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A gyógyszeripari kutatás eredményeként egy-egy kielégítetlen orvosi igényre többféle hatásmechanizmus és ezen csoportokon belül több hatóanyag születik válaszként. A gyógyszerkutatás marketing szempontból a hatásmechanizmusok szintjén valóban eltérő megoldásokat kínál az igények kielégítésére, míg a hatásmechanizmusokon belül optimálni igyekszik a terméktulajdonságokat. Amíg egy szabadalom él, addig egy hatóanyag jellemzően egy márkanév alatt kerül a forgalomba. A verseny a terápiás csoporton belül a szabadalmaztatott hatóanyagok szintjén zajlik, az oltalmak ideje alatt innovatív márka és a hatóanyag piaci teljesítménye azonosnak tekinthető (szükségleti csoporton belüli verseny). A szabadalmak lejáratával, a generikus termékek belépésével az addigi hatóanyagok szintjén zajló verseny a késztermékek szintjére kerül át. Míg tehát az originális brand számára a hanyatlás egy létező folyamat, addig erről a hatóanyag esetében nem feltétlen beszélhetünk, hiszen a generikus versenytársak is ugyanazon hatóanyagot fogják piacra vinni saját termékeikkel, generikus márkákkal. A verseny az oltalmak lejáratával tehát kiegészül a termékcsoporton belüli versennyel. Amennyiben egy terápiás csoporton belül több hatóanyag is a piacra került, úgy a szabadalmak lejáratának eltérő időpontja miatt a verseny dinamikája időben és országok szerint is jelentősen eltérhet. Doktori kutatásom témájaként vizsgálom, hogy a marketing szempontból egymás helyettesítőjeként értelmezhető gyógyszerhatóanyagok közül a páciensek makro szinten, vajon a klinikai szempontból előnyösebb terápiához jutnak-e hozzá a komplex gyógyszerfelírási folyamat végén. A klinikai megfelelőség sorrendjének kialakításánál a bizonyítékon alapuló gyógyszerelés alapelveit követem, azaz a gyógyszerhatóanyagokat megfelelő evidenciák alapján rangsorolhatónak tartom (Botz-Szűcs, 2008). Feltevésem szerint hosszútávon és megfelelő versenyhelyzetben a klinikai rangsorban hatékonyabb és biztonságosabb hatóanyagok pozitív tulajdonságainak, azok eladásában is tükröződnie kell. A klinikailag előnyösebb terápiák csökkentik az orvosok bizonytalanságát, ezáltal az orvosok meggyőzése egyszerűbb a különböző marketingtevékenységek révén (Venkataraman-Stremersch, 2007). Szintén ezt az összefüggést erősítheti, hogy az orvosok az orvoslátogatások által és szakmai eseményeken történő részvétellel nagy mennyiségű információt szereznek a gyógyszerek klinikai megfelelőségéről (Gönül et al., 2001), mely tevékenységek fontos informatív (kognitív bizonytalanság csökkentése) és meggyőző (pozitív hatás a gyógyszerfelírásra) hatással bírnak (Narayanan et al., 2005). Természetesen a gyártók marketingtevékenysége torzító tényezőként is megjelenhet, sok egyéb tényező mellet, mint az árszínvonal, a gyógyszerpolitika eszközei, illetve ezek egymásra gyakorolt hatása is. A doktori kutatás legnagyobb eredményének azt az elméleti keretrendszer megalkotását tartom, mely a klinikai evidencia és a piaci teljesítmény közötti kapcsolatot igyekszik részletesen leírni. A kutatás során elemzem, hogy a gyógyszeripari terápiák diffúziója hogyan következik be, és a verseny eredményeként kialakuló piaci trendeket hogyan javaslom vizsgálni (szekunder adatok keresztmetszeti és longitudinális vizsgálata, hatóanyag és brand szinten, országokon átívelő mintán). A gyógyszerfelírást leginkább meghatározó tényezőket a kvalitatív kutatás során rendszerezem és a tényezők hatásának mértékét primer marketingkutatással tárom fel. A kérdőíves kutatás újdonsága, hogy egymás mellett vizsgálja az orvosi és az orvoslátogatói percepciót, így alapot szolgáltat az orvosi és az ipari perspektívák összehasonlítására. Az eredményeket oly módon értelmezem, hogy a gyógyszeripari szabályozás és gyógyszerpolitikai eszközei, illetve a marketingtevékenységek hatásai is megjelenjenek az értékelésben. Mivel a hatóanyag-terápiák piaci teljesítményét az orvosi gyógyszerfelírási döntések eredőjeként értelmezem, ezért a szekunder piaci adatok és a primer marketingkutatás során kapott eredményeket is hasonlítom, illetve a felírást befolyásoló tényezőket ok-okozati összefüggésben értelmezem a piaci teljesítményre gyakorolt hatásukkal. Hatóanyag-szintű, általános érvényű következtetéseket azt gondolom, hogy csakis ebben a komplexitásban, a tudományterületek összekapcsolásával érdemes vizsgálni a gyógyszeriparban. Az elméleti és módszertani javaslaton túl a hipertónia betegség kezelésére szolgáló terápiákon belül, két különböző hatásmechanizmusú hatóanyag csoporttal végig is vezetem az elemzést. Az így megalkotott keretrendszert alkalmasnak gondolom bármely hasonló terápiás gyógyszercsoport elemzésére. Úgy gondolom, hogy ennek a megközelítésnek az újszerűsége mind gyakorlati, mind elméleti oldalról a fent felsorolt tényezők szintézisében áll.

