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Moderating Influence of Training and Development on Entrepreneurial Performance
47-54Views:161This study assessed the moderating effect of training and development on entrepreneurial performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria considering the Bank of Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). Two hypotheses were tested in this study reflecting training and development in Nigeria and Ethical practices of Training and Development impacts on behavioral outcomes of entrepreneurs. The paper puts to test, the preceding assertions with the aid of Kruskal Wallis test. From the test, the study refutes the former assertions on the reasoning that P-values were less than 5% level of significance. This showed that the impact of ethical training and development would be more significant if the young entrepreneurs had earlier exposure from secondary to tertiary education level to make better entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The study observed that the Nigerian educational system has contributed positively to the area of training and development which has enhanced entrepreneurial performance in Nigeria. The study recommends that training and development programme should focus on developing creative or innovative individuals who can help to move the nation forward. A Self-reliant person is a creative individual.
JEL Classification: M53, M1
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Effect of Training on Small-Scale Rice Production in Northern Ghana
13-20Views:168Training in modern farming methods enables farm households in developing countries to improve agricultural productivity. Notwithstanding the efforts of governmental and non-governmental organisations to provide farmers with agricultural training, productivity remains low. The existing literature provides little empirical evidence of the effect of training on agricultural productivity in Ghana. This study therefore seeks to bridge this gap by investigating small scale rice farmers’ participation in agricultural training programmes and its effect on productivity in northern Ghana. A treatment effect model was used to account for sample selection bias. The results indicated that participation in training increased with the number of extension visits, group membership, access to credit and the degree of specialisation in rice production. Furthermore, total output and labour productivity both increased with participation in training but the relationship with land productivity (yield) was insignificant. On average, participation in training was associated with 797kg increase in rice output, while labour productivity increased by 7.3kg/man-day. With the exception of farm capital, all the production inputs had a positively significant relationship with output suggesting sub-optimal use of capital in production. The study concludes that farmers’ training needs are not adequately being met while inadequate capital is constraining farm output. Increasing access to extension service and involving farmer-based organisations in the design and implementation of training programmes will enhance participation and farm performance.
JEL Classification: C21, D24, Q12
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Master training in Agribusiness and Rural Development at the University of Zagreb
87-91Views:186The title of the proposed JEP project is: “Agribusiness Higher EducAtion Development” with the acronym AHEAD. This curriculum development project – in case of acceptance – will last for three years, from July 2005 and June 2008. The primary project site is the University of Zagreb, Croatia; the contractor and the co-ordinator institution is the University of Debrecen, Hungary. In the consortium, 3 further European universities (University of Hohenheim, Wageningen University and Scottish Agricultural College) will participate, from the Croatian side the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and an additional 7 Croatian institutes will also be involved. The total number of members in the consortium is 13.
The main objective of the AHEAD project is to establish new BSc and MSc programmes in Croatia at two Faculties of the University of Zagreb. These are as follows: Agricultural and Rural Development, Food Safety and Quality Management and pilot MSc training in Agribusiness and Rural Development. These are preceded by faculty retraining programmes in food safety and quality management, as well as agribusiness and commerce within the framework of a MBA programme accredited by the International MBA Network. The professional content of the project is a modernised curriculum and training palette that would be available by the end of this project at the University of Zagreb, serving not only the higher education of the country, but the demand of the Croatian national economy as well, in line with the basic principles of the European Union. -
Education for rural development and agribusiness in post-socialist Slovakia
133-137Views:139Agricultural education and training in the former Czechoslovakia has traditionally focused on fostering the position of cooperatives and state farms. The destruction of socialist agriculture and the reduction of commuting opportunities in the urban space during the transition have resulted in the handicapped socio-economic position of the Slovak countryside and its population. The role of education and training in fostering agribusiness growth and rural development could therefore become a crucial strategy. The aim of this article is to analyse the current state of education and training for agribusiness and for rural development in Slovakia using the methods of literature research and document analysis. The article interprets general trends in the development of adult education in Slovakia during the transition period. The main priorities and perspectives formulated in the national strategy for education in agriculture (for the period 2007-2013) are discussed in the mentioned context. With a focus on the leading role of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, the paper assesses the current status of formal and further agricultural education and training offered in academic and other educational institutions. The paper concludes by discussing implications, recommendations and challenges for developing education and training initiatives for agribusiness and rural development.
