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Responsible behaviour or business? Social responsibility (CSR) in sport management
83-90Views:496CSR has become increasingly important in today’s business world and managers must consider not only the economic results of their decisions but also the legal, ethical, moral, and social impact and repercussions of each of their decisions. Some multinational companies’ CSR activities even clearly represent applicability of CSR in sport management. The aim of this study was to do a critical comparative analysis, present the changes, alterations in the traditional company philosophy, objectsystem; then to define the concept of CSR, its importance in sport, finally to analyze some of the top 20 World Food & Beverage Companies’ (Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestle) CSR activities in sport management. Similarly to the whole economics – beside traditional theoretical tendencies, parallel to them and not developing them – a new kind of company theory concerning the long-term balance problems of the natural environment and society is being formed. Although the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is prominent in some of the current discussions and investigations about the role of business in society, the concept – integrate social and environmental aspects in their business activity – is not new. According to the websites and sustainability reports of the international parent companies and domestic subsidiaries, we can say, that the companies show similarity at several points with regard to social responsibility within the field of sport management. However we must emphasize that we can find in the domestic practice fewer examples. In this case probably the media plays important role, which prefer the news of scandals such as CSR-related initiatives. In the public the companies’ CSR activities are even less known. Finally we can establish, that about the sport sponsorship the parent companies we have more information, their reports and websites are more transparency. In contracts, in the case of subsidiaries we can meet deficiencies.
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The effects of climate change on cereals yield of production and food security in Gambia
83-92Views:902Increasingly, empirical evidences are substantiating the effects of climate change on agricultural production is a reality. In the early part of the 20th century many were skeptical about the so-called climate change that is due to global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) defines climate change as follows: “climate change refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean or variability of its properties and that persists for extended periods, typically decades or longer” This study analyses the impact of climate change on cereals production (millet and maize) in the Gambia using a time series data for a period of 46 years (1960 – 2013) at an aggregate level to assess the relationship between climate (temperatures and rainfall,) and non-climate variables fertilizer, area planted respectively and yield. The specific objectives of the research are: (1) How climate change affects the expected cereals (Millet and Maize) output or yield in the Gambia. (2) How the level of output risk within cereals (Millet and Maize) farming is affected? In order to achieve these set objectives, the paper will adopt Just and Pope modified Ricardian production functions for climate change impact assessments (e.g., Chen et al. 2004), the paper will also control for the impacts of regular input factors in the production process. The study used a data set for the Gambia comprising variables relevant for cereals production and climate information from 1960 through 2013. There is strong evidence that climate will affects Maize and Millet; according to the analysis 77% and 44% of the variability in the yield of Maize and Millet respectively is explained by the climate and non-climate variables included in the model. Given the effects of climate variables on cereals production, and increasing climate change vulnerabilities on other food production section, the result of this paper will add voice to the growing call for policy makers to step up funding in research and development in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
JEL classification: Q54
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Resource use efficiency among rice farmers around fragile ecosystems: evidence from Kilombero Wetland, Tanzania
77-88Views:205Farmers have been encroaching fragile wetlands as a strategy to increase their rice production thus threatening wetlands’ existence and capacity to other critical ecosystem services. This calls for efficient production to strike the balance between food rice production and wetlands’ sustainable existence. The current study sought to provide assess rice farmers’ technical efficiency of resource use by detecting the determinants of rice yield and further identify the determinants of technical efficiency of the resources used by rice farmers in Kilombero wetland. A cross-sectional survey of 145 randomly sampled farmers aided in achieving the study objective. A stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model was used to analyze data. The mean technical efficiency among farmers was at 60.54% level. The positive determinants of rice yield were land and fertilizers while labor influenced it negatively. Age, education, farming experience, group membership, and credit access reduced inefficiency while the distance to the extension agent and off-farm income increased farmers’ inefficiency. The study concludes that there is a possibility of expanding rice production without threatening the wetland’s existence. It recommends that government and other stakeholders to ensure that rice farmers are up-to-date with optimal use of fertilizers in rice production since it will assist in improving rice yield while the rate of expansion of rice lands in the wetlands will lower. Policy implementers ought to establish initiatives that inspire rice farmers to capitalize on farmer groups and join education programs to take full advantage of their potential efficiency and might participate in community development activities.
