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Agribusiness higher education development – ahead: The project results at a glance
95-98Views:179his booklet that has caught your attention contains basic information about the AHEAD project sponsored by the EU’s TEMPUS grant. This project was carried out between University of Zagreb (and other Croatian partners) and four EU-based universities. The project was very ambitious and it is my pleasure to state that the great majority of the objectives were carried out with high quality during the 3 years project time span. The main results of the AHEAD project can be found in this booklet, and I would like to mention just a few of them:
• A new MBA training started in Zagreb with international recognition
• 61 subjects of 3 BSc/MSc trainings were reviewed and modified,
• a study was created in order to determine the short – and long – term expert demand of the Croatian national economy,
• computers, equipment and modern textbooks were purchased from European grant and
• finally a personal note: it was spectacular to see the rapid development of University of Zagreb and generally the whole Croatia during the last 3 years. If our project contributed just a little bit to it, the effort certainly was worthwhile. -
Risk and risk management in Hungarian sheep production
61-65Views:187The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the risk attitudes of Hungarian sheep producers regarding the changes they have had to go through since the political changes of 1989–1990. Moreover, the objective of this study is to strengthen the empirical basis for risk analysis by identifying the importance of farmers’ risk attitudes. The results of a nationwide survey of over 500 sheep farmers presented a framework of risk attitudes, risk sources and applied risk management techniques of livestock producers.
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Integrated approach in Ukrainian dairy industry: a case study from Poltava region
Views:247Integration processes in the field of agriculture, and particularly in dairy industry, have real prospects for improving the efficiency of business entities in this industry due to technological features. Particular attention should be paid to vertically integrated business models that allow hedging of various risk groups and minimizing costs due to the optimal combination of the efforts of enterprises belonging to such associations.
The purpose of the article is to study the current state of dairy industry in Poltava Region, Ukraine, and to show one of the conceptual ways to increase its economic efficiency. The paper presents a theoretical hypothesis concerning the necessity of vertically integrated agricultural formation’s creation in order to improve the competitiveness of dairy production in the region and having positive effect on sustainable development of dairy industry.
The practical significance of the study includes the possibility to use findings and recommendations set out in the paper for introduction of mutually beneficial economic relations between agricultural, dairy and trade enterprises in concluding agreements on joint activities based on a successful example from Poltava Region, and contribute to the stabilization, development and increase of the enterprises’ efficiency in Ukrainian dairy industry.
JEL code: F15, Q13
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On tests for long memory process behavior of international tourism market: Thailand and India
95-99Views:144In our research we examine the behaviour of both Thailand’s and India’s international tourism market by using long-memory analysis. The international tourism market of Thailand combined with seven groups such as East Asia, Europe, The Americas, South Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa. Similarly, the international tourism market of India combined with nine countries: USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and Sri Lanka. Moreover, three statistical tests for long-memory process such as R/S test, Modified R/S test and GPH-test are employed to study these markets. The empirical findings in general provide more support for long memory process in international tourism market of Thailand and evidence for short-term dependence in international tourism market of India. Therefore, the policy makers of each country should understand the behaviour of long memory process in international tourism market before launching any stimulating campaign to this industry.
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The effects of global real economic crisis on the markets for fossil and renewable fuels
51-56Views:145The 2008/2009 world economic crisis had significant impact on the oil and fuel markets. The crisis developed from the meltdown of American and European mortgage and financial markets and rapidly involved the global real economy. As each country reacted differently to the crisis, the changes in the fuel market also showed significant geographic variation. In our present research, the actions of the US, German and Hungarian fuel markets were analysed for the answer to the reasons for the differences in crisis reactions. We examined the tendency of fuel consumption, the changes of price elasticity for gasoline and diesel and the possible effects of the crisis on the regulatory system.
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On tests for long-term dependence: India ’s international tourism market
109-113Views:136There have been growing interest in studying behavior of long memory process in tourism market. In this research examine the behavior of India’s international tourism market based on long-memory analysis. The international tourism market of India combined with nine countries: USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and Sri Lanka. Moreover, three statistical tests for longmemory process such as R/S test, Modified R/S test and GPH-test are employed to test in these market. The empirical findings in general provide more support for no long memory process or no long-term dependence in international tourism market of India.