The expression of the Parliament is often associated with abstract concepts such as politics, democracy, or nationhood (Kapitány & Kapitány, 2002; Szabó & Oross, 2018) when instead of the literal meaning of the ‘building’, we refer to its figurative meanings. It has already been confirmed that political cartoons are rich in figurative devices (e.g., conceptual metaphor) (i.a. El Refaie, 2009) and they serve as a suitable corpus for the investigation of the figurative meaning of the Parliament. In the case of a conceptual metaphor, for instance, the Parliament (considered as a target domain) is understood via the source domain conceptually different from the target (e.g., COLOSSEUM). In that way, certain characteristic features of the source domain are mapped onto the target domain, and we are able to interpret politics, specifically the Parliament itself as the site of real, dangerous, life-or-death physical battles. All these figurative meanings can influence how we think about politics, its processes, and actors, how we argue in the case of a political problem and how we would try to solve it. The current research aims to examine how the Hungarian Parliament is visually represented in editorial cartoons and how these visual representations – through figurative conceptual devices such as conceptual metaphors and conceptual metonymies – construct the concept of the parliament. Furthermore, the thesis discusses how these cognitive devices cooperate with ironies and cultural references (such as idioms, allusions, and national symbols) which are determinant in evaluation procedures and the creation of emotional bonds between the viewer and the cartoon. In doing so, the dissertation studies the caricaturistic representations of the Parliament in three various periods (Körösényi, 2015); thus, the investigation is longitudinal (describing thirty years since 1989) and comparative. What are the novelties of the research? First, it examines Hungarian editorial cartoons in a cognitive linguistic framework, unlike this, so far Hungarian political cartoons have been discussed by historians (e.g., Tamás, 2014). Second, although the Parliament is an important concept (Kapitány & Kapitány, 2002), its figurative meaning has not been studied so widely yet. Third, it is a multimodal investigation of conceptual processes that fits into the trend of cognitive linguistic research that focuses on the cooperation of different processes. Fourth, this research examines a large data set in context where the contextual factors are limited to three types, namely idioms, allusions, and national symbols (context types are usually not defined in such concrete ways, e.g., Charteris-Black, 2011). Fifth, the dissertation applies Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (ECMT) (Kövecses, 2020) in practice in a larger corpus. Sixth, it is a diachronic investigation which is rare in the field of cartoon research (e.g., Frantzich, 2013) also in cognitive research, especially in multimodal research. The main results show that 1) the representation of the Parliament is strongly linked to such conceptual procedures as conceptual metonymy and conceptual metaphor. These cognitive devices are likely to cooperate with ironies and cultural references. 2) a limited number of cognitive devices (e.g., the conceptual metonymy THE PARLIAMENT STANDS FOR THE GOVERNMENT, or the conceptual metaphor THE PARLIAMENT IS A PLACE FOR PHYSICAL CONFLICT) are recurring in the corpus during the period between 1989 and 2019. However, regarding the perspectivization, content and function of these cognitive devices, it is said that the compared periods of democracy (Körösényi, 2015) show significant differences based on the diverse preferences and distribution of the cognitive devices with specific cultural references in each era. 3) the increase of more aggressive scenes emerges from the metaphoric domain of PHYSICAL CONFLICT, which goes hand in hand with a change in the use of national symbols referring to the perceived extreme nationalist content, and political slogans which are dominated by the direct elements (literal citations, showing violence overtly). An unexpected result is the detection of a shift in communication acting in the opposite direction, according to which in linguistic changes indirect processes took place (e.g., increasing use of causal type ironies), in visual processes direct changes became predominant, so for instance, violence appeared literally. In sum, the Parliament seems a permanent phenomenon throughout the years, however, this research points to its different meanings and nuances of meaning variants. So even the stability of the meaning of such a strong national symbol can be questioned.

