Society and Economy in Central and Eastern Europe
<div class="x_elementToProof" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: inherit; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-language-override: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000;">Society and Economy in Central and Eastern Europe is a double-blind peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary area studies journal, founded by Corvinus University of Budapest in 1979. The journal publishes original research articles and book reviews in social sciences, broadly defined, which focus specifically on Central and Eastern Europe or have strong relevance for social and economic development in this region. <div class="x_elementToProof" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: inherit; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-language-override: inherit; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000;">Society and Economy seeks in particular to provide an international forum for scholars working in the Central and Eastern European region, although we welcome submissions from any member of the international research community. While the journal is multidisciplinary and the editors will consider any high-quality submission fitting into social sciences, papers in economics, business and management, political science, international relations, and sociology are particularly encouraged. <div class="x_elementToProof" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: inherit; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-language-override: inherit; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #000000;">The journal is ranked in Scopus as Q2 in a number of disciplines, including Social Sciences, Economics, and Business and Management. Society and Economy is Gold Open Access and free to publish in.
All articles published in the journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) 4.0 international license agreement and published open access, making them immediately and freely available to read and download. The CC-BY license agreement allows authors to retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of the work. Users have the right to copy, distribute and transmit an article, adapt the article and make commercial use of the article. The CC BY license permits commercial re-use of an open access article, as long as the author is properly attributed. This license permits, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided by the original work is properly cited. Suitable reference form: Title of Article, Author, Journal Title, Volume, Issue. If and when the manuscript is accepted for publication by the journal, the authors agree to automatically transfer the first right of publication to the journal, and permit the journal to apply a DOI to their articles and to archive them in databases and indexes. Copyrights for articles are retained by the authors.
Resolving the discounting dilemma: Social time preference vs. social opportunity cost
Because discounting both imputes the capital costs of investment projects and intertemporally weighs their benefits, no project-independent discount rate can perform both functions to everyone’s satisfaction. Discount ing using the Social Time Preference Rate (STPR) results in undervalued capi tal costs, while discounting with the Social Opportunity Cost Rate (SOCR) may undervalue future benefits – at least in the eyes of those making the opposite choice, as STPR is generally smaller than SOCR. This article proposes a two-rate discounting method that uses SOCR only to compute capital costs but not to dis count future benefits and uses STPR to discount future benefits but not to com pute capital costs. There is no need to choose between the STPR and the SOCR; both are needed to reach correct benefit-cost analysis conclusions. If there is agreement on the value of the SOCR, there will be agreement on which projects are feasible because, regardless of the value of the STPR, the SOCR is the hurdle feasibility rate. Two-rate discounting is a more accurate correction to single-rate social time preference (STP) discounting than the shadow price of capital (SPC) or the marginal cost of funds (MCF) approaches.
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Innovation leads to results: the impact of digitalisation, organisational innovativeness and salespeople’s innovative behaviour on customer relationships
This study examines how perceived organisational innovativeness and perceived organisational digitalisation influence innovative salesperson behaviour and customer relationship performance. Building on boundaryspanning theory, relationship marketing, and task–technology fit, it tests an integrated model in which organisational innovativeness shapes both the perceived digital environment and frontline innovative behaviour, which in turn affect relationship outcomes. Drawing on survey data from 233 Hungarian sales professionals, the analysis shows that perceived organisational innovativeness has significant positive effects on innovative salesperson behaviour, perceived organisational digitalisation, and customer relationship performance. Perceived organisational digitalisation also positively influences innovative salesperson behaviour, but its direct effect on customer relationship performance is not significant. Innovative salesperson behaviour has a significant positive effect on customer relationship performance and partially mediates the effect of perceived organisational innovativeness, whereas indirect paths involving perceived organisational digitalisation are not significant. The findings suggest that digitalisation alone does not automatically improve relationship outcomes; rather, its value depends on an innovation-supportive organisational context and on salespeople’s ability to translate organisational and technological resources into innovative customer-facing behaviour. The study contributes by integrating organisational, technological, and behavioural mechanisms into the explanation of relationship performance and offers managerial implications for firms seeking to strengthen customer relationships through digitalisation
Bridging protection gaps: The critical role of NGOs in supporting refugee women in Turkey and Greece during the migration crisis
The 2015 international migration crisis exposed significant gaps in protection concerning refugee women in frontline European countries, where gender-based violence, legal uncertainties, and integration barriers compound existing vulnerabilities, while state protection systems often prove inadequate. This qualitative study examines how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) address these gaps in Turkey and Greece. The findings reveal that Turkish NGOs primarily focus on direct service provision and integration support, reflecting the country’s role as a destination for established refugee populations, while Greek organisations emphasise legal advocacy and rights-based approaches in response to restrictive asylum policies and the country’s transit-oriented context. While NGOs provide essential support through innovative, gender-sensitive programming, their effectiveness is constrained by dependence on funding, political restrictions, and coordination challenges. The findings demonstrate that sustainable protection for refugee women requires systematic state investment and coordinated policy responses rather than continued reliance on humanitarian gap-filling. Even innovative NGO programs cannot compensate for fundamental policy failures and inadequate state protection systems.
