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Competitively multipolar international system demands bilateral and multilateral partnerships. Joint innovation signals close partnerships. Regional proximity of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) to the European Union (EU) defines its research and development objectives. These objectives are additionally subjected to the USA’s geopolitical strategy in this geographical area. Hence, CEE’s limited resources require limited resources make international innovation cooperation. This paper aims to analyse whether and how CEE countries make international innovation cooperation decisions.

This paper used Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) database of total patent applications filed to the patent cooperation treaty (PCT) with co-applicants from abroad, where co-patents with at least one foreign inventor present a measure of international innovation partnership. A vector autoregression analysis and impulse response function were used to analyse international innovation partnership choices of eight CEE OECD countries for the period 1990–2018.

Innovation with the EU is of collaborative nature, commonly displaying complementary properties with the rest of the examined innovation partners, while co-patenting with the Russia and China act as substitutes or complements. Co-patenting with Russia is the most versatile, displaying both properties of collaboration and competition. Some countries exhibit complementarity in co-patenting activities with multiple partners. The significance levels of these relationships vary, indicating varying degrees of impact. Overall, these findings highlight the complex dynamics of co-patenting activities and the influence of different partners on countries’ collaborative innovation strategies.

In addition to significant relationships, insignificant relationships as well as those that could bring about greater synergy are flagged in the paper. Those relationships portray possible direction into which national funds could be channelled to incite cooperation between different sectors and countries, especially as innovation partnerships are not always successful and require a long time period to materialise.

By examining bilateral innovation partnerships, this study provides an insight into the strategic political and economic spheres of influence in the CEE region.

The history of the profession in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries is not a long one; it results from their history, their size, their spending on research and innovation, their position in geopolitics and world economy. Nevertheless, what makes it exciting is the fact that we are just at the birth of the profession in the region. Historically, there have been very few professionals either related to or officially recognised as Research Managers and Administrators (RMAs) in CEE countries, resulting in their limited resources and capabilities. Nevertheless, some RMAs have found the way to start mutually beneficial collaboration for the sake of their own professional development, for their institution’s and country’s competitiveness by launching networks of RMAs or using regional or European funds for capacity building and developing training or educational programmes.

This chapter aims to provide a short summary of the profession in CEE countries while highlighting a few cases which show how the RMA profession is moving forward but still lagging behind.

This introduction from Andrea Óhidy and Katalin R. Forray provides a brief overview of the social and educational situation of Roma in the Western Balkan region and the structure of this book. Like in the books Lifelong Learning and the Roma Minority in Central and Eastern Europe (2019) and Lifelong Learning and the Roma Minority in Western and Southern Europe (2020), Roma are here described as a ‘hidden minority’ (Cavioni, 2020, p. 68), because despite the great number and the century-long history of Roma people on the European continent, there is still only limited information and knowledge about them, both in public awareness and scientific research. Although most members of the Roma minority have been living for centuries in their European home countries, their situation is still different from the non-Roma populations: They often suffer from socio-economic disadvantages and hate-motivated harassment and discrimination (EU-FRA, 2020a). This is not only the case in the member-states of the European Union but also in the Western Balkan region. All across Europe, there are Roma groups, which are considered to be the most disadvantaged minority, regarding their health, employment and housing and also in education. To increase their situation, European Union member states have developed common strategies, which play a part in negotiations for an EU-membership status. The so-called Western Balkan states – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia – might join the European Union in the coming years. The social inclusion of the Roma minority and the protection of their minority rights in these countries were formulated as a precondition for their application for EU membership. Therefore, several goals, policies and measures were implemented there to break the ‘vicious circle of poverty and discrimination’ (EU-FRA, 2020b). Participation in education and lifelong learning have become central elements of these political measures for Roma Inclusion. This book examines the education situation of Roma across the so-called Western Balkan region.

This study aims to explore the phenomenon of sentimental tourism in Central-Eastern Europe, which is travels to places related to people’s past or their country’s past for sentimental reasons with reference to disruptive historical events (e.g. border changes and lost territories), and identify different segments within sentimental tourists.

A survey was conducted with 400 Polish sentimental tourists to compare their attitudes and behaviour when visiting a “lost” land by age and family roots. Independent samples t-tests and analysis of variance were conducted to compare the views of sentimental tourists by Borderland origin. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the underlying dimensions of destination performance. Cluster analysis was conducted to classify tourists into segments based on their perception of destination performance.

This study analysed the attitude and behaviour of sentimental tourists by age and family roots. Some significant differences were revealed in the purpose of trip, interest in heritage attractions and perception of destination performance across different groups. The study also identifies key factors of destination performance: accessibility, sentiment and infrastructure and security. Based on factor and cluster analyses, Polish sentimental tourists were divided into three types of connections: personally attached older sentimental tourists, cognitively attached younger sentimental tourists and tourists with general interests.

