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The exponential development of information technology and, in this context, the latest generation of open innovation systems result in revolutionary changes in almost every industry as well as in other areas of life. From the automotive industry to the energy sector and to tourism, newcomers emerge everywhere, building on the tools of disruptive innovation, which with earlier unprecedented speeds transform their previous industry power.
The essence of the smart city approach is to put the latest tools of technological advancement in serving the social, economic and ecological sustainability of cities' lives for the inhabitants as well as for the enterprises of the city.
Industry 4.0 is an imagined future, which in our opinion - in direct or indirect ways - would have a fundamental influence on smart cities and their environment and regions, given that their primary goal is to improve a country's competitiveness.
In our study, we review the relevant literature on the definition of and approach to innovation as well as the smart city concept in this new revolutionary age, we demonstrate relevant correlations between the concepts of disruptive innovation, smart city and Industry 4.0.

Hungary was among the first member states where financial instruments of the EU were introduced in lager scale and scope in 2007. However, in the new development phase (2014-2020) experiences of the delivery system have been just partly applied. The renewed, centralized model has a lower level diversity in terms of the type of financial institutions responsible for financial intermediation. Despite their numerous advantages the structural changes hold many risks on growth and on local economic development as well, since the embeddedness of the financial intermediaries in local economies and their diversity are among the core features to provide the properly customised financial services for the targeted enterprises. This institutional change causes a rapid spending of repayable subsidies but hindering the delivery of the original objectives of the cohesion policies. The intermediary system territorially does not give priority to the disadvantaged regions, furthermore contact points are concentrated on urban areas with higher level of economic growth. Beside this, the microcredit objectives cannot be put into practice, the average credit amount increased sixfold in the new development period.

This paper aims to present environmental policy integration and its success on settlement level in Hungary. To do so, firstly, the author gives an overview in historical perspective of the rise of environmental protection and environmental policy taking a look at the international level and Hungary. Secondly, the summary of the author's empirical researches in the topic in the past decades draws the readers' attention to the role of the impact of the recent recentralization process in Hungary on the environmental actions at urban level, and also highlights the role of the size of settlement in environmental policy. The analyses show that the lack of information is crucial in the failure to make positive environmental actions. On the other hand, in larger, urbanised settlements, due to their higher development and investment capacity and risk, the role of environmental assessment related to planning activities is considered more important.

A relatively small but growing group of migrants nowadays are people moving to countries that are better known as migrant-sending locations. These voluntary migrants - frequently retired persons - decide on moving mostly in the hope of a better life quality they think to find abroad rather than in their own country. The property purchase of foreigners therefore related to this kind of migration, and relatively little attention is being paid to this kind of voluntary, lifestyle migration, though it can have a significant economic and social impact on the host country. Foreign property owners and several persons who are in contact with these foreigners were in-depth interviewed - as the special subject require empirical research methods - in the framework of the present research to determine the main motivations of property purchases in the Keszthely District of the West-Balaton Region, Hungary. Main motivating factors were identified as economic reasons, expectancy for a better, calmer new way of living and favourable climate conditions. Following the change of regime in Hungary three era in property purchase can be differentiated in the examined region based on the direction of migration with a gap between the first and second phase after the 2008 crisis.

Good quality services mean an advantage in competition; they help to keep old guests and to receive new ones. For a provisional enterprise, guest satisfaction is not only an objective but also an effective marketing tool, knowing that the repeated purchases and recommendations of a satisfied, loyal customer can be very effective marketing methods. But does high quality of services and satisfaction really guarantee the loyalty of spa guests? In order to receive an answer to this, we have questioned 300 Hungarian guests of Hévíz Spa in the dimensions of service quality, satisfaction and loyalty. We have evaluated the replies of 164 medical guests and 117 wellness tourists separately. The positive relationship between quality and satisfaction has been confirmed both in case of medical- and wellness tourists. In the case of medical tourism, the significant positive relationship between the loyalty dimensions of willingness to return, recommendation willingness and positive word-advertising has also been proven. In the case of wellness tourists, however, satisfaction and loyalty relations are less obvious. Regression analysis draws our attention to the key role of pleasure and satisfaction dimension, directing spa services towards providing joyful experiences! According to this research, we can also determine, that measuring customer satisfaction is not enough, as other factors affecting the loyalty of medical- and wellness tourists also have to be explored.

