The relationship between digital development and export activity of Hungarian SMEs
ZSOLT ROLAND SZABÓ – BORBÁLA SZEDMÁK – ANNA TAJTI
Digital transformation has resulted in significant changes in the economy and society as well as in the life of companies. New technologies are accelerating globalization, but many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are lagging behind in internationalization. The objective of this article is to analyze the relationship between digital maturity (i. e. the application of digital systems) and export activity among SMEs. Domestic and international literary sources have typically discussed the internationalization of SMEs and the use of digital corporate technologies in SMEs separately. As a new approach, this paper amends the existing literature with the analysis of the interrelationship between the two areas. The authors tested their research hypotheses through a questionnaire-based survey comprising 316 SMEs. One of the most important conclusions of the report is that the use of most digital systems constitute the major driving force in internationalization: companies planning to accede to external markets are more likely to apply digital systems than those already present abroad and/or those not intending to enter foreign markets.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: F20, L10, M15, M16, O19.
International experiences of government start-up financing
JUDIT KARSAI
The state has an important role to play in financing start-ups at each stage of their development. The vast majority of start-up funding is provided by non-reimbursable state aid and soft loans, the latter backed by state guarantees. The role of venture capital is much smaller. However, it can be promoted by the state, notably through co-financing with private investors and by increasing the capital of private venture capital funds. An important tool to promote the recapitalisation of venture capital funds is the use of state guarantees by private investors in the funds. The most effective way for the state to participate in start-up financing is not by providing funds directly to firms, but by acting as a catalyst for financing by encouraging private market players. This analysis will show which internationally developed solutions for public support have been scaled up and how successful they have been.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: L26, G20, G23, G24
Competition versus contention. The role of personal relations in late modern capitalisms
ISTVÁN KOLLAI
According to its definition in economics, competition is an exchange coordinated by impersonal market and bureaucratic institutions: in principle, the personal relationship between the two parties plays no role in its development. However, today’s literature describes a number of cases where the outcome of the exchange can be influenced by the personal nexus between buyer and seller, which may be ethical or aggressive towards each other. This suggests that in order to gain a better understanding of the functioning of late modern economies, it is necessary to go beyond an understanding of the market and bureaucracy to a conceptual exploration of the coordinating power of personal relationships. This paper will refer to such exchanges, which are also shaped by personal relationships, as contention (rivalry) rather than competition in the broad sense, and will attempt to describe them as accurately as possible using the tools of institutional economics. The analysis suggests that it is not only local cultural norms that can foster the emergence of capitalisms imbued with interpersonal relations, but also technological development and subsequent economic restructuring per se. It is also possible to see how competitive institutions can be destructured, giving
way to personal relations, and how, conversely, competitive norms can develop out of the web of personal relations.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: P10; P51
A traditional industry in a new robe Ernő Molnár:
The industry of the semi-periphery and global production networks. The case of the leather industry (Didakt Kiadó, 2021, Debrecen, 302 pages, in Hungarian)
MAGDOLNA SASS – ANDREA SZALAVETZ
This book review highlights three particularly important features of Molnár’s book discussing the transformation of the Hungarian leather industry. 1. Despite significant upgrading, the principal actors of the industry are specialized in manufacturing activities, which can barely ensure their survival. 2. Semi-periphery is a key concept of the book, and the author elucidates why the only possible way out of this intermediate position for Hungarian actors is open to downwards. 3. Molnár’s analysis integrates two perspectives: the global value chain and the geographical perspective, discussing the transforming spatial structure of the industry. He provides illuminating case studies to explain how the industry diversified its traditional product mix dominated by light industry-specific consumption goods and explores the antecedents of the current spatial patterns of an industry that is gradually becoming mainly an automotive supplier.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: L67, P31, R12.
Autonomous cars at the WTO’s repair station – Technological challenges of international trade law
BALÁZS HORVÁTHY
The emergence and the spread of new technologies pose challenges, too, to the legal system, therefore not surprisingly, the legal scholarship has often addressed topics related to technology in recent years. Joining this discourse, this paper discusses from the perspective of the international trade law the challenges created by the proliferation of new technologies, including autonomous cars in this area of law. The main question of the analysis is whether the current normative system of international trade law is able to provide adequate answers to these challenges and to address the novel problems arising from the technological revolution. The first part of the paper reviews the interaction between international trade law and technology, demonstrates how the norms of international trade law affect technology itself, and conversely, how and what kind of regulatory challenges are posed by technology to international trade law. The second part examines the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the third one contains the summary and conclusions.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: F13; O33
Review on Tamás Szabados: Economic Sanctions in EU Private International Law (Hart Publishing, 2020, Oxford, 280 pages)
PATRIK PÁZMÁNDI
Economic sanctions are key instruments through which a state or a community of states (e. g. the European Union) can use its economic power to pursue its political ambitions. Most of the time, these sanctions are analysed in terms of political science, international economics or international law, but Tamás Szabados’ monograph examines another, no less important aspect of them: their private international law assessment, i. e. the application of economic sanctions as legal norms by the respective judicial forum. In addition to defining economic sanctions, Tamás Szabados’ book also describes the different legal bases for their imposition, presents the practice of the Court of Justice of
the European Union and the courts of the EU Member States, drawing attention to the problems of the divided nature of this practice, and presenting possible solutions to them.
Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes: F13; F51.