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Network attributes’ evaluation by stakeholder groups concerned to the agri-food sector in Hungary
55-58Views:367As a consortium partner, University of Debrecen, Hungary, has been conducting a European four-year project with the acronym NetGrow financed within the Framework Program 7 under the auspices of the EU focusing on network behaviour of food SMEs and the performance of networks. The overall objective is to reveal more evidences and facts on innovation, learning, and networking in the food sector of the EU. Whithin the scope of the project, special attention was paid to reveal how network attributes were evaluated by the main four stakeholder groups of the food sector such as food SMEs, public bodies, research institutions, and network management organisations. The respondents differ in ranking the attributes, while but we got a clear order of attributes, of which the top five can be explicitly selected. Taking the next three ranks into consideration, the attributes behind them have clear meanings and they seem to be complementary for the top five. The stakeholder groups were significantly differ in scoring openmindedness and external relations, the importance of network rendered services, and the goals relevance of the network to the firms.
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New tools and opportunities in growth and climate friendly greening for small and medium enterprises in the European Union
25-31Views:358The role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is unquestionable in the European economies, while financial opportunities are still inadequate for them. The more than 20 million SMEs play a significant role in European economic growth, innovation and job creation. According to the latest EC Annual Report , SMEs are accounting for 99% of all non-financial enterprises, employing 88.8 million people and generating almost EUR 3.7 tn in added value for our economy. Despite the fact that there is plenty of EU funding available for these SMEs, for certain reasons these funds hardly reach them. But we have to see that the EU supports SMEs by various way, e.g. by grants, regulatory changes, financial instrument, direct funds. On the other hand, SMEs and decision makers realised that the environmental sustainability has to be attached to the economic growth, therefore more and more tools are available for these enterprises. Over the last few years, public institutions, the market, the financial community and non-governmental associations have explicitly demanded that firms improve their environmental performance. One of the greatest opportunities might lay in the Climate- and Energy Strategy till 2030 as 20% of the EU budget is allocated to climate-related actions, however the easy access to finance is still a key question. Does the EU recognise the actual difficulties? Is there a systemic reason behind the absorption problems? Is the EU creating a more businessfriendly environment for SMEs, facilitating access to finance, stimulates the green and sustainable growth and improving access to new markets? The paper analyses the current European situation of the SMEs and the effectiveness of some new tools, which are specially targeting SMEs.
JEL classification: Q18
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Environmental management activities of NHL teams
Views:455Over the past two decades, the sports sector has paid increasing and growing attention to understanding sustainability, including the environment, and in particular what can be done in practice. The purpose of this study is to examine the environmental CSR measures adopted by professional hockey teams in North America.
To answer my research question, I used a comparative analysis based on secondary data sources. For all 32 teams, I examined the available reports and their information on CSR activities, the information published on the teams' websites, and the research results related to the teams. I have selected 3 teams (Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins, Seattle Kraken) that are at the forefront of the issue under study, using an evaluation system based on international literature, and case studies to showcase good practices that can serve as examples for the sports sector.
JEL Code: Q56
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Agricultural outsourcing: A comparison between the Netherlands and Japan
29-33Views:786Outsourcing may well be a tool for increasing the efficiency of Japanese agriculture. However, outsourcing is not frequently used by Japanese farmers in their day-to-day management. This has resulted in a weakly developed market for agricultural contracting services. In order to take a closer look at the reasons for making use of outsourcing, a comparative study was carried out between the agricultural contracting sector in Japan and that in the Netherlands, where agricultural outsourcing is a regular practice. In the Netherlands, especially small, diversified farms that lack sufficient labour tend to outsource agricultural work; in Japan, the situation is far less clear. Cultural factors possibly play an important role.
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Generalized coefficients of goods quality and satisfying of consumers demand
83-86Views:240In 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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Relationships between competitiveness in the Northern Great Plain and the organisational culture of local authorities
13-20Views:282One 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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Synthetic biology applied in the agrifood sector: Societal priorities and pitfalls
89-95Views:575Synthetic biology offers potential for innovation in the agrifood sector, although concerns have been raised consumer rejection of applications will occur similar to that associated with the introduction of genetically modified foods. Risk-benefit assessment should address socio-economic, as well as health and environmental impacts. Ethical issues may be of particular relevance to the application synthetic biology, and may also resonate with societal concerns. A case-by-case analysis of relevant issues may be needed, and innovation must be driven by societal and consumer preferences as well as technological possibilities. Research into consumer and societal priorities is required early in the innovation trajectory.