JEL code: Q15
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Liquid bio-fuels in Hungary: effects and contradictions
89-94Views:126The increase of living standard requires ever more energy, despite energy saving measures. Domestic growth was 100 PJ between 2000 and 2006, and 77% of the total utilization was importe (Hungarian Central Statistical Office, 2008).Sustainability was endangered not only in our energy and commerce policy. Our domestic natural conditions are suitable for plant production; however, the stagnation of the domestic population and decreasing livestock numbers restrict in land marketing. Therefore, significant surpluses from year to year had to be stored and sold abroad, and the fact that the interventional purchase of corn and the expected stringent new EU regulation of the sugar beet sector, make the strategic significance of these branches uncertain. The difficult marketing opportunities make the better utilization of our opportunities in producing liquid bio-fuels possible from marketing aspects, while environmental issues and realizing the EU directions enforce to do so in a longer term. Over the short term, agricultural and competitive aspects will determine its spread, which cause different effects in Europe in comparison with the developing countries. According to Nábrádi-Ficzeréné Nagymihály, 2008, one of the breaking points of Hungarian agriculture lies in the utilization of alternative energy sources. During the past period, many contradictory opinions came forward relating to economies, agricultural effects, food risks as well as the energetic and environmental efficiency of bio-fuels. One thing is certain: these fuels are already used today and their significance has been increasing. Although due to technological development, spread of new products and processes (cellulose-based bioethanol, bioethanol, biogas, hydrogen, biomethane) will obviously have to be expected in the future, at present biodiesel and bioethanol are determent among bio-fuels, thus I deal with these as well as their energetic and agricultural effects in my study.
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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:111Fall 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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Impacts of the global financial and economic crisis on the agro-food industry and rural livelihoods in Serbia
113-118Views:115Sixty-five per cent of the Serbian land area is agricultural and 55% of the population is rural.Agriculture share of GDP is more than 10% and about 47% of the rural labour force deals with agriculture. The aim of this work is to analyse the impacts of the global financial and economic crisis on the Serbian agro-food sector and rural communities. Measures introduced, mainly by public institutions, for relieving the consequences of the crisis are presented and discussed. Easily accessible yet high quality data from the central Office of Statistics in Serbia and specialized literature have been used. Impacts have been assessed by analyzing and discussing the trends of many socio-economic indicators. The crisis has had general impacts on the Serbian economy (low GDP growth, unemployment increase, price volatility, purchasing power decrease, etc.). Due to the crisis growth in agricultural production has been very low (0.1% in 2009). Agro-food exports decreased dramatically in 2008. About 9000 agricultural jobs were lost in 2008 and 2009. Reduced exports and lower domestic demand impacted negatively on agricultural commodity prices and agricultural household incomes.Access to credit became more difficult especially for small producers. However, agriculture is still a very important safety net. Agricultural employment share has increased both for men and women. The importance of agriculture is even higher if we consider the “grey agricultural economy”. To mitigate the crisis effects, the Government provided subsidies to rural people and will adopt the National Strategic Plan and Programme for Rural Development. Nevertheless, public institutions - in partnership with private, civil society and international organisations - should improve rural producers’ access to market information and credits and foster investments in rural areas including non-agricultural ones and those aiming at improving physical capital.
