Author:
I. Major Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budaörsi út 45, H-1112 Budapest, Hungary. E-mail: major@econ.core.hu
University of Veszprém, Egyetem u. 10, H-8200 Veszprém, Hungary. E-mail: majori@almos.vein.hu

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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been the target of supportive government policies since economic transformation began in Hungary although the birth of a strong and healthy layer of SMEs has not been observed in the country up to now. In this article the issue of why this has not happened is addressed. Empirical evidence suggested that Hungarian SMEs are not usually driven by the corporate values of Max Weber’s “protestant ethics”; instead, they aim at short-term financial enrichment. Hungarian SMEs cannot usually “climb the ladder” and turn into large enterprises – indeed, their survival period is relatively short.

Nickell (1996) argued that (total factor) productivity rather than profitability would reflect a company’s efficiency level. Using frontier production and frontier profit functions there is an attempt here to prove that “technical (or allocative) efficiency” and “profit efficiency” both have a distinct role to play in explaining a firm’s economic performance; and by applying limited information maximum likelihood models of SME profit gaps it will be shown that cost inefficiencies and unfavourable market conditions — alongside the inefficient allocation of factors of production — inevitably lead to the fairly low level of SME profitability.

The most important finding of the analysis is that employment has been a crucial factor in explaining the profit deviation of companies. Building on the results of Köllő (2001) the article argues that SMEs regard labour as flexible stock. Companies will seek out new labour if they find new market opportunities — but until these appear, they tend to remain in the arena of diminishing returns, this being the easiest way for them to maximise profits. Downgraded production activities do not attract substantial external financing. Yet a lack of financial resources when new market opportunities do emerge will prevent an SME from exploiting the chance.

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Senior editors

Editors-in-Chief: István P. Székely, Dóra Győrffy

Editor(s): Judit Kálmán

Associate Editors

  • Péter Benczúr, Joint Joint Research Center, European Commission
  • Dóra Benedek, International Monetary Fund
  • Balázs Égert, OECD
  • Dániel Prinz, World Bank
  • Rok Spruk, University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business, Slovenia

Editorial Board

  • Anders Åslund, Georgetown University and Advisory Council of CASE, USA
  • István Benczes, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary 
  • Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
  • Fabrizio Coricelli, University of Siena, Italy
  • László Csaba, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary and Central European University, Austria
  • Beáta Farkas, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Szeged, Hungary
  • Péter Halmai, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and National University of Public Service, Hungary
  • Martin Kahanec, Central European University, Austria
  • Michael Landesmann, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW), Austria
  • Péter Mihályi, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
  • Debora Revoltella, European Investment Bank

Corvinus University of Budapest
Department of Economics
Fővám tér 8 Budapest, H-1093, Hungary
E-mail: judit.kalman@uni-corvinus.hu

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2023  
Web of Science  
Journal Impact Factor 0.7
Rank by Impact Factor Q3 (Economics)
Journal Citation Indicator 0.23
Scopus  
CiteScore 1.4
CiteScore rank Q3 (Economics and Econometrics)
SNIP 0.385
Scimago  
SJR index 0.218
SJR Q rank Q4

Acta Oeconomica
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Acta Oeconomica
Language English
Size B5
Year of
Foundation
1966
Volumes
per Year
1
Issues
per Year
4
Founder Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
Founder's
Address
H-1051 Budapest, Hungary, Széchenyi István tér 9.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's
Address
H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible
Publisher
Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 0001-6373 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2659 (Online)

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