Search

Blockchain technology can help to build a circular economy in many areas, promoting sustainability and more efficient use of resources. In this paper, we examine the areas where we can expect significant breakthroughs from this technological innovation in the circular economy and the state of the domestic regulatory environment. We then recommend improvements to legislators that can help blockchain and its ecosystems support sustainable development in Hungary.

Social enterprises can play an important role in reducing inequality within a society and can also contribute to long-term economic development. Using a database based on the responses of 220 Hungarian social enterprises we first identify the business opportunities that they perceive. We conclude that social enterprises operating in different legal forms have different perceptions of their opportunities, and we speculate that this has an effect on their innovation activity as well. It is striking that – with the exception of social cooperatives – none of the Hungarian social enterprises see current or future social and/or market needs and demand as a major opportunity. This suggests that only social cooperatives have the incentive to focus their innovation efforts on social and market needs. Almost all social enterprises, on the other hand, have high expectation for European Union funds; the threat is that social innovation is driven by the targets set by the authorities allocating European funds, instead of the needs of the society.

The paper describes outcomes of recent research about connection between output and staff number related to specific sectors of manufacturing in Hungary. The method was to examine the existence of a linear relationship between the variables with cross correlation and regression modelling. The examined period includes the nadir of the crisis and the first years of recovery. In the textile and food industries co-movement of time series show a strong correlation between output and staff number. There is a strong positive correlation in the case of the automotive industry, but no linear relationship can be proved between the variables in the chemical industry.