Economic Modernisation in Hungary: Between Path Dependency and Path Creation

The present analysis focuses on the restructuring process of the Hungarian economy which has been taking place from the early 1990s and on the possibility to integrate it into the new international division of labour. The Introduction outlines various interpretations of the transformation process in the Central and East European (CEE) region. Instead of the rather simplistic view of transition, the authors adopt the more balanced transformation approach in the interpretation of the past 15 years’ changes. The second section analyses the role of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the modernisation of the Hungarian economy. By doing so, two different cycles of the transformation process are distinguished. According to the authors, nowadays we are witnessing a shift to a creative cycle of the transformation in which new paths of development have to be created in order to maintain the relatively good economic position of Hungary among the other CEE countries. To illustrate the possibilities and chances of the creation of such a new development path, the authors take the examples of work delocalisation through eWork and organisational innovations together with the related issue of production paradigms on the basis of international empirical research results. The authors interpret eWork not only as a new tool of working enabled by ICT, but as a tool to integrate Hungarian firms into the global value chains. By stressing the importance of organisational innovations, the authors argue that more efforts should be made to better understand and overcome the social–cultural and economic barriers (e.g. industrial age management culture in the labour process) of the flexible use of manpower and knowledge. A horizontal underlying assumption of the authors is that economic modernisation in Hungary can not be successful in the long run without the integration of the small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs). 本文的分析重點在於自1990年代早期開始的匈牙利經濟再結構化過程；及其過程整合至新國際勞動分工的可能性。導論概述了對中東歐區域轉型過程的多樣解釋，較之以單純的觀點看待這些轉換的過程，筆者對過去15年來的變遷解釋，採用了一個更加均衡(more balanced)的轉型進路。第二段分析了國外投資指導(Foreign Direct Investments)在匈牙利經濟現代化過程中扮演的角色，藉此區分出2種不同轉型過程的週期(cycle)。筆者認為，當今我們正目擊一個轉變中，具創造性的轉型週期(cycle)。此中所創造的新發展路徑，乃為了維繫相對其他中東歐國家而言，匈牙利較好的經濟地位。 為了說明創造如此新發展路徑的可能性和機會，筆者以國際經驗性研究結果為基礎，以透過電子化作業(eWork)與組織創新而達到的去地域化(delocation)及其生產模型的議題為例，解釋電子作業(eWork)不只是因ICT而成為可用的新工具，同時也將匈牙利緊密地整合入全球價值的鎖鍊中。透過強調組織創新的重要性，筆者主張在彈性運用人力與知識的時候，應對社會──文化與經濟的隔閡(barries)作更多的努力與理解（如工業時代裡有關勞動過程的管理文化）。筆者在本文的一個基本設定是：沒有中小企業的整合，匈牙利的經濟現代化無法獲得長期成功。