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The competitiveness of rural areas in the Republic of Tatarstan
89-96Views:123This paper analyses the main factors influencing the regional competitiveness of rural areas in the Tatarstan Republic. Firstly, 19 variables related to the socio-economic situation in the Tatarstan Republic were analysed, these having been taken from the Statistics Committee of the Tatarstan Republic. Principal component analysis (PCA) was then used to determine the weights of 10 indicators that have an effect on the level of regional competitiveness. Factor weights are used as weights in the summation of the standardised scores of variables that have an impact on competitiveness. The major factors influencing the level of regional competitiveness are the level of economically active population, investment in housing and the level of education. The following results were obtained: one of the 44 regions is very highly competitive and two are highly competitive; two of 44 regions have a medium level of competitiveness and 39 regions have a low level of competitiveness.
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Risks and competitiveness in agriculture with emphasis on wine sector in Croatia
11-17Views:139International competitiveness, being a key objective of each economic entity, is at the same time significantly determined by the level of risk the entity is coping. Based on the assumption that risk management is directly linked to competitiveness in agribusiness, the scope of this paper is predominantly focused on the wine agribusiness in Croatia. The aim of this paper is to encompass available literature and transfer findings to interested parties, about risks and competitiveness in agriculture, with particular reference to the wine sector. Qualitative analysis of secondary data, descriptive i.e. monographic method, deductive method and comparison of available papers from the world and Croatia were applied in the paper. There are very few companies in general, however, that tend to use their abilities to manage risks as a source of competitive advantage. These companies go beyond compliance or cost-controlling defensive approaches and take a more aggressive stance toward risk. They have realized that their risk management capabilities can be leveraged as a source of competitive advantage (Elahi, 2013). Current literature showed that such companies indirectly exist within global agribusiness. Examples of such companies in the wine sector could be found in Old World and New World wine countries. In regards with the mentioned, further research in the wine sector that would more directly link competitiveness and risk management and benefits that could be drawn from such “linkage” is needed.
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Effect of Quality Assurance Deficit on Market Competitiveness for Export Commodities and Household Income in Nigeria
103-108Views:117The Nigerian’s agricultural sub-sector contributes about 37 percent of her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs about 65 per cent of the adult labour force. It is thus the major source of food and fibre for the nation. However, there are increasing concerns about the quality and level of safety of many of the agricultural export commodities, particularly in the European markets due to the composition of high level of unauthorized pesticides. This is a major challenge to the level of market competitiveness for these commodities in the international markets. This study therefore examined the effect of quality assurance deficit on market competitiveness and household income levels. Trends in Nigeria’s agricultural export trade between 1980 and 2014 were examined and emphasis was placed on cowpea, dried maize, melon seeds and palm oil. Descriptive and qualitative statistical methods were used to analyze the data. Quantitative statistics included the use of econometric models. Results indicated that there was an increase in the general price level of the commodities at the international market over time. The aggregate market demand for each of them dropped sharply in the last one decade even when the market price per unit increased steadily. This negatively affected the households’ average income level as returns on sales of export commodities declined. Huge quantities of the commodities were then forced to be sold at the local markets at cheaper prices. This development negatively affects the consumptions patterns of the exporters as they now have reduced disposable income. Appropriate agencies of government need to be awake to their responsibilities of assessing and certifying the quality of the Nigerian agricultural commodities before exporting them abroad. This will help to further boost the level of consumer confidence in these export commodities especially at the international markets.