The average temperature of the world over the past 100 years has ri sen by 0.6°C. The rising temperature will likely present a big challenge for society and the environment in the future. The population has the ability to respond to it in a variety of ways, especially nowadays when technology is evolving daily. In order to reduce the harmful impacts of climate change and allow communities to thrive in the face of it, adaptation strategies are needed. These strategies need to be accepted by local and national governments, households, and industry. This paper has aimed to derive information about each and discuss the best solution. A theory of smart cities, eco-city theory, city logistics, and sustainable cities are the main strategies whose concepts have upgraded urban planning and building design that can prevent climatic damage but are still consistent with the environment. Innovative cities in developed and developing countries have demonstrated that with the appropriate strategies resource efficiency can be economically enhanced while simultaneously reducing pollution and waste. It is shown that this way improves the quality of life and supports the development of a culture of sustainability.

The study focuses on the higher education choices of Hungarian-speaking students studying at Serbian high schools in Vojvodina. Due to the disorganized nature of Hungarian-language higher education in Serbia, Hungarian students have little opportunity to study in their mother tongue at state universities and colleges. A questionnaire was distributed among 442 students at 11 high schools in Vojvodina to find out about their intention to study after high school, their reasons for and against higher education in Serbia, and the reasons influencing their choice of higher education institution. The results were analyzed with frequency tables and word clouds. Eighty percent of respondents said they planned to continue their studies after high school. Of those, 72% would like to study in one of the Hungarian higher education institutions, while 25% would like to study in Serbia. Our results showed that for Hungarian high school students in Vojvodina, language is the most important reason when choosing a higher education institution, in terms of both a lack of knowledge of Serbian language and a desire to conduct their studies in their mother tongue. Other influencing reasons were favorable academic programs, future career opportunities, and geographic proximity.

In our study we highlight the potential role of alternative food systems in local economic and community development through connecting literatures and good examples. We are focusing on a special short food supply chain form, named "buying groups". These sales channels are an alternative and innovative type of Community Supported Agriculture. Buying groups are grass-roots initiatives that support local food production and sales. Farmers and their buyers are a community, so that cooperation is beneficial to both the producer and the consumer. The primary advantage of the producer is that it can build up a direct and long-term relationship with its customers, locally sell its quality products, so it can operate cost-effectively and optimally. The consumers' advantage is that they are able to acquire food from healthy and safe sources, contributing to the preservation of their health and the development of the local economy. These good practices can fundamentally reform the increasingly globalizing consumer behaviour, strengthen identity and community spirit. Buying groups are still in their infancy in our country but have latent potential for stimulating many local economies and tourism. We would like to give an overview of the main results of our primary research conducted among members of Hungarian Alternative Food Buying Groups. In order to explore the sociometrics and lifestyles of communities, we revealed general consumer behaviour, the consumer types based on food buying behaviour, the demand and attitude of local food by using questionnaire survey.

Since one's surroundings and environment affect the extent to which one uses native language, first language use has declined and the native language use of the Hungarian minority living in ethnic diaspora communities also takes place of secondary importance in everyday situations. Native language cultivation is important, but it is also important to master the official language. Parents living in ethnic diaspora communities take these factors into consideration when choosing the education language for their children. The aim of the research is to identify, using "soft methods", the individual perspectives, motivations, and factors ("underlying background contents") according to which students and parents belonging to the Hungarian ethnic diaspora choose education language. The main question we pose in our work is what are the individual, familial, cultural and micro-community-related backgrounds in the education choices of Hungarian parents. We interviewed 42 students, parents, and educators of either Hungarian or interethnic backgrounds from ethnic diaspora communities in Vojvodina. According to the results, the native language use of students of the ethnic diaspora studying in the majority (official) language is in decline. The language of school and education has become Serbian, and the Hungarian language is mostly limited to use within the family or has lost its significance within the home completely; thus, it has been pushed to the background and is limited to a more "confined area" (such as communication with grandparents).

