The success of large cities in light of company assessments in Hungary

Abstract

The circle of regions that determine the growth of the Hungarian economy significantly transformed between 2004 and 2017. Before 2007 Budapest and its hinterland were the main sources of economic dynamism, while a decade later counties with strong foreign-based manufacturing industry were responsible for growth. This can be explained by nationally improving employment conditions, favourable processes in work productivity in these counties and contrary trends unfurling in the central region.

The position of settlements occupied in the Hungarian settlement network has been of great interest since the systemic change. Some studies handle the issue of success in a complex way by analysing a broader range of factors, while others focus on some selected aspect of success. The goal of this paper is to analyse the assessment of Hungarian settlements as business locations, describe changes in their evaluations over time and establish a typology that allows the comparison of research Mndings on the basis of statistical data. The analysis is grounded in layered questionnaire surveys that break down Hungarian businesses by regions, company size and sectors.

Following a brief overview of international urban rankings, a selection from Hungarian settlement research of the last two decades is provided. This is followed by the analysis of our research Mndings about the evaluation of the appeal of cities as business locations. Our quantitative analysis indicated that big cities, centres of regions and counties are the most appealing to companies. This is also in line with Mndings based on the analyses of statistical data. We looked at how the settlements are assessed at a national scale and also within their narrower regions, and we made comparisons in time and space.

Our analysis shows that the explanatory power of favourable operational costs is losing its significance, whereas the international relationships of cities, their business services, as well as locally available skilled labour force and innovation culture are appreciated. We believe that these Mndings can contribute to further studies about the supply of complex regional factors in some settlements. This is an urgent task from development policy perspective because the Hungarian large and middle cities are not integrated into the global urban system yet.