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Knowledge needs in rural tourism in Czech Republic
69-72Views:126Rural 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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Integrating environment economy to project management
39-43Views:276Environmental sustainability is a horizontal issue that appears at all level of economic activities and private life. Due to the increasing complexity of regulations, particularly in case of EU funded developments, all the projects need to meet a lot of criteria on environment protection issues. These activities include the conduction of environmental studies, data collection, future emission estimations, improving social attitude, acquiring necessary permissions and environment friendly equipment and finally all the administrative activities to monitor everything mentioned previousThe project management organization increasingly needs a special expertise to meet all the requirements no matter what is the original scope of the project. The study collects different type of knowledge and expertise to manage environment economic issues during project management on four different categories, such as legal, technical, financial or human. The summary of the different type of knowledge provides logical conclusion on how the project management organization should meet the challenges of climate change in terms of daily work and organizational operations.
JEL classification: O22
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Consumer willingness to pay a premium for a functional food in Ghana
51-59Views:197Interest in functional foods has been growing in sub-Saharan Africa due to consumer concerns with diet and nutrition. This paper analyses consumer awareness, perceptions and effects of the determinants of consumer willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for Moringa bread in Ghana. An ordered probit model is employed. The empirical results indicate that consumer knowledge of the nutritional and health benefits of Moringa bread is what matters most to consumers in respect of their WTP a higher premium for the product. Consumers with knowledge on Moringa products are more willing to pay above 50% price premiums for Moringa bread. Fruitful policy recommendations are made in the paper.
JEL code: D12
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Educational projects – support for development of tourism and rural areas in Serbia
65-69Views:142The paper presents three mini-projects that have been implemented by The Institute of Agricultural Economics – Belgrade in the 2006–2008 period. Those were special educational projects in agriculture and rural development, whereas extension activities were concentrated onto three topics: farm management, support of rural development and improvement of small farms. Implementation of projects took place on the territory of the South Banat County and some Belgrade city communes. The projects intended to solve current problems of sustainable agriculture and rural development. Within the projects there were identified priorities related to investments, strategic planning and tourism. Educational activities were aimed at a number of holders or members of their registered farms. Dynamics of the projects' implementation included introduction and discussion with a number of farmers, formation of small groups, preparation and making of materials, a series of theoretical lectures and determination of the joint work results. Education programs are aiming at improvement of the farm holders' knowledge in the field of business and management. Specific objectives of training are to increase sales of goods and services at domestic and foreign market, to increase competitiveness in a particular market, to achieve higher profits, to create new jobs and improve living conditions in rural areas. Evaluation of projects was related to determination of level, to which there were achieved set objectives, then to define implementation of projects in accordance with the plan, as well as to determine an impact of educational activities to promotion of knowledge concerning business and management.
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The assessment of intellectual capital in Polish regions
101-105Views:158In a knowledge-based economy intangible assets are indispensable to achieve competitive advantages. Resources like intellectual capital are perceived as crucial factors especially for regional growth. Intellectual capital is comprehended as a multidimensional concept, defined and explained in many various ways, depending on the context and further application. The purposes of this article is to consider the role and importance of the intellectual capital for regional development and competitiveness and to try to use it for an estimation of regional advance progress. On the basis of literature review the article provides a framework to analyse the intellectual capital and its main components. The central attention of the paper focuses on the evaluation of the intellectual capital in Polish regions and its influence on regional performance. The paper surveys the empirical examination of 16 Polish regions in terms of intellectual capital and simultaneously assesses the level of intellectual capital in rural areas. The article provides the insight into the role and value of the intellectual capital in Polish regions.
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Research and education in agrobusiness in Mosonmagyaróvár – the 200-year history
129-136Views:196In 2018, the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences of Széchenyi István University celebrated the bicentenary of its predecessor’s foundation. Agrobusiness courses played an important role in the university’s agricultural engineering program throughout this major time period. The aim of this study is to examine how the titles, the content, and the significance of the courses changed during the institution’s important periods. Institutional history publications and the academic textbooks of great professors provided the basis of this research. Business administration, accounting, and agricultural estimation studies courses were already dominant in the first curricula. Later, courses concerning business and agricultural economics gained more ground and were accompanied by other fields of study: agricultural statistics, agricultural politics, agricultural history, and agricultural economics. During this 200-year period, the education of economics and other social science courses was done within the departments of agricultural economics and marketing, work organization and factory management, and social science and business operations, with the contribution of internationally renowned professors: Pál Sporzon, Richárd Suschka, Árpád Hensch, Károly Világhy. The Hungarian Royal Economics Academy (1874-1942) can be considered as the first prime of the agricultural economics education. From the 1900s onwards, the courses became more specialized, their numbers continuously grew, the disciplines expanded, and the number of departments increased. The second prime is the first decade of the 2000s, when besides the traditional agricultural programs, the institution started teaching economic agricultural engineers in its undivided 5-year training. They were the most popular agricultural engineers in the labor market due to their well-balanced knowledge in agriculture and economics, as well as their excellent leadership skills.