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Innovative training methods in business higher education
75-78Views:183A unique business-oriented educational method was launched in 2010 at the University Of Debrecen, Hungary, in the Faculty Of Applied Economics and Rural Development; the method has existed in the JAMK University of Applied Science in Jyväskylä (Finland) since 1993, and is called Team Academy. The gist of this training is that the students learn entrepreneurship through their ‘living’ organisations with the application of the principle ‘learning-by-doing’. Besides developing the students’ entrepreneurial competencies and skills, this educational model also offers team coaching tools to develop teams of 12-13 students that can cooperate in an efficient way. The key point of Team Academy, which has been launched in several European higher education institutes over the past years (e.g. Spain, France, the Netherlands, etc.), is that the most efficient way of learning how to operate a successful company is to learn it in practice. During the professional and project trainings, the cooperation of the team and their company’s efficiency is continuously developing with the help of team coaches. A quite wide variety of team coaching tools is used in this system, e.g. 360◦ evaluation, which is a very important tool of human resource management. Feedback from students also plays an important role in developing team cooperation; the professional frame for this is also given by the above-mentioned methodology. This method is used successfully at the Debrecen Team Academy which / and (do you mean that the a) Team Academy or b) the above-mentioned methodology will be presented? If B), then write ‘and’ instead of ‘which’) will be presented in this study. A database of 150 questionnaires is analysed through qualitative research methods.
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Internationalization development of tertiary education system in the Republic of Croatia
95-97Views:127This paper forms a part of Executive MBA Training in Agribusiness and Commerce which has been supported, developed and carried out in frame of the Tempus project AHEAD, CD JEP 19009–2004. Understanding of business and management with all components related (from economic principles, marketing, accounting to organisational behaviour, strategic development and thinking etc.) and especially international focus on all this areas initiated the idea of this paper. Clear idea of strategic management from formulation, implementation and evaluation, as well as how important analyses are to develop any kind of good business or development plan (as one of the learning outcomes on MBA training) are present throughout the whole paper. Introduction to internationalization development of tertiary education system is given thru PEST analysis followed by analysis of whole tertiary education in Croatia, identifying major issues for internationalization of tertiary education, analysing them and suggesting solutions to develop it in right direction.
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The Role of „Handball At School” Program in Ability Development and Replenishment Training
53-60Views:220In Hungary the undisputable merit of TAO subsidy is realized in replenishment training, human resource development and development of sports infrastructure. The other important base of replenishment development is „Handball at School” programme managed by Hungarian Handball Federation. „Handball at School” programme was launched in relation to every-day physical education and we undertook the skills-building role of its impact assessment. A survey programme was organised by us in the autumn and spring semesters of 2015/ 2016 academic year aiming to prove that project has positive effect on aiming accuracy and performance stability results of pupils, as well as their precision of technical implemetation. 183 pupils were examined who had two sponge-handball lessons a week out of their 5 physical education lessons. When choosing the pilot scenes it was considered important to get Budapest, Easternand Western Hungary also involved. To examine aiming accuracy two tests were applied. One is „throwing at a target from throwing straddle without previous swing” performed by the pupils. The children were expected to hit the small box five times with right technical implementation meaning that it was done with lifted elbow. After the first implementation they were given some time to relax and the the shots were repeated five times again. The children were asked another task to perform, a similar one to the first, but it had to be performed from running up, that is they ran back from a line, took the sponge ball, ran back to the line and had to hit the small box again with lifted elbow. At this task several aspects were noted and measured again: the time needed for implementation, target accuracy and also whether the technical implementation of the throw was accurate.