The work presented in this thesis provides an integrated view and related insights for solar and wind farm operators and renewable energy regulators regarding factors influencing electricity production using those resources. The findings help production planning and grid stability improvements through better energy forecasting to reduce uncertainty. With the high increase in energy demand expected in both the near and far future, generating energy from green sustainable resources has now become an imperative necessity. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are among the most promising and environmentally-friendly energy generation options. However, wind and solar energy production are influenced by many variables which affect the reliability, stability, and economic benefits of wind and solar energy projects, therefore, forecasting the potential amount of energy from wind and solar resources is of great importance. Hence, the objective of the work reported here was to explore the possibility of using artificial intelligence methods to accurately predict the generated renewable power from solar and wind farms based on the available data. Specifically, this thesis reports on the following results: 1. At first, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy forecasting was studied. Operators of grid-connected PV farms do not always have full sets of data available to them, especially over an extended period of time as required by key forecasting techniques such as multiple regression (MR) or artificial neural network (ANN). Therefore, the work reported here considered these two main approaches of building prediction models and compared their performance when utilizing structural, time-series, and hybrid methods for data input. Three years of PV power generation data (of an actual farm), as well as historical weather data (of the same location) with several key variables, were collected and utilized to build and test six prediction models. Models were built and designed to forecast the PV power for a 24-hour ahead horizon with 15 minutes resolutions. Results of comparative performance analysis show that different models have different prediction accuracy depending on the input method used to build the model: ANN models perform better than the MR regardless of the input method used. The hybrid input method results in better prediction accuracy for both MR and ANN techniques while using the time-series method results in the least accurate forecasting models. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis shows that poor data quality does impact forecasting accuracy negatively, especially for the structural approach. 2. Then, wind energy forecasting was studied utilizing three machine learning techniques namely Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Support vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbors (K-NN). The three mentioned techniques were used to design, train and test wind energy, forecasting models. Later, a hybrid model was proposed based on these three techniques. Real data obtained from a 2MW grid-connected wind turbine has been used to train and validate the different machine learning techniques. To compare the accuracy of the models over different performance measures with different scales, a comparative evaluation method was devised and used. Results show that the ANN model has great performance in forecasting long-term wind energy, but in contrast, it has very poor short-term performance. SVM model shows better short-term forecasting performance than ANN but presents weak long-term forecasting abilities. K-NN model shows very good short-term forecasting abilities and fair long-term performance. The suggested hybrid model was able to forecast both long and short-term wind energy with very good performance. To that degree, the suggested model can help grid and wind farm operators to forecast the potential amount of wind energy for both long and short term with a good degree of certainty. 3. Finally, the effect of the input data resolution on the forecasting accuracy was studied for both wind and solar. So, datasets were collected from a 546 KWp grid-connected PV farm and a 2 MW wind turbine for one full year. This data was used to train and test Artificial Neural Network models to forecast day-ahead PV and wind energy utilizing time-series input data with 15, 30, and 60 minutes resolutions. The models were able to forecast the PV energy accurately, while the same models trained for wind showed poor performance. Higher input data resolutions lead to slightly better forecasting performance for the PV farm. Utilizing data with higher resolution can improve the forecast by 1-5%. While for wind energy forecasting, the resolution has very minor effects, the 30-minute resolution shows a bit better forecasting performance.

