Attila Chikán

Corvinus University of Budapest · Institute of Business Economics

Competitiveness of firms is studied mostly from a strategic management perspective. It is only rarely a subject of analysis from the viewpoint of operations. In this paper, we aim to connect these two approaches using the resource-based view of the firm, popularly called RBV theories. First, we provide a comprehensive definition of firm competitive...

Versenyképességi Pillanatkép, Versenyképesség Kutató Központ, Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem

A mai Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem Gazdálkodástudományi Karának (BCE GTK) oktatói-kutatói 1995 óta folytatnak a hazai gazdaság versenyképességére vonatkozó kutatásokat a Versenyben a világgal – a magyar gazdaság nemzetközi versenyképességének mikrogazdasági tényezői kutatási program keretében. A szerzők cikkükben arra vállalkoznak, hogy ezekre a kuta...

A nemzeti versenyképesség napjainkban kutatók és gazdaságpolitikusok által egyaránt nagy figyelemmel kísért jelenség, amelynek azonban mind az elméleti alapjai, mind pedig mérésének módszertana – s ezáltal értékelése is – sok bizonytalanságot hordoz magában. Kutatásunk központjában az egyes nemzetgazdaságok versenyképességet szolgáló kormányzati in...

This part is an introduction of the concept and role of inventories in the economy. We explain why holding inventories is a necessary component of economic activity and why item-level, firm-level and national-level inventories present themselves as natural focuses of analysis. Reasons of holding inventories on these three levels are discussed. Item...

The inventory behaviour at different levels of the economy is analysed by various research disciplines. Operations research, operations management, marketing provide insight into item-level and firm-level problems. Moreover, firm-, sector- and country-level inventory developments as well as international comparisons are analysed by the economics, i...

This chapter is divided into two major parts. Section 3.1 is about country and data selection. We first present the selection of our data source, and then we introduce the time horizon and final set of countries to be analysed. The variables used in the analyses are shown, and we give details about the missing data. Section 3.2 gives a brief overvi...

In this part, we take the 32 countries in the sample one by one and provide an overview of their economy from the inventory researcher’s point of view. The purpose of the chapter is to give a background for interpreting and analysing results about individual countries shown in various chapters of the book. Therefore, this chapter serves as kind of...

This book introduces a new approach in the field of macroeconomic inventory studies: the use of multivariate statistics to evaluate long-term characteristics of inventory investments in developed countries. By analyzing a 44-year period series of annual inventory change in percentage of GDP in a set of OECD countries, disclosing their relationship...

A classification is provided on competitiveness investigations to make match with IB research, and a firm-level research is presented to probe it. Findings on a sample of 4000 manufacturing firms from Hungary, show that several layers of duality exist parallelly in the economy. One finding is that for the locally owned entities export intensity is...

A Kornai János 70. születésnapjára készült tanulmánykötet szerkesztői (Gács János és Köllő János) körkérdést intéztek a kötet szerzőinek egy részéhez: „Kornai János a rendszerváltás előtt többnyire kerülte, hogy közvetlen gazdaságpolitikai javaslatokat fogalmazzon meg és publikáljon a magyar gazdaság döntéshozói számára. Sokan mégis úgy gondolják,...

Inventories form a small but important part of national wealth and constitute the most volatile component of GDP. Their moves are important indicators of the dynamics of the economy, both at the micro and macro level. In this paper, the authors venture to explain long-term macroeconomic inventory investment trends from new perspectives.We compiled...

The Book of Abstracts publishes 57 abstracts of the 1st AIB-CEE Chapter Conference, held in Budapest October 9-11, 2014. It also provides information on the best reviewers and papers. The Conference was jointly organized by Academy of International Business, Central and Eastern European Chapter (AIB-CEE Chapter) and the Competitiveness Research Cen...

Ez a Gyorsjelentés a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem Vállalatgazdaságtan Intézetében működő Versenyképesség Kutató Központ által lebonyolított kérdőíves felmérés eredményeire támaszkodik. A felmérést 2013 májusa és novembere között bonyolítottuk le, a TÁRKI munkatársainak közreműködésével. A Gyorsjelentés funkciója, hogy a kérdőíves felmérés eredményein...

This paper discusses the effects of sectoral structure on the long run macroeconomic inventory behaviour of national economies. Data on 15 OECD countries are included in the analysis, which is based on correlation and cluster analysis methodologies. The study is part of a long-term research project exploring factors influencing the inventory behavi...

