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Is there a kink in the happiness literature?
131-139Views:784One of the early key empirical findings of the happiness literature is that at higher levels of per capita real income there appears to be diminishing returns to income at least with regards to marginal changes in ‘happiness’ measured by various survey instruments. Although these results have been recently challenged, these earlier findings and the results of many contemporary studies suggest that an inelastic relationship exists between real per capita income and happiness after a relatively low threshold of per capita income is reached. Appling some of the results of prospect theory I argue that even if it were true that the marginal effect of income on happiness is zero, a reduction in income would probably reduce the level of happiness, yielding a kink in the ‘happiness curve’. Also, applying a target income approach to the happiness literature, one can argue that pursuing higher target income, in itself, is a means of increasing life satisfaction. These two theoretical instruments yield results consistent with some of the most recent empirical finding based on Gallup Poll Survey data. In addition, applying insights from the capabilities approach, I argue, that increasing income is a means of purchasing the capabilities to increase individual levels of happiness through the production of public goods, such as health care and education. A given marginal increase in income need not generate any increase in happiness if this income increase is highly unequally distributed in a population or is not used to purchase goods and services that contribute to increases in the level of happiness.
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Resource use efficiency among rice farmers around fragile ecosystems: evidence from Kilombero Wetland, Tanzania
77-88Views:434Farmers 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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Educational projects – support for development of tourism and rural areas in Serbia
65-69Views:335The 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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Knowledge needs in rural tourism in Czech Republic
69-72Views:263Rural 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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Changes in the Relationship Between ICT Use and Economic Development in EU Member States 2010-2016
91-100Views:401In this study, we examined some ICT indicators of the EU Member States between 2010 and 2016 based on data of the World Bank and Eurostat. We wanted to know, how can the EU Member States be grouped according to these indicators, and which group can Hungary belong to. With the help of international literature reviews, three indicators were chosen. According to these we created three groups (underdeveloped, developing, developed) with the K-Mean cluster method that is classified by their level of development. Interesting changes took place during the period under review. By the end of the analyzed period, six countries lost their “developed” rating among others some founding members. There were also interesting changes in the clusters. The value of some indicators increased more than 40% in some cases, surprisingly, only in one case measured reduction. The proportion of ICT specialists decreased in developing countries (by 1%). The highest growth rate was observed in the developed countries in e-commerce. Because of the high proportion of ICT professionals and the share of e-commerce in the developed cluster we assumed that service would be the dominant sector. The two-sample t-test did not confirm our hypothesis. We supposed the focus in developing countries will be on the industry, due we think the developed countries started to outsource their SSCs (shared service centers) to less developed countries. With the help of a statistical indicator, we confirmed our assumption, but the result not so convincing since the significant level is only 11%. Although we thought that the underdeveloped group of countries was based on agriculture, statistical studies did not support our hypothesis.
JEL Classification: O13, O14, O52
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Using DEA to evaluate efficiency of higher education
79-82Views:809The aim of the higher education reform process both in Hungary and in the European countries is establishing a competitive, qualitative higher education with efficiently operating institutions. The question of efficiency needs increased attention not only because of the decline of the state support but also the rapid raise of the student mass. In the educationsystemit’snot easy to measurethe output of the services.The situation is more complicated if an organisation or a sector has multiple inputs and outputs. In this case a possible method of determining efficiency is Data Envelopment Analysis. In my paper I’d like to introduce this method and use it to compare the efficiency of higher education systems. urthermore I am examining whether their efficiency is influenced by the extent of the contribution of the state and the private sector or socio-economic factors like GDP per capita and education level of parents.