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Proposals for low-carbon agriculture production strategies between 2020 and 2030 in Hungary
5-15Views:255When viewed from the perspective of climate policy, agriculture as a separate sector is one of the most difficult development areas to assess. One of the reasons for this is the problem of the localization of greenhouse gas emitters, caused by the fact that production takes place in small or dispersed production units. The special circumstance that unit production takes place in complex interactive systems (food, feed, energy sources, main products, by-products, etc.) is yet another special factor, which in addition makes it significantly more difficult to measure and identify the GHGs they emit than if they were a uniform production plant. Additionally, there are few sectors outside agriculture where decision-makers encounter such strong opposition and lobby interests when developing limiting regulations. This stems from the fact that following World War II, European decision-makers and the Common Agricultural Policy elevated agriculture to a prominent role whose importance was indisputable. As a result, both climate policy and other measures that would result in any reduction of the priority of the sector are very difficult to implement, since the players involved always reason that limitations would restrict their competiveness and the security of their production. In addition, the uncertain nature of regulatory elements also poses a grave problem. As an example, the name of the sector itself – the LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry) sector – shows that the strategy for reducing the greenhouse gasses emitted by the whole sector would be significantly different if these units were treated separately (agricultural land use, forest, not-cultivated areas). Taking the above into account, the present study aims to identify development directions that in turn allow those low-carbon development directions to be pinpointed within animal husbandry and plant production that have the greatest feasibility and can contribute to decreasing the GHG environmental load exerted by agriculture.
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Marketing aspects of consumption of Hungarian pork meat
109-114Views:140The most important aim of authors’ study is to get to know the Hungarian pork consumption in our days. Our aim is set to estimate pork meat consumption and purchasing habits of consumers who are living in Eastern part of Hungary. The pork section is influenced negatively by several factors nowadays, which have a clear effect on the pork consumption and cause its declination. During the research work a questionnaire survey was made in 2007 and 2008. 1089 persons in different locations of Eastern Hungary were altogether asked. The data were evaluated by statistic hypothesis testing. Based on the evaluation a clear picture was got about the consumers’purchasing and consuming habits, and their ideas, opinions about the Hungarian pork as a food and as an item wearing a kind of national behaviour. Through many questions the volume of consumption was explored, and the pork’s proportion was compared to the rest of other meat types. It is verifiable that the pork consumption can be handled as a national habit, which is not the same by different age groups and educational qualifications. The importance of some factors during purchasing was also examined. Exceptionally important factors are: quality, the appearance, the origin and the price, that were mostly considered by the customers.The effect of pork promotion advertisements and its evaluation by the customers were surveyed too, which in connection with the efficiency showed a fairly stable picture both in 2007 and in 2008. The examination of price elasticity showed that this figure is influenced not just by the product group itself, but the purchasing power of the costumers, as well.
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Portuguese agriculture and its role in multifunctional rural development
145-152Views:129AsinEurope,agricultureinPortugalissupposedtofulfill a multiplicity of roles. It should contribute to supply Portuguese population with quality and safe food, to be viable in a global, competitive, dynamic and aggressive market, to preserve precious cultural landscapes across country through sustainable land management, to assist rural areastobeattractiveandfeasibleandtosupportemployment and social cohesion. Nevertheless, adjustments are expected to adapt to new environmental conditions, mainly climate change, to minimize weaknesses, to hold new opportunities and face new challenges. Otherwise, increases on human desertification, rural areas abandonment and consequent negative effects on territory are predictable.
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TRENDS IN HONEY CONSUMPTION AND PURCHASING HABITS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
Views:200Honey is a staple food of animal origin, with many beneficial properties, so the study of consumption and purchasing habits is an important issue. The main aim of our research is to present the market situation and conditions of the domestic beekeeping sector from the consumer's point of view. We considered it appropriate to present the beekeeping market because the European Union is the second largest honey producer in the world and Hungary is the largest honey producer in the EU. Thus, global and EU trade changes, market trends and changes in consumer habits are significant factors influencing the domestic situation. The market situation is presented through a review of the relevant domestic and foreign literature, and statistical databases (EU Member States' honey programmes, KSH, OMME, Statista databases and reports) are analysed. The research aims to find out the direction of honey consumption and purchasing patterns and trends in European honey consumption. We chose an online questionnaire survey method to assess consumption and purchasing habits in Hungary and present the results in comparison with similar Hungarian studies. To analyse the situation in Europe, we have collected and analysed relevant research reports, primary and secondary studies from several EU countries. Finally, the data from each country are compared, highlighting similarities and differences.