The main goal of the dissertation was to expand the existing literature related to femvertising by providing an extensive literature review and by exploring and confirming new theoretical connections related to diverse disciplines, such as marketing, sociology, and psychology. Besides, the study also aimed to respond to the previously identified research gaps regarding femvertising by exploring the phenomenon cross-culturally, and also by providing future research directions. Thus, the dissertation expanded the current theoretical framework by the following contributions, related to theory, methodology, context, and future research directions. (1) An extensive literature review has been provided, which is based on the most cited publications from the Scopus database in different disciplines, related to women empowerment, gender equality, and gender stereotypes, with special attention to femvertising and its perceived empowering and brand-related effects. The findings are also presented in summary tables. (2) New connections between concepts were identified and new variables were tested by structural equitation modeling. This is one of the first studies of femvertising to link various constructs in a single theoretical framework, providing a comprehensive understanding of femvertising and its perceived empowering and brand-related effects. The innovative findings consisted of the dimensions of women empowerment, such as decision-making, control over income, and self-esteem, which were discussed along femvertising in qualitative research, among the first studies to discuss this complex phenomenon in a marketing setting. Additionally, another variable has been investigated in the setting of femvertising, which has not been at the center of previous research related to this topic: by including gender role equality attitude in this research related to femvertising, both in the qualitative and quantitative studies, several useful insights were gained, proving its moderating role on the relationship between perceived women empowerment and the attitude towards the advertisement. (3) A rarely used methodology related to the literature on femvertising, interviewing has been applied for the exploration of this concept (as recommended by Middleton et al., 2020), providing further insights on its empowering and brand-related effects. (4) In addition to the theoretical framework's new findings, the dissertation tested the following scales in the context of femvertising: perceived women empowerment (Teng et al., 2020), attitude towards the advertising (Wells, 1964; modified by Abitbol & Sternadori, 2019; Sternadori & Abitbol, 2019; Kapoor & Munjal, 2017), attitude towards the brand (Mitchell & Olson, 1981; modified by Dahlén at al., 2008), purchase intent (Teng et al., 2020) and gender role equality attitude (Gender Role Attitudes Scale of García-Cueto et al., 2015; modified by Jinah, 2022). The results provided additional insights into the applicability of these scales. (5) The phenomenon of femvertising has been investigated in a new context in the current research, realizing cross-cultural qualitative studies with interviewing techniques in Hungary, Mexico, and Iceland and a quantitative study in Hungary. Among the first studies, the dissertation explored femvertising in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and other Nordic countries other than Sweden, instead of investigating it in well-researched, English-speaking nations with high gender equality, such as the United States and the United Kingdom (Global Gender Gap Report, 2022). (6) New future research directions have been also provided to further investigate the phenomenon of femvertising.

Three competing forces are shaping the concept of European Privacy by Design (PbD): laws and regulations, business goals and architecture designs. These forces carry their own influence in terms of ethics, economics, and technology. In this research we undertook the journey to understand the concept of European PbD. We examined its nature, application, and enforcement. We concluded that the European PbD is under-researched in two aspects: at organizational level (compared to the individual level); and mainly in the way it is enforced by authorities. We had high hopes especially with regards to the latter, and eager to bring significant scientific contribution on this field. We were interested to learn if data protection authorities are having such impacts looking at European PbD, that can pioneer new approaches to privacy preservation. This is why we elaborated on possible ways to measure their activity, in a manner that both legal and non-legal experts can understand our work. We promised a response to the research question can the enforcement of European PbD be measured and if yes, what are possible ways to do so? We conducted data analytics on quantitative and qualitative data to answer this question the best way possible. Our response is a moderate yes, the enforcement of PbD can be measured. Although, at this point, we need to settle with only good-enough ways of measure and not dwell into choosing the most optimal or best ways. One reason for this is that enforcement of PbD cases are highly customized and specific to their own circumstances. We have shown this while creating models to predict the amount of administrative fines for infringement of GDPR. Clustering these cases was a daunting task. Second reason for not delivering what could be the best way of measure is lack of data availability in Europe. This problem has its roots in the philosophical stance that the European legislator is taking on the topic of data collection within the EU. Lawmakers in Europe certainly dislike programs that collect gigantic amounts of personal data from EU citizens. Third reason is a causal link between the inconsistent approach between the data protection authorities’ practices. This is due to the different levels of competencies, reporting structures, personnel numbers, and experience in the work of data protection authorities. Looking beyond the above limitations, there are certainly ways to measure the enforcement of European PbD. Our measurements helped us formulate the following statements: a. The European PbD operates in ‘data saver’ mode: we argue that analogous to the data saving mode on mobile phones, where most applications and services get background data only via Wi-Fi connection, in Europe data collection and data processing is kept to minimal. Therefore, we argue that European