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Profitability and efficiency – an analysis of the financial impact of the Szechenyi Plan in the Hungarian hospitality industry
51-56Views:404Continuous changes in the market and macroeconomic factors have made a significant effect on the tourism sector in Hungary. A heavily growing number of hotels could be observed in the past decade. The main question about the hotels built with high investment costs was their expected time of return. Keeping Hungary’s natural conditions in mind, is it more expedient to build new hotels or refurbish old ones? I was seeking answers for these questions during my work. My research was aiming to explore the impacts of the non-refundable subsidies – financed by the government – provided for new health and wellness hotel projects carried out within the framework of the Széchenyi Plan. On the other hand, my study was expanded to the analysis of balance sheets and profit and loss accounts data of the hotels of Hungary according to their star (quality) rating. The major findings of the research: Considering high developmental costs subsidies play an important role in the hotel industry. It is impossible to carry out such investments using internal sources only. However, exclusive bank loans finance could drive insolvency so it is extremely risky. Non-refundable subsides provided for hotel investments created stable, countable payroll taxes and other forms of incomes for the country. In order to achieve more profitable operation, providing higher quality of services is indispensable. Taking Hungary’s conditions into account this can be reached more likely among four star rated hotels than any other star (quality) ranked establishments.
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Future role of agriculture in multifunctional development of rural areas
135-143Views:283In the paper the changes in agriculture in terms of falling share of agriculture in gross domestic product and decrease in the share of persons employed in agriculture in total employment in Poland and selected countries are discussed.The main driver of these changes is a faster pace of development of non-agricultural activities and continually deteriorating relations between the costs of production factors and prices of agricultural products. The rate of growth in labor costs and prices of the means of production for agriculture is much faster than the rate of increase in prices of agricultural products. This causes the decline in profitability of agricultural production which in creases the size of farms. The pace is dependent on the level of economic development of the country. The study also identified trends in the structure of farms, functions and systems of agriculture in the generational perspective.The polarization of the farms will deepen.A strong group of commodity farms and a group of so-called self – subsistence social farms will emerge. Agriculture in Poland will have a dual nature. In addition to the production function and social services agriculture will expand the scope of service functions for the environment and society.
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Human resource aspect of agricultural economy – challenges of demographic change
163-167Views:371Over the past decades, the agrarian policy has tried to contribute to the catching-up of the rural areas with varying dynamism and aid scheme. However, its result is significantly below expectations. Nowadays, the age composition of the population living in rural areas reveals an unfavourable picture; the rate of the elderly, deprived persons and people being inactive from the aspect of employment is high and it is also combined with the low educational levels. The young generations and intellectuals leave the rural areas and, consequently, the rate of the active population continues to grow narrow as well as the proportion of young and skilled employees decreases. As a consequence of changes in the past decades, the rate of agricultural employment has not led to an intensive change but a failing change in extensive direction which lays off jobs. Nowadays, this process also determines the Hungarian rural society. In the sector, the need for employment diminishes as a result of the development in technology and due to the expansion of services sector. The purpose of our study is to present and analyse the human resources of our country’s agriculture by skill level and age group and compare it with the needs of companies, by doing this we try to compare supply and demand. In details, based on secondary data source, we investigate the agricultural labour force and try to confront it with the advertisements of job search portals (three of our job search portals based on our predefined criteria), by which we achieve a current picture of the agricultural human resource circumstances.
JEL Code: J43
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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:652Nowadays, consumers have a full of knowledge on products and services, and their daily consumption of healthy and environmentally friendly products has been increasing. Therefore, businesses need to implement green marketing activities, so they need to be aware of environmental issues and consumer needs while maintaining financial sustainability and competitiveness. (Belz & Karstens, 2002). Examples are the rapid growth of organic food products, as consumers are concerned with their health and environmental issues in their day-to-day purchasing decisions. Over 20 years ago, in 1999, the market for organic food products sales was $ 15.2 billion, while sales in 2017 increased to $ 97 billion, indicating that the world's organic food market is growing rapidly. The organic food market is growing by $5 billion a year, and as of 2014, 172 countries have organic food farm land according to the “The World of Organic Agriculture”. Since the market for organic products is a new market for Mongolia, previous surveys in are relatively small. Therefore, this is aimed at conducting a study on behavioral approaches of consumers of organic food products in Ulaanbaatar. We have run statistical and multi-criteria decision making analysis based on given data of consumers. We also apply Harker’s techniques for complete and incomplete evaluation matrices which are defined from consumers decision making. Numerical examples are presented.