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Organizational consequences of emotional labour in mangenent
125-130Views:404Emotional labour, as a self-contained field of research, is only three decades old. This study aims to summarize key findings from investigations of the last ten years in an attempt to provide a reference for interpretation of organizational emotions and the organizational aspects of emotional labour. It makes no secret of its aim being to call the attention of anybody dealing with people as workforce that work no longer has only physical or mental aspects, but an emotional dimension as well. Most often this latter dimension lives an independent life. Normally, it is not regulated, tracked, appreciated or rewarded properly, which might send a message to employees that it is not really important. However, emotional labour is a concomitant of most professions and jobs. Where it is not given any conscious consideration by either the employer nor its employees, numerous opportunities of making it easier or improving it may be lost.
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Diversification strategies and their impact on farm performance
57-61Views:337The objective of this study is to identify factors determining the economic performance of agricultural holdings in Italy, with specific attention to the impact of the adoption of on-farm diversification strategies, namely income diversification and product differentiation. The adoption of these kinds of strategies has been increasingly recognised as a viable business option in agriculture as they allow better allocation of farm resources and an increase in the quota of value added retained on farms and therefore not passed on to other agents operating at the end of the food supply chain. By using a panel of professional Italian farms over the time period of 2003-2009, we estimate random effect, ordinary least square and quantile regression models to estimate the impact of income diversification and product differentiation strategies on the levels of farm income per unit of labour income. Our findings show that scale economies are important positive determinants of farm economic performance. On the contrary, when the family play an important role in the farm business, economic performance is worse. Finally, we do not find evidence of a statistically significant impact of the adoption of income diversification and product differentiation strategies. This latter result may be interpreted as a signal that farms use these strategies as risk management tools rather than as income increasing ones.
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Climate change impact on crop production in Central Asian Countries
75-82Views:426Increased risk due to global warming has already become embedded in agricultural decision making in Central Asia and uncertainties are projected to increase even further. Agro-ecology and economies of Central Asia are heterogeneous and very little is known about the impact of climate change at the subnational levels. The bio-economic farm model is used for ex-ante assessment of climate change impacts at sub-national levels in Central Asia. The bio-economic farm model is calibrated to ten farming systems in Central Asia based on the household survey and crop growth experiment data. The production uncertainties and the adaptation options of agricultural producers to changing environments are considered paramount in the simulations. Very large differences in climate change impacts across the studied farming systems are found. The positive income gains in large-scale commercial farms in the northern regions of Kazakhstan and negative impact in small-scale farms in arid zones of Tajikistan are likely to happen. Producers in Kyrgyzstan may expect higher revenues but also higher income volatilities in the future. Agricultural producers in Uzbekistan may benefit in the near future but may lose their income in the distant future. The negative impacts could be further aggravated in arid zones of Central Asia if irrigation water availability decline due to climate change and water demand increase in upstream regions. The scenario simulations show that market liberalization and improved commodity exchange between the countries have very good potential to cope with the negative consequences of climate change.
JEL classification: Q11, Q18
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Food waste in EU countries
Views:888The biggest challenges of our time include meeting the demand growth resulting from the explosion in population growth and achieving sustainable management. In terms of food, the most significant problem is, on the one hand, that a large part of the population is hungry and, on the other hand, excessive food waste, which results not only in wasted food but also in wasted resources used for its production, transport, packaging and storage. Do to this the unconsumed food has a profoundly negative impact on the environment and the economy. There is a pressing need to prevent and reduce food waste to transition to a resource-efficient Europe. In this study, we would like to show how food waste changes in different countries, focusing on Europe. Our results show a significant discrepancy between Member States' data and where waste is generated. We find no significant correlation between GDP per capita and total food waste, but we find a moderately strong correlation between GDP per capita and restaurant waste at the point of generation.