Different from roots tourism, sentimental tourism is unique in including tourists without personal roots but feels sentimental towards the destination based on the shared heritage of lost territories. This study shows how sentimental tourists attach to a lost land that used to belong to their country and how different perceptions of the destination have roots and non-roots tourists. Sentimental tourism in Central Europe provides a new perspective to consider the relationship between tourists and heritage places as well as tourist segmentation.

本研究旨在探讨中东欧的感伤旅游现象, 即由于破坏性历史事件 (例如国界变化、失去领土), 出于感伤原因前往与个人过去或国家过去相关的地方旅游, 并试图分辨感伤旅游游客中的细分市场。

本研究对 400 名波兰感伤旅游游客进行问券调查, 比较年龄和家庭根源不同的游客, 在游历“失落”土地时的态度和行为。本研究使用独立样本 t 检验和 ANOVA, 按年龄和是否Borderland出身的不同来比较感伤旅游游客的观点。接着进行探索性因素分析以确定目的地表现的潜在维度, 并进行聚类分析以根据游客对目的地表现的感知将其分类。

本研究按年龄和家庭根源 (是否Borderland出身) 分析了感伤旅游游客的态度和行为。不同群体在旅行目的、对遗产景点的兴趣以及对目的地表现的看法方面存在一些显着差异。本研究还确定了感伤旅游目的地表现的三个关键因素：可及性、感伤情绪以及基础设施和安全性。基于因子和聚类分析, 波兰感伤旅游者被划分为三种类型：个人依恋的老年感伤游客、认知依恋的年轻感伤游客和具有普遍兴趣的年轻游客。

与寻根旅游不同, 感伤旅游的独特之处在于包括与目的地没有个人或家族根源, 但基于“失落”土地的共同遗产而对目的地感到感伤的游客。这项研究显示了感伤旅游游客如何依附于曾经属于他们国家的失落土地, 以及同根源游客和非同根源游客对目的地的不同看法。中欧的感伤旅游通过游客细分及比较根源和非根源游客提供了一个新的视角来考虑游客与遗产地之间的关系。

Este estudio pretende explorar el fenómeno del turismo sentimental en Europa Central y Oriental, que consiste en viajar a lugares relacionados con el pasado de las personas o de su país por motivos sentimentales en referencia a acontecimientos históricos perturbadores (por ejemplo, cambios fronterizos, territorios perdidos), e identificar diferentes segmentos dentro de los turistas sentimentales.

Se realizó una encuesta a 400 turistas sentimentales polacos para comparar sus actitudes y comportamientos al visitar una tierra “perdida” según la edad y las raíces familiares. Se realizaron pruebas t de muestras independientes y ANOVA para comparar las opiniones de los turistas sentimentales por edad y origen fronterizo. Se aplicó un análisis factorial exploratorio para identificar las dimensiones subyacentes del funcionamiento del destino. Se aplicó un análisis de conglomerados para clasificar a los turistas en segmentos en base a su percepción del funcionamiento del destino.

Este estudio analizó la actitud y el comportamiento de los turistas sentimentales en función de la edad y los arraigos o raíces familiares. Se revelaron algunas diferencias significativas en el motivo del viaje, el interés por las atracciones patrimoniales y la percepción de los resultados del destino entre los distintos grupos. El estudio también identifica tres factores clave del “funcionamiento” de los destinos: la accesibilidad, el sentimiento y las infraestructuras y la seguridad. Basándose en análisis factoriales y de conglomerados, los turistas sentimentales polacos se dividieron en tres tipos de vinculaciones: los turistas sentimentales de más edad vinculados personalmente, los turistas sentimentales más jóvenes vinculados cognitivamente y los turistas con interese generales.

A diferencia del turismo de raíces, el turismo sentimental es único al incluir a turistas sin arraigos personales pero que sienten un sentimiento hacia el destino basado en la herencia compartida de territorios perdidos. Este estudio muestra el apego de los turistas sentimentales a una tierra perdida que solía pertenecer a su país y la diferente percepción del destino que tienen los turistas de raíces y los que no lo son. El turismo sentimental en Europa Central ofrece una nueva perspectiva para considerar la relación entre los turistas y los lugares patrimoniales, así como la segmentación turística a través de la comparación de los turistas de raíces y los que no lo son.

The emergence of Research Management and Administration (RMA) is a result of the pressure on academics to secure research funding from external sources, the increasing competition for these funds, as well as the rising requirements of research funders in terms of reporting and compliance with regulations. This is relevant in the case of the current Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (HEU) funded by the European Union (EU) which requires important level of professionalisation of the research support staff on behalf of the applicant institutions. Data management, open science, research ethics and integrity, achieving impact beyond academia and the valorisation of project results can be regarded as non-research specific criteria which have to be met by applicant organisations to secure the highly competitive funding. Meeting these non-specific criteria is not always possible in countries whose performance is lagging behind compared to the Western European competitors in EU-funded programmes, such as Hungary.