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Consumption habits of “Free range chicken” in Hungary
69-73Views:179Poultry is highly ranked in theWorld meat production and consumption (it accounted for 32% in 2007), and, in the past 20 years it was growing with an annual rate of 3–6%, higher than in case of any other meat-types. This tendency is also valid for Hungary: poultry has the largest share (29.8 kg/person/year, 47%) in the domestic meat consumption since 2000, which is among the EU top (KSH, 2007). As the result of the animal health and nutrition scandals, the EU animal welfare and quality requirements and the advancements in health consciousness the Master-Good group launched the production, processing and trade of free-range poultry under the brand “Free-range chicken”. The new products had good consumer responses, because at present 1.5% of the processed chicken in Hungary (25 tons/week) is under this brand. As it regards the future of this product, we can expect the decrease of the current 1.5 times higher production price over broiler chicken, due to the increasing energy, labour and other cost items, thus the increase of the domestic consumption by 25–30% per annum can be foreseen. Besides the growth in domestic demand, increasing foreign consumer demand can also be expected because of the space requirement of the production. Summarising the above mentioned: „Free range chicken” can be one of the most successful products of the Hungarian poultry industry. In order to realise the prognosis mentioned above, it is inevitable to learn the consumer attitudes towards the brand. A primary market research programme supported by the Master Good group has been launched to study the main features of the domestic chicken meat consumption – including the „Free-range chicken” as highlighted brand. The primary aim of the research was the complete assessment and evaluation of the Hungarian chicken consumption habits and the identification of the possible take-off points. The research undertaken resulted basic information concerning the internal structure of the Hungarian poultry consumption (including that of the „Free-range chicken”), the potential consumer groups and their requirements, provided information on the consumers’knowledge of the products and identified the elements of the consumers’ judgements. This will serve as basis for a marketing communication programme to increase the domestic „Free-range chicken” consumption.
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A study on consumer habits in the dietary supplements market
5-12Views:587There has been a continuous increase in the proportion of consumers using dietary supplements worldwide. Evidence based on former surveys suggests that in Hungary more than half of the population buy at least one type of dietary supplement (hereinafter DS). By using secondary research, the authors of the present paper examine the demographic factors determining the consumption of DS on a global scale. Consumption of DS increases with age and is more frequent among women. Consumers with higher qualifications and income tend to buy products containing vitamins and minerals to a greater degree. In the vast majority of cases the purchase and consumption of DS is based on consumers’ personal preferences and decisions, rather than on their physicians’ advice. It has been found that a high percentage of DS consumers probably do not even need any extra nutrient intake. In our primary research (N=1000) the specific attitudes to and characteristics of DS consumption among Hungarian adults are analysed on the basis of on a nationally representative survey. First, we identify the most important reasons which encourage consumers to buy DS. Consumer awareness concerning DS with a particular vitamin and mineral content and of other sources is examined, and we also assess the consumption of the product which is the most popular. The current paper attempts to identify the outlets Hungarian consumers typically buy DS from, and also what resources they use to keep themselves informed about these products. Consumers who admittedly reported (regular) consumption of a certain kind of DS product 6 months prior to the survey are further examined in relation to certain additional issues. The results of our survey provide an accurate picture of the DS consumption habits of the Hungarian population.
JEL CODE: I12, M31
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Co-innovation: what are the success factors?