Having abandoned the economic agricultural engineering program, the institution currently educates, besides other agricultural majors, rural development agricultural engineers, whose skills the labor market does not know very well. The proportion of business related courses show a significant decline in the curriculum of traditional agricultural programs as well.
JEL code: N30
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Graduate students’ opinions about entrepreneurship as an employment opportunity
23-29Views:151One of the most unwanted and unavoidable consequences of the economic recession is the high rate of unemployment. Graduate students in Croatia are faced with lack of employment possibilities, and for some of them the self-employment looks like a good solution. In this paper, we investigate attitudes and intentions of graduate students at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture regarding to selfemployment. Most of the surveyed students are in the age between 21 and 25 years, and they have already got some kind of knowledge about entrepreneurship during the formal education. In addition, majority of them have the experience of part-time jobs. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model was used to find out to which extent students’ attitudes and experience influence their expressed self-employment intentions. The results revealed that Zagreb students’ scores are close but somewhat lower than the same scores found in the comparable study from Australia. This goes for the investigated variables: (1) previous entrepreneurial experience (PEE), perceived desirability of selfemployment (PDSE), perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy (PESE) and self-employment intentions (SEI). It was found that the score on the PEE is significantly related to scores on the PDSE (p=0.000), and PESE (p=0.000), which means that the experience positively influence respondents’ attitudes on self-employment and self-efficacy. There is also a statistically significant difference in the on the SEI with respect to the PDSE (ANOVA F=9.804, p=0.000): respondents that consider self-employment more desirable expressed higher intention to perform it. The PDSE was found as the most influencing model variable in regards to the self-employment intention. The results points out the importance of previous experience, role models and positive attitudes towards self-employment in the process of the entrepreneurship development in young, educated population.
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Use of methods and tools for an effective small and medium-sized enterprise in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county in Hungary
Views:174Small and medium-sized enterprises form the engine of the Hungarian economy, both in terms of their number and their employment rate. Therefore, the efficient operation of this sector is in the interest of many economic actors. However, experience shows that today's SME sector still needs to develop in many ways to become efficient. This study aimed to analyze whether SMEs use the necessary methods and tools to be efficient. Planning and the development of strategy are very important methods and tools for efficient and organized work, as it defines and clarifies the direction taken by an enterprise. However, the survey and the in-depth interview showed that they are not necessarily considered important for the participating SME leaders. According to the interview, one of the reasons is that SME leaders have a better understanding of everyday tasks and their implementation than the managers of large companies. Furthermore, in most cases, the SME leader is personally involved in everyday work. This provides the advantage of having the opportunity to fully understand the enterprise, thus managing, and developing it more effectively, as he or she can intervene more flexibly, faster, and more accurately if necessary. However, due to the small size of the organization, the manager also must perform the tasks of several functions (marketing, management, finance, etc.), which require multidisciplinary knowledge and skill. In SMEs, due to their specificities, it is difficult to apply best practices in large enterprises in both management and various functions.
JEL code: M21
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The situation of the Hungarian agricultural higher education
73-77Views:105The 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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Hungarian endeavours for the enhancement of economic relations in Southeast Asia focusing on a new partnership with Vietnam
5-12Views:209Beyond a brief review of the economic integration process among the states of the ASEAN region, the authors of the present study aimed to examine and analyze the main economic, social and political characteristics of the Hungaro-ASEAN relations. The importance of the topic of this research is underlined by the fact that the Hungarian government considers big importance to the improvement of the foreign economic relations with Asian economies. This intention was expressed by a new foreign economic strategy „Eastern opening” announced by the government in 2012, even though the foreign trade statistical figures did not justify its success by now.The authors believe that increasing opening towards Asia serves Hungarian economic interests. Therefore, it is a right and desirable direction to proceed, they consider that in the background of the modest results there might be the insufficient knowledge of the market mechanisms, the actors of the local supply chains and the potential partners. They believe that in order to make the Hungarian foreign economic endeavours in this direction more successful a more thorough examination of the local characteristics – including the actual demand arising at the targeted markets - is necessary. This opinion is prevalent to not only the Asian „Giants”, like China, India and Japan, but also to smaller states, like the ASEAN members, which – together - in terms of population and economic performance – reach the dimensions of an economic great power as well.