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The importance of organic agriculture in tourism rural
59-64Views:1212Many farmers, in addition to normal farming activity, have already turned to agritourism as a source of additional farm income and opportunities. There are numerous benefits from the development of agritourism: it may strengthen local economy, create job opportunities and new businesses; develop and promote training and certification programs to introduce young people to agriculture and environment. Agritourism helps preserve rural lifestyles and landscape and also offers the opportunity to provide "sustainable" or "green" tourism. Organic agriculture is a cultural evolution that finds its origins in a environmentalist culture. Furthermore the focus on these products is due to demand on healthy foods with high quality standard limiting chemical substances usage. It’s clear the link of the organic agriculture with agritourism and tourism services. They have a considerable role in the future development of rural areas. The purpose of this paper was to identify and examine those factors that have helped rural communities successfully develop agritourism, in particular organic agritourism and its entrepreneurship opportunities. Several focus groups were conducted with local business persons and leaders about a applicative case of South Italy area.
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The understanding of international tourism development
53-54Views:285Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. Tourism has become one of the major players in international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an increasing diversification and competition among destinations (Unwto, 2010).Working and serving in this pumping industry means to understand and react to the needs of all these people moving around this “small” planet! Success is defined by those who understand these needs and fulfill them to the satisfaction. Unfortunately, our industry is rather slow and we can be characterized as reactive instead of innovative.We adapt too slow compared to other industries that define the needs of their costumers before the costumers actually calls for it!
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International passanger survey at the Airport Debrecen – Main characteristics of departure visitors from AD
43-49Views:312The main reason of the research is to make a survey of the habits of foreign visitors arriving in Debrecen by air and their satisfaction. What was experienced in 2013 regarding low foreign proportion is also noticable in 2014. In the examined two months, of the whole passenger traffic between London and Debrecen only 10-15% is tourism by foreign visitors. There was not any information before about consumption of tourists arriving in Debrecen by air. In the course of my research I was examining the main elements of consumptions. From the gathered infromation from the questionaires it can be ascertained that on many occasions service providers failed to accomplish satisfying levels, quality. Underachievement occured and the experience of the visitors was worse than their expectations. This gives reasons for the indicators detailed analysis. The results of the satisfaction test might be an essential basis to further develop the city’s tourist products and services in the future. Personal experience of either visitors satisfaction or dissatisfaction, gets stored as a memory which influences future decisions on travelling. Because of this the city has to make an effort to provide higher standards of quality to people travelling into Debrecen by air from the first moment of arrival till the last moment of departure and leave satisffied.
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Knowledge needs in rural tourism in Czech Republic
111-114Views:233Rural 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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Farmers’ experience in adoption and usage of ICT solutions for agriculture in the Republic of Macedonia
25-30Views:491The adoption of new of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in farming activities becoming crucial for developing countries in order to meet the challenges of rapidly growing populations, urbanization and arable agricultural land declination. Because of it, each farmers’ organization or farmer has to concern their agricultural products and services more towards modernized and ICT related routine. The attempt has been made to analyze the reaction of the Macedonian farmers towards ICTs as a source of reliable and timely information about e-banking, online purchasing/selling, marketing, input and output optimization, increased revenue, remote farm management process etc. Semi-structured questionnaire was used for interviewing 132 semi-experienced and experienced farmers that use ICTs as sample for the research. The data were analyzed using appropriate statistics tool like correlation and Rank Based Quotient (RBQ). The findings showed that farmers stressed the cost of ICTs, lack of training, trust level in the government institutions, and lack of ICT infrastructure are thresholds for ICTs adoption and use in agriculture. This research contributes to understand the adoption and use of ICT, identify the constraints associated with ICT use and propose recommendations towards the improvement of ICTs for agriculture in the Republic of Macedonia.
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Bicycle tourism in Hungary
67-71Views:754Side by side with the revaluation of a health-oriented lifestyle various kinds of axtive leisure activities and active tourism in particular have been gaining ground. Cycling, which is popular not only as a leisure time tourism activity but mainly within settlements, also as an environmentally-friendly and up to a certain extent, a highly practicable means of transport mainly in towns and cities in WesternEurope, has a privileged position within active tourism (SALAMIN, 2010). This article wishes to present the situation of bicycle tourism, the factors influencing the demand for it and the opportunities for and possibilities of improving it within Hungary by providing an evaluative analysis of the relevant sources of the technical literature. The most important finding of this secondary research-based study is that there is an increasing contention both internationally and within certain regions of tourist interest within Hungary although there is no detailed information available as regards the latter. Success on the market can only be achieved by following the good practices of internationally developed tourist destinations and by a concerted development and improvement of the infrastructure, services and target-group oriented marketing activities as well as attractions.