Thematic issue on the paradoxes of non-state actor agency in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (edited by Péter Marton)
A Shrinking Space for Participation? Measuring the Participation of Civil Society Organisations in Abkhazia
In the literature, civil society organisations (CSOs) are often considered to be a crucial bridge between the state and citizens, ensuring that diverse voices are heard while the government is held accountable. However, little is known about CSO participation in contexts of prolonged contested statehood, as exemplified by the case of Abkhazia. Research has primarily focused on internal and external (geo)political dynamics related to Abkhazia, often overlooking the extent to which Abkhazian Civil Society Organisations (ACSOs) engage in decision-making and contribute to governance through activist or service-provision work. Our article addresses this gap by assessing ACSO participation using the Council of Europe Index on Civil Society Participation, which categorises engagement on a scale from low to high across four levels: information, consultation, dialogue, and partnership. We surveyed 32 ACSO representatives, enabling us to examine the current-day agency, impact, and influence of ACSOs. Combined with interviews and archival research, this approach provides a time-sensitive perspective on the evolution of CSO participation in Abkhazia, while also accounting for sectoral differentiation. Our study contributes to the body of literature on civil society participation in governance structures, highlighting the factors, extent, and evolution of this participation. The findings show that Abkhazian CSOs do not engage equally in participation, with most involvement confined to the ‘information‘ stage, implying limited cooperation with authorities amid a shrinking space for participation.
Environmental NGOs at war: The transformation of ENGO agency in Ukraine after 2022
The main aim of this article is to examine how the Russia–Ukraine war has affected the agency of Ukrainian environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), hypothesizing that the conflict has expanded their role beyond traditional conservation activities, enhancing their capacity to influence governance and develop active agency to contribute to the recovery of Ukraine in both domestic and international politics. To explore these dynamics, the research triangulates among three types of sources: academic journal articles, policy documents, and a comparative analysis of the activities of three Ukrainian ENGOs before, in, and after 2022.
The role of the European Jewish Congress in the context of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Birkenau camp, and Russia’s quest to instrumentalise non-state actors
The politics of remembrance has been shown to play a pivotal role in shaping international relations across Central and Eastern Europe. In the specific case of Russia, the politics of remembrance is instrumentalised to legitimise and advance foreign policy objectives. To pursue this agenda, Russia employs a broad range of instruments, including external non-state actors. This article adopts a case study approach to examine the instrumentalisation of non-state actors by the Russian state, with a particular focus on the Euro-pean Jewish Congress (EJC) and its role in the politics of remembrance. The analysis centres on the 2020 commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, co-organised by the EJC at Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel. The 2020 commemoration took place amid an intensified campaign of Russian historical propaganda against Poland. The event was further marred by a diplomatic scandal following the Polish president’s decision to boycott it. The case study illustrates the growing importance of non-state actors in the dynamics of international relations in Central and Eastern Europe, and in particular within Polish–Russian relations.