PbD is in essence about data minimization. Our conviction that this concept is more oriented towards data security have been partially refuted. b. The European PbD is platform independent: we elaborated in the thesis on various infrastructures and convergent technologies that found compatibility with the PbD principles. We consider that the indeed the concept is evolutionary and technology –neutral. c. The European PbD is a tool obligation: we argue that the authorities are looking at PbD as a tool utilization obligation. In a simple language, companies should first perform a privacy impact assessment in order to find out which tools are supporting their data processing activities and then implement these, as mandated PbD. d. The European PbD is highly territorial: we reached the conclusion that enforcement of PbD is highly dependent on geographical indicators (i.e. countries and counties). The different level of privacy protection cultures are still present in Europe. On a particular level, what is commonly true across all countries is that European PbD mandates strong EU data sovereignty.

This research investigates the manifestations of European identity construction by the political and media discourses within the depressing context of the Euro crisis and refugee crisis of the European Union (EU) in a case study country- Germany. It utilizes the main aspirations of the Social Identity Theory (SIT), which asserts that social, economic, and political processes are highly critical in forming an ‘ingroup’. In doing so, it provides a novel approach to the European studies on the nexus between the EU integration and its crises. Although the literature previously engaged in explaining the formation of European identity through the lenses of the SIT, the theoretical novel of this research comes from the fact that it will investigate the way European identity is constructed, instrumentalized, and manifested during the financial and refugee crisis, which is of critical importance for the enrichment of the discipline, since social identity is mediated by the involvement of different social comparative contexts and content. The empirical contribution of the current study accommodates the extension of the empirical body of knowledge in Germany, which has occupied a key, initial, and unique position during both crises in formulating these mechanisms to fight with the crises. This study argues that political and media discourses became a critical tool of disseminating the collective identity construction during the times of crises that posed rigid challenges to political, social, and economic processes of the EU. This is because the crises provided a viable ground for the articulations of the different manifestations of the European identity construction implying ‘what it means to be European’ due to the incremental salience of the European affairs within the public. While the crises have opened up leeway for the member states to become less Euro-centric because of the possible dramatic repercussions, identity construction, focusing on increasing the levels of commitment to ingroup for the sake of the common good of the community, may play an instrumental role in convincing European citizens to bear the dramatic consequences and costs of the crises. Therefore, an inquiry concentrating on answering how the European identity is manifested and instrumentalized in responding to and answering the crises is of critical importance. Based on such premise, this research conducts extensive qualitative frame analysis of political and media discourse at key moments of the crisis. The manifestations of the European identity construction are found to differ between two crises during the course of the analysis, which can be explained by the fact that the imperatives of the crises altered considerably. The detailed qualitative analysis of the media and political discourse covering the euro crisis found that European identity construction is manifested to be shaped in accordance with the needs of the different time frames of the crisis. Accordingly, at the political discourse level, the European identity is operationalized and instrumentalized in line with the political claims and interests of the political elites in the governance and in the opposition. The beginning of the crisis in Greece evoked little political interest and attraction in formulating immediate response since the country often was accused of being as ‘debt sinner’ ‘the guilty other of the European in-group’ and the crisis was externalized and portrayed as ‘home-made’. Yet the aggravation of the crisis necessitated to the formulation of a European-level solution that arose the concerns of political legitimization. At that point, European identity construction was vitally used as a discursive act of instrumentalization and operationalization through consolidating Germany’s commitment to the European community, which is regarded as its historical responsibility, vis a vis its historical otherness to Europe. During the refugee crisis, regardless of the political leaning and stance in respect to the crisis, the European identity construction is manifested as a tool of both internal and external othering to bolster both intra- and inter-group differentiation. It demonstrated that the pro-refugee stance adopted by the media discourses regardless of their political leanings exhibited often external othering vis a vis the in-group of the European community presented as a community of humanitarian responsibility. Therefore, they were highly converging with the pro-refugee mainstream political discourses. In this respect, the divergences between the political and media discourses manifesting the European identity construction in framing the crisis can be traced in accordance with their having whether pro-refugee or anti-refugee stances. As a sum of the findings of the analysis of both crises, the research revealed that different phases of the crises have involved different discursive practices of identity construction, thus, the first hypothesis, ‘change in the identity construction is correlated to be reflected by the social processes within the society’ is proven to be right. Although identity construction encompasses different angles as per each crisis, it has been mainly within the German understanding of the European identity. Therefore, the second hypothesis, ‘The manifestations of the European identity construction appeared differently in framing the different EU crises’ is proven to be wrong.

