Markets and the Importance of Credibility: Implications for Hungarian Fiscal Policy
27-44Views:80The central issue in the controversy about the adoption of the euro in Hungary is the difficulties associated with the fulfillment of the fiscal criterion and the possible growth sacrifice it requires. In this paper the author examines the question whether the strategy of delaying entry into the euro-zone implies that fiscal consolidation can be delayed as well. In approaching the problem the paper considers the origins and history of the present-day global financial markets and argues that given the high degree of systemic risks individual countries face responsible macroeconomic policies are crucial in minimizing vulnerability to
crises. Consequently in order to avoid excessive interest rates and speculative inflows (or currency crisis in the worst case scenario) fiscal deficits in Hungary would have to be cut and credibility of fiscal policy reestablished even without EMU accession. The overall conclusion from this overview is that delaying entry in order to delay fiscal adjustment is likely to increase the trade off between real and nominal convergence instead of mitigating it.JEL classification: F33, F41, H62
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Exit strategies of family businesses in Hungary
43-63Views:211The study aims to examine the ownership transmission strategies in the context of family firm succession in Hungary. The successful transfer of ownership, management and acquired experience at a family firm represents one of its greatest challenges; however, there is still a lack of understanding of the unique future strategies and succession outcomes of Hungarian family businesses. As a significant proportion of the founders of those family businesses established after the regime change (post-1989) are now reaching retirement age, a study of how such business organisations plan to survive the generational transition is highly relevant. This study applies a mixed methodology of quantitative and a qualitative analysis (e.g.,
in the case of IPOs). The results show that the average age of the examined family firm CEOs is higher than the global average and the majority of them plans to keep ownership and management within the family. Other exit strategies (i.e. initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions) are not typical of the examined sample. -
The Comparative Analysis of the Cultural Financing Models of France and Hungary
50-67Views:130Both France and Hungary use the so called coordinated cultural financing model, in which the active role of the state is decisive. However, instead of producing a similar model, the level of the cultural sector value added to GDP in the two countries is different. The article’s aim is to answer this puzzle. The focus is on the role of institutions and state subsidy. The analysis tries to understand whether direct state subsidy plays a decisive role in the economic performance of the cultural sector. The analysis also shows whether the harmony of formal and informal institutions have a positive effect on the economic growth of the cultural sector. The assumption is that the size of direct government subsidy cannot increase economic growth. If the formal and informal institutions are in harmony, and if there is a long-run cultural policy strategy in a country, the cultural sector value added to GDP is higher.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) classifications: Z10, Z11
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The emergence of digital transformation in the automotive industry - Industry 4.0 in Hungary
3-28Views:379It is no exaggeration to say that the digital transformation can be seen as both a paradigm shifts and a real technological revolution (Perez, 2010, Mergel, et al., 2019). In order to get to know the preparedness of the Hungarian automotive industry players in the topic, we conducted an empirical research in October - December 2020. The main goal was to determine the level of automotive actors in the digital transformation process. Company leaders were primarily asked about their progress in the digital transition process, its opportunities and challenges, organizational culture, and potential human resource management responses. This study focuses on the digital transition concentrating on the following dimensions: strategy and leadership, human resources, business processes, supply chain, manufacturing, products and services. Based on the results, we classified the examined Hungarian automotive industry actors into clusters.
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Role of the organizational factors in the success of Hungarian SMEs
108-125Views:662This paper analyses the success of the Hungarian SME sector from the aspect of competitiveness, innovation, organizational background and the role of the leader/owner. The author summarizes the organizational innovation specialties of the SMEs based on four empirical researches and own case-study. The conclusion is the organizational innovation characteristically fades into the background of SME operation, development purposes and strategy. The role of the firm owner-leader is essential in these topics. Meanwhile the inflexibility of the organization, loyalty of the employees, labor market disadvantages, the knowledge level and competency of the human resources, its effect on the efficiency are often limit the expansion. These factors have significant influence on the success and competitiveness of the company. Therefore, the paper analyses the organizational innovation and background according to the company success, and the leader-based decision-making procedures, and processes, and evaluates the results of secondary research based on these. The novelty of the empirical research method is the search for GAPs between the leader and the organization and their correlation with success and attitude towards innovation.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: M14
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The future of Russian outward foreign direct investment and the eclectic paradigm: What changes after the crisis of 2008–2009?