The background of the current research is that despite the existence of a vast amount of literature devoted to the study of post-socialist transition processes, there is a relative scarcity of international comparative analyses on Central and Southeast European metropolises. The research seeks to explore FDI-driven transformation and development processes in Central and Southeast European regional centres in the post-transition period. The geographical focus of the analysis is limited to Central and Southeast European post-socialist states, while the scale of the analysis targets the metropolitan and regional level. The present study provides a brief summary of the first phase of the research constituted by literature review.

The market situation of European shopping centres has been significantly changed compared to previous decades for a number of reasons. Among other reasons, it is important to underline the ageing European population. Furthermore, the ratio of elderly is projected to increase further in Hungary. These demographic processes lead to wide range of socio-economic impacts on the country. One of the consequences that senior customers are becoming increasingly important target group for shopping centres nowadays. They have already had a considerable purchasing power in Budapest. Meanwhile, shopping centres in the capital city are still focusing on young generations. For this very reason, researches required to get a better insight into the behaviors of senior customers.
This paper aims to explore differences and similarities in shopping behaviors between different age groups of customers in the case of Árkád Budapest. The author gathered published official statistical information from the website of Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) and analyzed the current demographical situation in Budapest. The analysis of mall-visiting behaviors is based on questionnaire which contains responses of 156 purchasers. Descriptive statistical methods were implemented by the author. Expected research findings are support to increase our knowledge about mall-visiting behaviours of senior customers in Budapest.

Health is our most important value and resource - its preservation and development are crucial in terms of our quality of life and work. Health status is mainly influenced by lifestyle, health consciousness and the healthcare system, the accessibility and quality of health-related services. Rich literature discusses the relationship between housing conditions and health status as well. The disadvantaged socio-economic situation causes deteriorated living environments and, hence, the decline in health. Through the case of the Hungarian village of Bag and the Roma settlement located there, I would like to highlight the connection between housing conditions and health.

The territorial social and economic inequality is one of the most fundamental characteristics of space economics. There are not two points in the space which have the same characteristics, because their economic, social and cultural parameters are different. The existence of territorial inequalities is a significant problem also in the case of Hungary with special regards on the settlements of the Northern Hungarian region. The aim of my research is to examine the spatial patterns of the EU supports and the income per employee in the case of the Northern Hungarian region's settlements and to analyze what kind of effect the supports have on the dispersion of the settlements' income. According to the results, I can state that there are more hot spots in the region based on the EU supports, than by the income per capita, so the pattern is more heterogeneous. Consequently, there is observable a greater gap among the settlements based on the supports by the inequality measures. The Local Moran clusters forming through the analysis of EU supports and income per employee show significant similarity, 93.48% of the small- and medium-sized cities, and 96.16% of the settlements of the most disadvantaged areas can be grouped into the same cluster according to both indicators.

Festival tourism is a dynamically developing area of tourism which is supported by the growing number of festival tourists and by the strengthening of traveling motivations to festivals. The festivals have become very important attractions of the cities and regions. The number of rural cities' festivals which are mainly for the local communities, is growing by leaps and bounds, but the number of festivals specifically for tourists is also high. The tourist impacts of festivals could be analyzed at economical, physical, environmental, social and cultural levels, but the socio-cultural impact is an under-researched field. In this study we analyzed rural cities' festivals. We evaluated them on the basis of information available on their websites according to a predetermined criterion. The points of interest from the aspect of regional impacts were highlighted. Our research aims to show the best practices, so how the festival could attribute to the development of the regions.