This research contributes to the intensively growing climate change adaptation discourse with the examination of vine growers’ risk perception and risk management practices. In studies dealing with agricultural climate change adaptation issues, it is an often-cited statement that farming is a dynamic system that continuously responds to changing conditions. Such changing conditions are seen as risks induced by either climate change or other sources. This research systematically assessed these risks as a network of interrelated concepts, adopting a partially mixed sequential dominant research design, in which a quantitative research segment (a large sample of survey data) outlined the overall picture of Hungarian farmers' perceptions of climate change and adaptation behaviour and then an individual-based mental modelling approach was used to conduct a risk elicitation exercise embedded in qualitative interviews with vine growers. Despite the participants' diverse and complex mental models, the presence of a double pressure stood out from the results: one from the risks posed by the impacts of climate change, and another from the risks related to labour. The most obvious consequence of labour-related problems is that fewer and fewer people are willing and able to work in viticulture, which is a very labour-intensive activity. And risks that come with climate change, such as severe heat stress, lengthy droughts, and excessive UV radiation, will likely pose severe challenges for grape cultivation. Although the interaction of these two types of risks generates significant adaptation needs by exerting effects that should be addressed by a complex risk management approach, participants’ responses do not reflect this complexity. More precisely, participants’ responses indicate that in their multi-faceted risk landscape, labour-related risks have a greater influence on their risk management decisions than climate change related risks. This is well reflected in the evidence that their adaptation decisions have been focused on long-term solutions to labor-related problems, but only short-term decisions characterise their climate change adaptation behaviour. Despite all their perceived climate change related risks, participants still find themselves able to maintain their activities and keep cultivating grapes. This is because, on the one hand, climate risks are still seen as manageable with the available solutions, which consist primarily of tactical interventions. However, on the other hand, there appears to be considerable uncertainty regarding what should be done and how it should be done, so even these tactical interventions are surrounded by uncertainty. Multiple forms of uncertainty have been identified in this research, suggesting that if the climate situation worsens, the adaptive capacity of participants might be insufficient to cope with changes in climatic conditions.

While the Earth’s resources and capability are at its limits, while large part of the society is suffering from hardship, the other part is responsible for overconsumption, enormous waste generation. Pollution combined with self-centred human attitude led to the most crucial situation in our century of crises, Climate Change. It is currently one of the most urgent global problems, which are interconnected, complex and it has environmental, economic, social, and technological perspectives. While cities represent most of the population, the biggest greenhouse gas (GHGs) emitter, they use arable land for urban purposes, and they are the centre of services and production. Accordingly, cities were seen as excellent testing-grounds to put smart solutions in a new prospective and examine whether they could be or has been adapted into sustainable climate change combat by increasing the efficiency of mitigation and adaptation processes. For that reason, it will be investigated whether the focus of smart (city) solutions is either primarily environmental (smart-sustainable), or the focus is economic efficiency, but its use is more complex, which enhance sustainability. Based on this aim, the dissertation uses inductive approach, which is applied by using qualitative, explorative methodology such as semi-structured interviews (N=17) with content analysis to define the city level efficiency of the solutions, the driven factors within the decisions, and non-probability sampling methods during the questionary (N=550) to specify smart ability to increase climate awareness at the level of individuals. The research findings confirmed that, however the economic efficiency still dominate the development decisions, the environmental aspect is increasingly important mostly in the fields of mobility, energy usage and heating through the more complex, sustainable, resilient applied approaches in the implementation processes. In addition, there is a shrinking knowledge gap between the ‘investors’ (final users) and the providers of smart solutions, and the relevance of the sensitization and education of the population has become more important. Finally, through the survey, interviews and research, existing smart solutions have been collected within the six sectors of smart city to contribute to the educational purposes.