29-36Views:105The problem we address in this paper is that in projects focusing on public-private cooperation to stimulate innovation in the Netherlands, initiatives often lack continuation after the study-phase. We extracted possible influencing variables from business and (transaction) cost economic theorizing, stakeholder and capability theory. Moreover, we used measures for classifying projects with respect to financial interdependencies between participants. We supposed that project characteristics influence managerial behavior to continue or stop. We studied 28 projects (20 supply chain projects and 8 biological product development projects). Our aim was to explore the barriers and success factors for these co-innovation projects: innovation as a cooperative effort between public sector/research institute and private organization(s). We derived data from project descriptions and performed semi-structured interviews with project informants. Critical to success appears to be ex ante commitment of all parties. Goal congruence, both at a personal and a company level, and proportionality of sharing in project results are of decisive importance to establish such commitment. Estimations about financial project results should be made in an early stage; they should be used as a basis for negotiations on the (re)distribution of costs and benefits, especially if the value added is disproportionally distributed over the participants. Ideally, project teams of co-innovation projects should bring in complementary capabilities: technical, marketing, financial and organizational. Project governance should therefore be organized in such a way that the knowledge gaps are filled in before kick-off.
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Green house gas mitigation and headline targets of Europe 2020 strategy
109-117Views:104Climate change is considered as one of the biggest challenges of XXI century and global action is needed to mitigate greenhouse gases (GHG) and adapt to changing water levels and temperatures, which affect food supply and ecosystem integrity. Climate change will have significant economic and social impacts in many regions of EU and sectors like agriculture is considered to bear greater adverse affects. Less developed regions and certain sections of society (the elderly and/or low-income households) are expected to suffer more from climate change. Climate change policy of EU, adopted in December 2008, includes ambitious targets for 2020. The policy is focused on a sustainable future with an energy-efficient economy by (i) cutting greenhouse gases by 20% (30% if international agreement is reached), (ii) reducing energy consumption by 20% through increased energy efficiency and iii) meeting 20% of energy needs from renewable sources. In the frame of the headline targets of Europe 2020 Strategy, this paper discusses most important greenhouse gas-emitting activities in agriculture, emphasizes the importance structural changes through the modernisation of infrastructure particularly in developing regions of EU and calls for enhancing the competitiveness of economy to promote energy efficiency.
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Assessing Readiness Levels of Production Technologies for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture
47-52Views:195The 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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Externality effects of honey production
63-67Views:214Bee-keeping and honey production has a long history in Hungary. Honey is an important and healthy food of people and it can be consumed without any human processing. The honey production has important role, too. Some researchers say that if honey bee will extinct the humanity in the world would also extinct. It is true since plant pollination by honey bees is very important. It is confirmed by researchers’ studies that plant pollination by honey bees has significant positive external impacts on potential yields in orchards. Although the contribution of honey production to the GDP in Hungary is only a few per cent, other benefits play more important role. One of them is the positive external effect – mentioned above – and the other is the contribution to the biodiversity of the nature. This paper focuses on secondary research methods, gathering and evaluating data regarding the positive external impacts of plant pollination by honey bees as well as finding possible solution for the problem that bee-keepers have a lot of costs in connection with carrying honey bees to orchards, while farmers “only” benefit from the positive externality of plant pollination of their fields. To evaluate its economic effects a numerical HEEM-model was developed and applied for the Hungarian situation.
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Diversification strategies and their impact on farm performance
57-61Views:127The 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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Analysis the advanced ICT usage of the Hungarian SME sector for preparing a domestic agri-food research
147-153Views:167In the Hungarian agro-food sector SMEs have a key role but regarding the tendency of the performance of SME sector, comparing to EU-28 average, the performance of Hungarian SME sector has gradually worsened between 2008 and 2015 while the EU average has an increasing trend. ICT can help enterprises and this article is an overview of the ICT situation of Hungarian SMEs. It is important to analyse in detail the ICT usage characteristics of agro SMEs in the food supply chain because these ICT devices, tools and services are crucial to smooth the information flow within the chain. For all these reasons our work aims to find out how Hungarian agro-food SMEs use ICT and how ICT adoption affect their business procedures, performance and development. A striking observation to emerge from the data comparison is the difference among SMEs and large enterprises regarding the usage of the different basic and advanced ICT solutions. A much bigger percent of large companies use advanced ICT then SMEs and mainly small enterprises are lagging behind as the attitudes of medium sized enterprises are rather similar to the large ones. In Hungary small enterprises in agro-food industry are in difficult financial state and for them free Cloud Computing services can offer good opportunities as they do not have initial costs. ICT adoption is very important to them as ICT sector is a dynamically growing sector and if customers and partners of an enterprise adapt faster to these technological innovations, it may have a negative effect on the different processes, performance and financial results of the organisation. In this article our aim was to determine the main question groups for our questionnaire which focus mainly on ICT solutions supporting the quality of communication and relationship between partners. As the basic IT tools are available in the major part even in the SMEs besides large companies, the two main issues will be the usage of advanced online services and the usage of high quality ICT solutions.