Illiberal modernity and non- state actor agency: the Hungarian Reformed Church’s role in contemporary Hungary
How has the Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH) participated in redefining “modernity” and democracy under Hungary’s illiberal regime led by Viktor Orbán? This study investigates the RCH as an active non-state actor supporting state projects in an illiberal democracy. Drawing on Péter Marton’s theory of non-state actors (NSAs), the analysis focuses on the Church’s agency. Empirically, the HRC exhibits strategic institutional unity and initiative in both national politics and specialized domains (education, social services, and the diaspora), functioning in mutually beneficial partnership with the state. As successive governments under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have sought to recast liberal democracy into a “Christian” illiberal model, the RCH’s historical experiences and theological convictions have aligned to provide resources, legitimacy, and normative frames for this project. The findings show that the RCH, bolstered by Neo-Calvinist thought, has co-governed certain public functions and symbols with the state, thereby actively shaping an illiberal modernity. The article concludes that the RCH served neither as a mere proxy of the state nor as an entirely independent actor. Rather, it behaved as a strategic partner whose involvement illustrates how a church can bolster an illiberal regime’s redefinition of democracy while retaining a measure of distinct agency.
The non-state actor contestation of battery factory investments in Hungary: the activism of GÖD-ÉRT and MIAKÖ
The article analyses non-state actor (NSA) agency at the intersection of autocratisation and new industrial policies. We focus on Hungary, an EU Member State that aims to become a leading global player in the electric vehicle sector, particularly in EV battery production. Besides the already functioning South Korean plants, numerous Chinese firms have been attracted to the country by extremely generous state support to build giga-factories. However, battery-related plants face opposition from the local population. Under the Hungarian autocratic regime, the space for NSA agency is increasingly shrinking, yet our focus is narrowed to analysing non-governmental organisations. We ask whether organised civil society can exercise political or domain-specific agency in an autocratising regime. Bottom-up initiatives against the battery factories mushroomed in all the affected Hungarian localities, which increasingly cooperated with each other, and even set up an umbrella organisation at the national level. Some important achievements are documented. To illustrate the causes of the limited non-state actor activism and nevertheless account for how impactful changes have occurred, the article analyses the experiences of two local associations: GÖD-ÉRT (the For Göd Association) and MIAKÖ (the Mothers of Mikepércs for the Environment Association). At the time of study, both have been forced to operate in an increasingly repressive setting.
Cyber-libertarianism or marketing strategy? An investigation of Telegram’s domain-specific agency
The article investigates Telegram’s political agency—defining the latter as the capacity to make explicit and politically relevant choices that influence the social and political environment—and how it exercises this agency through its performance. The paper offers a novel analytical frame-work for understanding Telegram’s agency as a non-state actor, systematically examining its mission, funding structure, operational model, platform performance, and public perception. The study implements a mixed-methods approach combining elements of structural-functional analysis, dis-course-historical approach, and digital ethnography. Data used in this study included Telegram’s media releases, investigative and analytical articles in global press, along with interviews and posts made by Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, covering the period from 2011 to August 27, 2025. As will be shown in this article, while Telegram, particularly through its founder, Pavel Durov, consistently promotes cyber-libertarian ideals of privacy, neutrality, and independence, its actions and evolution reveal a more complex picture. The platform’s unique blend of private messaging and public channels, coupled with its adaptive technological responses to political crises, demonstrates distinct agency. Financial independence, initially achieved by self-funding, has been a core principle, albeit challenged by monetization efforts. Despite advocating for unmoderated speech, Telegram faces pressure from governments and corporations, leading to shifts in its content moderation policies. The case study of Telegram in Russia reveals the platform’s transformation from a “shelter of freedom” to a cell of diversified state propaganda, raising questions about the sincerity of its declared values versus strategic business and political adaptations.