JEL Classification: Q13
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Competetiveness of the Montenegrin fruit and vegetables sector and recommendtations for impovement
69-75Views:91A number of facts, primarily including high fragmentation at all levels, weak vertical integration, limited dimensions in comparison to competitors poor technological level and unbalanced quality/price ratio make the sector weak, low competitive and exposed to international competition, reducing its capacity to capture any existing market potential. Almost all opportunities are frozen by prevailing weaknesses and threat impacts are exacerbated by a largely prevailing number of weaknesses. High production unit cost appears to be a major constraint to local supply market competitiveness. This situation appears to be mainly caused by general low levels of productivity – provoked by not adequate and up-to-date cultivation practices, reduced levels of input use, utilisation of old and, therefore, less performing varieties, and also farm management shortcomings. High losses from reduced availability of post-harvest facilities and equipment add up to the problem. The improvement of the sector is not easy. In other words, there is a lot to do for the Montenegrin sector operators to increase sales: tackle imports and increase market shares in the domestic market and abroad. Based on our research, we suggest that the Montenegrin fruit and vegetable sector should primarily aim at substituting imports, increasing domestic consumption and developing exports to the region (CEFTA countries) primarily via promising market opportunities. Based on our analyses of the state of affairs of the sector, the competitiveness and the market potentials, the recommendations for improvement competitiveness are outlined.
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Tourism performance of destinations based on settlement approach
63-68Views:125Recently in the regional development researches the attention draw to the way of measuring destination's development and competitiveness. The further development of the Hungarian Tourism depends on the regions, destinations' developments, their success in competitiveness and the ongoing innovation in tourism. The research of the Budapest Business School Institute of Tourism Department intends to elaborate a complex tourism destination indicator based on former researches and experiences.
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In search of clusters
7-17Views:144The aim of this article is to present the ‘regional cluster quick scan’as an efficient and objective tool to scan a region of interest for the presence, nature and development phase of regional clusters. The ‘tool’developed in this research is based on the relations between the state of cluster development in regions, competitiveness, and economic growth. First, a theoretical model is developed and then this model is applied to a real case to test the validity of the model. The results indicate the possibility of identifying regional clusters and their competitiveness by using Shift and Share analysis.
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Relationships between competitiveness in the Northern Great Plain and the organisational culture of local authorities
13-20Views:140One of the five basic factors in the Lengyel-type pyramid model – institutions and social capital – is essential in the economic growth of the region. Economic success however, does not only depend on participants in the economy, but on social factors such as the roles played by local authorities, including their functions, operation and organisational culture, all of which are crucial factors. Based on the results obtained regarding organisational culture it can be stated that performance orientation, dominant motivation based on calculated risk, forward planning and regular feedback are expected values at local authorities in all three counties. All local authorities emphasise the importance of the need for forecasting. Respondents find it important that organisations encourage and reward individual action and contributions as expected values. The degree of human orientation expected by local authorities reflects the fact that respect for colleagues and attention to their well-being should be at the highest level. Reinforcing these organisational culture values (dimensions) is the basis for the efficient and successful operation of organisations (local authorities). The study examines the organisational culture of local authorities in the Northern Great Plain, looking for any relationships it might have with the competitiveness of the region. This study is an element of the wider research into organisational culture. We used the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness) survey, which had been successfully applied in the research programme In Competition with the World at the Corvinus University of Budapest. Koopman, Den Hartog, Konrad et al. (1999) examined the culture variables of 21 European countries in organisations. Based on Hungarian and international literature it can be stated that a similar survey of local authorities has not yet been conducted.
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Analysis of production and competitiveness on small beekeeping farms in selected districts of Serbia
Views:202The study researched the costs and returns on typical small beekeeping farms from five districts in Serbia. On the basis of the field research, data on the number of beehives,type of product, volume of production per beehive and values per measurement unit were collected.In order to demonstrate the competitiveness of various apicultural products, analysis of the available data was performed using analytical calculations. According to the analysis, the labour costs comprise about 49.65% to 64.15% of the variable costs on beekeeping farms in the Raška and Šumadija districts, respectively. Production is most economical on the bee farm in the district of Srem, where every dinar spent in production creates a value of 2.22 dinars, while the farm from the district of Raška is the least economical (1.32 din). Bee farms must reduce labour costs and re-direct their business orientation to other bee products, besides honey, such as pollen, which could be significantly more profitable.