JEL Code: M15
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THE NEXUS BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES AND FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF THE SOYBEAN VALUE CHAIN SYSTEM IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS OF GHANA
Views:90Soybean is an important crop that contributes to economic freedom and food security. The study of soybean value chain is therefore important to improve on the activities of the chain actors for an overall economic gains. This paper aims to examine the nexus between sustainable value chain and financial benefits of the soybean value chain system in Ghana. Specifically, we employ the triple bottom line model to examine the soybean value chain from economic, social and environmental perspectives using sample data from Ghana. With a sample size of 300 including all actors of the value chain, our findings reveal that chain actors do not differ in their perceptions of overall financial gains that accrued to them with their involvement in chain economic activities. The findings further revealed that perceived financial sustainability of chain activities was affected by tangible financial benefits. Moreover, the results further show that chain actors’ perception of social sustainability performance was significantly affected by expected overall financial gains that accrue to them as a result of their participation in chain economic activities.
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The role of beekeeping in production of oil crops
77-82Views:121Production of sunflower oil are expected to serve larger and larger extent – over the demand of food industry and chemical industry – biofuel production. This could be especially true for that areas where climate is not allowed to grow winter rape safely and economically. Ecological role of honey-bees can be considered undoubtful in preservation of biodiversity of flora and fauna. I analyse the following problems in our study:
• What is the significance of oil plants in European and Hungarian energy production?
• How influence pollination the yields and the safety of production of oil plants?
• What is the role of oil plants in the development of production structure of beekeeping?
• What are the economical advantages of the above-mentioned effects? -
Disentangling the complexity of India ’s agricultural sector
35-42Views:134Agricultural policies in India directly impact the livelihoods of close to two thirds of India’s population. Through policies, the government manages food security, urban and rural poverty, energy, and infrastructure, among others. Given the current state of India’s governance, the connection between policy making and its results in society becomes a key issue for research. This paper presents a game for use as a research instrument. The game can facilitate research into the policy making process at various levels of the government in India. The design is intended to understand the complexity of the institutional arrangement that defines and implements agricultural policies. The game integrates with other games that simulate other aspects of the agricultural system in India. The paper presents the verification and validation cycles followed, and identifies further steps for field validation.
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Bread consumption habits in the gluten free diet
113-119Views:372Gluten is a protein found in many grain products. Celiac disease is a genetic autoimmune disorder characterized by sensitivity to gluten. When a person with celiac disease consumes gluten, his/her immune system perceives the gluten to be a harmful substance and reacts negatively. The only treatment for individuals with celiac disease is lifelong adherence to a gluten-free diet. It is one of the most frequent and well defined of all lifelong diseases. In Hungary, 1-2 % of the population is said to be affected, but only every 10th has been diagnosed. Bread is a basic and frequently consumed food made principally from wheat. Gluten is the main structure-forming protein in flour, and is responsible for the elastic characteristics of dough, and contributes to the crumb structure and appearance of many baked products. Gluten removal results in major problems for bakers. Currently many gluten-free products available on the market are of low quality, exhibiting poor mouth feel and flavour. People wishing to eat bread in the gluten-free diet basically have two options: buying or baking the bread for themselves. There are several gluten-free bread brands are available on the Hungarian market. The price, ingredients, texture, colour, softness of the available breads are different. There is a rather good choice in gluten-free flour mixtures on the Hungarian market, as well. The composition of these mixtures are also different. The aim of our empirical research was to investigate the gluten-free bread consumption habits of people following gluten-free diet. The research was carried out using Google forms in January 2017. Size of the sample is 196. The online form was shared in four closed gluten free Facebook groups in Hungary since they are really active in sharing information concerning gluten-free lifestyle and diet. Summarizing, in this study we wish to examine how evolve the world pork meat production, trade and consumption, and to demonstrate the main consuming countries, highlighting the role of China, as it is the most populated country in the world with its 1.4 billion inhabitants.