Furthermore, the integration of the ten Southeast Asian countries develops rapidly, which is coupled by their increasing weight in the world trade. The dynamic economic and social development in the ASEAN region – and in parallel with this the growing demands and purchasing power - may encourage the Hungarian ventures in theory. However, there are still very few Hungarian entrepreneurs, who are ready to enter the market in the region and able in long run to operate there successfully. It is a well-known fact that the since the regime has changed in Hungary, foreign trade became strongly concentrated towards the EU members.
The ASEAN countries – because of the geographic distance and by other reasons - definitely cannot mean an alternative of the EU market, however in a certain extent they can relieve this one-sided concentration and may provide additional opportunities for the Hungarian export of goods, and rather to the export of Hungarian services and know-how. The ratio of the ASEAN region within the entire Hungarian foreign trade turnover is small nowadays, furthermore – according to the statistical figures – this region is rather an import resource for Hungary than being an export market. This fact – just itself – is should not be considered as problem. When the amount of the import exceeds the amount of exports, that means that it is more worthwhile to do business with suppliers from there countries than with others. By and large all this is prevalent to the field of the agricultural trade as well: Hungary imports a range of commodities which cannot be produced by domestic farmers or in Europe (spices, tropical fruits, etc.). It is obvious that the ASEAN region cannot be the major market for the Hungarian agricultural export, not even in long run. However, there are still a lot of opportunities to enlarge the turnover of goods and services and enhance the co-operation in this geographic region. In the last chapter, the authors outlined an example in case of Vietnam – co-operation of joint public warehousing of agricultural commodities – which may be a good example for the promising potential opportunities. In contrast with the majority of the ASEAN countries, the Hungaro-Vietnamese political and economic relations had started much earlier than the regime was changed in Hungary. However, the potential advantages arose from this fact – the network of connections and the sympathy of Vietnamese professionals graduated in Hungary, the reputation and popularity of Hungarian agricultural products and technologies, the achievements of R&D in the field of agriculture – could not be utilized from Hungarian side. Vietnam, however still preserved its socialist political establishment, but in terms of its economic development strategy and economic policy has gradually been standing on the basis of market orientation. Vietnam, with its population of ninety million shows a rapid and successful development and it means good opportunities even for Hungarian entrepreneurs. It would be a mistake to leave these potentials unused.JEL Classification: F14, Q17, R11, N75
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Economic aspects of an agricultural innovation – precision crop production
51-57Views:190Innovation in agriculture ensures the wide-spread use of the latest, up-to-date technology. Such new technology is precision farming in crop production, which serves as a validation of the criteria of environmental and economic sustainability. The economic applicability of precision crop production depends on several factors.Among them the following aspects must be emphasized: the size of the farm, the characteristics of the production structure, the current input-output prices and their tendencies, the investment needed for transitioning to precision technology and its capital source, the level of professional knowledge and the managerial attitudes of the farm. I have examined the economic relations between potential savings in chemicals on EU level. It has been found that after switching to precision farming, the active ingredient use for fertilizers can be reduced by 340 thousand tons at the same expected yield level in an optimistic scenario in the EU-27, while the savings in pesticide use can be 30 thousand tons (calculating with the current dose-level). If approximately 30% of the crop producing and mixed farms over 16 ESU adopt this new technology, this will diminish environmental loads by up to 10-35%. The majority of farms characterized by greater output and size can be based on their own equipment but it might as well be presumed that smaller farms can turn to precision farming not based on their own investment. They can buy the technical service from providers, they can establish producer cooperation, for example in the frame of machinery rings. At a certain farm size and farming intensity precision crop production is a real, environmentally friendly farming strategy, with the help of which the farm can reach earnings that cover at least the economic conditions of simple reproduction.
