Strategic Issues of Northern Hungary

Book review (Can the economic and social consequences of crises be reduced on moral grounds?)

Zsolt Pilhál — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Strengths and weaknesses of the integrity of public service companies

Gyula Pulay, Kolos István Kovács — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The article presents the state of the integrity of public service companies based on the data of the survey conducted by the State Audit Office Hungary among publicly owned enterprises in 2018. The analysis reveals that the integrity risks related to public services are already present in smaller public service companies, but companies with balance sheets below 600 million typically did not build up an integrity control system that counterbalance the increased risks. The article points out that, it is primarily up to the management of public service companies to build a number of important integrity controls. The article recommends that public authorities and local governments – as owners or as public bodies responsible for the provision of the public service –
should initiate the establishment of controls that can make a significant contribution to the strengthening the organizational integrity of public service companies.

The relationship between sustainable development and social innovation, measuring its relationship

Sándor Karajz, Mónika Kis-Orloczki — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The article presents the state of the integrity of public service companies based on the data of the survey conducted by the State Audit Office Hungary among publicly owned enterprises in 2018. The analysis reveals that the integrity risks related to public services are already present in smaller public service companies, but companies with balance sheets below 600 million typically did not build up an integrity control system that counterbalance the increased risks. The article points out that, it is primarily up to the management of public service companies to build a number of important integrity controls. The article recommends that public authorities and local governments – as owners or as public bodies responsible for the provision of the public service - should initiate the establishment of controls that can make a significant contribution to the strengthening the organizational integrity of public service companies.

The interdisciplinary nature of a cost-benefit analysis

Beáta Fodor — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The cost benefit analysis to establish the decisions on community investments is a method which has been applied in practice to a considerable extent in the past. As time passed a more and more precise application of this method was required. The analysis is a process consisting of several steps where the aspects and results of different disciplines have been used.
The first step is demand assessment. This is the analysis and rating of the community needs and demands. At this stage, technical and legal skills are also required besides the economic ones. The next step is to examine the possible ways of implementation. Here the different investment options are taken into consideration. The different options result in different types
and extent of cost and utilization. In order to examine these, the results of different disciplines are used. The third step is closely related to the previous one, since the costs and benefits of each option are defined here in normal units of measurement and the money values are also given. The fourth step is the comparison of the costs and benefits where different estimates are used.
Based on the results, the various investment option may be evaluated and the best option may be chosen and the decision itself may be made. However, the methodological basis to compare and evaluate the results is not clarified scientifically. Here, concepts, methods and approaches of economics, business economics and finance are mixed.

Sensitivity of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises to social problems based on the experiences of a questionnaire survey

Klára Szűcsné Markovics — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Identification of social problems and adopting a sensitive approach to resolving them are crucial elements of social innovation. This study aims to investigate the opinion of the Hungarian corporate sphere about social problems and social innovation. More specifically, this study attempts to uncover what senior corporate management thinks of the following issues: (1) the presence of social problems and disadvantaged groups; (2) the role of social innovation in improving the quality of life of disadvantaged groups; and (3) the role of enterprises in responding to social problems.

The digital social innovation

Szabolcs Nagy — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

Digital social innovation is a new phenomenon that aims to provide new solutions to the social problems with the integration of digital technology into innovations. The aim of the study is to explore the concept of (digital) social innovation and to understand how digital social innovation works. In addition, it also discusses in detail the different forms, goals, core values and prerequisites of digital social innovation. The study presents the success factors and international best practices of digital social innovation as well as the author's conclusions.

Financial sustainability of enterprises in two sub-shires in the territory of Nógrád

Judit Sági, Petronella Molnár, Szilárd Hegedűs — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The study examines the enterprises of two peripheral sub-shires located in Nógrád, alongside the town-village duality, from an unusual aspect. The research methodology was testing with bankruptcy models the principle of going concern in relation to enterprises, among the active corporations in the Balassagyarmat and Nógrád sub-shires. The model testing was not aiming for predicting bankruptcies, but rather for assessing the financial sustainability of the enterprises operating in the two sub-shires. The novelty of the research was in its conclusions: the authors found that the probability of bankruptcy is lower in case of those enterprises, which operate in rural areas than of those in the towns. The reason can be found in the different management practices and financing attitudes of family businesses.

Technological possibilities – social realities

Zoltán Bartha, Andrea S. Gubik — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

In our study we investigate the innovation process that links technological possibilities to the actual real life innovation. We study the properties of the process, and shed light on the ones that can distort it and/or slow it down. We set up a model called the innovation shell that includes all the potential forces/influencers. The shell consists of three layers. The inner layer is called the corporate core, which includes the ownership interests, the managerial motivations, the corporate culture, and structure, and people. The second layer is the innovation ecosystem made up of the research and financial infrastructure, and the regulating institutions. Finally the third layer includes the values of customers and stakeholders.

Two disciplinary placements of business economics, and the interdisciplinarity

Mária Illés — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The paper examines business economics from an interdisciplinary perspective. The conceptual issues of interdisciplinarity are disordered, so the definition is created by using roughly coinciding elements of some published conceptions. The analysis is based on this. However, there are two disciplinary placements of business economics which actually means two very different
variants of business economics. One of them is such variant by which it is a kind of subdivisions of the microeconomics. In this variant, the high microeconomics abstraction level, category system, and model system prevail, in addition, even the symbol system is identical to the microeconomic symbols. Based on these, this variant is not suitable for the mapping of the real economic relationship system of companies. By the second variant, the business economics is an independent discipline. The main function of this is the scientifically sound support of business operation and the training of professionals who are familiar with the real business. Literature does not deal with this duality problem although the quality of business economics very much has an effect on the level of scientific clarity of topics related to business management. The issues of interdisciplinarity of that variant which is developed as part of the microeconomics are forming in function of microeconomics. The relationship between that business economics which operates as an independent discipline with other disciplines is very wide. In addition to interdisciplinary relations, the range of multidisciplinary solutions also is quite wide.

The role of geographical factors in development of economic performance

József Benedek — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The main goal of the study is to reveal some aspects related to the role of geographical factors in economics. More exactly, we offer an overview on those geographical factors, which have some role in explaining the differences in the economic output of regions. In our view the important exchange of ideas and research tools between economic geography and different branches of economics (regional economics, urban economics, development economics) has produces important results. This development should be further strengthened in developing economic analysis and prognosis.