JEL code: M21
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Effect of uncertainty on farmers decision making: Case of animal manure use
7-13Views:318Due to the high levels of manure application and the poor use efficiency of manure, the European agriculture is held responsible for a considerable negative impact on surface water quality (Langeveld et al., 2007). This problem has emerged particularly in Western-European countries such as the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark, facing a large expansion and intensification process in the livestock production since the 1960s (Van der Straeten et al., 2008). Policy measures related to the application of manure on the land encompass two major measures: emission rights, understood as the amount of nutrients which can be applied on the land, differentiated by crop and the N spreading calendars, whereby the manure can only be applied when the crop needs nutrients. The fundamental aim of this pillar is to maximising application rate while avoiding overfertilisation. Maximizing the application rate is related to the economic sustainability of the agricultural sector, by altering the manure surplus, while avoiding overfertilisation is imperative in enhancing ecological sustainability, by preventing nitrate leaching to surface and soil waters. For nitrate policy to meet its target, the farmers should not exceed their emission rights, however make optimal use of their emission right for manure. Consequently, the successful implementation of sink-related measures will strongly depend of the absorptive capacity of farmers towards new ways of nutrient management in general and of animal manures in particular.
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Efficiency analysis of dairy farms in the Northern Great Plain region using deterministic and stochastic DEA models
113-122Views:316Running any dairy enterprise is a risky activity: the profitability of the enterprise is affected by the price fluctuation of feed and animal health products from inputs, as well as by the fluctuation of end-product prices. Under these circumstances, it is essential for the cattle breeders, in order to survive, to harness the reserves in management as effectively as possible. In this research the efficiency and risk of 32 sample dairy farms were analysed in the Northern Great Plain Region from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) by applying classical Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and stochastic DEA models. The choice of this method is justified by the fact that there was not such an available reliable database by which production functions could have been defined, and DEA makes possible to manage simultaneously some inputs and outputs, i.e. complex decision problems. By using DEA, the sources that cause shortfall on inefficient farms can be identified, analysed and quantified, so corporate decision support can be reinforced successfully. A disadvantage of the classical DEA model is that the stochastic factors of farming cannot be treated either on the side of inputs or outputs; therefore, their results can be adopted with reservations, especially in agricultural models. This may have been because we could not discover that many agricultural applications. Considering the price of inputs and outputs as probability variables, 5000 simulation runs have been done in this research. As a result, it can be stated that at which intervals of the input and output factors can become competitive and the fluctuation of these factors can cause what level of risk at each farm.
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The labour market position of people with disabilities and with a reduced work capacity after the change of regime
89-97Views:293The study aims at exploring, based on an overview of the professional literature, the economic, social and employment policy situation which characterised the period from the change of regime to 10 years thereafter and concerned people with disabilities and with a reduced work capacity, as well as, the institutions and instruments influencing the related labour market demand and supply. It discusses those initiatives too which aim at increasing the economic activities of the related disadvantaged group. The topicality of the study comes from the fact that in the past few years the government has put a number of stricter legislation into force to strengthen the labour market position of people with disabilities and with a reduced work capacity in Hungary. Notwithstanding, the affected group still has low economic activity. In its background there is partially the economic-social situation and approach which characterised the transition period, as well as, the weak efficiency of the rehabilitation system, which was forming that time.
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Demand and supply of labor market: A case of UAE
145-153Views:404United Arab Emirates (UAE) witnessed a progress of growth booming since its establishment, which as result puched all economic componets to indicated a active movement in term of employment and capital investment as well. This steady economic growth has been marked by an increase in the income by the country’s citizens, both national as well as the foreign residents This paper to axamine the supply and demand of labor market in UAE. The technique used to source the data is a secondary resource and methodology employed in descriptive and analytical. The study found that, the diversification of the economy, and enhance the role of private sector increased the demand for labor as well as increased the diversification for nationalities in the country. From other side, because of diversification strategy, the foreigners labor have more numbers in total employment structure.
