Cséfalvay (ed.)

Why is it that we cannot predict the technological future? Is the destruction of the old truly an inevitable companion to the birth of the new? Are our reservations about new technologies justified? How will artificial intelligence reshape economic competition among nations? Can the state have any meaningful active role in innovation at all? Why has Europe fallen behind in the innovation race? And why does an invisible iron curtain still exist, one that keeps Central and Eastern Europe from competing with new startups in the global innovation arena? What can we learn from the success of Silicon Valley, Estonia, Israel, or Singapore?These questions continue to captivate economists, policymakers, and the wider public alike because the past 250 years have clearly shown that the countries that made it into the club of the wealthy were those at the forefront of technological innovation, while the others remained confined in the low- or middle-income trap.Through a comprehensive exploration encompassing illuminating examples and statistical analysis, Zoltán Cséfalvay examines the connections between free competition, the digital economy, technological progress, and innovation, and how their complex dynamics lead to success in the competition among nations.Prof. Dr. Zoltán Cséfalvay heads the Centre for Next Technological Futures at Mathias Corvinus Collegium (Budapest), where he gives lectures and conducts research on digitalisation, robotisation, and artificial intelligence in Europe. Previously, he worked as a senior researcher at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Seville (2019–2020). He served as the Hungarian ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris (2014–2018) and as Minister of State for Economic Strategy in Hungary (2010–2014). He was Professor of Economic Geography at Andrássy University Budapest (2002–2010) and Professor at Kodolányi János University in Hungary for more than two decades. As a research fellow, he worked in Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Heidelberg, and Cardiff. He is the author of 15 books and more than 80 articles in edited books and peer-reviewed journals in English, German, and Hungarian. He recently published his latest book—FREEDOM, INNOVATION, PROSPERITY: The Secrets of Success in the Digital Era—about the impact of the current wave of new technologies on business, society, and geopolitics.

MCC Centre for Next Technological FuturesStudies on Innovation, Technologies and Regions, Volume 2“In our time, venture-backed startups are generating radically new technological and business ideas; they are the ones who are discovering the future. And as with any discovery process based on trial and error, the vast majority of startups fail within a relatively short period of time. But those who survive and push the boundaries of the unknown unknowns usually do so because they possess a special kind of knowledge that their competitors lack. Therefore, the four papers of this new volume of Studies on Innovation, Technologies and Regions from the MCC Centre for Next Technological Futures not only summarise its research activities in the academic years 2024 and 2025, but they also provide analyses of the relationship between startups and knowledge in European cities from di??ferent perspectives and on various topics. Be it the successful startups that use artifi cial intelligence, the startups that not only survived the period from 2021 to 2024 but were actually able to grow, the countries that apply clean and green energy solutions, or the European cities that can rely on universities, which are a breeding ground for startup founders—they all demonstrate the increasing importance of knowledge. This is why this volume is titled Startups and Knowledge.”CONTRIBUTORS: Zolta´n Cse´falvay, Szabolcs Dudás, Zalán Horlik, Dávid T. Nagy, György Papp

Miért ?nem tudjuk előre jelezni a technológiai jövőt? Az új születésének valóban mindig szükségszerű velejárója a régi elpusztítása? Jogosak-e az új technológiákkal szembeni fenntartásaink? Miként alakítja át a mesterséges intelligencia a nemzetek gazdasági versenyét? Lehet-e egyáltalán valamilyen aktív szerepe az államnak az innovációban? Miért maradt le Európa az innovációs versenyben? És miért létezik ma is egy láthatatlan vasfüggöny, amely mögött Kelet-Közép-Európa képtelen új startupokkal versenyre kelni az innovációkért? Mit tanulhatunk a Szilícium-völgy, Észtország, Izrael vagy Szingapúr sikereiből?Ezek a kérdések azért is foglalkoztatják töretlenül a közgazdászokat, a döntéshozókat és a széles nagyközönséget egyaránt, mert az elmúlt kétszázötven év tapasztalata szerint azok az országok kerültek be a gazdagok klubjába, amelyek a technológiai innováció élvonalába tartoztak, míg a többiek rendre megrekedtek az alacsony vagy a közepes jövedelem csapdájában. A szerző a témát alaposan körbejárva, szemléletes példákon keresztül vizsgálja a szabad verseny, a digitális gazdaság, a technikai haladás és az innováció összefüggéseit, s hogy ezek bonyolult dinamikái miként vezetnek el a sikerhez a nemzetek közötti versenyben.

MCC Centre for Next Technological FuturesStudies on Innovation, Technologies and Regions, Volume 1As cyberpunk writer William Gibson famously said, “The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed.” This ironic statement is particularly relevant when we look at the map of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe, where we can easily see deep regional imbalances. But while the future of technology is nearly impossible to predict, it could be discovered by those companies—the startups whose basic working method is trial and error. In addition, the current deafening hype around artificial intelligence is also reigniting the debate about robots and their impact on our economy and society. And these are the main reasons this book is about startups and robots. The studies conducted at the Centre for Next Technological Futures, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Budapest, raise questions such as: How does geographic proximity to venture capital affect startups at different stages of development? While startups in Europe are concentrated in a handful of large cities, what opportunities do smaller cities have that specialise in Industry 4.0? What factors influence the use of industrial robots in different European countries, and how does the story of industrial robots differ from the emerging new story of robots in the service sector? Incubators and accelerators can increase the chances of survival of startups, but are those institutions that only chase a quick return on investment really the most successful?  CONTRIBUTORS: Borbála Brosig, Zoltán Cséfalvay, Csaba Kristóf Johanyák, Viktor Lázár, Csikó Bálint Pálfai, Orsolya Székely, Zoltán Szombathy, Máté Ujvárosi