Our findings reveal two things. First, research support in Hungary is in its early stage of maturity, similary to many countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In several cases, Research Managers and Administrators (RMAs) do not possess the knowledge necessary to meet the non-research specific criteria even if the knowledge is present at the institution or with other colleagues. Second, due to the continuously increasing participation in EU-funded framework programmes (FPs), the state of research support in Hungary is constantly evolving. There is also willingness to learn and improve capacities, which needs strategic planning, studying others’ examples and their adaptability. Such processes can support the capacity building and professionalisation of research offices not only in Hungary, but in countries of the Central and Eastern European region with a similar maturity level of RMA.

The study's objective is to measure the response of the food prices to the aggregate and disaggregate geopolitical risk events, Russia's geopolitical risks and global energy prices in the context of two European regions, i.e. Eastern and Western Europe covering the monthly data from January 2001 to March 2022.

The authors apply a novel and sophisticated econometric method, the cross-quantilogram (CQ) approach, to analyse the authors’ monthly data properties. This method detects the causal relationship between the variables under the bi-variate modelling approach. More importantly, the CQ procedure divulges the bearish and bullish states of the causal association between the variables under short, medium and long memories.

The authors find that aggregate measures of geopolitical risk reduce food prices in the short term in the Eastern Europe but increases food prices in the Western Europe. Besides, the decomposed measures of geopolitical risk “threats” and “acts” have heterogeneous effects on the food prices. More importantly, Russia's geopolitical risk events and global energy prices enhance the food inflation under long memory.

The authors provide diverse policy implications for Eastern and Western Europe based on the authors’ findings. First, the European policymakers should take concrete and joint policy measures to tackle the detrimental effects of geopolitical risks to bring stability to the food markets. Second, this region should emphasize utilizing their unused agricultural lands to grow more crops to avoid external dependence on food. Third, the European Union and its partners should begin global initiatives to help smallholder farmers because of their contribution to the resilience of disadvantaged, predominantly rural communities. Fourth, geopolitically affected European countries like Ukraine should deal with a crippled supply chain to safeguard their production infrastructure. Fifth, fuel (oil) scarcity in the European region due to the Russia-Ukraine war should be mitigated by searching for alternative sources (countries) for smooth food transportation for trade. Finally, as Europe and its Allies impose new sanctions in response to the Russia-Ukraine war, it can have immediate and long-run disastrous consequences on the European and the global total food systems. In this case, all European blocks mandate cultivating stratagems to safeguard food security and evade a long-run cataclysm with multitudinous geopolitical magnitudes for European countries and the rest of the world.

This is the maiden study that considers the aggregated and disaggregated measures of the geopolitical risk events, Russia's geopolitical risks and global energy prices and delves into these dynamics' effects on food prices. Notably, linking the context of the Russia-Ukraine war is a significant value addition to the existing piece of food literature.

This study aims to illustrate how bribery and fake news in Eastern European countries can affect businesses across Europe. Countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary represent sizeable and potential markets. Thanks to their European Union membership and low labor costs, these markets could offer many investment opportunities to international managers. Consequently, this study focuses on the challenge of corruption encountered by international managers and the necessary precautions before committing financial resources to these countries.

For this study, 10 informal interviews with presumed providers of illegal services were used to investigate the previously unexplored innovative research question. Informal interviews were conducted with individuals who can be assumed to have experience or knowledge in the field of corruption in multinational corporations.

The results show the potential impact of corruption on international managers in Eastern Europe.

This study contributes to the literature by examining two forms of corruption: bribing journalists to publish fake news to harm commercial rivals and bribing public officials to manufacture legal proceedings against business competitors. The following will also highlight how a corrupt judicial system can have implications abroad and what problems this may raise for mutual legal assistance.

Due to their multifarious backgrounds, multinational enterprises from emerging economies offer unique research opportunities to push the boundaries of our understanding knowledge of diversity management in transitional contexts. In that regard, Central and Eastern European multinationals present a blind spot in diversity management research.

This article examines the extent to which context shapes the discourse on diversity management in the Oil and Gas industry across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) through a qualitative approach based on content analyses of corporate communication data matched with data on national institutional contexts.

The data suggests a lack of effective pro-diversity pressures across CEE except for cultural pressure in European Union member countries. However, CEE Oil and Gas companies report a broader scope of diversity management than studies of Western counterparts suggest. Companies with subsidiaries in Western countries show convergence towards etic diversity approaches, while local and regional companies are more divergent.

This article defines the boundary conditions of diversity management in the Oil and Gas industry across nine CEE countries and how they impact the diversity discourse in the industry. This article also showcases the impact of foreign market presence in the West as a driver for diversity management reporting.