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The purpose of this paper is to show the effects of the six competence areas of Garcia-Aracil and Van der Velden (2007) on new graduates' labor market success measured by salary.

The paper starts with a literature review about the role of competencies in higher education. Then the Graduate Career Tracking System (GCTS) carried out at the University of Pécs (UP) in Hungary provides a good basis to understand the competence assessment methodology better. Furthermore, GCTS is suitable for carrying out an exploratory, a confirmatory factor analysis and an OLS regression to discover the connection between competencies and level of income.

The analyzed results, using a representative online survey based on 6,190 respondents, show that the six competence sets do exist, but that not all of them have a significant effect on salaries. With the control variables involved, 24.3% (EFA) and 23.0% (CFA) of the global competencies account for variance in salaries. The impact of methodological and the socioemotional set on salaries can be clearly seen among those with new degrees, and based on the results and the literature review, the HEIs can improve them.

In the absence of nationwide general competence assessment, the results are limited only for the UP graduates of Hungary, even if this HEI is one of the biggest ones.

Based on the results, more soft-competence development courses and opportunities should be offered by the HEIs.

The findings of the study help us to understand the role of the institutions in tertiary education, the extra service to be provided to assist students in being successful in life. Based on the literature review, there is a need to understand better the connection between competencies and labor market success. This paper contributes to this and also presents an opportunity for further comparative research. The sample is robust to allow other researchers to use this conceptual model and apply it to other countries.

The purpose of this paper is to add supplement to the theory of human capital with a less researched aspect: diversification possibilities of the professional profile. Our empirical analysis tested the research question, whether there is a significant difference between diversificational and specialist career strategies in the BA-MA transition based on labour market data on salaries and time of getting employment.

Present study analyses data from the Graduate Career Tracking System from 2011 to 2015 and the Integrated Administrative Databases from 2017. Graduates of master's courses were divided and compared in three groups: generalists, specialists and field changers. To evaluate career strategies the measurement of success was based on salaries and the time taken to get jobs.

The analysis showed that there are visible differences between the results of the three groups regarding factors of employment, so at the time of reaching the absolutorium a lower rate of major subject changers are employed, while field changers get jobs significantly faster. Based on net salaries we could not reveal a difference between major subject retainers and changers, while field changers earn significantly more.

Specialists (major subject retainers) have jobs that match with their degree and specialty outstandingly, field changers have notably weaker matches, while major subject changers differ only minimally. Considering this it may be due to distorted perception that specialists think the least that their master's studies are essential for the proper execution of their jobs.

In the literature review we found a research gap: Although there is a large number of excellent works analysing the effects of education on wages (salary curve) and career, but only a few of them investigates the impact of the professional portfolio (diversification or specialisation). The novelty of our research is that we developed a new methodology to test this question on example of the Hungarian students of business and economics focused.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the differences between Hungarian family-owned businesses (FOBs) and non-family-owned businesses (NFOBs) concerning the elements of SME competitiveness and financial performance.

The research covers the Hungarian data set of the Global Competitiveness Project (GCP, www.sme-gcp.org) of 738 (data collection between 2018 and 2020) non-listed SMEs, of which 328 were FOBs. The study uses the comprehensive, multidimensional competitiveness measurement of the GCP built on the resource-based view (RBV) and the configuration theory. Financial performance was captured with two composite indicators: short-term and long-term financial performance (LTFP). The comparative analysis between FOBs and NFOBs was conducted using binary logistic regression.

The results show that FOBs are more prone to focusing on local niche markets with higher longevity and LTFP than NFOBs. However, FOBs have lower innovation intensity and less organised administrative procedures. The most contradicting finding is that the FOBs’ higher LTFP is accompanied by significantly lower competitiveness than in the case of NFOBs.

This study goes beyond other GCP studies by including composite financial performance measures among the variables examined. The combination of performance-causing (resources and capabilities) and performance-representing (financial performance) variables provides a better understanding of the non-listed SMEs in terms of family ownership. The results help academia to enrich the RBV-competitiveness, the non-listed SME management and finance literature, and policymakers to design business development and support schemes. They also show future entrepreneurs the impact of family ownership on entrepreneurial success.