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Greener cement sector and potential climate strategy development between 2015-2030 (Hungarian case study)
65-74Views:378Advancing the domestic industrial production towards a sustainable, resource-preserving direction can become an important pillar to support competitiveness in the European Union, as well as in Hungary. Reaching the de-carbonization goals for industrial production via lowering the production volume may result in less desirable macro-economic effects, so decisions which concern the industry require a lot of attention from the climate policy as well. In the case of the cement sector, economic actors have to be motivated to make energy-efficiency investments and technology developments, which also show promise in terms of business efficiency. In the more natural-resource-intensive branches of the industry, both innovations and technological developments will be required to reduce the amount of used non-renewable energy resources, keep it in the industrial cycle, and reduce environmental load. The importance of greener cement will be essential in the near future to reduce the sector’s CO2 emission levels. We need to identify more sector branches which relate to sustainability, which can aid the country in establishing long-term competitiveness that points towards the de-carbonization goals. The cost-efficiency aspects of this development process are the most tedious questions in today’s business planning.
JEL classification: Q55
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The examination of the profitability and competitiveness regarding the energy plantations of woody plants in the region of Észak-Alföld
5-11Views:141Due to the decrease in the quantity of traditional energy sources, in the future an alternative energy production should be sought which provides minimum environmental burden and offers an opportunity to generate energy. The use of biomass provides another option to resolve this problem. The most important features of the biomass are that the quantity doesn’t decrease during conversions and are reproduced by natural processes. The main raw materials of the biomass are considered to be the energy plantations, which are economic in areas where the farmer, during the traditional production, can’t or with difficulties can cover the expenses, so that profitably sustainable cultivation branches can come to the forefront with less material and energy input. Those cases in which the cultivation of agricultural areas are not economically feasible, there is a possible utilization in our country which is the installation of plantations with energetic aim.
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Differences of the primary energy consumption of the countries all over the world
155-161Views:166The global energy consumption is continuously growing, because the population of Earth and the standard of living expands day by day. As a result, the emission of greenhouse gases increases further more. The various countries use the different types of fuels in varying amount.In this study we have examined the primary energy consumption of the countries, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2016 (BP, 2016), based upon their usage of fuels.The assay resulted in a 7 cluster model. With one exception, each cluster contains a resource, which is used in a much larger amount than in the other clusters. As a result, we may differentiate between an average cluster, and the clusters of countries that use primarily hydropower, nuclear energy, renewable energy, coal, fossil oil, and natural gas.We have examined if there is any connection between the location of a country in a cluster and its HDI, as well as the countries’ competitiveness.
JEL Code: Q42, Q43, Q35, Q01, P28, P18
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The role of social media in gastronomy industry
95-103Views:1224Considering the rapidly changing business environment, staying competitive is a key issue and challenge for companies in the 21st century. The criteria of a company’s success and competitiveness is the changing behavior of the different economic actors and its influence. Through the information society came to the fore, the use of diverse information technology tools and methods has become a significant influence factor in terms of the entrepreneurs or company management and also the customers or other partners. Due to the rapid expansion of new technology developments, the role and importance of social media is continuously increasing. Also statistics show that one of the most regularly used IT tool is the social media and the different web 2.0 applications. The current study is intended to provide a better understanding how social media can emphasize the competitiveness of companies and format the consumer behavior in a special sector – the rapidly developing gastronomy industry. This paper presents an empirical research about the role of social media in the above mentioned industry based on the primary data which are gathered through a survey performed in Hungary. Beyond the empirical results presented, the paper also aims to provide some recommendations for research methodology – based on the international literature review and the Authors’ own experiences – both in gastronomy industry’s and customers’ point of view. Through the analysis the research hypotheses were examined and the most important correlations were identified between the survey results and the Authors’ initial supposition.