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Evaluating linkage between operators’ satisfaction and potential of local resources for rural tourism: Evidence from Matsuura in Japan
33-41Views:309As rural tourism evolves into diversification, the connection between the individual and local resource management is becoming an important issue for the sustainable evolution of rural tourism. To explore this point, we investigated conceptually and empirically whether rural tourism operators’individual satisfaction enhances utilization of local resources and, if so, what mechanism works for it by focusing on rural tourism accompanied by an educational program, i.e. a farm-stay with farm and rural experience services implemented as a part of school trips in Matsuura, Japan. From statistical tests and an econometric estimation based on a questionnaire survey of rural tourism operators we found that operators’individual satisfaction gained from interchange with visitors and direct feedback can positively enhance locally exerted effects that stimulate operators to recognize opportunities within their community and raise the potential for local resource use. Thus, we should strengthen this connection to eventually create a new viable activity.
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Touristic Motivation and Lifestyles of Hungarian Domestic Tourists Correlation Study
47-54Views:336Motivations are closely interwoven with personality theories. According to researchers the object of motivation theory is primarily to describe what is common in people, whereas lifestyle theories highlight the individual differences among people. Tourism travel decisions constitute a special type of consumer decisions in which case the tourist has to make a choice among the personal tourism services on offer according to his/ her individual needs, but still as a segment specific product corresponding to common motivations. Consequently, certain elements of lifestyle and motivation theory appear in touristic decisions as well. Having perused the relevant trade literature, I came to the realisation that there have been very little research done in the area of travel motives in recent years. The examination of the correlation between motivation and lifestyle complemented with model application is a field belonging to applied marketing science which can be regarded as uncharted territory in tourism research. Domestic tourism accounts for a significant portion among the national income sectors. That is why it is of key importance to be aware of the correlation between the habits and needs of the local population and the factors influencing travel decisions. Applying the results of my research I endeavoured to define and model the lifestyle, needs and motivations of domestic tourists as the factors influencing their decisions. With the results of the investigation, I also wished to provide some guidelines for the creation of tourism supply in view of product development and communication.
JEL Classification: Z32 tourism and development
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The importance of equestrian tourism enterprises in tourism destination management in Hungary
25-27Views:449Hungary is the pioneer of the European Equestrian Tourism. Several thousands foreign tourists visited specific equestrian programmes already in the 1960’s and 1970’s.At the same times some hundred thousands of holiday tourists visited equestrian shows and programs organised in different areas of our country. From the beginning of the 1990’s equestrian enterprises (pensions, stables, specialized equestrian services) have been established. The equestrian tourism enterprises are well represented all over the country.They are well organised, the Hungarian EquestrianTourism Association integrates 80% of equestrian tourism enterprises. Uniquely in Europe, the voluntary professional qualification, called “the horseshoe qualification system” started in 1998. The most common quality categories are for entrepreneurs are 3 or 2 or 1 horseshoe. The system ofTourism Destination Management organizations could provide the background for the development of equestrian tourism enterprises as well.At local level these needs would be product development, the quality control and quality management, at regional level the most important aims could be the development of regional equestrian image and increasing the attractiveness of this image, finally hardening the positions of equestrian tourism destination.
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Importance and impact of guest satisfaction
31-37Views:716The service quality can be measured by the consumers’ satisfaction. Researchers assume that high quality satisfies the guests and satisfaction may increase their loyalty. The main goal of this article is to measure guest satisfaction and prove its positive impacts on Hungarian hotels’ performance. A comprehensive survey was made on the Hungarian wellness hotels in October 2012; the primary aim was to provide them suggestions to improve their quality on the base of guests’ feedback. A self-administered questionnaire were compiled and sent back by 815 respondents. The investigation examined the quality awareness, quality perception, guest satisfaction and the following behavioral intentions of domestic guests of spa hotels. It can be concluded that domestic guests are generally satisfied with the quality of services offered by Hungarian spa hotels. The message of this research is for hotel managers that the increase of guest satisfaction can be reached by the improvement of service quality, and not only with price discounts. It has been demonstrated that satisfaction is closely related to their willingness to return to the hotel, so it is an essential condition of loyalty.