Hungarian rural tourism showed significant upward trend in the period of economic crisis both in the 30-es and the 90-es. During the latest crisis since 2009 however the figures reflect dramatic decline. The study presents some of the results of a 2012 survey among rural tourism hosts and describes some of the characterisitics of Hungarian rural tourism of the past 25 years, the strange generation change, the mixed composition of the main stakeholders, and the additional income character of this small scale service.

In accordance with the general world trend, a new form of breweries expands in the Czech beer market - mini-breweries. More than 220 new mini-breweries have been established in the period 2013-2016. This tendency does not let up. As the number of mini-breweries increases, we can inspect a strengthening competing pressure in this sector. Mini-breweries are supposed to start to really compete within among themselves and fight for customers. The data collection was done in January 2017 by means of an electronic survey on all population of mini-breweries (350 companies registered by December 31, 2017). The response rate was 41%. The aim of the paper is, by means of the descriptive statistics methods, to find out, what marketing tools the small breweries' managers or proprietors consider as most important with regards to the competitiveness of their business. The collected data were analysed by means of one-way classification according to the defined segmentation criteria. Most of respondents consider a good reputation (89%), recommendation of current clients (85%), and own website (60%) to be most important communication tools.

Markets are increasingly considered as gastronomy tourism attractions, food - and its origin - becoming a meaningful souvenir for visitors and tourists. Within this context, this research note aims to analyse the origin of cheeses delivered in city markets. To achieve it, the Spanish municipal market of Valencia was studied, where a total of 267 cheeses were classified according to their provenance. Findings show a similar presence of local, national and international cheeses. The originality of this study lies on the implications that the origin of food may have for cultural, gastronomy and cheese tourism practices.

The aim of this paper is to examine how small towns have tackled the economic transformation in the post-communist period. It aims to contribute to the comprehensive research of post-communist transformation at different hierarchic levels of settlement system. The study is spatially focused on the Lower Spiš region in Eastern Slovakia as it includes various kinds of small towns at relatively small area. Based on data provided by population censuses in 1991, 2001 and 2011, we assess development of economic performance of the towns by number of jobs, sectoral structure of jobs, ability to provide jobs for local economically active population, and spatial extent of commuting zones. The results prove that post-communist small towns remained important subregional centers of employment and commuting in general. They sustain even though some of them were affected by the recession of industrial sector and their economic base was established or substantially supported by the socialist industrialization. The growth of small towns' economic importance was recorded in the proximity of the major regional town - Spišská Nová Ves, mainly thanks to decentralization of economic activities.

The aim of this study is to examine the socio-economic development of all Romanian cities and towns with a Hungarian majority. Socio-economic indicators of these settlements with a strong ethnic Hungarian character were compared to similar other cities of Romania having an ethnic Romanian majority. This research examined the general socio-economic development of these settlements, as well as some components of this socio-economic development through seven complex indicators calculated from 25 indicators (per unit indicators). According to the results, cities and towns with a Hungarian majority are relatively heterogeneous. The major cities of Szeklerland have higher development level than most of the examined Romanian settlement. However, the small sized towns with a Hungarian majority along the western border of Romania have lower values than the similar settlements in their neighborhood with an ethnic Romanian majority or the small and medium sized Hungarian towns of Szeklerland.