JEL Code: D83, L83, M31, Z33
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Green networks: Innovative capacity of SMEs in the Dutch greenhouse horticulture industry
43-50Views:160The Dutch greenhouse horticulture industry is characterized by world leadership in high-tech innovation. The dynamics of this playing field are innovation in production systems and automation, reduction in energy consumption and sharing limited space. However, international competitive advantage of the industry is under pressure and sustainable growth of individual enterprises is no longer a certainty. The sector’s ambition is to innovate better and grow faster than the competition in the rest of the world. Realizing this ambition requires strengthening the knowledge base, stimulating entrepreneurship, innovation (not just technological, but especially business process innovation). It also requires educating and professionalizing people. However, knowledge transfer in this industry is often fragmented and innovation through horizontal and vertical collaboration throughout the value chain is limited. This paper focuses on the question: how can the grower and the supplier in the greenhouse horticulture chain gain competitive advantage through radical product and process innovation. The challenge lies in time- to-market, in customer relationship, in developing new product/market combinations and in innovative entrepreneurship. In this paper an innovation and entrepreneurial educational and research programme is introduced. The programme aims at strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration between enterprise, education and research. Using best practice examples, the paper illustrates how companies can realize growth and improve the innovative capacity of the organization as well as the individual by linking economic and social sustainability. The paper continues to show how participants of the program develop competencies by means of going through a learning cycle of single-loop, double-loop and triple loop learning: reduction of mistakes, change towards new concepts and improvement of the ability to learn. Finally, the paper illustrates the importance of combining enterprise, education and research in regional networks, with examples from the greenhouse horticulture sector. These networks generate economic growth and international competitiveness by acting as business accelerators.
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The situation of the Hungarian agricultural higher education
73-77Views:124The knowledge-based, competitive economy places a great emphasis on the education system. The responsibility of higher education is to impart knowledge of high standard which is in harmony with the continuously changing environment. Higher education has a special role in the knowledge-based economy since it does not only have to fulfil educational but also research an innovation tasks. The decrease in the traditional role of agriculture as well as international tendencies facilitate diversification, i.e. the emergence of new roles and the relevant activities. Due to the diversification of agriculture fields like environmental protection, bioenergetics, and rural development have become more emphatic. The growing importance of these new fields is also significant from the point of view of education. Well trained professionals are of vital importance for the agriculture. A significant number of fresh graduates are not employed in their profession; they find a job in other areas or continue their education in a different field of interest. This research is based on a representative survey amongst agricultural graduates. Its objective is finding facts about how the graduates of the past five years assess higher education training and also about the factors employers take into consideration when employing a fresh graduate.
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Portuguese agriculture and its role in multifunctional rural development
39-46Views:150Paper aims to demonstrate the ability or inability of Portuguese agriculture to respond to changing economic conditions as well as societal expectations and demands. The main question is to know how the CAP’s evolutions through a policy with a double emphasis – on market orientation and competitiveness and on sustainability.
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Statistical and multi-criteria decision making analysis for consumer attitude and behavior: in case of Mongolian organic food market
31-38Views:437Nowadays, consumers have a full of knowledge on products and services, and their daily consumption of healthy and environmentally friendly products has been increasing. Therefore, businesses need to implement green marketing activities, so they need to be aware of environmental issues and consumer needs while maintaining financial sustainability and competitiveness. (Belz & Karstens, 2002). Examples are the rapid growth of organic food products, as consumers are concerned with their health and environmental issues in their day-to-day purchasing decisions. Over 20 years ago, in 1999, the market for organic food products sales was $ 15.2 billion, while sales in 2017 increased to $ 97 billion, indicating that the world's organic food market is growing rapidly. The organic food market is growing by $5 billion a year, and as of 2014, 172 countries have organic food farm land according to the “The World of Organic Agriculture”. Since the market for organic products is a new market for Mongolia, previous surveys in are relatively small. Therefore, this is aimed at conducting a study on behavioral approaches of consumers of organic food products in Ulaanbaatar. We have run statistical and multi-criteria decision making analysis based on given data of consumers. We also apply Harker’s techniques for complete and incomplete evaluation matrices which are defined from consumers decision making. Numerical examples are presented.
