Similarities and Differences in Polish and Hungarian History

In my lecture I would like to give a general introduction to a comparative approach of Polish and Hungarian history. I am convinced it could be not only an interesting, but a relevant issue as well. This approach could be touching emotionally for average Hungarian and Polish people because both nations strongly felt last centuries that they had common historical fate in East Central Europe. There is evidence which prove that Polish-Hungarian friendship is not only a modern phenomenon, but it is originated from the historical past. Historical memory calls the attention that Polish-Hungarian friendship was rooted already in the early modern history, and it was not constructed by historians, but a special relationship between the two nations was a widespread and accepted concept for the wider public in Hungary. I can cite the well-known proverb which represents it: „Pole and Hungarian – two good friends, joint fight and drinking are their ends.” In this lecture I don’t want to give a complete list of differences and similarities, but to call the attention to some interesting aspects of two nations’ common historical fate.

A láthatatlan kéz – szemelvények egy metafora történetéből (The invisible hand - extracts from the history of a metaphor)

A láthatatlan kéz Adam Smith nyomán a közgazdaságtan legismertebb metaforája lett, de jelentősége és értelmezése máig megosztja a közgazdászokat és eszmetörténészeket. Az interpretációk skálája rendkívül széles: mértékadó közgazdászok szerint ez a közgazdaságtan alapeszméje, míg mások Smith ironikus tréfájának vélik. A tanulmány áttekinti a láthatatlan kéz Smith előtti használatát teológiai, politikai és irodalmi szövegekben és a hozzájuk kapcsolódó interpretációkat. Ezt követően bemutatja, hogyan alkalmazta Smith a nevezetes kifejezést a merkantilista politika ironikus és paradox kritikájaként, és miként került a 19. század végétől e metafora a Smith-olvasatokban központi helyre, majd miként vált kérdésessé ez a felfogás a 2008-as válság nyomán. ____ Adam Smith's phrase the invisible hand has become the best-known metaphor in economics, yet both its interpretation and its relevance are hotly debated by economists and intellectual historians. The range of opinions is wide: several leading economists view it as the founding idea in economics and social studies, some historians see it as an ironic jest by Smith. The study surveys the different uses of the metaphor in theological, political and literary texts before Smith and reconstructs the "invisible hand" passage in The Wealth of Nations as an ironic and paradoxical critique of mercantilist policy. A vast literature has emerged since the late 19th century treating the metaphor in various way, ranging from the description and justification of free markets to the claim that it is a purely fictitious mechanism. The critical approach to it has become stronger since the great recession of 2008.

What Determines the Innovativeness of Polish Family Firms? Empirical Results and Theoretical Puzzles

This article will review and synthesize the existing research on the innovativeness of Polish family firms in order to separate universal factors that influence the degree of innovativeness of firms from the factors which distinctively influence the innovativeness of family firms. To better assess the innovation propensity of family firms the author will work out the typology by combining the variety of innovations with particular features of family firms and the industrial context. A more nuanced approach will help to understand why the academic literature is inconclusive with regards to the question of whether family firms are anti-innovative (as some authors claim), pro-innovative or ambivalent with regard to innovations. In particular it will be argued that when assessing family firms’ innovativeness special attention needs to be paid to the impact of the management of intergenerational change on the propensity to innovate, as this process relates to the capacity for investments into innovativeness and the time horizon of the owner’s decisions.