Rippling influence: The rhetorical legacy of the Joint Baltic American National Committee in shaping U.S. foreign policy
The Joint Baltic American National Committee (JBANC), a small diaspora lobbying organization representing Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Americans, has acted as a non-state political actor in the U.S. foreign policy environment since 1961. While traditional accounts of lobbying often emphasize visible policy outcomes as a sign of political influence, JBANC’s influence emerges instead through the persistent and enduring construction of rhetorical frame-works that shape how policymakers interpret the stakes of Eastern European security and the United States’ relationship with this region. Drawing on scholarship about ethnic lobbying groups, vernacular publics, and constitutive rhetoric, this piece argues that JBANC’s enduring role lies in its ability to offer language, narratives, and interpretive lenses that continually “ripple” outward into policy debates. Through analysis of three geopolitical eras, including the Cold War, NATO enlargement, and post-Crimea Russian aggression, this study demonstrates that Baltic advocates reframed captivity narratives, deterrence logics, and coalition-based security appeals to keep Baltic concerns salient within U.S. strategic discourse. By tracing the evolution of these rhetorical strategies, the study seeks to broaden understandings of diaspora political agency and illustrate that even small ethnic organizations can meaningfully shape the interpretive terrain of U.S. foreign policy.
Shrinking space, expanding agency: Introducing the thematic issue on the paradoxes of non-state actor agency in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe
Beyond introducing the contents of Society & Economy’s thematic issue on non-state actors in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, this article briefly sketches an outline of discussions about non-state actor (NSA) agency and provides a working definition thereof to be used in the issue. Subsequently, it highlights – and posits a rudimentary explanation for – two para-doxes that are of relevance beyond the geographical region in focus: the paradox of the non-linear agency-amplifying impact of state repression and the paradox of substitution. Both have implications for the assessment of state agency, NSA agency, and how the two are dynamically shaped by state-to-NSA and broader state-society relations.
Post-COVID learning loss and the collapse of the education-economy link in Bulgaria
This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the relationship between educational outcomes and regional economic indicators in Bulgaria and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. Using panel data from all 28 Bulgarian Nomenclature of Territorial Units of Statistics (NUTS) 3 regions between 2015 and 2024, we analyse weighted matriculation exam scores in con-junction with macroeconomic variables, including Gross Domestic Product per capita, internet access and share of educated population. The post-pandemic learning loss weakened the previously strong correlation between regional economic wealth and academic achievement, exposing structural inequalities. We find limited evidence that digital infrastructure improved outcomes, especially in marginalised regions. Furthermore, our findings indicate a persistent learning loss following the COVID-19 pandemic, with exam performance declining by up to 0.29 points (approximately 0.38 to 0.447 standard deviations) in 2021–2022, followed by a full recovery in 2024. We argue that learning losses were already happening before COVID-19, with an average magnitude of 0.01–0.03 standard deviations, with some years reaching as much as 0.1 standard deviations.
Book Review: Technology and forced migration Ukrainian migrants in Central and Eastern Europe
Technology and Forced Migration – Ukrainian Migrants in Central and Eastern Europe is a timely and highly relevant edited volume that examines the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the migration trajec-tories, decision-making processes, and integration experiences of Ukrainian forced migrants in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). With a particular focus on the Visegrad Four (V4) countries of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, the book makes an important contribution to the growing literature on digital migration, forced displacement, and migration governance by situating these debates in a region that has been underexplored in both migration studies and science and technology studies.
Digitalisation Anxiety in Czech Industrial Workplaces: A Multilevel Qualitative Study
Digitalisation is reshaping industrial work, yet employees’ lived experience determines whether its promised value is realised. Drawing on 66 semi‑structured interviews with employees in Czech industrial workplaces, this study maps overall stance and delineates multilevel triggers of digitalisation‑related anxiety. A large majority expressed a predominantly optimistic view (53/66; 80.3%), while pessimistic (5/66; 7.6%) and ambivalent (8/66; 12.1%) minorities reported concerns. Anxiety clustered at societal (e.g., macro‑uncertainty about employment and safety due to failures), organisational (implementation quality, availability of qualified staff, training and help desks, transparency of data‑driven monitoring) and individual levels (interpersonal frictions, fatigue, sleep disturbance). Across levels, uncertainty emerged as the primary driver, interacting with perceived decision latitude and support. On this basis, we outline actionable interventions: the transparent communication of scope and timelines; participatory implementation to increase discretion; task‑relevant training and competent help desks; team‑level norms that contain communication overload; and individual bounded‑attention routines that reduce techno‑overload. Conceptually, the paper advances a process‑plus‑content perspective on digitalisation anxiety that integrates societal, organisational and individual triggers and clarifies where to target the socio‑technical system. While qualitative and sector‑specific, the findings are transferable rather than statistically generalisable and provide a practical scaffold for designing interventions that sustain employees’ broadly positive orientation while tempering anxiety during ongoing digital change.
