István Takács

At the beginning of the 21st century the European Union faces the greatest challenge in its history. Several problems were raised due to the joining of new member countries to the EU, one of which – the free movement of people – was the most important.
The 15 EU member-states, with fears of the cheap labour of the ten joining countries, in 2003 introduced days of grace for seven years to restrict the free movement of labour. However the majority of basic rights came into being before the joining to EU, the free movement of people and rather the free movement of employees became a question of serious debates. Facts did not prove these fears even in the case of France where the fi gure of a Polish mechanic became a topic of voting campaign in 2005. The expected wave of migrant workers never arrived consequently; countries having opened their labour marked after 1 May 2004 were out of danger.
At the same time the areas that lost their inhabitants started to decline in terms of both economy and society. This is one of the main reasons for revitalization, which could support the improvement of socio-economic factors of rural areas, decreasing the unfavourable effects of migration.  The newer reconsideration of the transition period is coming at an early date; we made a quantitative research with face to face method in Hungary in August 2008. In the questionnaire we analyzed the migration potential of the Hungarian people with 1200 members national representative sampling.

In today’s complex and ever changing economic environment an organisation can only be successful, if it can meet the needs of its stakeholders. There is an even bigger ethical, social, legal and strategic pressure on the economic and social organisations. This also stands for not only the profi t-oriented corporations but also for budget authorities and any other public organisations. Several organisations have recognised the infl uence of the stakeholders and have tried to meet their needs. That means that they operate a CSR policy on a volunteer base, as the only way for survival. The CSR is not a separate task, nowadays the management of the stakeholders is part of the strategic management, as at times the interests of different groups must be attended.
The present study deals with the infl uence of stakeholders on the CSR practice, it also introduces the differences in stakeholder relationship among corporations of different sizes as well as examining the characteristics of the different actors.
Based on the results of the qualitative research it can be stated that a signifi cant difference can be found in the stakeholder relationship of the small- and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and of large corporations. The large corporations build their relationship in signifi cantly higher ratio with the nationwide stakeholder, whereas the SMEs encourage communication with the local stakeholders and neglect those nationwide stakeholders that are out of their operational scope. This can be said about the public sector as well, that is large corporations prefer the interaction with this sector at a higher ratio.
However, it is a common characteristic of all Hungarian enterprises that they value the relationship with stakeholders of environmental importance more than the communication with stakeholders of social importance.

The local governments of settlements fulfi ll not only their basic duties but also a great deal of other tasks as well that infl uence the communities’ living conditions and quality of life, and through the way inhabitants feel also have an impact on the retention capacity of the settlements. The social policy of local governments is fulfi lled by the governments. Financing the tasks and their risks have a great effect on the realization of sustainable local governing. The aim of this study is to review the Hungarian local governmental system assessing some anomalies of the fi nancing of local governments and to draw attention to the risk of local governments, to the possibilities of how to reduce their operational risks highly considering the social political goals of the local governments, the role it has in developing and improving the people’s quality of life.

In our paper we will focus on human factor in preserving economic sustainability in rural areas. When we talk about revitalization of rural areas, we must take into consideration that agricultural activities could be one factor of these processes. In the rural areas the role of agriculture, especially the role of horticulture is determinant taking its high labour demand into consideration. The vertical connections are motivated between the participants on a food chain by the intention of increasing efficiency,  reaching market benefits, reducing uncertainty and risk, and costs of production. From that point of view cooperation among rural habitants could give a chance for them to become real economic partners.
In the paper we examine the process of setting up producers’ organizations in Hungary, focusing on those factors that force their cooperation and integration. We emphasize why this process is so slow and why it is necessary to make the cooperation stronger among farmers. We will show how important is the willingness to cooperation of people living in rural areas to work together in order to gain economic personal and social aims at the same time.

Background. Technological innovations are boosting in the field of finance, and this tendency is similar at fundraising as well. By introducing new ways of payment and digital currencies, all organisations have to follow the trends to be able to accept payments for their goods and services. The third sector must also follow the newest trends that could make donations easier for philanthropic people, but they should be aware of the necessary devices and the costs of the different methods of payment.

Research aims. This article is comparing the different possibilities to achieve money, and with the results of a survey, it reveals the rentable possibilities by identifying the most popular communication platforms.

Methodology. Comparative and descriptive statistical methods are used to analyse data gained from an online survey to reveal the viability of new technologies at the field of philanthropy.