The dissertation focuses on the impact of social networks on the economic and employment opportunities of individuals. It examines the direct and indirect effects of professional ties on various labor market outcomes, such as job finding probabilities, wages, job stability, and upward mobility. Following recent trends in the measurement of network effects, the empirical work takes a relatively novel approach to quantify the economic benefits of social ties by utilizing a large Hungarian linked administrative employer-employee panel dataset. While the dataset does not contain direct information on social ties, it does have anonymous firm and individual identifiers, which can be used to identify different segments of networks, such as former co-workers and university peers. Building on studies using similar data, elaborating on empirical approaches already used to measure network effects, and incorporating recent developments in panel data methods, the dissertation presents three empirical studies on the role of social ties in the labor market. The first study contributed to the literature of co-workers, employee referral, and wage differences in multiple ways. First, by being the first to document the presence of wage gains commonly attributed to the referral activity of former co-workers through the estimation of a two-way fixed effects wage equation on starting wages. We found a 2.1% premium for men, which originates from the direct (“presence”) effect of referrers and match selection (that is co-workers facilitate the creation of better employer–employee pairings). Second, by jointly assessing those selection channels that may also contribute to the generation of the overall wage gains and by examining their relative importance. We demonstrated that there is an additional 1.7% and 0.9% wage advantage, reflecting individual and firm selection, respectively. The presence of such wage elements implies that former co-workers might help individuals getting into high-wage firms, and they also induce the selection of better individuals to firms. Fourth, by slightly extending upon the decomposition method of Woodcock (2008), and this way, by showing an even more nuanced picture on the actual drivers of given selection channels. We revealed that the individual and firm selection terms are mostly driven by their respective within components. That is, individuals with contacts tend to be hired by companies with superior worker pools compared to other firms that rely solely on formal hiring, and that the unobserved quality of linked workers is usually better than the quality of their new firms’ other hires. Finally, we contribute to the literature by presenting various endeavors to link differences in the estimated wage components to theories in the referral and co-worker literature. The second study investigates the differential effects of former co-workers on job finding probabilities and upward mobility by gender. The results of the hiring analysis showed that (1) men benefit more from the help of former co-workers; (2) gender homophily in network effects is only present due to gendered patterns of labor market segregation; and (3) the hiring benefits of women are mostly driven by the help of contacts higher up in the occupational ladder. By focusing on job entries to new firms, we have also shown that informal contacts can also influence career development through job mobility. However, the benefits are unevenly distributed both across and within genders. The returns to social ties are greater for men, who tend to realize meaningful benefits regardless of their prior job and firm quality. On the contrary, among women, only those with average or worse labor market positions receive such gains. The results reflect a duality in network effects: while social ties enhance the limited opportunities of women in worse positions, they also contribute to preserving existing gender differences at the top segments of the labor market. The final study examines the effect of former university peers on job finding and the quality of the first job. The results suggests that acquaintances from university influence the labor market outcomes of graduates at the start of their careers: they increase the chances of their peers of getting into given firms and contribute to getting more prestigious and better paying jobs. However, the measured benefits are primarily attributable to ties from bachelor’s studies, while the impact of master’s peers is mainly driven by the selection of individuals along existing pathways between university master’s programs and given firms. These findings may suggest that too much similarity in the educational and career paths of former university peers, especially early in their careers, may limit the chances of individuals providing help to each other and may even be accompanied by crowding out effects. Also, that dissimilarity, to a given extent, could be associated with increased information on available jobs and better economic opportunities. The results of the studies, taken together, advance our understanding on the relationship between networks and individual economic opportunities and provide essential insights for the disciplines of sociology, economics, and social policy as well. By facilitating discussion on the dual nature of networks as sources of economic benefits and amplifiers of inequalities, hopefully the thesis will inspire further academic work on the topic.

