E-commerce evolution in Hungary: an investigation of critical succes factor

In this paper we highlight how the use of internet has changed from 2004 to 2009 among Hungarian companies, how their expectations about the role of e-commerce as a competitive advantage has evolved and whether perceived benefits of e-commerce show a shift from 2004 to 2009.We investigate the role of environmental factors and market orientation as two relevant types of critical success factors proposed by the management literature and measure their impacts on Internet usage, expectations about e-commerce and perceived benefits of ecommerce. Our findings suggest that market orientation has a positive effect on Internet usage and perceived benefits of e-commerce. Internet usage and expectations are dependent on the vulnerability of the company to its macroeconomic environment. The positive outcomes of joining the EU seem to influence whether a company is able to exploit e-commerce benefits.

The evolution of the car-making industry

Mass-production, cars, pollution – they all have long become well known and well connected phenomena of the modern life. Nowadays the people can also add to the list such items like awareness, scientific approach, long-term thinking, and environmental responsibility. They are surrounded by a multitude of consumer goods, most of which are produced in a scientific manner, and all of which will more sooner than later end up in the garbage. Cars are the most noticeable – both by size and by numbers – and also the most expensive of all the mass products in people’s view. For many of them they are a clear target for reprimand and regulation, and, as a result, the automotive industry is being increasingly brought under bureaucratic control, together with its whole supplier and distributor network. The author started writing this article in an attempt to place the above process under scrutiny, because it is his firm belief that similar measures, similar tough governmental control will inevitably spill over to other industries, which at the moment are producing more inconspicuous, but still polluting products. The present paper shows the relationship between car-making, supply chain management and the efforts of public administration to protect the environment – a connection with clear practical implications.

A számviteli érdekhordozói elméletek evolúciója és a szabályozás – klasszikus tézisek és új irányok a pénzügyi beszámolásban (Evolution of the financial accounting stakeholder theories and the regulation – classic theses and new ways in the financial report)

A modernkori számvitel egyik alapvető kérdése, hogy a pénzügyi beszámolás címzettjét – az érdekhordozókat – miként lehet azonosítani. Ez a törekvés már a klasszikus, azóta meghaladottá vált elméletekben is központi szerepet töltött be és modern, posztmodern elméletekben kulcsfontosságúvá vált. A tapasztalatok alapján az azonosított érdekhordozók köre módosult, bővült. Ennek a fejlődésnek a vizsgálata során a számvitel számos olyan ismérvét sikerült azonosítani, amely segítségével a vonatkozó szabályok tökéletesíthetők. Emellett az evolúció vizsgálata segítségével közvetlenül is megfigyelhetővé vált az, hogy a számvitelt extern módon szabályozó hatalom szükségessége milyen feltételek teljesítése mellett igazolható. A vizsgálat során azonosíthatóvá váltak olyan helyzetek, amikor a számviteli szabályozó és „kívülről irányított” pénzügyi beszámolás szuboptimális helyzethez vezet. A cikk az érdekhordozói elméletek fejlődését a klasszikus felfogásoktól indulva mutatja be. Feltárja, hogy a modern – jelenleg elfogadott – koalíciós vállalatfelfogás miben hozott újat, elsősorban miként hívta életre az extern szabályozót. _____ One of the key problems of the modern financial accounting is how to define the stakeholders. This problem was already a key issue in the already outdated classical stakeholder theories. Research and experience noted that the group of stakeholders has widened and has been modified. Through this evolution researchers identified many characteristics of financial reporting through which the regulation could have been improved. This advance pointed out which are the situations when the existence of an extern accounting regulator may be justified, since under given circumstances this existence led to suboptimal scenario. This paper deals with the stakeholder theories, starting with the classical ones. The article points out how did the currently accepted theory changed the assertions of the previous one and how was the external regulator created as an inevitable consequence. The paper also highlights the main issues raised by the post-modern theories; those, which try to fit the current questions into the current stakeholder models. The article also produces a Hungarian evidence for the previously mentioned suboptimal scenario, where the not tax-driven regulation proves to be suboptimal.

What is the Future of Strategic Management?