The significance of inventories in business operations have never been denied. The actual role of inventories, however, is changing over time, as required by the business environment. This paper provides empirical background to the thesis, which says that the role of inventories in the "Golden Era" of inventory research, which was in the 1950s, was...

This paper focuses on the operational drivers of labour productivity changes. We consider two sets of drivers: a) current working practices b) changes in working practices through management programs. The relationship between these two sets of drivers and productivity changes are analysed. We also investigate the importance of productivity growth b...

Ez a Gyorsjelentés a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem Vállalatgazdaságtan Intézetében működő Versenyképesség Kutató Központ által lebonyolított kérdőíves felmérés eredményeire támaszkodik. A felmérést 2009 áprilisa és novembere között bonyolítottuk le, a TÁRKI munkatársainak és a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem hallgatóinak közreműködésével. 313 vállalat 1246...

The focal issue of the paper is firm competitiveness and the way in which operations can contribute to it. The problem of firm competitiveness has been extensively researched in operations strategy, mainly using the concept of strategic fit, but there has been little discussion in the literature of the criteria that should be used to guide the sele...

The purpose of social co-ordination mechanisms is to co-ordinate the activities of individuals and organisations specialised in the distribution of work. The paper reviews five basic types of mecha-nisms: market, bureaucratic, ethical, aggressive and co-operative co-ordination. Today's world op-erates on the basis of a duality: international cooper...

The paper aims to make the first step to the empirical investigation of managers' perception of the role of inventories in today's business. In a previous paper [Chikn, A., 2004. The new role of inventories in business: real world changes and research consequences. Paper presented at the 13th International Symposium on Inventories. International Jo...

There are very few research studies on macroeconomic inventory behaviour of various countries. It is clear that macro inventories are the results of a large number of individual microdecisions. However, we believe that it is worth analysing how inventories develop in the individual countries and why we can see different tendencies. This paper is th...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for connecting macro‐ and micro‐level research on competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach Based on some major international survey research reports (by the WEF, IMD, OECD, and the EU) and research experience, a gap is described between national and firm level competitiveness studies....

A cikk központi kérdése a vállalati versenyképesség. Két meghatározó menedzsmentmegközelítés – a vevői érték és az erőforrás-, képességalapú stratégiai menedzsment – fogalmi rendszerére, illetve koncepcióira alapozva a szerzők kialakítottak és a "Versenyben a világgal 2004–2006 – gazdasági versenyképességünk vállalati nézőpontból" című kutatás adat...

This paper is an attempt to formulate a new paradigm for inventory research, based on recent developments in business and the global economy. I begin with an analysis of the traditional paradigm as developed in the 1950s and its relationship to the economic and business environment of the time. Then, changes in this environment which have led to th...

A BCE Versenyképesség Kutató Központ 2006-ban egy hároméves kutatási programot zárt le, amelynek részeredményeiről a Vezetéstudományban rendszeresen megjelentek tanulmányok. A mostani tematikus szám írásai olyan területeket elemeznek, amelyekről korábban nem jelentek meg beszámolók. A tematikus szám bevezetőjeként szolgáló munkájukban a szerzők egy...

The paper sets out to show that János Kornai's book Economics of Shortage, published in 1980, had played a very important role in the intellectual preparations for transition - most certainly in Hungary but also in other former socialist countries. It analyses the environment in which the book was born and formulates eight theses on its effects, em...

Measuring the contribution of various functional areas (like marketing, operations, finance) to the success of companies is a rather complicated task, mainly because of the strong interaction among functions. This paper is about a study aimed to evaluate the effects of operations on company performance using a methodology (path analysis) which leav...

The paper is a new element in a series of studies analyzing macroeconomic inventory behavior by use of multi-country data. In this paper, seven hypotheses are tested with positive result. These hypotheses include subjects like relations of inventories with growth and with some other macroeconomic indicators of the use of GDP and the long-term tende...

Globalization is a fundamental and much discussed phenomenon of our days' economic development. This paper discusses its consequences in manufacturing, using the example of the Hungarian economy, where multinationals and other foreign companies play a key role. First the general nature of globalization and its effects in Hungary are discussed. Then...

This paper analyses some of the connections between macroeconomic inventory data and other GDP characteristics. Until now this issue has got relatively low interest, though we believe it can be important in understanding macroeconomic phenomena.After a brief summary of previous research, six hypotheses are formulated regarding tendencies of the rat...

