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Abstract
This study examines the role of Magyar Suzuki in the Hungarian automotive industry. It is the oldest foreign vehicle manufacturer and a symbol of modernisation in the post-communist era in Hungary. Due to EU's local content rule, Magyar Suzuki, in comparison with its counterparts in the region, has established a locally embedded supply chain network. Magyar Suzuki has facilitated process and product upgrading of the local suppliers in Hungary. Nevertheless, functional upgrading is relatively limited due to automotive multinational corporations' recognition of Hungary as a low-cost production location, a low level of R&D operation, and a small domestic market.
Abstract
In a context of rapid technological change, digital manufacturing technologies bear the promise of enabling significant improvement in operational efficiency. However, evidence indicates that investing in smart digital solutions, per se, does not guarantee performance improvement. Smart factory projects may be derailed, failing to realise the expected operational benefits. This study addresses the gap between academic propositions regarding the unequivocally positive impact of digitalisation and the actual evidence.
It draws on data obtained from 18 interviews with technology providers, managers and front-line workers at 12 Hungarian manufacturing companies. We use the concepts of resource complementarity, task–technology misfit, and technology acceptance as a theoretical lens to categorise the seemingly idiosyncratic and context-specific operational problems.
We find that digital technology implementation produces inferior-to-expectations outcomes unless companies invest in and upgrade their complementary intangible resources. Four distinct, albeit strongly interrelated types of complementarities are identified: managerial, organisational, skill-related and technical complementarities. Managerial capabilities to adjust the organisational structure, improve workflows and develop a strategy to address technical problems are found to be paramount to eliminate task-technology misfit and enhance technology acceptance.
Abstract
The transitory shock of the financial crisis of 2008 pushed most economies to permanently lower-level growth paths than those prevalent before the crisis, which can be considered as a manifestation of hysteresis. It is well known that some fixed adjustment costs lead to hysteresis in aggregate output. This paper investigates within an agent-based model, whether the fixed costs of price adjustment (menu costs) lead to the same result. Hysteresis emerges in some simple variants of the model independently of firms being assumed boundedly or perfectly rational, but these model variants fit to the empirical data poorly. The model's empirical performance can be improved by assuming that firms are hit by idiosyncratic productivity shocks, but these shocks eliminate hysteresis generated by menu costs. However, hysteresis survives even in their presence, if it is generated by demand-supply interactions, i.e., positive feedbacks from the output gap to potential output. Our conclusion is that if one would like menu costs to serve as an at least as relevant explanation for the hysteretic dynamics of aggregate output as demand-supply interactions, one has to find an alternative assumption to replace idiosyncratic productivity shocks as a mechanism to assure good empirical fit for the model.
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate the impact of tourism on the economic growth of the South Asian region. By employing panel data of six South Asian economies spanning from 1998 to 2017, our empirical investigation relies upon the panel cointegration and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) techniques. Consistent with the “Tourism Led Growth Hypothesis”, the results prove a significant positive and long-run association between tourism and economic growth. The novelty of our study is the presentation of two models which confirm that tourism is an independent accelerator of economic growth, and it performs the same role even in the presence of standard income determinants. These findings are robust when we apply alternate statistical techniques, such as, dynamic ordinary least square method and Granger Causality Test. It implies that the South Asian economies should focus on the development of the tourism sector with permanent development in public infrastructures, like public transport, airports, road system and telecommunication to surge their economic growth.
Abstract
This paper looks at the adoption of e-government technologies from a citizen-centric, value-based point-of-view. We analyse e-government technology adoption and value creation on a large, representative Hungarian sample, using the data of the Good State Public Administration Opinion Survey. The paper examines the near total spectrum of the Hungarian government-to-citizen administration service areas: 11 e-government services, with a special focus on personal income tax administration and the use of government issued documents. The technology acceptance model and an e-government-specific adaptation of the DeLone – McLean information system (IS) success model are used as the theoretic base. Factor analysis, traditional association metrics and statistical tests are used for the analysis. Results confirm the relevance of the technology adoption factors suggested by the mainstream IS literature, while citizen-level value creation – in the form of cost or time saved, satisfaction level raised – was less demonstrable. Increasing citizens' internet trust or improving facilitating infrastructural conditions, as well as a significant value proposition in terms of time savings and ease of use would help increasing e-government service adoption levels and value creation potential.
Abstract
The Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) literature has recently manifested a dynamic development. Among others, the member states of the European Union (EU) have been studied extensively from this viewpoint, and main capitalism models have been identified. Yet, the global financial and economic crisis and its aftermath in Europe have impacted the member states' economies, typically in asymmetric ways and, in 2020, a highly diverse EU faced the COVID-19 induced economic crisis.
Our study investigates the EU member states from a perspective different from the existing research on VoC in Europe: our starting point is the macroeconomic decomposition of GDP. Our findings draw up a categorisation somewhat different from the previous results: while the core of the EU is rather consistent and homogenous, clusters of the periphery do not fully coincide with geography and earlier typisations; there are also single outliers and ‘New tigers of Europe’ emerging. Nevertheless, the core-periphery divide still stands overall.
Abstract
This paper presents a nearly ten-year-long process of covering the history of social enterprise development in a small village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Hungary. The paper covers the hermeneutical interpretation of the process, the role and relationship between the community and the social enterprise developer, the process of development work, and how university education complements this process. The case study provides insights into the theory of community planning, the methodology of social-enterprise development and the issue of empowerment.
Abstract
We aim to explore whether ongoing digital innovations in Premier League clubs may substantiate a prospective change in their business model and potentially lead to a solution to the financial sustainability issue in professional football. Our exploratory study is to identify ongoing digital innovations and what changes can be foreseen in future years. The empirical analysis is based on information collected from club webpages, their selected social media pages, and top sports business journals. Our results indicate that despite the numerous digital innovations already implemented in the clubs, their utilisation has not reached a level to justify a more complex business model innovation. However, several changes indicate that such a fundamental transformation will likely happen in the foreseeable future. Our work's scholarly contribution is exploring a novel field of study concentrating on the digitally focused business model innovations of professional clubs, unlike most football business model analyses that focus on leagues. We have concluded that clubs can and should apply business innovations to look for more financially sustainable operations, even without necessarily waiting for changes to be made in the generic competitive structure they perform in.
Abstract
With the increase of international sports events in Hungary, their number, size, coverage, required investments, social impacts, the number of stakeholders, and people's involvement have also grown, while social support has bottomed out. How can we achieve social support? What are the factors that determine the perception of the residents of the organising city, thus, their social support? This question is answered by analysing the case of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Győr. The empirical research used quantitative methods, obtaining residents' opinions of international sports events before and after the event. The paper shows that a general positive opinion of international sports events is positively correlated with high levels of both spectator and participation sports consumption. Also, those who are personally satisfied with their quality of life generally support the organisation of international sports events and think positively of their impact. The level of satisfaction with life is correlated with satisfaction with the city and a positive opinion of its services. The regression model shows that personal involvement (e.g., interest, participation, and volunteering) is positively related to the evaluation of the impacts of sports events.