JEL Classification: I21, Z28
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Empowerment of rural women farmers and food production in Rathnapura district in Sri Lanka: a household level analysis
105-112Views:270Women empowerment and gender equity are two significant aspects of the sustainable development of a country. As Sri Lanka is on the way towards sustainable development, this study was conducted to assess the situation of women farmers’ empowerment and food production in Rathnapura district of the country. A sample of 300 women farmers was randomly selected for the study, from two selected Divisional Secretariat (DS) of Rathnapura district. Data was collected from a field survey using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire survey from April to July 2019. Empowerment was analyzed using the empowerment framework used by RAHMAN AND NAOZORE in 2007 in the study of “Women Empowerment through Participation in Aquaculture” with necessary modifications. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. Results revealed that majority of the women farmers were middle aged, married and had children. Furthermore, most of them had education up to secondary level. While average family size was four, average farm size was 1.25 acres. They had around 16 years of farming experience. The average monthly income of them was 25,000.00 LKR whereas 20% of it was from agriculture. The main sources of empowerment of women farmers were the Agrarian Service Center (55%) followed by village organizations/societies (30%) and microfinance institutions (26%). Furthermore, women empowerment index was 0.65. It is a moderate level of empowerment. However, there were women farmers under three categories of empowerment levels: low empowerment (4.1%), medium empowerment (58.5%) and high empowerment (36.1%). Out of the socio-economic factors; age, education, family size, land size, number of training programs participated, monthly income, experience in agriculture and number of organizations participated, education and number of training programs attended had significant and positive effect for the empowerment. Accessibility of credit facilities and agricultural extension program participation showed that there was a considerable impact on food production rather than the cultivable land size and utilization of modern farming technologies for food production. Therefore, proving of timely important agricultural education and training programs, enhance awareness level of modern farming technology utilization, better micro finance programs and agricultural credit facilities will be able to enhance the empowerment level of the women farmers of this area furthermore.
JEL CODE: Q01, Q12
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Educational projects – support for development of tourism and rural areas in Serbia
65-69Views:162The 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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Communication of trainers as one of the means for customer retention in fitness clubs
35-40Views:377Acquiring 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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Impact of economic globalization on the human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region countries
123-130Views:411This study examines the impact of economic globalization on the human trafficking inflows into the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries. The paper empirically tests for a cross-section of six countries, including Cambodia, the Yunnan Province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PRD), Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Employing the Pooled OLS estimator, as the theory predicts, the economic globalization increases trafficking inflow into the GMS. However, only foreign direct investment (FDI) affects the degree of trafficking of persons, while the effect of trade is insignificant. Moreover, Exchange rate, Migration, Population and Democracy induce higher rates of trafficked persons, whereas Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other factors, such as education, vocational training and micro-finance through village development funds decrease this problem in the region. Gross National Income per capita (GNI per capita) and rule of law do not have any significant effect on human trafficking.
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Agribusiness higher education development – ahead: The project results at a glance
95-98Views:179his booklet that has caught your attention contains basic information about the AHEAD project sponsored by the EU’s TEMPUS grant. This project was carried out between University of Zagreb (and other Croatian partners) and four EU-based universities. The project was very ambitious and it is my pleasure to state that the great majority of the objectives were carried out with high quality during the 3 years project time span. The main results of the AHEAD project can be found in this booklet, and I would like to mention just a few of them:
• A new MBA training started in Zagreb with international recognition
• 61 subjects of 3 BSc/MSc trainings were reviewed and modified,
• a study was created in order to determine the short – and long – term expert demand of the Croatian national economy,
• computers, equipment and modern textbooks were purchased from European grant and
• finally a personal note: it was spectacular to see the rapid development of University of Zagreb and generally the whole Croatia during the last 3 years. If our project contributed just a little bit to it, the effort certainly was worthwhile. -
Agribusiness higher education development – training needs analysis
107-120Views:161With the tremendous changes in political and economic systems of the Republic of Croatia after independence, new challenges have been put to the higher education system as well. The system used to be structured to serve a centrally planed economy with predominantly state ownership. Universities were producing graduates to be employed on statefarms,inagri-foodsystems(socalled„kombinats“),the state owned processing industry or cooperatives. The graduates were specialised in particular branches, such as crop production, vegetable production or livestock husbandry. Therefore, they were not educated to understand the whole system of a company or the agri-food system. In one word, they were not prepared to run firms as managers, although they were highly educated. Small and medium size entrepreneurs in agri-food business have been rather an exception than a rule, and prior to the transition there was not to much experience in managing, financing or marketing for such a firms.
