Call for Papers for a Special Issue of The Hungarian Journal of Marketing and Management: Small Firms in an Era of Permanent Transformation

The operation of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is currently shaped by the simultaneous influence of persistent uncertainty, changing regional and institutional conditions, and accelerated technological and organisational change.

Research agenda:
The organising idea of the special issue of The Hungarian Journal of Marketing and Management, entitled “Small Firms in an Era of Permanent Transformation”, is therefore that, in the present era of sustained volatility, small-firm adaptation may be understood across several closely interconnected dimensions: in relation to persistent uncertainty; in the regional and relational embeddedness of SMEs; and in the digital and organisational transformations through which small firms respond to contemporary challenges. The special issue is conceived as a research space structured by a single overarching logic: how small firms remain viable, how they relate to their environment, and how they reorganise their operations under uncertain, volatile and difficult-to-plan economic conditions.
From this perspective, the starting point is the operation of SMEs in an era of permanent uncertainty, in which firm behaviour is shaped by the combined effects of persistent uncertainty, technological transition and regional restructuring. Recent research suggests that, for SMEs, crisis is no longer a one-off shock but rather a prolonged operating environment: fluctuations in demand, difficulties in accessing financial resources, the role of public support, and levels of technological preparedness all jointly influence firms’ prospects of survival. This insight is particularly important because it shifts attention away from describing one-off shocks and towards examining enduring adaptive capacity. The question is no longer how a small firm responds to a crisis event, but which organisational, financial and managerial conditions make it possible for it to remain viable over an extended period under uncertain circumstances. The special issue therefore places at its centre small-firm resilience, survival, financing constraints and patterns of adaptation, with particular attention to those economies, industries and regions in which uncertainty forms part of everyday business life (Audretsch et al., 2025; Heller et al., 2025; Kacer et al., 2025; Márkus & Rideg, 2021; Varga et al., 2024).
The adaptation of small firms always takes place within a concrete regional and institutional context: their operation is shaped not only by economic uncertainty, but also by the local relationships, resources and opportunities for collaboration to which they have access. Recent scholarship has therefore pointed increasingly clearly to the fact that entrepreneurial ecosystems and regional embeddedness cannot be understood solely through metropolitan models. The mobility of knowledge-intensive SMEs, linkages between ecosystems, and entrepreneurial practices in rural, peripheral or otherwise non-core regions all suggest that the opportunities and constraints faced by small firms are invariably mediated by local and regional conditions. Place is therefore not merely a background condition, but one of the defining contexts of entrepreneurial action: it influences which resources become available, which forms of collaboration can emerge, and which development trajectories appear feasible. In this spirit, the special issue particularly welcomes studies that examine the specific characteristics of regions outside the capital, non-core, peripheral or border regions, and Central and Eastern European economic contexts, and that show how adaptation to permanent uncertainty is organised through local and regional embeddedness (Burke et al., 2026; Rideg et al., 2022; Spinazzola et al., 2025; Szerb et al., 2023; Tuitjer & Thompson, 2025).
Uncertainty defines the pressure to which firms must adapt, while regional embeddedness defines the context within which such adaptation occurs; organisational and technological responses, in turn, show how SMEs adjust to these challenges. Such responses include, in particular, the use of artificial intelligence, the accumulation of digital resources, and changes in the organisation of work within SMEs. International research no longer treats artificial intelligence as a mere technological novelty, but rather as a factor that reshapes decision-making, innovation, work processes, the use of knowledge, and organisational coordination. In the case of small firms in particular, a key question is whether digital resources represent not only efficiency gains but also reconfigure the internal logic of firm operations. From this perspective, technological transition is not a separate issue, but part of the repertoire of responses shaped by permanent uncertainty and regional conditions. Put differently, small firms do not adopt new technologies in the abstract; rather, they attempt to incorporate them into their operations under specific resource conditions, within given regional networks, and under particular pressures of survival and development. The special issue therefore welcomes contributions that examine the use of artificial intelligence, the accumulation of digital resources, changes in the organisation of work, shifts in managerial cognition, and the renewal of the small-firm organisation as interconnected phenomena (Lukovszki et al., 2021; Park et al., 2025; Schwaeke et al., 2025; Segarra-Blasco et al., 2025; Sipos et al., 2025).
The special issue approaches the operation of SMEs through interrelated dimensions. Permanent uncertainty identifies the pressure to which firms must adapt; regional embeddedness and entrepreneurial ecosystems indicate the context within which this adaptation takes place; and digital and organisational change describes the sphere of action within which small firms seek to shape their own future. This framework is sufficiently focused to avoid conceptual dispersion, yet sufficiently broad to allow different theoretical and empirical approaches to meet within it. Within such a framework, the small firm is not merely a size category, but a form of organisation that perceives, mediates and manages the fundamental transformations of our time in distinctive ways.