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The problems of regional development in Montenegro
85-88Views:118Economic development is a continuous, stochastic process considering that development depends on a multitude of historical, political, economic, cultural, ethnic and other factors. In the process of development, each country puts effort into strengthening their manufacturing potential, increasing the competitiveness of their economy by modernizing technology, and raising the level of education, culture etc. Owing to the accentuated actions of these factors, and different social, economic and other circumstances, there has been emerging polarizations in regional development, urbanization and so on. Proof of a country’s level of economic development can be found in various indicators such as capital equipment; the share of manufacturing, agriculture, and foreign trade; the share of the private sector in total ownership; the development of financial institutions and capital markets; the development and stability of the legal system; the development of transport, telecommunication and other infrastructure; the realized standard of living; the development of democracy and human rights protection; preserved environment etc. Economies of developing countries, including Montenegro, are usually characterized by a low capital equipment and low labor productivity, expensive manufacturing and insufficient share of world trade, high import dependence, uncompetitiveness, high unemployment, undeveloped entrepreneurship, and an undeveloped financial institutions. Polarized countries in an economic and development sense, are therefore those which are unevenly developed, and are constantly faced with highly pronounced problems of disparity in regional development and demographic problems. Solving these problems is a long-term process and necessitates. The design of a regional policy that is more efficient than the previous ones, as well, as building a different procedure for fulfilling the adopted regional policies.
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Generalized coefficients of goods quality and satisfying of consumers demand
83-86Views:104In process of work the problems are set and solved. There are problems of social welfare research in conditions of nonhomogeneity of objects and subjects of management, of revealing and substantiating insuperable difficulties in rising of social welfare by approaches, worked out before. Also there developed a new direction in implementation of the most important aim of any socially-oriented economy.
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Factors influencing the gross value added in the sheep production chain
141-146Views:187The competitiveness of the sheep sector in East Europe has been decreasing from year to year. The value added in the sector is not generated in the countries as a high proportion of the lambs are exported. For example, in Hungary, 95% of the lambs, unnecessary for replacement, are sold at an average weight of 21 kg and are slaughtered abroad. A stochastic model was constructed to investigate the connections between the cycle phases of the mutton production. Three modules were distinguished, the lamb production, fattening and slaughtering-processing sub-modules. The aim of our study was to identify the gross value added generated in the three sub-modules and to analyse the main factors influencing its volume using the conditions in Hungary as an example. The major hypothesis of our research was that the profitability of the production chain is mainly determined by the breed. The results showed that, considering market prices, the gross value added in the processing module was mostly influenced by the number of lambs sold per ewe per year at the bottom level of the mutton product chain. The next most important factors were the weight gain in the lamb producing and fattening sub-modules and dressing percentage in slaughtering-processing sub-module. Contour plots were constructed which help to describe the relationship among analyzed factors. Using the contour plots, the gross value added for different combinations of these factors might be forecast.
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Destination managament in Hungarian tourism
81-84Views:166The principle of the regional concentration – as one of the important means of regional competitiveness – and the cooperations being organised more consciously have big parts in the development and operation of the tourist destination management. The principle of complexity is emphasised differently that means, on the one hand, the more effective use of the connection possibilities of tourism to other branches, on the other hand, it takes for granted the development of the background infrastructure supporting tourism more intensively beside the development of the tourist infrastructure. The basic principle of the competitive developments are the sustainable developments and the innovative approach. Tourist destination can be identified with the tourist suppl (product) from the elements of the tourist system: the tourist supply and the tourist destination are consisting just of the same elements. The difference is that the tourist product can be only one product and destination can be characterised as a complex pile of attractions and services being in connection with each other. The cooperation of the characters of destination are organised by the tourist value chain of which elements are the experiences in connection with the formation of the image, preparation of travel, travel, destination, return from the point of view of the tourist and the service providers of destination. Services of different level provided by the suppliers can influence the opinion and experience of the tourist in connection with destination negatively. The independent destination management system with suitable competence and specialists, running a coordinating activity can make a connection between the tourist and the receiving area.