In the decades, following the political transition more and more researchers started to study the Hungarian small towns because of the increasing number of settlements belonging to this category and their dominant role in the urban network. The literature studying the opportunities in foreign direct investment do not deal or only negligently deal with the effects of social and economic processes on the life of small towns. After reviewing the different approaches of location theories, we can get an overall picture in the relation of settlements and direct investment. This gives answers to the specific forms of direct investment flow and settling in East-Central Europe as well. Besides this, the presence of German minority as the indicator of the settling of direct investment is a missing segment of literature. This study presents the partial results of our research, which aims to complement this missing literature and studies the presence of German direct investment in the small towns of Hungarian settlement structure. It analyses the historical German-Hungarian relations, through which it describes the role of German minority in the economy and the settling of direct investments. The research studies the sectoral structure, the special pattern and it differentiates the importance of German direct investment with the help of data from the available databases (DUIHK25-member list and creditreform.hu - HVG TOP 500 enterprises), structured in-depth interviews (leaders of settlements, directors of companies and civilian organizations related to German minority) and regression analysis. The impact of foreign direct investment on social life, its role in living a life of a small town dweller and in obtaining the title of township are introduced by two short case studies. One of the settlements is Bonyhád, having one of the largest German minority and the other is Újhartyán, belonging to the outer ring of agglomeration of Budapest. Besides their favourable potentials the presence of German minority plays a crucial role in forming the economic and social life of these settlements. Our study shows the presence of German direct investment adjusting to the spatial structure of Hungarian economy and its sectoral differentiation is specific to a given region.

Since Max Weber, economists suggest that religious activity affects the European economic development, and this hypothesis was proven between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Accordingly Protestant economic thinking accelerated the evolving system of capitalism, giving adequate attitudes to the accumulation of wealth. This research supposes that the mentioned capitalist approaches have their own impressions on visual arts, particularly on modern painting. It examines almost nine hundred religious paintings from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, investigating signs of business activities on the artworks. This form of qualitative examination apply the methodology of content analysis. As a result of the study the former hypothesis of Weber could be verified from multidisciplinary approach.

Since the emergence of complementary currencies in the 1980s there have been numerous attempts to classify them, despite that the terms local currency, community currency and many others describing place-based monetary tools are not considered similarly by scholars. The local currencies take many forms, and local governments play different roles in their emergence and development. In Hungary there has been an increasing attention and discussion around the idea of implementing these alternative monetary tools. There is a growing number of working complementary currencies in Hungary, but academic research focuses mostly on whether these can contribute to the local development and what kind of effects they have.
The aim of this paper is to present a possible categorization of Hungarian complementary currencies based on the role local governments played in their implementation. I evaluate whether these community currencies are effective at first, and attempt to categorize them based on their purpose, association form and their relationships with local governments, with the purpose of increasing awareness for these initiatives in the process of policy-making.

The aim of the paper is to evaluate differences in the quality perception among particular segments of demand. Data for analysis were collected by means of the questionnaire survey among clients of accommodation establishments. The research in accommodation establishments succeeded to identify four factors of the perception of quality of services provided in those establishments, when only accommodation and catering services were taken into consideration. The most important factor of evaluation of quality of services provided in accommodation establishments emerged to be the factor "environment of the accommodation establishment". Other important factors are hygiene of the accommodation establishment, service in the catering part of the accommodation establishment and quality of meals.

This paper describes the Hungarian aspects and the latest results of the so-called Eastern European health paradox in terms of (micro-)regions. In particular, this paper aims at highlighting the spatial correlations of premature mortality and the main causes of death by gender as well as their socio-economic and spatial embeddedness. The tool for our study is represented by exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA): the main health inequalities of Hungary's micro-regions are described with the use of global autocorrelation tests as well as regression models suitable for the identification of general and spatial features.
According to our findings, the causes of premature death are characterised by a marked spatial determination for both genders but mostly for men. The regression models of the causes of premature death have confirmed that neighbourhood relations and micro-regional inequalities in issues like the level of socio-economic development, settlement structure, lifestyle, social capital, healthcare infrastructure or social deprivation have substantial impacts on mortality in a given area in the case of men. These findings are also true for women, except for one issue: neighbourhood assimilation. It should be noted in view of our research findings that, in addition to socio-economic explanatory factors, spatiality (belonging to a region) is a major explanatory factor regarding the micro-regional inequalities of premature mortality. In particular, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, known as a former industrial base, should be noted here; this county is a significant and complex crisis area with regard to the health status of both genders in Hungary today. As a short-term measure for the improvement of spatial health status, the development of health awareness and the mitigation of psychosocial stress (by civil organisations) are suggested.

