Erzsébet Czakó

Lessons of the US Business Schools for Hungary: A Comparison

Discusses changes in management practice and its educational base in Central and Eastern Europe as moves are made from the centrally planned economy to a market one. The business school system is seen as an attractive pattern to follow in Hungarian business and management education at university level. Answers the question of how this is possible by looking to comparisons between US business and management education and the Hungarian system for the practical solutions that are required by the Hungarian economy in transition.

Competitiveness and Industry Restructuring: The Case of Hungary

This paper concentrates primarily on the undiscovered side of competitiveness and industrial restructuring of the Hungarian economy, these include micro and sub-micro factors that influence the competitiveness of companies. Papers on transition are rich and valuable in the description of macro issues on the economic transition process, but they usually ignore other factors like general macro economic policy and its measurable results. In this paper, we provide a picture of the factors that enhance or prevent Hungarian enterprises from being more competitive in changing macroeconomic and international circumstances.

Contrasting Methods: An Explorative Investigation on Firm-Level Export Competitiveness Based on Qualitative and Quantitative Research Findings

Exports and exporting firms have long been studied in the fields of both international business (IB) and competitiveness. While IB concentrates on the performance of firms and, within this scope of interest, on the processes from a company or managerial perspective, the competitiveness stream has primarily focused on country-level implications from the point of view of policy making. Qualitative studies are frequent in IB research, while quantitative methods have been more widespread in competitiveness research. The novelty of this work is to use both types of research in relation to the same population in order to compare findings. Based on the notion that the qualitative and quantitative research are complementary, this paper investigates how SME performance can be assessed based on financial performance patterns and what conclusions can be drawn for competitiveness at firm and national levels. An explorative qualitative research — where financial figures were also collected — was performed in the case of ten Hungarian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to discover the processes and mechanisms of export excellence. A quantitative research was performed to explore the financial performance patterns of privately-owned companies in Hungary. Findings show that export intensive SMEs are amongst the financially high performing Hungarian firms. Based on qualitative research findings, we propose that outstanding management, continuous learning and innovation — also frequent in competitiveness narratives — may be the factors explaining the success of such firms.

Characterizing the Patterns of Inward and Emerging Outward FDI in Hungary

In terms of its size, Hungary has been a relatively open economy. This is indicated by high exports/GDP ratios that have prevailed since the 1970s. However, until the 1990s both inward and outward foreign direct investments (FDI) were negligible. The decade of the 1990s can be characterized by inward FDI, and in the 2000s fast-growing outward FDI can be observed. The impacts of inward FDI on Hungary and transition economies are widely dis-cussed in both comparative economics and international business literature. Outward FDI has attracted lesser attention, especially in Central and Eastern Europe so far. The political and economic situation of some countries in the region has been changed by EU membership. This chapter provides an overview on the inward and outward FDI of selected Central and Eastern European countries and focuses on Hungary. In the 1990s Hungary was a success story in attracting FDI. The description of the source countries and recipient branches will show that the inward FDI is concentrated. Emerging Hungarian outward FDI put Hungary ahead in the region in the 2000s. However, the values are small and volatile. Time series data is used to depict these trends. Recipient countries and source branches will be analysed. The shaping patterns will be described and evaluated in the light of international business and Hungarian literature on MNEs.