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Talent management based on therapeutic work with a professional handball team
63-66Views:165All athletes regardless of their age should get mental skills development that could be integrated into their normal training. Psychological training is essential for better performance because in sports the psychological factors play a very important role. The aim of this presentation is to show the therapeutic work of a professional men’s handball team and demonstrate the nature of the social environment and how it can have an effect on their performance. The author examines how a team forms, develops and works and what factors contribute achieving the optimum performance. The functions, structures, dynamics and goals of an adult team were analyzed and on top of that the focus was on the a threemonth long therapeutic process and its results as well. In order to improve the selfawareness and team building, the players were asked to fill out following questionnaires: psychometric questionnaire of Keczeli1, Keczeli2 questionnaire about roles, tasks and responsibilities within the team and playercoach relationship and attention questionnaire (Pieron). The conclusions of this work can be useful for further talent managment and develpoment.
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The importance of organic agriculture in tourism rural
59-64Views:913Many 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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Research and education in agrobusiness in Mosonmagyaróvár – the 200-year history
129-136Views:225In 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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Recruiting recent graduates to work at agricultural enterprises: Siberian region case study
27-30Views:138The authors present the results of the analysis of the employment of graduates of agricultural specialties in the Siberian Federal District of the Russian Federation. In the Siberian Federal District, more than 20 universities are engaged in the training of specialists in agriculture. The universities pay special attention to the employment of their graduates and often have their own programs of graduates’ employment.
The article is devoted to discussing the reasons why the graduates consider the work in the rural area to be unattractive (low standards of living conditions compared with town, lack of quality education for children and possibilities for professional development, etc.) The necessity of realization of the state strategy intended to support graduates of agricultural specialties is grounded, including assigning the status of civil servants to social workers in rural areas and attracting successful entrepreneurs to the village and creating conditions for the development of the entrepreneurial
environment.JEL Code: J21
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Analysis of time management and self-management work practice by leaders – a focus group study
133-140Views:648Nowadays excellent leadership is one of the foundations of high organizational performance. Leadership excellence is a complex topic but efficiency and effectiveness are important components of it. These are closely linked to self-management and time management. In our focus group research, we asked senior executives about how they organize their average workday. We used two theoretical models: the Blue Ocean model and the Franklin Covey time-matrix. According to the participants the key component of effective self-management is the time management. In their leadership practice they often use a digital task manager, a workshop, an informal meeting as a tool and they find knowledge sharing also very important. They try to approach their employees empathetically. They would like to reduce the administrative tasks, spend less time on correspondence, travel and “small talks”. They would like to spend more time on automation and communication, further training and team work and dealing with the employees. They think that strategic planning, market analysis, sales, knowledge development and transfer should require more planning.
JEL code: M12
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Investment analysis of plum brandy production – methodology approach
103-105Views:148The major prerequisite of successful entrepreneurship venture is quality of decision-making process. Decision in investment is the most important financial decision. It is a part of both long-term business planning process and strategic business definition. Using available investment appraisal methods, entrepreneur should make positive or negative investment decision. Within the development of the economic theory and the practice many of methods made decision-making process rational and gave the scientific and practical base for successful project evaluation.
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The situation of the Hungarian agricultural higher education
73-77Views:139The 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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MBA education at the University of Debrecen and its further development towards Double Degree Programmes
167-170Views:262University 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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