Foreign direct investments of domestic firms: emerging Hungarian multinational companies
KATALIN ANTALÓCZY – ANDREA ÉLTETŐ – MAGDOLNA SASS
Hungary is among the leading outward investors of the new member countries of the European Union. This article, which presents the first results of a research project, tries to show what those factors are which enabled Hungarian companies to expand abroad successfully. Our methodology is based on company case studies of large and smaller-sized investor firms. According to our results, the special ownership advantages of privatsed companies are rooted int he pre-transition period int he first phase of their international expansion, in later phases however, the management changed these succesfully. The ownership advantages of those companies, which were established after 1990 are more similar to those of „traditional” multinational companies. Furthermore, we made a link between the special ownership advantages and virtual indirect investors, through showing that the strong position, knowledge and experience of the management is shaping and modifying constantly these specific ownership advantages.
Critical Success Factors of Export Excellence and its Policy Implications. The Case of Hungarian Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
ERZSÉBET CZAKÓ – ERZSÉBET KÖNCZÖL
The slow economic growth rates in the European Union raise the question how the internationalization of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as a possible engine of economic growth, can be facilitated by national economic policies. Research evidences in International Business suggest that the enterprise competencies are critical in internationalization. It is a proposition, that economic policies should facilitate the development of adequate competencies with SMEs. 10 case studies on exporting Hungarian majority owned SMEs were analyzed to explore their critical success factors (CSFs). The paper contrasts the enterprise levelfindings with economic policies towards internationalization by the findings of a qualitative research.
Competitiveness and internationalization in the Hungarian small business sector in the 2010s
LÁSZLÓ SZERB – GÁBOR MÁRKUS – VIVIEN CSAPI
There are many experts and politicians consider internationalization and increased export the way to improve the Hungarian economic growth perspectives. As a part of the new foreign economic policy strategy, the government reelected has come up with very ambitious goals as the six-fold increase of the number of exportable businesses. This study, based on a survey containing 799 small businesses, analyses the internationalization tendencies of the Hungarian small businesses from the competitiveness perspective. According to our view, the harmonization of the ten competitiveness pillars is more important than having an extremely good performance in one or two pillars. As a consequence, we can examine internationalization in relation with the other nine pillars of competitiveness. We evaluate the internationalization of the Hungarian small businesses by comparing eight clusters. According to our initial expectations, the most internationalized business group firms are also the most competitive ones. However, we have found several businesses with low competitiveness points that were active in export. This finding contradicts to any internationalization theories. Despite, that there are many small businesses in the Hungarian economy that are able to engage in export and internationalization the drastic increase of the number of exporting small businesses is not likely at least not in a short run.
Key factors of Hungarian companies’ internationalisation
ANDREA S. GUBIK
International activities are closely linked to strong corporate performance, growth orientation and innovation activities. Even if it is not clear whether these factors are the conditions or the results of internationalisation, it is essential to encourage companies to enter foreign markets. Since foreign market entry modes are of various complexities, they require different readiness from enterprises but also promise different level of success. The present paper analyses the companies’ choice about the mode and time of foreign entry. To highlight this decision, beyond the objective firm characteristics (company size, field of activity, ownership structure), the effects of corporate resources for internationalisation, attitudes of owner/ entrepreneur/manager to internationalisation and the characteristics of the business industry will also be analysed. The findings make it possible to identify the possible fields where companies need to be supported to enhance their commitments toward higher value added international activities and to accelerate internationalisation.
Legal supplement
Rethinking the trade obstacles aiming animal welfare in the WTO
BALÁZS HORVÁTHY
The disputes between the European Union, and Canada, as well as Norway over the justification of EU seal products ban can be deemed one of the most significant case before the World Trade Organization among the disputes of this year. The Appellate Body’s decision, which was announced in summer 2014, has specified the public morality exception of Article XX (a) GATT, shading more light on the requirements, which the Member States should meet if they are introducing restrictive trade measures justified by some ethical reasons. The recent decision helps the Member States apply the Article XX GATT and add new environmental components to the scope of the Article, therefore domestic trade regulations on prohibition on inhumane treatment of animals, or cruel hunting methods come to be justified under the concept of public morality.
The Private International Law Aspects Of Citizenship
OLIVÉR CZÉKMÁNY – DEZSŐ TAMÁS ZIEGLER
The Office of Immigration and Nationality and the Institute for Legal Studies CSS of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (with the support of the Hungarian Association of Police Science and the National University of Public Service) held a conference about the scientific questions related to conflict-of-laws rules on citizenship on 9 November 2014. Several scholars and practitioners talked about the different aspects of nationality, including procedural law, family law and successional law aspects of the principle. Since the lectures covered a wide range of topics and slowly but surely the present domestic rules of private international law must get revised, it seems to be useful to summarize the main statements of the lectures.