Issue 16

ERENET Profile Vol. IV, No. 4.
www.erenet.org
László Borbás
Budapest Tech
Keleti Faculty of Economics
E-mail: borbas.laszlo@kgk.bmf.hu
CONTRIBUTION OF FAMILY ENTERPRISES
TO THE SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTH HUNGARIAN REGION
1. GOAL OF THE RESEARCH
Our basic goal of research is to identify how small and medium sized, especially family based,
enterprises are able to contribute to the competitiveness of regions. For this general question we expect
answer from the empirical research survey carried out in the North Hungarian Region. The theoretical
background of this research were previously made by different authors either in Hungary or abroad (Buzás-
Lengyel-Kállay 2003, Chikán-Czakó-Zoltayné 2002, G. Fekete 2004, Horváth 2001, Kállay 2002, Kocziszky
2004, Krugman 1994, Lengyel 2000, 2003, Losoncz 2003, Mazur 2006, Porter 1998, 2002), we only refer to
them in this paper. The survey is also based on research activities started some fifteen years ago at the Institute
of Organization and Management in Budapest Tech (Kadocsa 2004, Tibor 1998).
This particular research was started in 2006, a part of the results were published earlier. Evaluation of
all the data has already been finished, further overall results and conclusions will be published soon in articles
and as a part of the author’s PhD dissertation.
The survey is based on the questionnaire worked out by Professor Michael Porter and his colleagues
at Harvard University and the U.S. Council of Competitiveness (Porter 2001). We adopted the above
mentioned questionnaire and added own questions concerning the relations between enterprises and other
bodies in the region with a special view on the contribution of the firms to the competitiveness and spatial
development in the region. Boschma (2004) says that it is meaningful to talk about regional competitiveness
when the region affects the performances of local firms to a considerable degree. This is especially true when
the competitiveness of a region depends on intangible, non- tradable assets based on a knowledge and
competence base embedded in a particular institutional setting that are reproduced and modified through the
actions and repeated interactions of actors. In our case, mostly for historical reasons, the competitiveness of
the region was rather dependent on tangible assets. It is especially interesting to explore if we can find any
changes in this field and on the other hand we have to examine the contribution of the firms to the
competiveness of the region.
The addresses of firms were earned from the comprehensive list of Dun & Bradstreet Hungary. This
list was filtered according to Hungarian SME’s law. This way we had all the names and addresses of small and
medium sized enterprises in the North Hungarian Region. The total number of them is 2443, out of which we
sent outquestionaire for 1015 mostly by e-mail and a smaller amount by post. We got 103 pieces of valuable
questionnaires. In our list the proportion of family based firms exceeded 58 per cent while 53.4% of the
valuable answers were given by them.
The structure of the questionnaire gave us the opportunity to examine SMEs through their innovation
potential and this way we are coming closer to their contribution to the competitiveness of the region. The
survey is structured around the following areas: the business environment, collaborative business networks in
the region, economic beliefs and attitudes, accessibility of services in the region and in smaller regions. We
defined innovation, following Porter’s approach, in a broad sense. Innovation is the transformation of
knowledge into new products, processes, and services. Innovation involves more than just science and
technology. Improvements in marketing, distribution, and service can also be considered innovations (Porter
2001).
2. EVALUATION OF ANSWERS
2.1. Business environment
The business environment can be understood in terms of four critical areas which
can be affected by government through its policies:
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