The history of planning and creating strategies has a past of over half a century. Throughout this lifetime period we have witnessed both the evolution of theory and practice. The MBA study books in the last-third of the 20th century have with predilection exhibited this very process as a complex of monetary centered budget planning, forecast-based planning, strategic planning and strategic management. There might be a controversy existing about the naming, characteristics and timing of these different sections but there is an accordance that the changes that we have taken place in the last decade as a whole without a doubt can be derived from these very changes in the business environment or in some outstanding cases (like 9/11) they can be acknowledged as the ability of corporate foreseeing and the ability to adapt to the vision of the future. The main purposes of the research is to provide a summarized picture about the changing process of this procedure during last decades as far as the planning and creating strategies are concerned and also their milestones and periods. Try to explore and systemize the very aspects of these changes. The happenings of the first decade of the new millennium are outstandingly interesting if we consider their real effect on the theory and practice of strategic management. Let us remember the euphoria around the year 2000, the predictions of „new technologies”, „new economy”, „new organization” and „new leadership”. We have implied before on the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center which meant a new era, a new quality of international terrorism and its consequences (Afghanistan, Iraq). But the „product” of this decade is the strategic aim that companies focus on, which is the social responsibility regarding the unavoidance of the effects of climate change on the long run. During the research the big question has risen concerning how did the science of strategic management do as far as the predictions of the global monetary and economic crisis are concerned? And also its solutions this very science has to offer in order to handle and get over the crisis. Does it conclude from the answers given to the questions that a change in paradigms are necessary, a new quality is needed or may be we have come to a new crossroad of the development process that will take over strategic management? (...)

The European Patterns of "Homo Academicus“ and The Chances of Its Evolution In Current Hungarian Higher Education

In the recent four or five years, there have been abrupt and radical changes in the governance of Hungarian higher education. It can then be interesting to assess the state of “homo academicus“ as it looks currently in Hungary. The notion of “homo academicus“ is obvious: it concerns participants in the system of a country’s higher education. The paper as follows still comes back to the definition of “homo academicus“ by referring first to it as occupation, or rather as a profession that can be interpreted in terms of sociology. Secondly, some historic patterns can also be mobilised, based on the assumption that university is a very European institutions that is even rooted in the tradition of the Middle Ages. The elbow-room of seeking for identity and the role to be filled by academics are limited by the effective system of the governance of higher education. It is a key to the chances of academics of meeting the historically corroborated professional standards that they exercise academic freedom. As it cannot be done individually, but in cooperation (through a collegial system), academic freedom is always combined with collective action. The field where this freedom can be exercised can be specified through university autonomy, the lack of which makes a serious barrier to the full development of a character of “homo academicus“. This is now the case in Hungary, the paper suggests. The paper seeks to gain deeper understanding of the character of academics, their vocation and professional roles, and the governance of higher education, serving as the environment for academic activity, by creating a conceptual framework. The paper is established on the results of sociological research and the experience of legal management, although it remains to be of theoretical nature. It criticises the current Hungarian situation of the governance of higher education, arguing for the reconstruction of university autonomy and financial stability. It also emphasises the importance of predictable regulations.

A cafeteria-rendszer továbbfejlesztésének lehetőségei – múlt, jelen és jövő (Evolution of Flexible Remuneration/Cafeteria Systems – Past, Present and Future)

A cikkben a szerzők először áttekintik a cafeteria-rendszer legfontosabb jellemzőit (célját, tipikus „stakeholdereit” és HR-stratégiai kérdéseit). Ezt követően megvizsgálják, milyen átalakuláson ment át a béren kívüli juttatások rendszere 1996-tól – az első ilyen rendszerek magyarországi megjelenésétől – napjainkig. Áttekintik azt is, milyen mozgatórugók idézték elő a főbb változásokat, és ezekhez a piaci szereplők hogyan alkalmazkodtak. Szintén vizsgálják a 2012-re vonatkozó legfőbb változásokat, és ezek lehetséges kihatásait a cégek juttatási politikájára, valamint elmutatnak néhány alternatívát az új feltételek közötti lehetőségekre és kihívásokra. Empirikus felméréseik tükrében kitérnek arra is, hogy főleg a szervezeti méret és kisebb részben a tulajdonforma szignifikánsan befolyásolja a cafeteria-rendszerek alkalmazását. _________ The authors review firstly the most important features of the cafeteria system (goals, typical “stakeholders” and strategic HR issues). Then they examine the evolution of the system of flexible benefits since 1996, the first appearance of such systems in Hungary. Authors also analyze how the main drivers caused the changes, and how the key players of the cafeteria systems adapted to these movements. The reader also can find insights about the major changes for 2012 and about the potential impact of these changes on benefit policies of Hungarian firms. The contribution shows some alternative opportunities and challenges driven by different influencing factors. They also touch upon the light of empirical surveys, that the cafeteria systems are significantly influenced to a lesser extent by the form of ownership and to a bigger extent by the organizational size.