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Specialities of the corporate tax in connection with the sports organizations
15-18Views:169In 2004 Hungary joined the EU, therefore its tax system is harmonized with EU directives and its trade with the EU is liberalized and exempt from customs restrictions. In the past few years Hungarian government introduced significant corporate tax advances in order to increase Hungary’s competitiveness for foreign capital. With the flat 10% corporate tax rate, Hungary has one of the the lowest corporate income tax rate in the European Union. Since 2011 new corporate tax incentive was adopted in order to create a tax advantageous economic environment for supporting the five most popular team sports in Hungary, namely, football, handball, basketball, water polo and ice hockey. The following article provides a rough guide on the corporate taxation – in particular of sport organizations in Hungary.
JEL code: H25
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Knowledge needs in rural tourism in Czech Republic
69-72Views:131Rural tourism has gone through an important development, but in the Czech Republic has only been possible to run a private business only in last 18 years. In Czech Republic that form of tourism is not very widespread, although there is great potential in it and the neighboring countries such as Austria or Germany are on a much higher level. For more intensive development and better competitiveness on the marker a proper education is necessary especially on the secondary level. An inquiry investigation has been provided. The responders were owners and operators of small businesses in rural tourism. The first part of the questionnaire was focused on the matters of ownership, running the business, promotion, internet services, etc. The subsequent part of the questionnaire gathered the information about the capacity of the places, the types and prices of accommodation, and the facilities. It also surveys the surroundings of the place – both natural and cultural sights.The survey has brought interesting facts about the level of the rural tourism of selected regions.The inquiry investigation was made by trained persons who gathered much information above the framework of the questionnaire. Many demands and complains were concerned with lack of specialized education, needs of new study programs and branches. There are many specifics of this branches, the most important is that there are more than 90% of micro firms. If we want to keep the special features of the rural tourism we have to prepare future entrepreneurs and employees in completely different way than those for big hotels, spas or congress centers. The contribution deals with the present status of rural tourism in Czech Republic and the educational need of the people involved.
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Exploring the value of brands on the montenegrin bottled spring water market
39-41Views:132The branding strategy is based on future goals relating to clients, aimed at increasing awareness of the brand, creating a positive brand image and establishing a preference for the brand and ensuing brand loyalty. A brand is a very important factor for competitiveness and establishes a leadership position in the market, given the major impact that this form of intellectual property has on the perception of consumers and the success of innovative products on the market. The bottled water market has increased by about 35% in the last five years on the global level, dictated by young consumers who are becoming increasingly aware of the significance of proper nutrition in maintaining health. The research presents qualitative information on the market value of bottled water brands, the general characteristics of retailers, as well as on their target customers. The main task of this paper is to confirm the usefulness of marketing research in modern business as well as to present the benefits of brand value measurement to current or future brand owners. It is to be hoped that the results presented in this paper may serve as a good basis for upgrading marketing activities, based on a better understanding of target customers and their particular needs, through better communication for the purpose of stronger corporate branding.
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The role of trust in cooperation between farmers – the outcomes of a survey in Békés county
103-112Views:191Local socio-economic cooperation arrangements can contribute to the development of adequate solutions which can compensate the negative impacts of globalization. One of the specific areas is agriculture. Capital-intensive technology is the key element in the competitiveness and viability of firms. The present paper reviews the factors affecting the joint machine use arrangements of agricultural producers, with special regard to the role of trust. The questions of trust are examined in two dimensions: contractual and competence trust. On the basis of the survey carried out among farmers a positive connection was detected between the level of trust and the farmers’ activity in cooperation arrangements. Our results also pointed out that the trust needed in different areas of cooperation is very different. The experiences indicate a tendency, according to which contractual trust is more important in intensive cooperation arrangements which result in higher dependence, while competency trust is more emphasized in more extensive solutions.
JEL Code: Q13
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Sustainable development of the rural economy
31-36Views:187This paper seeks to provide an overview of those economic social and enviromental issues which could be relevant for sustainable development of the rural economy. Rural development is of great significance for the future of both the EU and Hungary. We must reduce migration, create new jobs and focus on sustainability and the principles and goals of environmental protection and nature conservation. Rural economy is a complex and dynamic system, and agriculture should be treated as a part of it.The development of rural settlements and their infrastructure, the manifold exploitation of the agroecological potential, the rationalization of farming remain, extremely important components of rural development.
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