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The effects of the global economic crisis on the markets for fossil and renewable fuels
131-136Views:153The 2008/2009 world economic crisis had significant impact on oil and fuel markets. This crisis has been developed from the meltdown of the American mortgage and financial market and spread throughout the global economy. As each country reacted differently to the crisis, the changes in the fuel market have also shown significant geographic variation. In our present research, the changes of the US, German and Hungarian fuel markets were analysed, looking for answers to the reasons behind different crisis reactions. We examined the tendency of fuel consumption, the changes of gasoline and diesel price elasticity and the possible effects of the crisis on the regulatory system.
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Key aspects of investment analysis
53-56Views:763This paper reviewed principally accepted methods applied to investment analysis. To describe every aspect of investment analysis fully would require far more space than available here, so we highlight only of few of its aspects. This study collects several well-known bibliographies, contrasts them with each other and provides explanations for having done so. There are many questions about which authors and companies agree, including about how to apply certain methods, but on others there is disagreement. Four dynamic methods (Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Profitability Index, and Discounted Payback Period) are demonstrated from the viewpoint of application. Moreover, this study clarifies several sensitive questions, such as handling income taxes, inflation and uncertainty. Other examined issues are only mentioned at the end of this paper, and we will publish on these more thoroughly at a later date.
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Comparative yield risk calculations of sour cherry and pear varieties regarding risk aversion
111-116Views:132Fruit production in the world is increasing continuously. Though in the past few years China and some South-American countries have extended their fruit producing areas, Europe remains to be one of the greatest fruit producers in the world. In the middle of Europe Hungary has to face several challenges as competing for market. Since yield risk has an important role in Hungarian fruit production we investigate the yield risk of two of the most important sour cherry varieties (’Újfehértói fürtös’ and ’Oblacsinszka’) grown in Újfehértó (1984-2005), moreover, two of the most important pear varieties (’Bosc Beurre’ and ’Williams’) grown in Bánfa and Zalasárszeg (1984-2009). In the examined periods we analyse yield risk with different comparative methods such as E,V-efficiency, first and second degree as well as generalized stochastic dominance methods. We conclude that the production of sour cherry variety ’Oblacsinszka’ in Újfehértó is more preferable compared to the other sour cherry varieties and pear variety ’Bosc Beurre’ in Bánfa is more advantageous than the other pear varieties and sites.
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Marketing aspects of consumption of Hungarian pork meat
109-114Views:155The most important aim of authors’ study is to get to know the Hungarian pork consumption in our days. Our aim is set to estimate pork meat consumption and purchasing habits of consumers who are living in Eastern part of Hungary. The pork section is influenced negatively by several factors nowadays, which have a clear effect on the pork consumption and cause its declination. During the research work a questionnaire survey was made in 2007 and 2008. 1089 persons in different locations of Eastern Hungary were altogether asked. The data were evaluated by statistic hypothesis testing. Based on the evaluation a clear picture was got about the consumers’purchasing and consuming habits, and their ideas, opinions about the Hungarian pork as a food and as an item wearing a kind of national behaviour. Through many questions the volume of consumption was explored, and the pork’s proportion was compared to the rest of other meat types. It is verifiable that the pork consumption can be handled as a national habit, which is not the same by different age groups and educational qualifications. The importance of some factors during purchasing was also examined. Exceptionally important factors are: quality, the appearance, the origin and the price, that were mostly considered by the customers.The effect of pork promotion advertisements and its evaluation by the customers were surveyed too, which in connection with the efficiency showed a fairly stable picture both in 2007 and in 2008. The examination of price elasticity showed that this figure is influenced not just by the product group itself, but the purchasing power of the costumers, as well.
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Examining some fields within human resources management
49-52Views:174Human resources management is one of the management functions, dealing with people as the essential resource of the organization. This function aims at the most efficient usage of employees in order to realize both organizational and individual goals. Nowadays high significance is attributed to human resources management, since the human factor is the resource that determines the success of an organization. The results of a company are in proportion with the knowledge and talent of the people on its payroll. Human talent and knowledge can be utilized to the greatest extent in case management is able to motivate employees to meet not only the necessary requirements but also to achieve the highest possible results. Human resources management consists of several fields of activities, among which the following are the most important: analysis, planning and assessment of the scope of activities, human resources planning, workforce supply, performance assessment, motivation, developing human resources, labour relations, labour safety, HEM information system. Our studies cover a few fields within human resources management. Our research has been carried out at organizations in Hajdú-Bihar County. The study is based on questionnaires, which have been processed by computers and evaluated using statistical methods.