Competitiveness is a multidimensional construct, related to a number of external and internal company factors. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the relationship between the application of small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) compensation incentives as an index/element of human system development and competitiveness.

A unique primary data set drawn from the Global Competitiveness Project on SMEs’ competitiveness was analysed, using cross-sectional data of 784 firms. First, descriptive statistics were used to show the data set peculiarities. Second, a forward logistic regression was applied to show the effects on the application of compensation incentives. A 25.1% of explanatory power was found by targeting the application of compensation systems by 7 firm-level principal factors and 30 control variables.

The findings suggest that there is a higher chance of the application of compensation incentives in cases when the employees possess a more substantial tacit knowledge and formal and informal relationship networks. It is also positively impacted by the higher level of intra-company manifestation of knowledge.

The research was conducted among SMEs from eight countries, based on a unique questionnaire designed for small enterprises. The respective countries are from Europe and Latin America, which serve as a reference category for Hungary. Also, there is a high level of 0 answers for the involved variables. The binary logistic regression methodology is suitable for filtering out some of these; nevertheless, the proportion of uncertain factors remains high as it is indicated by the explanatory power.

The majority of the literature is dealing with large companies in the topic of competitiveness, whereas in this data set, a deeper analysis was carried out among SMEs from eight countries, comparing their results to the Hungarian ones. The findings can be used as reference points for future studies, and the understanding of the HR cycle within SMEs.

The purpose of this study is to identify the corporate functions that contribute most to the innovation success of SMEs with limited resources. After a systematic literature review, the authors used a unique primary data set of 784 SMEs from eight countries. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to show the data set peculiarities. The logistic regression targeted the presence of innovative products and services in sales by 11 dummy variables and 4 principal factors describing SMEs’ different resources and capabilities.

The authors developed a resource-based product innovation model that is synthesising the impact of the company resources and capabilities and of the innovation activity of the company on the actual innovation performance. The authors carry out an empirical analysis of the characteristic features of innovation activity in an international sample of SMEs.

The results show that two corporate functions play a crucial role in the effectiveness of innovation for SMEs as follows: management and research and development (R&D). In addition, although of lesser importance, the effect of the marketing function also appears significant. The binary logistic regression had 84.2% of explanatory power.

From a scientific point of view, the SME-focussed, complex and synthesising RBV model of innovation construction and literature review can be used as a reference point for future researches. From a practical point of view, the analysis is useful for those SMEs, which want to gain a competitive advantage through innovation. Indeed, the results show that in the case of SMEs, a company wishing to innovate must invest in three corporate functions for innovation to be effective as follows: management, R&D and marketing.

For professional sustainability work, graduates need to be able to work in teams and collaborate with stakeholders; in other words, they need to have developed interpersonal competence. There is growing evidence that project-based sustainability courses facilitate interpersonal competence development. However, research so far has focused on single case studies and on assessing learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of how graduate students learn interpersonal competence in project-based sustainability courses.

This study adopts a multi-case study approach triangulating observations, semi-structured interviews and focus groups supported by Photovoice method. A comparison of three project-based sustainability courses in graduate programs at universities in the USA, Germany, Switzerland and Spain is conducted to gain generalizable insights on how interpersonal competence can be developed through project-based sustainability courses.

Receiving inputs, experiencing, reflecting and experimenting are four learning processes supportive of interpersonal competence development. Interpersonal attitudes seem to be mostly learned through a combination of experiencing and reflecting, followed by experimenting; not surprisingly, interpersonal knowledge is mostly developed through a combination of receiving inputs, experiencing and (collective) reflection; and interpersonal skills seem to be mostly learned through a combination of receiving inputs and experimenting, or, more directly, experiencing and experimenting.

These findings support the unique learning opportunities offered through project-based sustainability courses and can help instructors to better facilitate students’ development of interpersonal competence.

The value of this study is three-fold: (i) it provides a comprehensive picture of interpersonal competence, including attitudes, knowledge, and skills; (ii) it spells out specific teaching and learning processes; and (iii) it links these to specific interpersonal competence facets and components.