What kinds of papers do we seek?
In this special issue, The Hungarian Journal of Marketing and Management offers a forum for empirical, theoretical and methodological contributions that address this set of questions not in isolation, but in their interconnections. Particularly valuable are manuscripts that, drawing on Hungarian or Central-Eastern-European experience, examine small-firm resilience, entrepreneurial environments in non-core regions, and new patterns of technological and organisational transformation. The purpose of the special issue is to interpret research on small firms as one of the most relevant points of intersection in contemporary economic and social transformation.

Contact details of the guest editors:
• Dr. András Rideg (ridega@ktk.pte.hu) Associate Professor
• Dr. Andrea Gubik Sáfrányné (andrea.gubik@uni-miskolc.hu) Associate Professor

Important dates:
Publication of the call: 15 April 2026
Submission deadline for manuscripts: 30 September 2026
Expected publication of the special issue: Spring 2027

References:
• Audretsch, D. B., Aronica, M., Belitski, M., Caddemi, D., & Piacentino, D. (2025). The impact of government financial aid and digital tools on firm survival during the COVID-19 pandemic. Small Business Economics, 65, 813–836. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-025-01014-5.
• Burke, M. K., Sydow, A., Torchia, D., & Corazza, L. (2026). City of “social saints”: The role of place in driving impact entrepreneurship in Turin, Italy. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 38(1–2), 18–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2025.2560072.
• Heller, D., Karapanagiotis, P., & Nilsen, Ø. A. (2025). Small and vulnerable during crises? Firm size and financing constraint dynamics. Small Business Economics, 65, 451–473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-024-00996-y.
• Kacer, M., Wilson, N., Zouari, S., & Cowling, M. (2025). Entrepreneurial finance and the survival of equity-funded firms in crisis periods: The case of COVID-19. Small Business Economics, 65, 837–870. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-025-01009-2.
• Lukovszki, L., Rideg, A., & Sipos, N. (2021). Resource-based view of innovation activity in SMEs: An empirical analysis based on the Global Competitiveness Project. Competitiveness Review, 31(3), 513–541. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-01-2020-0018.
• Márkus, G., & Rideg, A. (2021). Understanding the connection between SMEs’ competitiveness and cash flow generation: An empirical analysis from Hungary. Competitiveness Review, 31(3), 397–419. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-01-2020-0019.
• Park, H., Luo, Y., & Yang, Y. (2025). Cost-effectively leveraging digital capital to develop means for effectual decision-making. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1547.
• Rideg, A., Lukovszki, L., Varga, A. R., & Sipos, N. (2022). Resources and capabilities of Hungarian family-owned micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Hungarian Economic Review, 69(6), 739–757. https://doi.org/10.18414/KSZ.2022.6.739. [released in Hungarian]
• Schwaeke, J., Peters, A., Kanbach, D. K., Kraus, S., & Jones, P. (2025). The new normal: The status quo of AI adoption in SMEs. Journal of Small Business Management, 63(3), 1297–1331. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2024.2379999.
• Segarra-Blasco, A., Tomàs-Porres, J., & Teruel, M. (2025). AI, robots and innovation in European SMEs. Small Business Economics, 65, 719–745. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-025-01017-2.
• Sipos, N., Rideg, A., Al Najjar, A. S., & Lukovszki, L. (2025). Resource-based view of marketing innovation in SMEs: A multi-country empirical analysis based on the Global Competitiveness Project. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 14, 94. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-025-00573-x.
• Spinazzola, M., Scuotto, V., Pironti, M., & Del Giudice, M. (2025). Connectedness of entrepreneurial ecosystems: Evidence from the mobility of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurs. Small Business Economics, 65, 1517–1534. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-025-01031-4.
• Szerb, L., Hornyák, M., Krabatné Fehér, Zs., & Rideg, A. (2023). Measuring and analysing the competitiveness of Hungarian city-regions. Hungarian Economic Review, 70(2), 119–148. https://doi.org/10.18414/KSZ.2023.2.119. [released in Hungarian]
• Tuitjer, G., & Thompson, N. A. (2025). Rural entrepreneurship as-practice: A framework for research beyond stereotypical notions of entrepreneurial agency and contextual constraints. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 37(9–10), 1102–1116. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2025.2475890.
• Varga, A. R., Sipos, N., Rideg, A., & Lukovszki, L. (2024). The comparison of RBV-based competitiveness of Hungarian family-owned and non-family-owned SMEs. Competitiveness Review, 34(7), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-02-2023-0017