a borítólapra  Súgó epa Copyright 
Acta polytechnica HungaricaVolume 6, Issue No. 3 (2009.)

Tartalom

Tematikus cím:Special Issue on Management, Enterprise and Benchmarking - Guest Editor: György Kadocsa
  • Walter Ruda ,
    Thomas A. Martin ,
    Benjamin Danko :

    Abstract: The reserach project „Foundation and Entrepreneurship of Students“ (GEStstudy) analyzes entrepreneurial criteria and existing cause-effect relationships within the pre-start-up process of students, in order to generate recommended actions for advcancing and improving the design of student entrepreneurship support and entrepreneurship education. This benefits the entrepreneurial activity of the most innovative target group of students and academics and, thus, employment and the competetiveness of the economy. The research paper recommends a target group-specific approach within the scope of student entrepreneurship support. For this purpose, the foundation-ambition types are illustrated, whereupon their start-up motives, barriers and desiderata are compared based on a data set of approximately 1,500 students from four German universities (of applied sciences). Due to the conducted factor and cluster analyses, indeed, different requirements of the diverse foundation-ambition types are identified. Moreover, starting points at the universities and colleges in the context of student entrepreneurship support and education are suggested, followed by a demand for further research.

    Keywords: Entrepreneurship Support, Start-up, Foundation-Ambition, Students, Germany

  • Ľubica Lesáková :
    Innovations in Small and Medium Enterprises in Slovakia23-34en [171.80 kB - PDF]EPA-02461-00019-0020

    Abstract: Innovations have become not only very important determinant of successful development of every firm, but also their necessity. Small and medium enterprises are forced to make innovations, because they are under permanent pressure of competitors at the market. From this point of view the ability to compete in innovations plays very important role as a factor of their competitiveness. To strenghten innovation activities is one of the main task of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) nowadays. It´s also one of the priorities formulated in the strategy of building knowledged based economy in our country. The aim of the article is to give the view on the problems of developing innovation activities in SMEs sector in Slovakia. Because of the need to use a systematic approach, the stress will be given to the main factors determining innovation activities in SMEs in Slovakia and to innovativeness, which is viewed as one of the prerequisites for successful innovation activity in small and medium enterprises. The paper is elaborated as a part of VEGA project 1/0700/08 Determinants of innovation activities in small and medium enterprises in the Slovak Republik.

    Keywords: small and medium enterprises, innovations, innovativeness, innovation activities, Slovak Republik

  • Mojca Duh ,
    Jernej Belak :

    Abstract: Family enterprises are defined as a special type of enterprises. The involvement of a family in the enterprise is what makes these enterprises unique. The research presented in the paper aims to broaden our knowledge about the influence of a family on the ethical behaviour of a family enterprise. The case study research methodology was applied to explore the influence of a family on the constitutional elements of the enterprise ethical behaviour. The pre-designed questionnaire was used in conducting face-to-face interviews with 28 managers who were in most cases also owners of the studied enterprises.

    Keywords: family, family enterprise, case study, ethical behaviour

  • Edward J. Romar :
    Strategic Intent, Confucian Harmony and Firm Success57-67en [58.70 kB - PDF]EPA-02461-00019-0040

    Abstract: This paper argues that by using the Confucian concept of harmony as its strategic intent a firm can be both ethical and successful. Using the work of Peter F. Drucker, Michael Porter, and Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad the paper discusses the role of strategic intent as a contributing factor to firm success. The paper then discusses how the Confucian concept of harmony fulfills the concept of strategic intent and how harmony can contribute to the development of a successful and ethical organization. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the applicability of Confucian ethics to the financial services industry.