It is becoming increasingly important for consumers to know exactly what kind of foods they consume, while it is increasingly vital for food producers to excel from the competition in the global market. This requires a great deal of information exchange between these two market players. The most common way to do this is through various food labels. I have focused on one group of such labels in my research, trying to find out as much useful information as possible about the geographical indications (GI) of the European Union. I was looking for answers to the following questions: 1, How well-known are the labels of EU GI products among Hungarian consumers, and how well do they know their meaning? The awareness of the GI labels in Hungary is definitely low (in the best case, it was 31%), even if this number is not much lower than the average in the EU. This number is probably too low for these labels to be effective marketing tools for producers. It also includes the fact that only 50% of those who said they know the label know at least approximately the meaning of the label. Can you build a marketing campaign currently on these markings? Probably not an effective one, but what gives hope is that awareness of the labels compared to previous surveys is constantly increasing. The EU focuses on GI products, so this growth is expected to be continued. So far, the EU has completed more than 30 international agreements, which allow the recognition of many EU GI outside the boundaries of the EU and the recognition of non-EU GI inside the territories of the EU. GIs represent an increasingly important aspect of trade negotiations between the EU and other countries. The Commission separates around €50 million year after year to support quality products in the EU and all over the world. Taking this into account, these labels can play an important role in the food markets in the near future. 2, What is the level of trust in the labelling of EU GI products, and what influences this trust? About half of the respondents said that they trust the logo. When we analysed the possible variables, which can influence trust, we concluded that knowledge of logos is important because if someone knows the label, they have more than three times the chance to trust them, while in terms of meaning, the chance is almost double. Based on the research, we can say that gender, education, and age do not affect trust in EU GI labels. In the case of place of residence, it can be said that someone who lives in a more urban environment trusts less in GI labels. All in all, consumer education is most needed to build confidence in GI, as those who recognize the labels on food packaging or are aware of what those labels mean will treat these products with much greater confidence. 3, How often do consumers buy EU GI certified products, and what affects it? More than 35% of those surveyed are regular customers of GI-labelled products. The frequency of purchases is mostly determined by consumer confidence (the result is not significant for the PDO). Women become much fewer regular customers (not significant for the PGI). In terms of age, the older a consumer is, the less likely it is to become a regular buyer (not significant for PDO), while residents of rural, smaller settlements are more loyal buyers of PGI products. The highest level of education has no detectable effect here either. So, in this topic also, we have to repeat that the most important thing is to inform consumers as widely as possible. 4, In the Hungarian market, what is the market size of products with geographical indication, examining the example of discount stores? The number of GI products available in Hungarian discount stores is limited, with an average of 11 products per store. The supply is fairly constant; however, even though there are only a limited number of GI products on the shelves, they are at least always available to consumers and are part of the chains ’core product portfolio. However, the number of GI products usually increases during the thematic days (e.g., Greek days). We can see that the supply is very limited for GI products, so buyers rarely meet face to face with the label, they are even less likely to find out about the meaning of the markings on their own. Targeted information on GI labels is needed for consumers, and for that they start to appreciate them. 5, In Hungarian discount stores, what is the price premium of products with a geographical indication compared to their direct substitutes, estimated from below? The average price premium for GI products is 29% in the Aldi, 46% in the Penny Market and the highest was in Lidl with 54%. Overall, the average premium was around 43%. It is also important to mention that in addition to supply, prices did not really change during the observations. Although the price of some products may also change during promotional periods, consumers can plan to purchase GI products in advance. On the other hand, discount stores provide a continuous market for producers as well. 6, Are geographical indications positively related to comparative advantages in the beer market? Our results show that the number of GI-registered beers is positively related to comparative advantages. Countries with traditional beer products closely linked to their place of origin are usually with a higher level of comparative advantages as the number of GI beers positively determines SRCA indices. From this, it can be concluded that it is not pointless to promote the increase in the number of GI products and devote resources to GI labels.