International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

In today’s business environment, companies need to take responsibility for their actions and their impact on stakeholders. The company-society relationship must be reciprocal.In this report, we consider implementing innovations in SMEs doing business in Bulgaria, the performance of CSR in practice and whether there is an understanding of the relationship between them. The theory is illustrated by data from an empirical study of 300 companies by the report’s author.

Megyeri E.The objective of the study is firstly to show the start of the spreading of the new technologies and solutions related to the 4th industrial revolution in Hungary. Although Hungary was considered among the more traditionally driven economies (Dujin et al, 2014), there are positive signs in the adapting knowledge-intensive technologies, advanced manufacturing and production solutions, improvements in the interconnectedness of the activities and in the other fields of digitalization, and finally the developed upgrading potential of local actors within a Global Value Chain. The study also introduces recent economic policy developments, policies and plans which were/are targeted to have a multi-level impact on Hungarian industrial/economic performance and of course should comply with present EU-level strategic thinking considering industry. These positive achievements in connection with latest technological revolution can be observed in each segment from primary to tertiary sectors, at companies from all size categories (start-ups, SMEs, large enterprises) and from both local and foreign ownership types. Despite the several positive signs on micro level, we still cannot project the whole economy with all its players in Hungary to dynamically move and develop along the IR 4.0 path in an integrated manner. There is about an average 20 years fallback in the level of technology and human capital readiness. Furthermore, we cannot project the observed success stories or the positive macro level short term impacts to be sustainable in stabilized way. However, the cohesion process of Hungary is undoubtedly on its track, appropriate policy-level answers still will be required.

This paper deals with the issue of cluster as a modern model of development of small and medium enterprises. Clusters as a model for the development of SMEs in recent years are current as in countries in transition, in contrast to developed countries where the model has long been present. It is understandable that clusters are not sufficiently developed in the transition countries, and the reasons should be sought in inadequate development and transfer of innovative technologies, insufficient skills of employees and the lack of partnerships between businesses, which is a critical factor in the development of clusters. The aim of this study is to determine and present factors of cluster development in the application of the concept of small and medium enterprises as a critical factor in economic growth of transition countries.