The development of the tourism sector has been a question of strategic importance for Hungary, a small, open economy with limited natural resources. At the same time, these efforts often generate considerable environmental conflicts, decreasing the sustainability of the environment. To understand the potential methods of sustainable tourism development, and to develop the optimal policy, it is essential to clarify the actors, their systems of interest and the potential ways of forging coalitions between them. The article presents an analysis of two case studies of rural tourism development: the "softening" of tourism at the most important touristic attraction in Hungary, Lake Balaton; and the conflicts arising from wine tourism development. Based on institutional economics, principle-agent theory and strategic management, and applying the MACTOR method, the authors identify the key actors, present the network of their mutual influences and goals, determine the most important conflicts and highlight the potential coalitions between them from the point of view of sustainable rural tourism development, as well as ways to further develop the regulatory environment. Based on this analysis, the article proves: (1) the importance of the modernization and reorganization of the public administration structure, focusing on optimal utilization of resources, as opposed to attaching to traditions; (2) the importance of forming clusters of different partners; (3) the strengthening of the knowledge base of decisions concerning sustainable tourism management; and (4) increasing conscious planning, based on the inclusion of different interest groups and long-term prognoses in local decision making, minimises the environmental burden of tourism.

In this contemporary era, environmental problems spread at different levels in all countries of the world. Economic growth does not just depend on prioritizing the environment or improving the environmental situation. If the foreign direct investment is directed to the polluting industries, they will increase pollution and damage the environment. The purpose of the study is to consider the relationship between foreign direct investment in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and economic growth and renewable energy consumption. The study is based on data obtained from 1992 to 2018. The results show that there is a two-way link between foreign direct investment and renewable energy consumption in the considered two countries. The Granger causality test approach is applied to explore the causal relationship between the variables. The Johansen co-integration test approach is also employed to test for a relationship. The empirical results verify the existence of co-integration between the series. The main factors influencing renewable energy are economic growth and electricity consumption. To reduce dependence on fuel-based energy sources, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan need to attract energy to renewable energy sources and implement energy efficiency based on rapid progress. This is because renewable energy sources play the role of an engine that stimulates the production process in the economy for all countries.

Despite the rapidly growing expenditure on digital advertising, the effectiveness of the functioning of the digital advertising ecosystem is becoming less and less visible. This is related to the fact that only a small part of the expenditure incurred by organizations on various forms of digital advertising brings the expected results. For several years now, a phenomenon that stifles the effectiveness of the digital advertising ecosystem and deteriorates the ROI (return on investment) of advertisers has been the widespread practice of blocking advertising, known as ad-blocking. In this context, the aim of this article is to analyze the scale of the phenomenon of ad-blocking and its causes in terms of its impact on the effectiveness of the functioning of the digital advertising ecosystem and its sustainable development, which is extremely important from the point of view of the development of electronic commerce. In order to carry out this study, a literature analysis was conducted on the genesis of this phenomenon, its scale, causes, and economic effects. After this stage of research, in order to obtain primary data, a questionnaire survey was conducted on a group of individual Internet users. The results of the research indicated three main reasons for the development of ad-blocking. These are: excessive number of advertisements, their excessive invasiveness, and the mismatch between the advertisements displayed to the user and the user’s interests. In the context of these results and of the continued sustainable functioning of the digital advertising ecosystem, it is essential that the advertising industry be able to offer users alternatives to ad-blocking that they consider valuable from their own point of view and that take the users’ expectations into account.