Since the 1990s the metropolitan region and its governance has got into the focus of regional science again. Nowadays a newer wave of metropolitan governance is authoritative, which has exceeded the former administrative-territorial planning aspects, and has appeared on the scene as the mechanism of economic development policy. Examining the development stages of regional policy it is well-known that the classical (modern) approach was superseded by the postmodern one. While the national methods applied in the classical period were characterized by strictness, central regulation, indirect regulation of the market (Fordist approach), in the postmodern period flexibility, decentralization and direct regulation have come to the fore (Post-Fordism). In the postmodern period the state level also takes its role in the financing of innovation and research&development, and the notions of networking and competitiveness are coming more and more to the fore.
In this article I analyze these processes through the case study of Győr. After the theoretical introduction I examine the tools of economic development and economic governance in the Győr metropolitan region. Activities observed in Győr can strengthen the view-point that the processes of economic development and economic governance have nowadays been going on in parallel with each other. Moreover, the co-ordinating activities of local authorities can be observed in the work of organizations that support economic governance. In the course of the research it was also confirmed that built infrastructure can serve as a fundamental condition for the cooperation of network-systems that operate the governance system of a municipality.

Brand romance is considered as a very important construct in marketing especially in brand area leading to the occurrence of some behaviors in consumers. However, a few types of research have been conducted on the importance of brand romance in hoteling. The present research aims to identify and test the effect of brand romance on four kinds of customer loyalty including cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty and behavioral loyalty. The semi-structured interview was used to identify the measuring tool of brand romance. Then, customer loyalty questionnaire was added and distributed in the statistical society of the study. Data were tested using Smart-Pls2. Results of the research showed that brand romance had positive and significant effect on four kinds of loyalty. This research is a guide for hotel managers and marketers to perceive brand romance from viewpoints of customers. In addition, by applying suggestions, the research will help marketers create a stronger relationship between brand and customers and thus benefit from its outcomes.

Century-long traditons of art trade in Hungary are strongly connected to the capital, famous, elite auction houses and galleries are concentrated in the downtown area of Budapest. Although art market in Hungary is capital-centered, remarkable amount of art trade takes place in the countryside too. This study aims to give insight into the presence of the different types of art trade (antique shops, second-hand book stores, art galleries and auction houses) in rural settlements, compared to the characteristics of art trade in Budapest. The research - based on primary data collection - reveals the social, economic, and cultural factors which explain the regional differences in art trade.
During the field work in Budapest, semi-structured interviews were conducted with art gallery owners, auctioners, and antiquarians. The penetration index (PEX) which was applied in the case of researches in the countryside shows the rate in which the different types of art trade are present in settlements of different sizes. The results are demonstrated on the map with the help of the Mapinfo 12.5 software.

Demographic changes (population decline) and their (urban) consequences are a real challenge for the small and medium-sized towns of Europe and Hungary. The research question concerning this phenomenon is: how to deal with urban shrinkage and is there any proper and overall answer to this process? Although there is no universal cure for the maintenance and development of these towns, nor for stopping demographic shrinkage, resilience and local culture can provide good conditions to deal with the urban issues raised. Kisújszállás, the cultural capital of Great Cumania can be a good example of how the function-extending renewal of a historical building of the town can strengthen its retaining power and how it can also contribute to increasing the attractiveness of the settlement, all in all, making it a more attractive and viable place to live in.

Metropolitan areas play a dominant role in today's economic, social and environmental processes; therefore the scientific interest has also increased related to the global and world cities. They can be considered as key players of the world economy and a very complex competition takes place among them, which crosses the national state borders. Every city tries to reach the most favorable position and this rivalry has helped the birth of several city rankings. This paper has two important aims. Firstly, it explains the term of the world and global city based on the international literature and it is also looking for the answer, whether the Austrian capital belongs to which category. Secondly, it examines the position of Vienna in the different world and global city rankings.