    Keywords: Strategic Intent, business ethics, Harmony, Confucianism

  • Péter Fodor ,
    József Poór :

    Abstract: According to Ervin László [1], a Hungarian member of the Club of Rome, crisis is a natural phenomenon in human society. The present crisis, however, is very different from earlier ones, in that it has spread very rapidly to all countries in the world and – he asserts – we are very close to a global collapse. This, in other words, is the first true global crisis. Our study aims to discover what action Hungarian companies plan to take in relation to human resource management and, concurrently, knowledge-management in this financial and economic crisis. With a brief review of the literature we demonstrate the role of knowledge and human capital in a period of depression and we then present the findings of empirical research which we undertook in Hungary from November 2008 to February 2009 and, in early March 2009, in Slovakia. We finally attempt to draw conclusions by means of a country comparison, at the same time highlighting both the limitations of our research and our future related plans.

    Keywords: Management, Human Resource Management, Economic and Financial Crisis, Hungary and Slovakia

  • Ferenc Farkas ,
    Ágnes Király :
    What Makes Higher Education Knowledge-Compatible? 93-104en [142.69 kB - PDF]EPA-02461-00019-0060

    Abstract: An empirical research is under way at Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pécs planned to be conducted among approx. 800 Bologna BA (BSc) students in 2009, including the reinterpreted model of Probst and Raub (1998) which summarizes the components of knowledge management. In the study we apply the definition of knowledge-based services to higher education institutions in order to explore various aspects of the role of the university as a site of knowledge management, ranging from active student participation in higher education to the methods and tools that can be used for knowledge scouting, caring and developing at university. We intend to identify clusters of students in line with the phases of the knowledge model as the result of the research. Our hypothesis is that there are some biases among these phases, i.e. these clusters; so the aim of our research is to reveal the reasons for the asymmetrical nature of the process and to find out the prospects how to moderate it – with providing recommendations to the strengthening of each knowledge management phase. Other purpose of the study is the generalization of results in order to determine conclusions by literature which are valid to the whole higher education system.

    Keywords: knowledge management, higher education, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS)

  • László Szerb ,
    József Ulbert :

    Abstract: While the research on competition has been increasing in popularity amongst scholars, there is a lack of studies focusing on the firm level competition especially in Hungary. Even less is known about the competitiveness of the smaller size businesses. The newly created conceptual model is configured to fit to the small business setup as well as to the available data set. The model contains 19 individual variables and seven pillars. The methodology is unique in the sense that it incorporates the weak points, called bottlenecks over the seven pillars of competitiveness. The individual level competitiveness points are calculated for each of the 695 businesses. The competition points collerate significantly with the selected three measures of competitiveness, increase of sales, employment and export. The cluster analysis prevails high differences amongst the seven groups of businesses.

    Keywords: competitiveness, SME

  • Sándor Suplicz :

    Abstract: The study focuses on the characteristics of teachers as can be gathered from the experiences of pupils. Our aim is to explore the situation and the traits of bad teachers on the basis of pupils’ opinions. We asked current and already graduated secondary school pupils to evaluate their former teachers. We assumed that, on the basis of the pupils’ experiences, we would be able to identify in these bad teachers the personality traits, cognitive and emotional elements, mistaken interpretations of their situation and role, competence deficits and other patterns of behaviour that led to the negative attitudes of their pupils. We carried out our survey with the involvement of secondary school pupils, engineer teacher trainees and engineering teachers who graduated in the past five years. We asked respondents to remember their secondary school teacher they deemed the worst and identify up to three characteristics that made them think of that person as a bad teacher. Using our experiences from earlier research projects and preliminary studies, we used semantic analysis to place the responses into five categories. We were able to classify more than 90% of the responses into these categories. The traits thus gathered were then divided into two groups on the basis of whether they are personality dependant or acquirable. It can be shown that the deficiencies in personality dependant elements (personality, emotional acceptance, humour) were the basis of the pupils’ negative evaluations. Criticism concerning areas that are more easily acquirable (pedagogical shortcomings and knowledge of the subject) was also significant, but clearly less so than in case of personality dependant flaws. We have also attempted to analyse the forms of appearance of teacher’s flaws, as well as the facts playing a role in their appearance and subsistence.