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On tests for long-term dependence: India’s international tourism market
77-81Views:117There have been growing interest in studying behavior of long memory process in tourism market. In this research examine the behavior of India’s international tourism market based on long-memory analysis. The international tourism market of India combined with nine countries: USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and Sri Lanka. Moreover, three statistical tests for longmemory process such as R/S test, Modified R/S test and GPH-test are employed to test in these market. The empirical findings in general provide more support for no long memory process or no long-term dependence in international tourism market of India.
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A structural equation model: Greece’s tourism demand for tourist destination
75-83Views:323Structural equation model (LISREL 8) was applied to test the causal relationships between tourist travel motivations and tourist destination.A survey containing Likert scale questions was conducted to collect data from 100 tourists who had travelled to Greece’s tourist destination. With the help of factor analysis, four dimensions were identified for scales used in the study: travel cost satisfaction, tourism product, tourism product attributes, and tourism product management. Results indicated that the travel cost satisfaction of tourists has a positive influence on tourism product, tourism product attributes and tourism product management. Moreover, our results suggested that the tourist demographics has a positive influence on tourism product and tourism product attributes and has an insignificant relationship with tourism product management. Based on our findings the tourist demographics has not influence on tourism product management. However, these findings suggest that both the private tourism and the governmental tourism sector should develop a better management of tourist destinations so as to develop a stronger attraction of tourism, better amenities, a better accessibility, an appropriate image, to make tourism competitive and to keep tourism product prices at a reasonable level. The implications of the tourism demand model can be used for the public environmental policy-making process based mainly on reasons of interest, ideology or understanding.
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Influence of social media on tourism – especially among students of the University of Debrecen
105-112Views:4377Derive from the characteristic, decisions connected with travelling have high risk for the travellers therefore they try to collect more detailed information and thoroughly map decision alternatives in order to decrease uncertainty. Wide spread of the Internet and rapid technological evolution have revolutionized all industries in the World especially tourism. Platform of tourism increasingly get to the Internet nowadays which is vitally important because tourism is an informationbased and information-intensive industry. Thanks to development of the internet tourists have an opportunity to access such information and purchasing opportunities which were available with the help of intermediaries earlier. Providing wide range of possibilities, Web 2.0 fundamentally changed the way of tourists’ information search behaviour and travelling decision making. This article collects some of the most significant new applications (social networking sites, blogs) in tourism – examine them from the two sides of tourism (demand, supply) – which principally based on active participation of users. Furthermore an offline questionnaire was made in order to survey the social media usage of the student (University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences) during their leisure travel planning process. Although findings of the study reveal that vast majority of students use social networking sites every day, they don’t really use these platforms during their trip planning process. Among students, friends and relatives are the most important and the most trustworthy source of information due to characteristics of sample.
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MBA education at the University of Debrecen and its further development towards Double Degree Programmes
167-170Views:262University of Debrecen is the oldest higher educational institution in continuous operation in Hungary based in the same city. MBA training at Debrecen Agricultural University was initiated by 0257-91/1 Tempus Joint European Project Grant. The project was coordinated by the Netherlands Institute for Management (RVB) Maastricht. Participating institutions include University College in Dublin, Agricultural University in Wageningen and Debrecen Agricultural University. Minimum requirements established were a BSc (or equivalent) degree, an English certificate of language proficiency and one letter of reference from work supervisors or former teachers. Application requirements included a completed application form, Curriculum vitae, a certified copy of degree(s), an official copy of language knowledge certificate, a letter of recommendation and the receipt of registration fee payment. The academic year began on 1 September 1991, and project studies were carried out in small groups. Practical experience that had been gained before enrolment was taken into account and after the successful completion of the requirements students were granted MBA degrees.
JEL CODE: I21, I25
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Implementing Learning Design by lams to improve teaching and learning
21-24Views:148Learning Design has the potential to revolutionize e-learning by capturing the process of education, rather than simply content. By describing sequences of collaborative learning activities, Learning Design offers a new approach to re-use in e-learning. E-learning has a well developed approach to the creation and sequencing of content-based, single learner, self-paced learning objects.While definitions of Learning Design vary, the main elements tend to include greater focus on context dimensions of e-learning, a more activity based view of e-learning, and greater recognition of the role of multi-learner environments. While Learning Design does not exclude single learner, self-paced modes of elearning, it draws attention to a wider range of collaborative e-learning approaches in addition to single learner approaches. This paper shows an example, which is applied to speciality of economic and rural development agricultural engineer at University of Debrecen and its implementation in the Learning Activity Management System. We created a learning design was implemented at this speciality with LAMS, which is a learning design editing and play back tool that puts the learning process, rather than collections of content, at the heart of e-learning.
