Abstract
To boost economic performance, national governments aim particularly at reducing differences in sub-national regional competitiveness within the given country. For that, it is vital to track and compare the performance of the individual areas. But do we measure the right thing? Do the measures of the EU Commission used for estimating regional competitiveness have a direct link to the competitiveness of the firms operating in the given area? By building on a sample of more than 1500 manufacturing companies, this paper shows that in case of Hungary most of the regional EU measures are of insufficient use when explaining firm-level performance differences and even most of the factors with a significant explanatory power have a counterintuitive sign. Due to this, aiming at improving competitiveness scores of regions might not lead to a stronger economic performance in the given region. The paper also shows that there is no “one-size-fits-all” economic policy, as the competitiveness of different sub-groups of firms is not connected to the same regional measures. We may also conclude that in case of locally owned entities other characteristics than size, ownership and sub-industry play a more important role in determining competitiveness than for foreign enterprises.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Annoni P, Dijkstra L, Gargano L (2017) The EU regional competitiveness index 2016, European Commission, WP 02/2017. http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/work/201701_regional_competitiveness2016.pdf. Accessed 21 Aug 2017
Bardy R (2010) Comparative supply chain performance: measuring cross-cultural effects. The example of the Bratislava regional automotive manufacturing cluster. Knowl Process Manag 17(2):95–110
Basile R, de Nardis S, Pappalardo C (2014) Firm heterogeneity and regional business cycles differentials. J Econ Geogr 14(6):1087–1115
Blume L (2006) Local economic policies as determinants of the local business climate: empirical results from a cross-section analysis among East German municipalities. Reg Stud 40(4):321–333
Bosma N, Schutjens V (2011) Understanding regional variation in entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial attitude in Europe. Ann Reg Sci 47(3):711–742
Braun F, Cullmann A (2011) Regional differences of production and efficiency of Mexican manufacturing: an application of nested and stochastic frontier panel models. J Dev Areas 45(1):291–311
Chan C, Makino S, Isobe T (2010) Does subnational region matter? Foreign affiliate performance in the United States and China. Strateg Manag J 31(11):1226–1243
Demchuk P, Zelenyuk V (2009) Testing differences in efficiency of regions within a country: the case of Ukraine. J Prod Anal 32(2):81–102
Di Liberto A, Sideri M (2015) Past dominations, current institutions and the Italian regional economic performance. Eur J Polit Econ 38:12–41
EU (2017) Regional policy. https://europa.eu/european-union/topics/regional-policy_en. Accessed 16 Aug 2017
European Commission (2017) European regional competitiveness index. http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/maps/regional_competitiveness. Accessed 17 Aug 2017
Gál Z, Juhász B (2016) A vállalatok nemzetköziesedésének vizsgálata Kelet-Közép-Európában makrogazdasági módszerekkel [Investigating Internationalisation of Enterprises in Eastern Central Europe with macroeconomic toolsets]. Vezetéstudomány 47(8):26–39
Gellynck X, Vermeire B (2009) The contribution of regional networks to innovation and challenges for regional policy. Int J Urban Reg Res 33(3):719–737
González-Pernía J, Peña-Legazkue I, Vendrell-Herrero F (2012) Innovation, entrepreneurial activity and competitiveness at a sub-national level. Small Bus Econ 39(3):561–574
Jovanović V, Bošković O, Manić E (2012) Spatial analysis and regional disparities of the trade sector in the Republic of Serbia. Econ Themes 50(1):65–80
Juhász P (2017) Subnational regional competitiveness: analysis of Hungarian manufacturing firms. J Contemp Econ Bus Issues 4(2):63–83
Juhász P, Reszegi L (2017) Parallel and multilayer economic dualities: an example from Hungary. Special issue, UTMS J Econ 8(1):1–10
Katona T (2014) A területi felzárkózás dilemmái [Dilemmas of regional closing up]. In: Lukovics M, Zuti B (eds) A területi fejlődés dilemmái [Dilemmas of regional development]. Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Szeged, pp 15–26
Kolympiris C, Kalaitzandonakes N, Miller D (2015) Location choice of academic entrepreneurs: evidence from the US biotechnology industry. J Bus Ventur 30:227–254
Kourtit K, Arribas-Bel D, Nijkamp P (2012) High performers in complex spatial systems: a self-organizing mapping approach with reference to the Netherlands. Ann Reg Sci 48(2):501–527
KSH (2013) A vállalkozások regionális sajátosságai [Regional characteristics of enterprises]. https://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/idoszaki/regiok/orsz/vallalkregkul11.pdf. Accessed 1 Nov 2017
KSH (2018) Regions of Hungary. https://www.ksh.hu/docs/teruletiatlasz/regions.pdf. Accessed 11 Feb 2018
Lengyel B, Szakálné Kanó I (2014) Regional economic growth in Hungary 1998–2005: what does really matter in clusters? Acta Oeconomica 64(3):257–285. https://doi.org/10.1556/AOecon.64.2014.3.1
Lux G, Páger B, Sz K (2017) A középvállalatok szerepe a feldolgozóiparban: egy magyarországi kutatás első eredményei [The role of Medium-sized Enterprises (MEs) in manufacturing: first results of a research in Hungary]. Területi Statisztika 57(1):52–75. https://doi.org/10.15196/TS570103
Neagu O (2011) Human capital of the regions-driven factor for growth and employment. The case of Romania. Studia Universitatis Vasile Goldiş, Arad – Seria Ştiinţe Economice 21(1):283–289
Raluca DA, Goschin Z, Gruiescu M (2010) The regional disparities of the FDI in Romania. Romanian Econ Bus Rev 5(4):23–31. http://www.rebe.rau.ro/volume.html
Remington TF (2016) Regional variation in business-government relations in Russia and China. Probl Post-Communism 63(2):63–74
Wagner J (2008) A note on why more West than East German firms export. IEEP 5(4):363–370
Webber DJ, Boddy M, Plumridge A (2007) Explaining spatial variation in business performance in Great Britain. Eur J Comp Econ 4(2):319–332
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Juhász, P. (2018). Competitive Regions, Competitive Firms? A Case Study on Hungary. In: Bem, A., Daszyńska-Żygadło, K., Hajdíková, T., Juhász, P. (eds) Finance and Sustainability. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92228-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92228-7_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92227-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-92228-7
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)