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Caves, as touristic attractions in Hungary: Adventure, health, culture, ecotourism
51-58Views:178Hungary offers abundant opportunities for discovering the mysterious world of caves. In Hungary there are around 4100 caves; although only a small number of them are open to the public, they offer a variety of attractions. As they are an important part of tourism, switching them, exploring them and making them accessible for a wider audience generates interest for visitors from different parts of the country. The adrenaline releasing sports offers us new ways of coping with stress, and has had an increasing importance in our lives in the 21st century. Discovering these underground miracles presents a new challenge for travelers. The interest in caves exploded in the 20th century, when ecotourism, longing to get back to nature, and the goal of improving one’s health became leading motivations for travelling. The present research is aimed at surveying, to what extent students of the recreation department are familiar with the opportunities provided by cave tourism and how up-to-date their related knowledge is. The following work introduces opportunities in cave tourism and intends to expose upon gaps in the related marketing strategy. The research questions are the following: Are students familiar with opportunities of cave tourism? What services do the caves they know offer? Are they up-to-date in cave-related news? On what forums do cave tourism appear?
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Farmers’ knowledge on fall armyworm (spodoptera frugiperda) pesticide application and its relationship with quantity of maize that is lost to fall armyworm
Views:110Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) has spread rapidly and posed numerous threats to the food security and livelihood of millions of smallholder farmers in Ghana. This study quantifies the damages of fall armyworm infestation in maize production and identifies the various methods used in controlling fall armyworm infestation. Almost all farmers 94% experienced fall armyworm infestation on their farms. They cited key common visual damages as yellowish leaves, stunted growth, poor yield quality, holes in leaves, and egg masses on leaves. Farmer’s loss an average of GH¢2616.07 to fall armyworm infestation. Pesticide application is the frequent control measure mostly used by farmers. Farmers do not mostly use biological methods for the control of the fall armyworm. The use of pesticide as a control method is however not effective as about GH¢ 3 000 per 1 acre is lost with the use of insecticides. It is recommended that the use of other control measures like the contemporary measures involving the use of birds and chickens as predators of eggs and worms of fall armyworm should be encouraged.
JEL code: Q16
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An overview of behavioral economics in Dutch policy making. the next step: how to nudge policy makers
27-31Views:228This article describes the beginning of the influence of behavioral economics on the Dutch government. This started in the period that the UK started with its Behavioral Insights Team (BIT UK). The article presents explanation of the concept “nudging” and the way this is integrated in Dutch policy. Also leading publications and examples of how behavioral economics is used in policy making are presented. The advice of the government in 2014 on how to ensure a structural integration of behavioral science knowledge in policy is part of the next step. The next step contains two main parts: 1. How to nudge policy makers and 2. Embedding nudges in policy making on four aspects: positioning, projects, performance and professionality.
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ICT and agritourism in Czech Republic
45-48Views:141Tourism is regarded as the world’s future. Agritourism is a unique symbiosis of agriculture and tourism. Based on extensive analysis of the state agritourism in the Czech Republic, it was found that information on agritourism facilities is very diverse and disorderly, lacking a specializedportalforagro-tourism. Agritourism facilities in th eCzech Republic is several thousand, but most of them have non-quality websites, or none at all. It should been sured that entrepreneurs in the agritourism (farmers) had knowledge easily and with minimum cost to present their own small farm on the web, such as using Web content management system (WCMS). It is proposed the new portal solution, which according to the principles ofWeb 2.0 will provide greater information sharing among the partners in the field of agri-tourism.
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Assessing Readiness Levels of Production Technologies for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture
47-52Views:192The modern agricultural production is facing the problem of a growing society connected with the growing asking for food as well as different environmental threats. To solve this issue, agricultural production should be more sustainable and efficient which can be reached by using new technologies. In the paper the most important technologies, which were evaluated by different research methods to find how and when they could be used for a sustainable intensification of agriculture were highlighted by applying technology and market readiness models. By asking professionals from different fields of agriculture in practice as well as academia it was found that technologies that collect or utilize advanced data (sensors, drones) used for knowledge based management are more applicable for use, contrary to nanotechnologies where the costs of development and applications limits the readiness.
JEL Classification: Q16
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EXPLORING THE NEXUS BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR AND ORGANIC FOOD PURCHASE: A Comprehensive Review
Views:103Recently, a remarkable increase in organic food consumption can been seen in both developed and developing countries. This research aims to identify the role of sustainable consumption behavior in purchasing organic food. The research problem has been formulated with several questions, most notably: Does sustainable consumption behavior has a role in purchasing organic food? The relationship between sustainable consumption behavior and organic food has received a lot of attention in the literature. However, take a comprehensive approach to examine how sustainable consumption behavior might affect purchasing organic food? In order to examine the role of sustainable consumption behavior in buying organic food, this article proposes a framework that adopts a comprehensive approach. The author conducted a qualitative synthesis of the literature (Systematic Literature Review (PRISMA), including 43 articles, revealing several findings. One of them, is that sustainable consumption behavior positively and directly impacts buying organic food due to the health, environmental cognition, high quality, trust, and food safety. The second finding is that complex factors influence organic food buying behavior. For example, price is always likely to be an important factor for most customers. Moreover, the lack of knowledge about organic food is another factor affecting customers’ buying organic food.
