Attila Kurucz
58249306700
Publications - 7
The Role of Fintech in Promoting Sustainable Blue Economy
Publication Name: World Sustainability Series
Publication Date: 2025-01-01
Volume: Part F794
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: 1-20
Description:
The sustainable blue economy lays a strong emphasis on utilising ocean resources responsibly in order to enhance livelihoods, preserve ecosystem health, and grow the economy. Financial technology, or fintech, has emerged as a major enabler, offering creative ways to eliminate financial gaps, enhance monitoring, and more efficiently manage ocean resources. In this chapter discusses how fintech may stimulate sustainable growth in the blue economy by concentrating on key issues including transparent resource management, scalable investment mechanisms, and inclusive financial systems. This chapter presents a conceptual framework for addressing economic, environmental, and social issues by fusing sustainable marine practices with technological advancements like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things. Fintech’s practical implications in advancing sustainability are demonstrated through in-depth case studies, such as blockchain for Indonesian fisheries and crowdfunding for the restoration of coral reefs in the Caribbean. It also focuses on practical policy recommendations for incorporating fintech into nationally and globally blue economy strategies, like developing regulatory framework and strengthening cross-sector collaborations. The chapter concludes by highlighting fintech’s critical role in promoting sustainability, inclusion, and resilience in ocean-based economies, widening up opportunities for the accomplishment of more general sustainable development goals.
Open Access: Yes
Focus on onboarding process: Examining mentoring and training programs from the perspective of HR and employees
Publication Name: Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Volume: 8
Issue: 12
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
In response to the rapid and dynamic changes in the economic environment, companies must improve their processes to maintain competitiveness. This includes enhancing their intellectual capital, with particular emphasis on effective onboarding processes, which play a crucial role in integrating new employees and retaining talent. This enhances the value of the organization’s intellectual capital and emphasizes onboarding—the training and integration of new employees—whose proper functioning impacts staff retention. Drawing on both Hungarian and predominantly foreign literature, we highlight onboarding processes and examine their implementation in Hungarian companies of various sizes. The research employed a mixed-method approach, combining semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. In-depth interviews were conducted with HR leaders from 13 Hungarian organizations to explore the existence of mentoring programs. Additionally, 161 employees across Hungary completed questionnaires, which examined their perspectives on onboarding processes and the relationship between mentoring programs and company size. We analyzed the data using chi-square tests to assess the strength of these relationships. While all large companies in our sample had formal mentoring programs, smaller companies displayed more variability, with some relying on informal or ad-hoc onboarding processes. Based on these results, we identified several key areas for improvement in onboarding processes. These include enhancing the structure of feedback interviews, ensuring more comprehensive communication channels, and strengthening mentoring programs across companies of all sizes. By addressing these gaps, companies can improve employee retention, engagement, and overall integration during the onboarding process, contributing to a more stable and motivated workforce.
Open Access: Yes
Course innovation in business higher education – A case study of a BA Commerce and Marketing course
Publication Name: International Conference on Higher Education Advances
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Volume: Unknown
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: 448-455
Description:
This paper explores the dynamic landscape of higher education, specifically in the domain of Commerce and Marketing, over the past decade. As higher education faces evolving challenges and changing stakeholder expectations, the study delves into the ongoing debate regarding the alignment of higher education, including business education on a Commerce and Marketing BA course in West-Hungary. The research employs a comprehensive case study methodology spanning ten academic years to showcase the course's development and innovations. The study scrutinizes changes in teaching methodologies, course materials, seminar and project assignments, applied technologies, and assessment methods. Findings from in-depth interviews with business professionals, and student observations reveal the course's adaptation to market needs and challenges encountered during the online transition. The results suggest that, despite disruptions in the academic year 20/21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of this course in the examined years successfully aligns with market expectations, fostering competencies essential for the business domain, thanks to introducing new methodologies (interactive project-based, seminars), usage of AI assisted applications, and introducing new forms of assessments.
Open Access: Yes
Factors and Variables Shaping Generation Z’s Adoption of FinTech
Publication Name: Alternative Finance A Framework for Innovative and Sustainable Business Models
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Volume: Unknown
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: 75-89
Description:
The digital age continues to redefine conventional financial paradigms, and Generation Z is at the forefront, navigating and influencing the trajectory of financial technology (FinTech) applications through their distinct attitudes, behaviors, and expectations. Gen Z is the new archetype and the new behavioral model. The behavioral intention to use FinTech services among Gen Z, explained by the inclusion of factors and in this way being an extension of financial theory, is the hot topic as this is still the beginning of learning the: Facilitating Conditions Intention (FCI), Attitude (A), Behavioral Intention (BI) that define the choices made by Gen Z. In a broader perspective, it is important to point out the main trends among Gen Z toward FinTech services and the conclusions of current research on them. These aspects make it particularly relevant to study the use of FinTech services, which can be done very effectively with social science analysis through structural models. The research presented in this chapter is both descriptive and exploratory, as it presents a theoretical framework that builds on previous research and includes contemporary perspectives based on new research findings.