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Economic Performances of German Agri-Food Businesses: an Extension of Existing Discourses on the Topic
67-80Views:196Considering the circumstance that literature dealing with the economic performance of agri-food businesses in general, or particularly with the German agricultural sector, mainly deals with strictly agricultural-related theory in order to explain the economic success of agri-food businesses, the present paper aims to extend existing discourses to further areas of thought. Consequently, the characteristics: a) increased size of agribusiness, b) pull-strategies, c) the development of new markets and d) focus on the processing industry, that all correspond to the current picture of the German agricultural sector and are considered to be significantly responsible for recently managing to outpace the French agri-food sector, will be first explained in their success against the background of mainly non-agricultural-related literature. By doing so helpful and rather unnoted perspectives can be contributed to existing discourses. Second, the paper presents scatter plots which portray correlations between a) the added value of agriculture and the regular labor force, b) the added value of agriculture and the number of agricultural holdings and c) the added value of agriculture and the number of enterprises concerning milk consumption. Corresponding scatter plots which show different developments in Germany and France can be related to the findings of the first part of the paper and allow new perspectives in existing discourses as well.
JEL Classification: Q10
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Land regulation in the European Union and Hungary
57-58Views:162Land, as it constitutes one of the bases of agricultural production, has a special position in the economic-judiciary surroundings of states. In Hungarian history, land ownership has undergone many radical transitions. The decade starting from the political and land regulation reform is a short time in land tenure. In spite of it, there have been several important changes in land ownership structure. In the 1970s and 80s, large agricultural firms, especially co-operatives and state farms, were common in Hungary. State hegemony was typical of land ownership and use, with rather small, privately owned parcels. Since privatization began after 1989, this tendency has changed, with land owned by farmers. In the following article, I am going to review the laws regulating land ownership and land use in Hungary and in the European Union.
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Resource use efficiency among rice farmers around fragile ecosystems: evidence from Kilombero Wetland, Tanzania
77-88Views:242Farmers have been encroaching fragile wetlands as a strategy to increase their rice production thus threatening wetlands’ existence and capacity to other critical ecosystem services. This calls for efficient production to strike the balance between food rice production and wetlands’ sustainable existence. The current study sought to provide assess rice farmers’ technical efficiency of resource use by detecting the determinants of rice yield and further identify the determinants of technical efficiency of the resources used by rice farmers in Kilombero wetland. A cross-sectional survey of 145 randomly sampled farmers aided in achieving the study objective. A stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model was used to analyze data. The mean technical efficiency among farmers was at 60.54% level. The positive determinants of rice yield were land and fertilizers while labor influenced it negatively. Age, education, farming experience, group membership, and credit access reduced inefficiency while the distance to the extension agent and off-farm income increased farmers’ inefficiency. The study concludes that there is a possibility of expanding rice production without threatening the wetland’s existence. It recommends that government and other stakeholders to ensure that rice farmers are up-to-date with optimal use of fertilizers in rice production since it will assist in improving rice yield while the rate of expansion of rice lands in the wetlands will lower. Policy implementers ought to establish initiatives that inspire rice farmers to capitalize on farmer groups and join education programs to take full advantage of their potential efficiency and might participate in community development activities.
JEL code: Q15
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Examination of leader communication in agriculture
41-47Views:174My doctoral and research topic was significant in the examination and analysis of leader activities in the framework of a functional, modularly constructed empirical research program of the Department of Management Sciences. I could make statements and correspond about leader activities; these exercises and the influential factors on these activities were studied by the examinations and analyses of leader communication. In this article, I will demonstrate the research I made in on agricultural communication, as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Management Sciences.
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Market trends and consumer demand for fresh berries
11-14Views:473We present an analysis of markets for fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries in the United States during 2008–2011. We use weekly panel data covering supermarket purchases in 52 cities. The primary goal is to estimate demand elasticities for fresh berries and thereby provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour in response to price changes and the nature of competition among these crops. We estimate fixed and random effects models for double log demand equations and a complete demand system, the Almost Ideal Demand System. The latter specification can be used to estimate demand relationships that conform to utility maximising behaviour. The elasticity estimates are very robust across the different specifications and estimation methods. This increases confidence in our findings and provides some assurance that choice of functional form or estimation method is not driving our results. We find that retail demands for all berry crops are in the elastic range and that the different berries are substitutes for one another. The demand for strawberries was the least elastic with an own price elasticity of –1.26 and blackberries were the most elastic with a demand elasticity of –1.88. Blackberry demand was also the most responsive to the prices of competing berry crops. The study provides clearer insight into markets for berries in the United States. In addition, it fills a gap in the present lack of up-to-date consumer demand elasticities for these crops and will be useful for growers, decision makers and consumers.
