The specificities of pharmaceutical companies’ activities also have an impact on their ability to improve profitability compared to other sectors. Examples of such specificities include patent rights on the medicines produced, which for a longer period of time prevent the entry of competing players, allowing sunk costs to be offset to some extent by advantages from using higher margins. The primary purpose of this study is to examine whether the bargaining power of R&D-engaged companies significantly affects the financial margin of their operations to a different extent than other pharmaceutical companies. This study examined panel data focused on companies with the highest turnover, while we filtered out differences in the effect due to different macroeconomic and development environments. Our findings are that while the gross profit was significantly influenced by the type of activity within the industry, this statement for the cash cycle is no longer justified. Our conclusion was that the difference between the engaged and non-engaged in R&D companies expressed mostly in the profitability ratios, besides that, countries which had different development policies and accounting systems also took impact on financial margins, although the relative GDP advantages disappeared when looking at intra-industry, cross-country movements.

The significance of the pharmaceutical and commercial sectors in the national economy has noticeably intensified, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of this study was to gain a better insight into the main management characteristics of the actors in the sector. It was assumed that more efficient management of financial investments (acquisitions, loans) caused higher risk financial investment decisions in the pharmaceutical industry in order to place companies in a better position in view of equity investors, illustrated best as the profitability of equity (ROE). This paper examined one possible means of covering the extremely high indirect costs (R&D, marketing) of pharmaceutical companies, also justified by the restructuring of the industry and the effect of investments in long term financial instruments on the ROE of the same business entities. Built on the EMIS database, the analysis only used the indicators of those companies operating in the pharmaceutical industry in Visegrad countries for 2019. The authors sought to draw conclusions about possible management characteristics of the entire pharmaceutical sector of these countries using cluster analysis and linear regression. The initial assumption, or main hypothesis of the study, was that in one of the countries studied or for those businesses operating above a certain revenue category, the impact of a company’s risk-taking (which can also be expressed in terms of asset-based financial income) on profitability, may appear or intensify. The performed studies did not show a strong correlation between the explanatory and profit variables either at the national level or at the level of groups formed by regional market position. In other words, the extremely high level of indirect costs were mostly covered by sales of successful cash products, and companies not indebted to suppliers undertook significant risks in the field of financial investments, thereby offsetting the positive impact of the latter on earnings.

Like large companies, the small, and medium-sized businesses need also all the information to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of their business by making sound management decisions. Compared to large companies, SMEs have significant development potential, which can be created in part by the companies themselves, possibly through the introduction of new-modern management - business administration methods or economic policy measures (= targeted and efficient support system), which, by stimulating R & D & I processes, serves to increase competitiveness and contribute more and proportionally to domestic GDP and exports. The analysis presented in the study covers the controlling knowledge of the leading SMEs of the Northern Great Plain Region, the conscious or unconscious application of controlling tools, the assessment of succession, customer and supplier valuation and certain areas of managerial accounting. Overall, it can be concluded from the small sample size that the use of controlling tools is proportional to the size of the business, but nevertheless, many mid-size business executives do not require the collection and analysis of insider information that could explicitly help decision making for example through advanced costing procedures. A nagyvállalatokhoz hasonlóan a kis- és középvállalkozói kör is igényli mindazokat az információkat, amelyek a vállalkozási tevékenység eredményességét és hatékonyságát tudják biztosítani az általuk hozott megalapozott vezetői döntésekkel. A nagyvállalatokhoz képest a kkv-k jelentős fejlődési potenciállal rendelkeznek, amelyet részben maguk a vállalkozások ki tudnak alakítani esetlegesen új-modern menedzsmenti – üzleti adminsztrációs módszerek bevezetésével, illetve gazdaságpolitikai intézkedések révén (=célzott és hatékony támogatási rendszerrel) lehetővé válhat számukra az a finanszírozási forrástömeg, amely a K+F+I folyamatok gerjesztésével szolgálja a versenyképesség növekedését és a hazai GDP-hez, exporthoz való nagyobb mértékű és arányú hozzájárulásukat. A tanulmányban bemutatásra kerülő elemzésben kitérünk a vizsgálati körbe bevont Észak-alföldi régióba tartozó kkv-k kvezetőinek controlling ismereteire, a controlling eszközök tudatos vagy éppen nem tudatos alkalmazására, az utódlás megítélésére, a vevői és beszállítói értékelésre és a vezetői számvitel egyes területeire. Összességében megállapítható a kis elemszámú minta alapján is, hogy a controlling eszközök használata arányos a vállalkozási mérettel, de ennek ellenére sok közepes méretű vállalkozás vezetője nem igényli a belső információk olyan mértékű gyűjtését és elemzését, amely kifejezetten tudná segíteni a döntéselőkészítés hatékonyságát, pl. a korszerű önköltségszámítási eljárások révén.

Driven by the need to diversify financing channels and the incentives arising from globalization, the inevitable transition to international accounting systems may provide companies opportunities for accounting manipulation. The main objective of our study is to investigate whether the transition to IFRS significantly affects the reliability of financial statements of pharmaceutical and energy companies operating in Hungary. For this purpose, two econometric models were applied: firstly, a binary logistic regression-based analysis of the Beneish M-Score values, and secondly, a modified Jones model based on a linear regression estimation of discretionary accruals. The research findings showed no clear significant relationship for the Beneish M-score values. However, application of the Jones model to the financial statements that companies prepared for the same year according to different standards revealed a negative shift in the deviation of discretionary accruals from their normal value. This was observed in the energy sector among the companies transitioning to IFRS, which suggests a greater use of cost accounting opportunities by industry players. Nevertheless, these modelling results can only indirectly support the potential investor concerns about the change in accounting systems and they do not diminish the importance of the potential institutional incentives and benefits of the transition.

Brands are becoming more and more important for enterprises that spend significant amounts on building strong ones. Howewer, the value of brands and the way it should be represented in financial reports is still controversial. Our general objective is to present a calculation method able to estimate brand value that we establish for the calculation method of Interbrand corporation and results of our own survey research. Our specific objective in the course of analysis is to determine Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz’s and Nestlé cereal’s brand value based on data of 2022. Firstly we calculated the so-called Economic Value of researched enterprises by analysing their financial reports. Applying the results from our survey research we determined the role of brand plays in gaining EVA, which is Brand Income. Finally we calculated a ratio using WACC which we discounted the Brand Income with we obtained the Brand Value. Our survey research is assembled according to Keller’s Brand Equity Model. During our research we have confirmed our hypothesis that people filling the survey consider brand to be a more important purchasing aspect in case of Mercedes-Benz than Nestlé cereals; purchasing Nestlé cereals respondents consider brand as the most important purchasing aspect out of the given list; respondents choose analysed brands contra unknown ones which has the same features and price. Final results show that Mercedes-Benz and Nestlé cereals have strong brand knowledge, the Mercedes brand value was several times higher, while the difference between these brand values caused by not the different financial performance but rather the devation of brand power and strength of the analysed manifacture companies.