31-54Views:138This article explores the future of Russian outward foreign direct investment in the aftermath of the crisis of 2008–2009. As it is too early to analyse the full impact of the crisis, it develops hypotheses about the degree of slowdown in the foreign expansion of Russian transnational corporations. It uses an extension of the eclectic paradigm to home country advantages (competitive environment, business environment, development strategy, State involvement) applied to a comparison of the Russian Federation with other economies in transition as an analytical tool. Systematic differences between transnationals from the Russian Federation (global firms, based on natural resources, aiming for vertical integration of assets) and from new European Union member countries (regional firms, based on downstream activities or services, aiming for horizontal integration) allow us to formulate more solid conclusions about the future of the Russian firms facing lower export prices, lower market capitalizations and higher debts. In turn, this article argue that a comparison with the large emerging economies of Brazil, China and India, under the acronym of BRIC can be less useful in the current context, as these economies are significantly less affected by the crisis of 2008–2009 than the Russian Federation; hence they can not expect a slowdown in their outward foreign direct investment similar to that of Russian transnationals.
JEL: F23; F21; O52; P29
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Price transmission on the Hungarian pork meat market in the presence of structural breaks
24-36Views:82The study of marketing margins and price transmission on various commodity markets has been a popular research topic of the past decades (see MEYER, VON CRAMON-TAUBADEL, 2004, for a present survey). However with a few exceptions these studies focused on developed economies. This paper examines the above phenomena on the Hungarian pork market. The Johansen (maximum likelihood, 1988) or Engle and Granger (two step, 1987) cointegration tests do not reject the no-cointegration null hypothesis between the Hungarian pork producer and retail price series. Therefore, we applied the Gregory and Hansen (1996) procedure with recursively estimated breakpoints and ADF statistics, and found that the prices are cointegrated with a structural break occurring in April 1996. Exogeneity tests reveal the causality running from producer to retail prices both in the long and short run. Homogeneity tests are rejected, suggesting mark-up pricing strategy. Price transmission modelling suggests that price transmission on the Hungarian pork meat market is symmetric in the long, but asymmetric in the short-run, i.e. processors, wholesalers or retailers might take temporary advantage, should price changes occur.
Journal of Econmic Literature (JEL) classification: Q13, D12, D4
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Empirical analysis in the context of economic, technological and institutional development: the distinction between innovator and imitator countries
3-21Views:155The driving force of economic growth is technological progress, which can be realized in two ways at the aggregate level. On the one hand, it can be a result of independent research and development, i.e. it can be realized in an innovation-driven manner. Alternatively, it can be the result of an adaptation from other countries, i.e. through imitation, which is a strategy that many countries employ successfully today. In both cases, it is the institutions, including both their formal and informal elements, which create the opportunity for technological progress. The aim of this study is to differentiate between the innovator and the imitator countries in order to highlight the differences in their institutions. The classification is done by a cluster analysis of countries, which is performed with the help of a technological and institutional environment index constructed by a principal-component analysis. The analysis confirms that economic, technological and institutional development are closely linked in the countries studied.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: O31, O33, O43
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Ecological marketing strategy and futurology
169-188Views:187For both branches of futurology - prognostics and the creation of a picture of the future - the natural environment is an important element. Both economics and environmental economics try to influence the actions of economic actors by painting alarming or attractive pictures of future developments. The concept of sustainable development attempts to achieve the realization of those concepts which harmonize present and future economic, environmental and social interests. To this end a preventive environmental policy is necessary, as is the introduction of a value system in which in the course of economic decisions, environmental interests are accorded at least equal status with economic interests. Among the various concepts, eco-marketing is an appropriate method of harmonizing the often contradictory goals and interests of companies. The first part of the study deals with the relationship between research into the future and the environment, the second introduces the concept of eco-marketing, and systematizes ecological marketing strategies.