Optimizing Survey Engagement: Factors Influencing Questionnaire Breakoff and Respondent Segmentation
This study examines questionnaire breakoff – respondents’ early survey discontinuation – and its implications for data quality in marketing research. Using telephone interviews with three independent random sub-samples of Hungarian adults (n = 1040; 1028; 988), we applied K-means cluster analysis to segment respondents based on prior breakoff experiences and atti-tudes toward questionnaire characteristics. Chi-square, ANOVA, and Friedman tests identify the key drivers of discontinuation. Findings show that question-naire length, perceived topic irrelevance, and poorly structured items signif-icantly increase breakoff risk. Based on the results, three distinct respondent segments emerged – Discerning Evaluators, Experience Seekers, and Noncha-lant Responders – each exhibiting different engagement preferences and tol-erance thresholds. Trust in research, age, and educational attainment further shape breakoff propensities across segments. Practically, the results support segment-specific survey design strategies that optimize length, structure, and topic salience while incorporating trust-building elements. Conceptually, the study extends leverage–saliency theory by introducing a segmentation frame-work that accounts for heterogeneity in survey discontinuation risk and is adaptable to multinational research settings.
Secular governance and religious diversity in Western, Central, Eastern Europe, and Latin America: Comparative challenges and emerging models
Europe and Latin America navigate religious pluralism through contrasting secular frameworks shaped by distinct historical trajectories. This analysis examines how Latin American secular states manage religious diversity differently from Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. Despite secularization theories predicting religious decline, both regions show religions maintaining public influence while states remain formally neutral. Migration, technology, and evangelical movements create region-specific challenges: Latin America faces growth in evangelical Christianity and indigenous revitalization; Europe confronts Islamic integration and Christian nationalism. The emerging frame-work of pluriconfessional secularization, in which secular states accommodate diverse religious traditions without privileging any denomination while religious institutions adapt to democratic frameworks, offers analytical tools beyond traditional secularization paradigms. This study provides strategies for managing religious diversity in interconnected societies.
The role of greed avoidance and liveliness in shaping cultural intelligence: A facet-level analysis of personality traits
This study examines the influence of two personality facets, specifically greed avoidance, a subdimension of honesty-humility, and liveliness, a subdimension of extraversion, on cultural intelligence (CQ) and its facets (meta-cognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral). Using the HEXACO Personality Inventory, survey data reveal an intriguing pattern: while liveliness positively correlates with motivational and behavioral facets of CQ, greed avoidance shows a surprising negative relationship, suggesting potential barriers to cultural adaptability for individuals high in this trait. A gender analysis reveals no significant difference in these relationships between male and female respondents. The findings highlight how specific facets of honesty-humility and extra-version influence intercultural competence, with implications for developing tailored cross-cultural training and development. Future research is encouraged to validate and expand these insights across diverse populations.
An evaluation of decoupling in the Hungarian economy
The paper examines the relationship between economic growth and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Hungary from 1995 to 2022 using the Tapio decoupling model and the Mann-Kendall trend test. The Tapio decoupling elasticity coefficient (DI) was used to assess the relation between economic activity and environmental impact. The Mann-Kendall trend test was used to detect monotonic trends in Gross Value Added (GVA) and emissions, revealing their statistical significance and direction of change. The results revealed varying decoupling trends across various sectors. Strong decoupling occurred in sectors like B, C, D, and E, where emissions decreased alongside economic growth, reflecting technological advancements and structural shifts. Weak decoupling was observed in sectors such as A, F, G, and Q, where emissions grew more slowly than GVA, indicating progress but falling short of full decoupling. Conversely, sector T exhibited expansive negative decoupling, revealing unsustainable growth. At the national level, data from recent years have shown a trend toward absolute decoupling, in which GVA grew as emissions stabilized or declined. The Mann-Kendall test confirmed consistent economic growth across all sectors but diverse emission trends. Sectors like B and E achieved significant reductions in emissions, while others, including A and T, recorded increases.
