Hálózat – A globális gazdaság kvázi szervezete (The business network – the quasi organization of the global economy)

A tanulmány célja, hogy értelmezze a globális gazdaság alapvető fontosságú építőelemét, az üzleti hálózatot, majd megvizsgálja annak felépítését és működésének főbb vezérlőelveit. Először az alapfogalmak – üzleti hálózat, ellátási lánc és ellátási háló – meghatározására és azok felépítésének bemutatására kerül sor. Ezt követően a cikk röviden ismerteti, hogy melyek voltak azok a vállalati gazdálkodás környezetében végbement változások, melyek a gazdaság hálózatosodását elősegítették és ennek kapcsán elvezettek az üzleti hálózatok versenyképességben játszott szerepének erősödéséhez. A szerző ugyanakkor bemutatja a kialakuló új gazdasági modell, az ún. hálózati gazdaság működési modelljének lényeges új tulajdonságait. A tanulmány ezután ismerteti az üzleti hálózat – s ezen belül az ellátási lánc – működtetésében meghatározó koordinációs mechanizmusokban megfigyelhető markáns változásokat. Végül részletesen ismerteti az üzleti hálózat két fő építőelemét: a hálózatot alkotó üzleti egységeknek, illetve a közöttük kialakuló kapcsolatoknak az alapvető típusait. ________ The aim of the paper is to present and interpret the basic building element of global business: the business network, its structure and operation. First basic terms – network, supply chain, supply network – are defined and described, than those changes are introduced that played significant role in increasing their importance. Characteristics of the new network economy are presented; especially changes in the coordination mechanism between cooperating parties in the network are demonstrated. Finally the two building blocks of global business networks: (i) nodes (business units) and (ii) threads (partnerships) are described in details.

Intra-industry agri-food trade of the Baltic Countries

The article analyses patterns and country-specific determinants of the Baltic Countries agri-food trade with the European Union. Literature focusing on the country-specific determinants of vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade is rather limited and those analysing agricultural (or agri-food) trade are extremely rare. Therefore, the paper seeks to contribute to the literature by covering latest theory and data available on the topic to provide up to date results and suggestions. Moreover, it seeks to identify the determinants of horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade of the Baltic Countries after EU accession. Results suggest that agri-food trade of these countries is mainly inter-industry in nature but intra-industry trade is dominated by vertical elements. Results verify that determinants of horizontal and vertical IIT differ and suggest that economic size is positively, while factor endowments and distance are negatively related to both sides of IIT. However, the relationship between IIT and FDI is ambiguous.

The impacts of EU accession on the agriculture of the Visegrad Countries

The Visegrad Countries (VC)2 joined the European Union in 2004, which has offered several possibilities and challenges for their agriculture. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the status of the sector in the light of latest available data as well as to identify the factors lying behind different country performances. Results suggest that EU accession has had a diverse impact on the Visegrad Countries’ agriculture and member states capitalised their possibilities in a different manner, due to initial conditions and pre- and post-accession policies.

Patterns and Drivers of the Agri-Food Intra-Industry Trade of European Union Countries

This paper investigates the drivers of agri-food intra-industry trade (IIT) indices in the European Union (EU-27) member states during the period from 2000–2011. The increased proportion of IIT in matched two-way agri-food trade of the EU-27 member states is consistent with economic integration and economic growth. When export prices were at least 15% higher than the import prices, high-vertical IIT, increased for most member states. This finding suggests that quality improvements occurred when comparing agri-food exports to similar imports of agri-food products. The IIT indices for both horizontal and vertical IIT are positively associated with higher economic development levels, new EU membership and EU enlargement. Additionally, as higher levels of economic development decreases, the size of the economy and marginal IIT increases the effects of agri-food trade liberalization on the costs of the labor market adjustment. Understanding how improvements in agri-food trade quality impact agribusiness and managerial competitiveness reveal significant policy implications.