Open Access: Yes
Tech titans: Generation Z’s role in the FinTech evolution
Publication Name: Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development
Publication Date: 2024-01-01
Volume: 8
Issue: 10
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
The accessibility of FinTech services is increasing, and their convenience is making them more popular than traditional banks, particularly among Generation Z. The objective of this research is to identify and compare the factors influencing the conscious use of FinTech services among Generation Z members, who are the most active participants in this field of financial technology. The questionnaire based purposive sample consisted of Generation Z students who demonstrated adequate financial literacy and utilized FinTech, and who were learning in a university environment in Hungary and Romania. A sample of 600 respondents was selected for analysis after cleaning the data online. The methodological approach entailed the utilization of covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). The results indicate that social influence (β = 0.18), consumer attitude (β = 0.53) and facilitating conditions intention (β = 0.11) all have a significant effect on the behavior intention, explaining 49% of the variance. In the context of performance expectation, the effect of facilitating conditions intention is not significant (p = 0.491). The motivation of Generation Z towards fintech solutions is evident in their preference for speed and ease of use. However, in order to reinforce consumer expectations and transfer the necessary experience and attitudes, it may be beneficial for service providers to adopt a partially different strategy in different countries. Generation Z can thus serve as a crucial reference point for the even more discerning expectations of subsequent generations. The findings may inform the formulation of strategies for fintech service providers to better understand customer behavior.
Open Access: Yes
Crisis Resilience of Startup Companies (The Case of Hungary among the Visegrad Countries with a Focus on the Pandemic)
Publication Name: Sustainability Switzerland
Publication Date: 2023-05-01
Volume: 15
Issue: 9
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
The study examines the crisis resilience of startup companies in Hungary among the Visegrad countries as a result of the pandemic situation. It aims to provide guidance on what support is needed for startups in the post-crisis period to re-launch the economy and to contribute to the region’s economy with positive results. The research was carried out in two stages: first, in 2021 through an online survey, and then, in 2022 in-depth interviews due to the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and the Russian–Ukrainian war. A mixed research methodology was used, which comprised an online questionnaire administered in the Crunchbase database (n = 97) and in-depth interviews among startup founders and experts of the startup ecosystem (n = 22). The research summarizes the V4 countries’ measures to protect entrepreneurship with a particular focus on startups. The research found that a crisis such as a pandemic did not have a uniformly negative impact on startups. The winners of the economic crisis are startups in IT, healthcare (Medtech. health-tech), e-commerce and digital education, while those who fared worst are startups in tourism and hospitality. The positive impact of the crisis has been a cleansing of the startup ecosystem. Business support measures supported the viable startups and helped them survive.
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.3390/su15097108
Product Related Values and Sustainability – Deeper Understanding of the Millennials
Publication Name: Chemical Engineering Transactions
Publication Date: 2023-01-01
Volume: 107
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: 151-156
Description:
In addition to increasing productivity, digitisation and automation are an important part of the sustainability issue. Therefore, investments aimed at environmental protection and long-term sustainability appear to be on the rise among companies with strong innovation activities in the industrial environment. This article presents the results of a study that outlines young people's assessment of the automation and digitisation opportunities on offer. In addition to traditional values, the goal is to find out how they perceive the importance of Industry 4.0 solutions in shaping the way a company operates. The survey was conducted in two countries, Hungary and Poland. It sought to answer the question of how groups, which by definition are well-defined by certain demographic characteristics, determine their preferences with regard to the above-mentioned areas and how they differentiate them. Relationships between clusters - based on preference-related differences - with respect to product manufacturing, i.e., variables that are considered important to companies, were examined. It can be concluded that the environmental issues and, due to this, sustainability is not equally important (range: 3.512 to 4.308). The traditional features of the products were important for everyone (4,407 to 4,549), and the smart features were differently evaluated (2,607 to 3,386). Overall, looking at the relationship between sustainability-related values will bring us closer to further typology and a better understanding of the clusters, making them more accessible and easier to understand and thus enabling a more effective strategy to be implemented with a focus on sustainability.
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.3303/CET23107026