Key findings. The characteristics of donors are analysed, and the most preferred forms of giving are also highlighted to help the actors of the civil sector to establish a competitive fundraising strategy by the help of new technologies.

JEL Codes: D64, L31, O33

The main goal of the European Union's regional policy is to reduce structural disparities between EU member states and regions. The balanced development throughout the EU can promote real equal opportunities for all. So the policy is based on the concept of solidarity and cohesion of economic and social conditions. It achieves this by means of a variety of financing operations, principally through the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund.

The policy focuses on three main objectives, convergence – solidarity, regional competitiveness and employment and European territorial cooperation. By these objectives the EU supported projects in a wide range of areas – at regional and national level – from business support to urban development. It is very important that, these themes reflect the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Between 2007 and 2013 for the European Union's regional policy is allocated 347 billion euro, 35.7% of the total EU budget for that period, just over 49 billion euro a year. All programmes are co-financed by the member countries the total available funding is almost 700billion euro, so the programmes and the results are and will be significant.

The main programmes, eligible areas, and the beneficiaries of the national programs can be summarized, but to measure the various programs effectiveness, in the different countries, are much more complicated. The results depend on a lot of variables, for example the managerial institutional system, the structure of the national programs, the habitat of the participant and many obvious and potential, external and internal economical and social conditions.

But despite of the dissimilarities, we try to collect, through some macroeconomical structural indicators, the main characteristic trends of the utilization EU sources. With various methods, we will characterize the coherence between gross domestic product, labour force statistics etc. Because the analysis of the 27 EU countries could be voluminous, it will be focused on some countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
 

The latest transformation of industrial and agricultural areas leads to inequity implying economic and social consequences. The complex index of living is the key factor in establishment of the index of local retaining capacity. These indexes are a very useful tool in determination of the goals of revitalization.

It is becoming more and more important for the actors of economy, both in the corporate and public sector, to take into consideration certain social and environmental aspects to be socially respected in their business activities. Nowadays it is a generally accepted fact that corporate decisions have their impacts not only on the immediate environment on the whole society. The CEOs of the companies have significant roles in that.

The present study focuses on the CSR attitudes of the CEOs among the Hungarian SMEs based on a survey from 2014. The study introduces those factors that feature and determine the formation of the attitudes.

Along the dimensions it can be stated that concerning the CSR attitude of the majority of the leaders of the Hungarian SMEs are beyond the traditional only profit maximization type of thinking.

The CEOs in the sample do form a homogenous group. Regarding the CSR attitudes of the examined CEOs, the attitudes can be divided into three clear segments: the traditional, the modern and the neutral.

To reveal the company’s social policy publicly – in the form of certificates, indices or reports – occurs more and more often in the corporate practice and communication. The year 2011 has a special role among the campaign of the European Union since 1983. This year the main focus is on voluntariness, which is one of the principles of the European Union, the aim is to draw the attention of the European people to the significance of voluntariness.
The advantage of the companies’ voluntary programme is that through the internal communication a more effective cooperation can be ensured among the employees and nonbusiness. So more and more companies feel the need of the CSR activities, with which they can create competitive advantage for themselves. The research focuses on the nonbusiness group, and examines its relationships and cooperation with other organizations and groups.
The aim of the research carried out in Hungary is to discover and unveil the aims and motivations of the above mentioned segments, and whether the opposing parties, in economic sense, are able to cooperate for one goal in the interest of the community and environment.
The research raises the following questions: What kind of donations is offered from the businesses and from the civil people? Do they comply with the expectation and necessities of the nonbusiness? Is their cooperation useful? Are they able to solve their problems, to communicate effectively?
The results of the research showed similarities with the literature, i.e.: the influencing factors of CSR are the effective communication, the realized cost and benefits for the donor, the empathy, the norm system of the individual and the expectation of the society.
The importance of CSR appears at more and more forums (CSR market, corporate PR etc.). However, to be able to speak of appropriate CSR that is already built-in the value system of the individuals – especially from the viewpoint of society, ecological and economic sustainability – Hungary has a long way to go as there is still a great lack of empathy, internal motivation and social sensitivity, which can only be inherited through culture.
Communication forms the base of offering assistance, as without it the realization of needs
is not possible. The sceptics often accuse the companies that the CSR practice from their part is nothing else only PR activity, however, it was proven by the present research that the donor companies do not require publicity.