JEL CODE: O12
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MONTE CARLO SIMULATION FOR STRESS TESTING ENDOGENOUS PROFITABILITY FACTORS DURING POLYCRISIS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE POULTRY SUBSECTOR
Views:137Can historical company data help estimate future performance during economic uncertainty? This study investigates whether past business cycles can be used to estimate profitability in the context of a polycrisis – a period marked by overlapping disruptions such as avian influenza, COVID-19 trade restrictions, extreme weather events, and rising feed and energy prices. These shocks have severely impacted agro-related industries, such as poultry processing. Focusing on three Central European poultry processing companies, we use Monte Carlo simulations for stress testing their profitability for the 2023 period, aiming to support financial planning by analysing firm-specific, endogenous, management-controllable factors. Return on Sales (ROS) and Return on Equity (ROE) are used to evaluate profitability, incorporating variables such as euro exchange rates in the case of export-driven firms. Our results indicate that Company “A,” characterized by stable operations, had the lowest probability of negative ROE, while Companies “B” and “C” demonstrated greater volatility. We found that the model provides a good estimate of the factors affecting the companies’ profitability that are directly or indirectly reflected in their accounting data. Indicating that the test could be a valuable tool for supporting managerial decision-making in financial planning, though further refinements are needed to enhance accuracy.
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Estimation of Armington elasticities: case of vegetables in Mongolia
Views:445Mongolian people often consume meat more than vegetable in diet due to traditional nomadic culture. Nowadays, the Mongolian people’s diet has been changing who consume more vegetables with associated urbanization (half of the population live in urban areas, mostly in the capital city). Even though vegetable consumption has been increased recently, the vegetable market is still a high reliance on imports and threatening national food security. Since 2016, the Mongolian government has especially paid attention to increasing vegetable's domestic production and substitution to import vegetables (Ministry of food and Agriculture, 2017). Therefore, this paper provided to substitution elasticity (the Armington elasticity) between import vegetables and domestic vegetables in Mongolia. Additionally, we estimated the home bias value of vegetables. The so-called Armington elasticities are widely used for computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis, which determines a degree of substitution between import goods and domestically produced goods. Several of the authors studied Armington elasticities at the product level. We choose six vegetables (such as potato, garlic and onion, tomato, carrot and turnips, cabbage, and cucumber) related to lack of information. The empirical result shows that the Armington elasticities in the long-run higher than the short-run with exception of potato which means that products are similar in the long-run. However, our estimated Armington elasticities are quite lower than the previous studies result which means that Mongolian people indicated more prefer home growing vegetables than import vegetables. Moreover, we found that the home bias value is high in the short-run even long -run, this appears to be a higher relative weight on home vegetables.
JEL code: F13, Q17, Q18
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Corporate branding effects on consumer purchase preferences in Serbian telecom market
23-36Views:260This research is carried out to know the role of corporate branding in mobile phone network along with different influencing factors involved in the purchase of mobile telephone connections. This paper discusses corporate branding from consumer’s point of view that how much they value it and what type of role it has.This is a quantitative study. A questionnaire is used in order to investigate corporate branding and other influencing factors involved in purchase decision of the customers. Population selected for this study are Belgrade University students which is the most of Serbian youth segment and is a valuable source that gives precise information with high probability about market preferences according to the Research of Serbian republic statistical office. Primary data are obtained by collecting data from questionnaire and interview, while the secondary data are collected from various reliable sources. Primary data provide reliable content in accordance with a secondary data obtained by Serbian republic statistical office and with a Research of competitor and consumer preferences insight provided by Telenor Company. The analysis of the data has been performed in accordance with the chosen theories and summarized in a table, which serves as a tool for deriving reliable and relevant conclusions. The sample size was determined by conducting a primary study and defining the variance of primary sample and the intended number of samples was selected carefully and randomly from the population. Then the validity and reliability of the questionnaire was determined. The used questionnaire in this research consisted of 7 common, and 30 specialized questions which were supporting the hypotheses of the research. Data was analyzed using the frequency percent techniques, and in the chapter related to the deductive statistics, one-sample t test was used to analyze and approve/disapprove the questions supporting the research hypotheses. The analysis of this study reveals different set of results while making comparison between literature and empirical. It investigates the relative importance of the corporate branding to the customers in mobile phone telecommunication industry while making purchase decision. The findings of this study provided useful information which is helpful not only for the students but also for the brand managers of mobile telecom operators that how they can improve their company’s strategic position for longer period of time through corporate branding to trigger more customers and for a good brand.
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