Thirty years of sports innovation: A bibliometric analysis
This study describes a systematic bibliometric analysis of sports innovation research, examining its evolution and intellectual structure over 30 years. Adhering to the PRISMA guidelines, the analysis identified 708 relevant SSCI-indexed articles from the Web of Science database. The research employed the VOSviewer and the Bibliometrix package in R to perform co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence mapping, thematic evolution tracking, and three-field plot visualization. Findings reveal accelerated growth in the field since 2017, with research organized around three primary thematic clusters: strategic entrepreneurship and organizational innovation, identity-driven consumption and fan engagement, and innovation for health outcomes and programmatic value. The analysis uncovers both foundational theories and emerging research directions, particularly noting the rise of consumer-focused and impact-driven investigations in the field. The interpretation positions the following clusters as essential components of the sports innovation ecosystem: organizations that develop innovations, consumers who influence their adoption, and societal benefits that demonstrate their value. This study identifies underdeveloped areas in management model innovation and recommends the greater use of mixed-methods approaches to better understand stakeholder perspectives. These insights may guide researchers, sports organizations, and policymakers in navigating the developing land-scape of sports innovation and establishing future research priorities in this field.
Papers from the 10th anniversary AIB CEE Chapter Conference
Chinese management studies: a systematic literature review
The purpose of this paper is to explore and synthesize empirical research on Chinese organizations since 2017, to contribute to the academic study of Chinese management, and to highlight the main variables through which researchers currently study Chinese corporate management. Further-more, it aims to provide a comprehensive and culturally informed picture for both researchers and practitioners worldwide, particularly in the Central and Eastern European region, which has been steadily strengthening its economic ties with China over the past decade. The paper follows a systematic literature review approach. Following the steps of the SLR, the 150 most-cited empirical research papers published between 2017 and 2022 were selected from the Web of Science database. Deductive and inductive coding were applied consecutively on the 729 variables obtained from the studies to outline the major research themes. We found that organizational behavior has been the most studied dimension of Chinese organizations, with emphasis on individuals and HRM practices. The second largest stream addresses corporate strategy, dominated by innovation- and sustainability-oriented strategies. At the same time, organizational structure has received less attention recently.
The role of different project management office types in organizational development
This paper investigates the different types and levels of project management offices (PMOs) and their functions in creating organizational development, together with the best way to structure project work in the organ-ization. Based on semi-structured interviews from managers of seven organizations located in Hungary and Switzerland, the outcome is that PMOs function as brokers between corporate strategy and project delivery whose performance is determined by aspects like positioning, access to senior executives, and project culture maturity rather than by formal design. Successful PMOs balance decentralized execution with centralized standards and governance by utilizing common hybrid models that combine support, compliance, and project management freedom. The paper also found that PMOs significantly improved transparency, prioritization, and organizational resilience. The study that the most-used model is the hybrid type of PMO and stresses the combined effect of positioning, maturity, and integrated skills as the most important factors that have an influence on effectiveness. The research is limited by the small sample size and the limited sectoral coverage, suggesting the need for larger-scale mixed-method studies as well as cross-national studies.
Navigating resilience in international business: organizational mechanisms, partners and ecosystems from a Central and Eastern European perspective
Resilience in international business is increasingly shaped by what happens within organizations, not only by shocks and public policy (Hillmann – Guenther 2021). For firms in and around Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), overlapping crises in the post-COVID period, the war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions, and the accelerating digital and green transitions test their capacity to adapt. In this setting, governance, coordination, and innovation practices within firms have become central levers for implementing strategy and securing survival. This guest editorial introduces a special section that brings together four articles selected from contributions to the 10th anniversary AIB CEE Chapter Conference, held in Budapest between 18 and 21 September 2024. The papers form a thematic collection on organizational mechanisms, key international partners, and innovation ecosystems in international business. One of the four articles, on cooperative governance (Amon 2025), was published in Issue 4, Volume 47 of this journal due to a change in the journal’s publisher, but it is part of the same thematic set and is treated as such here.