This paper has a double purpose. First, it provides a historical analysis of the developments leading to the first “Stanford Studies”, a collection of papers which probably can be considered even today as the single most fundamental reference in the mathematical handling of inventories. From this point of view, the paper is about people and their w...

This paper has a double purpose. First, it provides a historical analysis of the developments leading to the first “Stanford Studies”, a collection of papers which probably can be considered even today as the single most fundamental reference in the mathematical handling of inventories. From this point of view, the paper is about people and their w...

Integration of material processes within and between companies is one of the most fundamental trends in business these days. An integrated view of these processes includes all traditional areas of supplier–buyer relationships and the production of goods and services: generally (and somewhat loosely) speaking, production and logistics. In the paper...

The paper provides an analysis of macroeconomic inventory trends. Using eight different modes we have studied the connection between inventory intensity (ratio of inventory investment to GDP) and the various components of GDP, both as simultaneous and lagged variables. Data of 88 countries have been used for the analysis.The analysis supports previ...

This paper concentrates primarily on the undiscovered side of competitiveness and industrial restructuring of the Hungarian economy, these include micro and sub-micro factors that influence the competitiveness of companies. Papers on transition are rich and valuable in the description of macro issues on the economic transition process, but they usu...

The paper is built on an empirical study of the service factory concept in Hungary. The importance of the possible service roles that manufacturing can play, and the general service features that a manufacturing company can posess are examined at Hungarian companies. The results show that service is still not the strongest competitive factor in Hun...

Summarizes the changes experienced in the field of logistics in Hungary, although most of the issues raised appear similarly in other transition economies in Central and eastern Europe (CEE), typically in the Czech Republic and Poland. Discusses the immediate logistics consequences and company-level responses. Consideration of the essence and natur...

The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between the level of inventory investments and the structure of inventories in 16 countries with medium and high levels of development.The nature and problems of cross-country statistical analysis are discussed first and then a contradiction between the data on total and manufacturing inventories i...

Discusses those changes which can be observed at Hungarian manufacturing companies in the transition process from planned to market economies. The changes are illustrated with the results of a series of surveys, conducted in the framework of a research project on global manufacturing practices. Shows that the adjustment of Hungarian companies is ra...

This paper examines how macro and micro level effects on inventory behavior interact in transition economies. We first analyze the general nature of changes; then some macro level phenomena will be discussed. In the main part of the paper the behavior of companies and its inventory consequences will be examined and a feedback to the macro level is...

The paper summarizes the results of two surveys conducted in 1986 and 1991 in Hungary to explore manufacturing management practices. The dramatic changes of the region have exposed companies to a completely new situation, which is reflected in the survey results. Hungarian companies have apparently turned to the new direction and their current prac...

The paper deals with the current changes in Eastern Europe and their impacts on inventories. It summarizes those features of the changes which are thought by the author being of utmost importance from the point of view of the inventory situation. Since the changes in the particular countries of the region have both similar and different features, f...

The paper reports the main characteristics of the production-inventory systems of Hungarian industrial companies. After a brief discussion of the general economic background some results of a survey are provided. We used a questionnaire developed from an international project aimed to carry out cross-national comparison. The results discussed here...

The results of an evaluation of a set of surveys carried out in South Korea, China, Western Europe and Hungary is presented. The questionnaire included the following areas of company operations: sales forecasting; production planning and scheduling; shop floor control; purchasing and materials management. Market policy, methodology and organization...

In an earlier paper a multi-echelon production-inventory system has been described and a heuristic suggestion has been developed. The purpose of this paper is to give further analysis of the same system; namely, its dynamic behavior is discussed.

The objective of this paper is to describe the steps in and results of current research carried out within the framework of a special long-term project supervised and financed by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Since the research, which started in 1976, will go on for several more years — and so we are far from final results — this paper is most...

The method discussed is a practice-oriented procedure of planning aggregate inventories at industrial enterprises. The conceptual basis is described, emphasizing that the basic idea is to start from actual demand for inventories on an item level, then to add up individual optimums, and after comparing the various aggregations of these individual in...

This paper focuses on labour productivity changes, examining its influencing factors, effects and their relationships at the level of operations, businesses and national economies. We start out from the standpoint that there are two sets of drivers at the operations level, which influence labour productivity growth: current working practices and ac...

The focal question of the paper is firm competitiveness. We develop and test a theoretical model of competitiveness building on the concepts and terms developed by two important management theories, the theory of customer value and the resource based theory of the firm. To test the model statistical analysis is carried out on the basis of the resea...

Bibliogr. na konci kapitol

Bibliogr. na konci kapitol