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The new strategic directions of rural development in Hungary
143-150Views:105The notion of sustainability is the basis for our future possibilities. Local sustainability, in the centre of which can be found the livable settlement, is especially important in rural areas.Without developing rural areas, there is no developing society. The growth of the Earth’s population and the world economy has already surpassed the carrying capacity of this planet which may result in an “overshoot and collapse”. This can still be prevented today. The population of towns and cities is rapidly increasing. Urbanization is a very fast process, even in Hungary. In large cities with millions of inhabitants crime and lumpen lifestyle pose huge problems. However, the bases of a successful economy are morals and a puritan lifestyle, which so far have characterized rural villages. 70% of the poor and needy live in rural areas in the developing countries and agriculture provides livelihood for 40% of the world’s population. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was established in 2002 by FAO and theWorld Bank to learn more about the role of agricultural science and technology. After the positive decision some comprehensive summaries were made on all the related topics with the participation of 400 scientists. The assessment provided many lessons to learn and at the 2008 closing sessions in Johannesburg, the reports were accepted and it was proved that rural areas have a significant role in providing adequate means of earning a livelihood. The Ministry of Rural Development composed a domestic-level study with the title of the National Rural Strategy. The objectives stated in the study can be seen as the main directions of the Hungarian rural strategy. The land policy aims to support the 50–70 hectare family farms and have the agricultural lands under national authority. The population must be provided with ample and safe food. The priority of local economy, local sale, and local markets is important. The positive exploitation of our natural resources may result in the strengthening of rural areas. The deterioration of rural areas must be stopped. In order to halt these processes swiftly fundamental, patriotic economic and social policy changes, a strong people’s party, a short-run crisis treating and a medium-long-run strategic development and action plan are needed which is based on the respect of work and moral norms, national cooperation, solidarity, and the defense of our mutual interests rather than on speculation (ÁNGYÁN, 2010). The greatest problem of Hungary is low employment.Workplaces may be created in the least expensive and the fastest manner in irrigational agriculture. In order to achieve this, the role of the state must be reconsidered and EU rules on state intervention must be reviewed.
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MBA education at the University of Debrecen and its further development towards Double Degree Programmes
167-170Views:196University 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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Regional benchmarking process in cognac project (Coordination of RDI policies and their coherence with other policies in the Newly Acceded Countries)
29-32Views:112In order to achieve the Lisbon objectives and create a knowledge based society, Europe needs to increase and improve investment in R&D. This requires improving the effectiveness and coherence of research policies at European, national and regional levels. The first cycle of application of the open method of co-ordination (OMC) to the 3% objective provided an overview of the Member States policies in a number of areas, facilitated mutual learning and led to a number of policy recommendations adopted by CREST in October 2004. The current regional benchmarking practice is made with in a 6th Framework Programme project called Cognac, which is the acronym for Coordination of R&D&I policies and their coherence with other policies in NewlyAcceded Countries. The project is focusing on two priority subjects: public research spending and policy mixes and SMEs and research. The project was supported within the first cycle of the RTD-OMC NET call. The benchmarking exercise tries to show the differences in the performance of participating regions. It supposed to choose the best regions at NUTS II level by the two priority topic of the project: “Public research spending and policy mixes” and “SMEs and research”. Geographically the analysis covers the area of the eight partnering regions.
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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:416Nowadays, 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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A study of the causes leading to the liquidation of agricultural enterprises
123-127Views:109The viability of agricultural enterprises is of paramount importance. Their liquidation has harmful effects on broad strata of society. The aim of my research is therefore to analyze the leading causes of liquidation of agricultural enterprises. The research was led on 17 agricultural enterprises. This may help in the prevention and treatment of their insolvency. The research results show that a long-term agricultural production is not sustainable with a low equity capital. For the long-term maintenance it is necessary that the investors establish the enterprise with a capital according to the type of the production.The loan can not replacethe entrepreneursown resources,it is only complementaryto it.Theownersof agriculturalbusinessesshould strive to ensurethatthe paid-up share capital is kept in the firm, because in case of payment difficulties, this can be an adequate financial provision. Companies with financial problems can avoid liquidation if the crisis is detected in time by the leaders. However, the owners must organize the management of the enterprise so that it should have the necessary technical and economic knowledge. With an appropriate management, and use of means of crisis management, the liquidation of the enterprise can be prevented.
