Our study examined the financial situation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the health industry of the Visegrad Four (V4: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary) in the period 2008–2021. The basis of the analysis was the reports available in the Crefoport database. During the analysis, we took into account four key financial indicators (liquidity, profitability (ROA), efficiency, capital structure) and used the Kaplan–Meier survival estimator to examine the viability of enterprises. In our study, we draw attention to the national economic importance of healthcare SMEs in the CEE region, and within that, in the V4 countries during the period of Industry 4.0 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research goal is to examine the life expectancy of healthcare enterprises operating in Hungary at the time of their establishment, in relation to the SMEs of the other three countries. The health industry SMEs of the V4 countries showed positive growth (+18%) in the period under review compared to the average of the 3 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, in the average of the first 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study paid particular attention to the life expectancy of businesses at the time of establishment. According to our results, the life expectancy of healthcare enterprises operating in Hungary at the time of establishment is high, but it does not differ significantly from that of the other examined countries. Our study highlights that the health industry SMEs of the examined countries do not need financial support; they are standing on a stable footing, which provides them with an excellent opportunity to either expand abroad or introduce innovations.
The COVID-19 pandemic challenged, transformed and still transforming the healthcare industry, besides there is an increasing pressure on healthcare. The main influencing factors are: technological developments, increasing societal expectations, the amount of health data to be recovered, rising health costs and aging population. The solution lies in healthcare innovations. In fact, the impact of COVID-19 has accelerated the research, development and innovation activities in the healthcare sector, which will hopefully have long-term positive effects. After briefly exploring the concept of innovation in the literature, the study focuses on the outstanding role of corporate innovation, which accounts for about two-thirds of Europe's economic growth in recent decades. The overall performance of the innovation system of the European Union member states is presented, with a special focus on the Hungarian innovation performance, which plays a key role for health industry innovations in improving the overall innovation performance. It is considered the characteristics of the health industry from an economic point of view. The definition and areas of the health industry, the statistics of Hungarian research and development and innovation (R & D & I) applicable to this field, the significance and measurability of innovation in the health industry are presented, and the main barriers and drivers of health industry development are mentioned. The main features of the innovation and development of the studied area are highlighted. Overall, it has been concluded that R&D expenditures on the healthcare industry play a significant role in Hungary, which represents a serious opportunity to handle these challenges. Health industry developments have a huge potential for innovation, which greatly affects the competitiveness of the state at both corporate and industry levels.
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