JEL Code: M31
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Communication of trainers as one of the means for customer retention in fitness clubs
35-40Views:333Acquiring the adequate communication style is a vital element in trainers’ profession. This research aims to reveal the effects generated via the communicative style by trainers of fitness club customers. It also intends to explore whether communication style has any relation to the regularity of class attendance as well as to the length of training periods which is conceptualised in this paper as trainers’ economic efficiency. Data collection was carried out by structured interviews in a country-side large sport centre. Trainers with at least three training sessions per week (N=20) and their groups (N=160) were interviewed using Rudas (1994) communication style survey and additional selfdeveloped interview protocols. The results revealed that the examined trainers were distributed in all four communications styles, but showing dominance in aggressive and passive styles. The classes of trainers with aggressive and assertive communication style were those that showed the highest and maintained attendance rates. It seems, that classes held by trainers who communicate in a deliberate way and convey positive messages are attended more and in a sustained way. Accordingly, their precisely set targets and explanation of training sessions content correlated with repeated attendance and customer retention. It seems that groups with extended scope of communication are characterised by stronger group cohesion where social relationships could develop easier, which have relations to perseverance and commitment. Therefore development of trainers’ communication skills may be considered as an effective tool for fitness clubs for customer retention.
JEL code: Z20
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The economic and social role of private farms in Hungarian agriculture
33-41Views:160The situation and importance of private farms in Hungary have significantly changed and are still changing due to the political and economic regime change of 1989-90 and subsequent events. The aim of this study is to provide – unlike the practice of the last two decades – an impartial review of the social and economic role of Hungarian private farms. To demonstrate the changes occurring in private farms, we rely on the data of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO-KSH)such as the General Structure Surveys, the Farm Structure Surveys, and tables from the online stADAT database.
From the point of view of methodology, time series analyses (2000–2010) were performed in the framework of this secondary research. Our hypothesis that private farms in Hungary deserve much more attention than previously, from the perspective of the output of Hungarian agriculture, food consumption and, last but not least, employment (the environmental factor was not examined this time) has been clearly confirmed. The role and significance of this group have also been exceedingly important since EU accession, particularly in the fields of horticulture and animal husbandry, and the strengthening of these positions is indisputably a national economic interest. -
The role of chamber system in development of agricommerce in Serbia
79-82Views:100This research is carried out in order to be determined the role of Chamber system in development of agricommerce along with successful preparation of Serbia for EU accession. On February 28, 1857 Prince Aleksandar Karaðorðeviæ signed the Decree, called THE CONSTITUTION OF THE TRADE. By this Decree, the first BusinessAssociation in Serbia was constituted. Under the Law on retail stores passed in June 1910, the first chambers were established. Those were the following:
• The Chamber of TRADE
• The Chamber of CRAFTS
• The Chamber of INDUSTRY
• The Chamber ofWORKERSToday, in conditions of economic and social reforms and transfer toward market oriented economy, chambers in Serbia chose to reconsider their role, by using experiences of chambers in countries with developed market economy.The chamber strives to be organized as independent, business oriented and expert association of economic operators. The structure of economy, from the aspect of important economic indicators (total revenue, profit), shows dominant share of manufacturing andagro-industry, trade, financial and other services sectors, transport, telecommunication, and construction industries. By generating over 30% of GDP and employment, Belgrade plays vital role in the economy of the whole Serbia. That is an advantage, but also the responsibility to constantly stimulate faster development and higher living standards by inciting the positive changes in economic and overall environment.
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