On 29^th June, János Martonyi, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and on 1^st July, as the second lecturer, Dr. Péter Kovács, Deputy Dean of the Faculty delivered a lecture in the Main Hall of the Faculty. On 8^th July, the third lecture was held by Dr. Erzsébet Hetesi, Head of Institute of Business Studies and Dr. Márton Vilmányi, Dean of the Faculty.Their research focusedon the cooperation of enterprises and its effect on their competitiveness.

In the first part of the lecture, Dr. Márton Vilmányi outlined the process of market internationalization in a historical aspect.As the risk and dependence of firms is increasing, global economy has turned into a system of network connections. When evaluating the connections, we should examine performance and quality. Performance involves ‘tough’ financial indicators, which are countable, while quality involves ‘soft’ –i.e. uncountable – indicators, such as loyalty.

In her lecture on loyalty research in B2B markets, Dr. Erzsébet Hetesi raised a question: Does loyalty exist in business markets? Within a co-operation,is it only the price and quality that affect the evaluation of a relationship, or do other factors also play a role? According to the former Dean, if somebody intends to describe economy solely in terms of numbers, they make a huge mistake. Numbers are useful, but other factors need to be taken into consideration as well in understanding economic phenomena. There have always been relationships, and there will always be! A connection is akind of interaction aimed to take advantage of mutual benefits; furthermore, they are embedded in a social environment with several dimensions; therefore, ‘soft’ indicators are unavoidable to increase competitiveness.