This study looks at how firms react to shocks in equity prices based on a classification which arises from social pressures rather than the financial objective of maximizing shareholders’ wealth. In order to meet the objective of the study, a sample of Malaysian firms from the period of 2003 to 2018 was utilized to evaluate the relationship between market and book debt ratios based on a social distinction. The study is based on the theoretical expectation that managers are inclined to adjust book debt ratios to converge with market debt values which arise from changes in equity values over time. We introduce a unique institutional setting into the relationship which is readily observable in the Malaysian capital market given the existence of Shari’ah and non-Shari’ah compliant company classifications on the stock exchange (Bursa Malaysia), as screened by the Securities Commission. The classification forms the basis for distinguishing Socially Responsible Investment options for investors. The findings reveal the existence of asymmetries in how both categories of firms adjust towards shocks in equity prices. The findings document that both compliant and non-compliant firms decrease book debt ratios in line with increases in firms’ equity values. Compliant firms, on the other hand, are more likely to increase book debt ratios during periods of decreases in equity values. Non-compliant firms do not significantly alter book debt ratios during periods of declining equity prices. The findings indicate that whilst firms tend to decrease debt levels in the presence of future growth potential, the response is asymmetric during periods of suppression of share prices. Thus, the screening of compliant versus non-compliant firms allows investors to distinguish sustainable firms in the long run, which further allows diversification when holding socially responsible investment portfolios. Our conclusions have wide reaching implications on a global scale for the development of sustainable capital markets.

Abstract. Our research deals with a comprehensive study of the management success factors of logistics service providers using a new approach, and examines the life of logistics service companies. The data were collected from 51 logistics service providers in Hungary. We searched for the proper enterprise scale -acquisitions -strategies (including the method of looking for the economies of scale in the LSP segment to be examined, and the role of strategy choice). Our research has found that among logistics companies those firms which followed the growth pattern has significantly higher sales revenue than the companies growing organically. Additionally, logistics companiesconsidering their pre-tax profits -work more efficiently when they have a growth strategy (regardless of its time lag). However, this claim is true only for those companies that did not have any (revenue) growth over the previous Vol.10, No.4, 2017 234 period. The results of our research can effectively help logistics service providers find their business success factors, which will enable them fulfil the expectations of their customers in the supply chain better.

ABSTRACT. Our paper performs a comparative analysis of the development level of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept in Romania and Poland. The descriptive part of our study focuses on literature review in order to present the latest trends regarding CSR programs and practices implemented by both large and small companies originating from these two countries. Having in mind the idea that universities are assigned with the vital role in educating and disseminating socially responsible behaviour on both individuals and enterprises, we shifted our area of investigation on the issue of CSR education within Romanian and Polish context. As we noticed lack of research on the effectiveness of CSR courses in Romania as well as in Poland, we designed an empirical study which aims to shed light on the main factors that determine the level of CSR awareness among Bachelor graduates from a Romanian university.

Recruitment process is a progressive and time-consuming activity for an enterprise, usually connected with high costs. Even multi-stage and complex recruitment processes are connected with the risk of failure, an eff ect of which is an unfi lled vacancy. Every organization aims to achieve the highest possible level of effi ciency of the recruitment process in a way that they hire the person who possesses the required competences for a particular position, in the shortest possible time and with the lowest costs. Th erefore, a signifi cant element of every recruitment process is both a proper plan for the whole recruitment process, as well as eff ective check of competences of a potential candidate. Th e research proves that the costs connected with the replacement of an employee range from 1/3 of the annual earnings even up to the value of the two-year remuneration in the case of a high-level manager, it is dependent on the position for which the recruitment process is conducted. Being aware of costs, it is signifi cant to optimize the whole process within organization. New solutions and requirements of the labour market make candidates change the approach to recruitment process. All the time, lack of preparation for interviews may be observed among candidates, starting from the mistakes made at the level of CV preparation , up to the lack of knowledge concerning the organization and its products. Th is paper aims to discuss the ways and tools of the recruitment process optimization in the case of organization, indicating the ways of preparing candidates for recruitment so that they could eff ectively present their own achievements.

The advent of industry 4.0 along with the spread of Information and Communication Technology has brought about many pivotal changes in the E-Commerce segment. Technology driven pricing strategies like dynamic pricing has become very common across different industries all over the world. Today, online pricing has evolved into a very efficient and sophisticated pricing strategy where product prices are personalised and tailored to the last conceivable individual buying unit possessing similar characteristics. This study examines various traits exhibited by online consumers in a dynamic pricing environment and figure out the reasons for the display of strategic purchase behaviour by the consumers in response to the dynamic pricing strategy adopted by the sellers. The study was conducted among the Polish millennials as Poland has the median online market size and growth rate among the Central and Eastern European