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Analysis of household crop commercialization in Nigeria
Views:306Nigeria is experiencing a gradual shift from subsistence to commercialized agriculture, thereby increasing involvement and activities at different nodes of agribusiness. Participation of farmers in markets is an important determinant of well-being and development, and one of the pathways towards economic growth. This study analysed household crop commercialization in Nigeria. The secondary data used were the General Household Survey (GHS, 2018) Wave 4. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, household crop commercialization index (HCCI) and ordered probit regression model.
Mean age of Nigerian farmers was 50.04 years (±15.22), majority (85.68%) were male, married (82.51%), and 72.14% had formal education. Farming is viable in all the geopolitical zones and majority (87.64%) of the farmers were from the rural sector, holding a mean total plot size of 12.61(±15.63) hectares, and planted 3 crops on the average. The most produced crop categories are cereals (46.75%), tubers (20.70%) and legumes (19.00%); legumes and cereals are highest in the North, and tubers in the South. Subsistence households were 32.81% (HCCI=0), only 1.71% of the households were fully commercial (HCCI=100), while semi-subsistence households (0≤HCCI≤100) constitute 65.48%. Years of education (p<0.05) and crop production in North East and North West zones (p<0.01) constrain commercialization, while at p<0.01, crop production in the rural sector and the South zones, and increased land holding are the drivers of household crop commercialization in Nigeria.
Nigerian farming households are mainly semi-subsistence and are diversified in crop production. Nigeria relies more on market participation of the semi-subsistence households, through their marketable surplus, to feed her teeming population and for exports. Further attention on rural infrastructure development in all geopolitical zones and awareness creation on producing market oriented products will increase agribusiness activities. This will generate green decent jobs that will take unemployed youths off the streets of urban centres. This is in tune with the economy diversification bid and the new Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
JEL CODE – Q13
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The role of beekeeping in production of oil crops
77-82Views:148Production of sunflower oil are expected to serve larger and larger extent – over the demand of food industry and chemical industry – biofuel production. This could be especially true for that areas where climate is not allowed to grow winter rape safely and economically. Ecological role of honey-bees can be considered undoubtful in preservation of biodiversity of flora and fauna. I analyse the following problems in our study:
• What is the significance of oil plants in European and Hungarian energy production?
• How influence pollination the yields and the safety of production of oil plants?
• What is the role of oil plants in the development of production structure of beekeeping?
• What are the economical advantages of the above-mentioned effects? -
Communication of trainers as one of the means for customer retention in fitness clubs
35-40Views:377Acquiring the adequate communication style is a vital element in trainers’ profession. This research aims to reveal the effects generated via the communicative style by trainers of fitness club customers. It also intends to explore whether communication style has any relation to the regularity of class attendance as well as to the length of training periods which is conceptualised in this paper as trainers’ economic efficiency. Data collection was carried out by structured interviews in a country-side large sport centre. Trainers with at least three training sessions per week (N=20) and their groups (N=160) were interviewed using Rudas (1994) communication style survey and additional selfdeveloped interview protocols. The results revealed that the examined trainers were distributed in all four communications styles, but showing dominance in aggressive and passive styles. The classes of trainers with aggressive and assertive communication style were those that showed the highest and maintained attendance rates. It seems, that classes held by trainers who communicate in a deliberate way and convey positive messages are attended more and in a sustained way. Accordingly, their precisely set targets and explanation of training sessions content correlated with repeated attendance and customer retention. It seems that groups with extended scope of communication are characterised by stronger group cohesion where social relationships could develop easier, which have relations to perseverance and commitment. Therefore development of trainers’ communication skills may be considered as an effective tool for fitness clubs for customer retention.
JEL code: Z20
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Certain elements of population retaining ability and the ability to economically provide for a population of the countryside
81-88Views:141According to the data of population density, most of Hungary’s territory has rural features. Achieving EU supports in order to focus on developing the most underdeveloped communities, and in order to lessen the differences between communities, to establish priorities and to determine the rank of rural communities based on their development potential is necessary.The need of measurability arises because of comparison and classification.A possible target area is an analysis of population retaining ability and the ability to economically provide for a population of rural areas.
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