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The understanding of international tourism development
61-62Views:244Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. Tourism has become one of the major players in international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an increasing diversification and competition among destinations (Unwto, 2010).Working and serving in this pumping industry means to understand and react to the needs of all these people moving around this “small” planet! Success is defined by those who understand these needs and fulfill them to the satisfaction. Unfortunately, our industry is rather slow and we can be characterized as reactive instead of innovative.We adapt too slow compared to other industries that define the needs of their costumers before the costumers actually calls for it!
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Cost analysis of pig slaughtering: A Hungarian case study
121-129Views:582The scale of Hungarian slaughterhouses is small in international comparison and the cost of slaughter and cutting a pig of average live weight is relatively high at 16.1-19.4 EUR on average. The aim of this study is to evaluate the cost of pig slaughter and cutting through the case study of a medium-scale plant in Hungary. Based on data from the enterprise, a calculation was performed in relation to the “output” quantity of pig slaughter and cutting, as well as its value and the cost and cost structure of processing. The capacity of the examined plant and its utilisation were analysed and cost reductions were estimated for various increases of output. In 2015, the direct cost of slaughter and cutting was 18.9 EUR per pig for the medium-scale plant which processed 100 thousand pigs. When the purchase cost of pigs is excluded, labour costs accounted for the highest share (30%) of costs, followed by services (29%) and energy costs (21%). For this reason, the level of wages and employer’s contributions has a rather high significance. Analysis showed that significant increases in Hungarian minimum wage and guaranteed living wage in 2017 resulted in an estimated 7% increase in the cost of slaughter and cutting compared to 2015, despite the decrease of contributions. The capacity utilisation of the plant was a low 28% when compared to a single 8-hour shift considered full capacity. The cost of slaughter and cutting was estimated to be reduced to 14.2-17.0 EUR per pig if the plant operated at full capacity. This may be considered a lower bound estimate of cost because there are numerous restricting factors on optimising capacity utilisation, such as: 1) number of live animals available for purchase and related logistics; 2) cooling capacity availability; 3) labour availability; 4) market position of the enterprise and potential for marketing additional pig meat products. Enterprises of this scale are recommended to consider producing more value-added products and, accordingly, investing in product development.
JEL Classification: Q13, Q19
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Krishna consciousness in Europe: The way farming communities became the focal points of marketing
13-24Views:488Krishna 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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Network attributes’ evaluation by stakeholder groups concerned to the agri-food sector in Hungary
55-58Views:368As 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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Hungarian spirits palinka as a “hungaricum” II. The effect of tax-free production in Hungary and in the European Union
137-144Views:484Palinka is a traditional Hungarian fruit spirit prepared exclusively by the distillation of fruit mash or fruit pulp. As an alcohol product, it is subject to the Act CXXVII of 2003 on Excise Duties and Special Regulations on the Distribution of Excise Goods amended several times. The present government of Hungary pledged to grant the right of free palinka distillation again in the previous election campaign. As of 27 September 2010, the excise duty of subcontract-distillation was repealed, and the previously non-existent “official” home distillation was introduced, which resulted in explicit revenue losses for the state budget. The modification of the law mentions distillate instead of the word palinka. The difference between the two notions will be discussed in the present study. Presumably, lawmakers did not consider the fact that at the time of Hungary’s EU accession we entered into an agreement stipulating that the tax on subcontract-distillation should not be lower than 50% of the tax on alcohol products. Having been unable to agree on a solution to the problems in question, Brussels launched an infringement procedure against Hungary. Finally, Hungary was convicted; therefore, tax exemption or palinka distillation shall be ceased. This regulation came into force on 01 January 2015. The reactions of those who used the services of subcontract distillation were negative; turnover plunged by approximately 85% compared to the year of 2014. The present research will present the amendments concerning home distillers due from 2016 and the elements of the bill intended to amend the Act LXXIII. of 2008.
JEL CODE: K34, L51, L66
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