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The Attitudes of Pete Program Applicants Towards Information and Communication Technologies
75-80Views:227As information and communication technology has permeated all aspects of life education cannot be considered an exception either. The schools of the 21st century require the use of the latest digital devices whose effectiveness is greatly determined by the motivation, ICT-related attitude, and the respective competences of teachers managing and directing the given teaching and learning process. Since P.E. also requires the use of information and communication devices it would be crucial that prospective teachers develop a positive attitude toward such equipment. The present research aims at exploring the attitudes of students applying to P.E. teacher programs at the Eszterházy Károly University toward such instruments and approaches. Additional research objectives include the exploration of potential correlation between the sex of the applicants and the respective attitudes. Our inquiry utilized the questionnaire method and the computer-based attitude scale was completed by a sample of 130 applicants in the 2016/2017 and the 2017/2018 academic years. Our research concluded that both men and women maintain a positive attitude toward the use of digital devices, or the tools of information and communication technology. Students representing both sexes consider the computer as a valuable learning device promoting the efficiency of the knowledge acquisition process. Furthermore, a significantly greater proportion of male respondents stated that they were capable of repairing computer problems emerging during use than that of their female counterparts. At the same time men are less apprehensive to use computers during instruction and this attitude appears to be an indispensable requirement for the application of ICT devices in class. The research can contribute to a deeper exploration of the given field along with performing a gap filling function as such examination has not yet been conducted among applicants to P.E. programs provided by higher education institutions in Hungary.
JEL Classification: Z2, I23
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Krishna consciousness in Europe: The way farming communities became the focal points of marketing
13-24Views:237Krishna Consciousness is regarded as one of the most successful new religious movements in terms of marketing in the Western World. The aim of this research was to identify and analyze the marketing strategy the members of the Krishna-conscious community apply in Europe via content analyses, field research observations and in-depth interviews. The marketing mix of services marketing (7P) are often suggested to be applied by religious communities as well, however, this concept has boundaries due to the principles of the religions, which may not be altered for the sake of marketing. The research has shown that in Europe Krishna-conscious communities have overcome this problem by shifting the product from religion to a complex touristic product, which is realized in the form of farming communities, which have become an important rural tourist attraction in some countries. As the comparison of the websites of the different institutions has shown that rural and farming communities are the ones, which focus mainly on attracting people, who are not familiar with Krishna Consciousness yet, while the websites of the other institutions communicate mostly with devotees or people already interested in the religion or its certain aspect (cuisine, education), rural and farming communities were the institutions chosen to be analyzed more closely. The marketers of these tourist attractions are therefore free to make certain modifications in the marketing mix, as its focus is a tourist attraction, not the religion itself; while the transmission of knowledge about the religion happens in the touristic attractions only. Seven European farming communities of six different countries have participated in the research so far, which may be extended to further communities and continents on the future for a more thorough analysis.
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Trajectories of agricultural modernization and rural resilience: some first insights derived from case studies in 14 countries
31-43Views:194In this paper, alternative trajectories of agricultural modernization and rural resilience are explored based on case studies in 14 countries. The analysis is to support discussions about the further development of agriculture at a time when the agricultural sector must respond to an increasing scarcity of natural resources, challenges like climate change, urbanization, demographic change, food security, consumer demands, distributional issues in food value chains and changing urban-rural relations. The discussion relates different trajectories of agricultural modernization to the multiple mechanisms underlying rural prosperity and resilience. The mainstream capital-intensive and technology-driven model of agricultural modernization is contrasted with more incremental, socially embedded and localised forms of development. Potential synergies between different modes of farm ‘modernization’, resilience and sustainable rural development are highlighted and a different future-oriented understanding of the term ‘modernization’ explored. The basis for the analysis are case studies in 14 countries (including Turkey and Israel). The key question asked is how actors are connecting economic, social and natural systems in the different cases and how the connections made (or not) point to different ideas about modernization. The conclusions focus on some current information needs of policy-makers: the links between different forms of farm modernization, rural development and resilience, and the implications for agricultural knowledge systems and the new European Innovation Partnerships. It is emphasized that local capacities for transdisciplinary research need to be strengthened and that more attention should be paid to addressing modernization potentials that are less mainstream. The paper seeks to foster discussions that help overcome simplistic viewpoints of what ‘modernization’ entails. It is based on an earlier review paper by Knickel, Zemeckis and Tisenkopfs (2014).
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