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Copyright of Agris On-Line Papers in Economics & Informatics is the property of Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Consulting Center of the Faculty of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Efficient use of production resources in enterprises is necessary for increasing their competitiveness and the potential for their future development. In today's global world, companies are forced to invest in new technologies that are both more energy-efficient and more environmentally friendly, including in the food industry. The paper focusses on the efficiency of production factors in relation to their economic success. The aim is to find possible variants of the development of the links between capital labour ratio and labour productivity in relation to the development of profitability of returns. Empirical analysis coved 2,526 enterprises in food industry in four examined European countries (Visegrad group -V4) - Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic. The contribution of the paper is the generalization of the links between the indicators of the efficiency of production factors in the form of recommended inequalities that can be used by enterprises for economically successful development.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to interrogate comparative advantage of agrarian and food processing sectors in the context of the agri-food global value chains in particular countries in the Central and Eastern Europe using gross trade and value-added trade data from TiVA database. The Normalized revealed comparative advantage index (NRCA) was applied to analyze comparative (dis)advantage of agrarian and food processing sectors from 1995 to 2020. The article contributes twofold: First, NRCA pairs of indices calculated using gross trade and value-added trade data are mostly consistent. The analysis identifies for what areas and countries there is a discrepancy; second, it reveals comparative advantage of agrarian and food processing sectors in each country separately. It indicates different trajectories of development among countries in the Central and Eastern Europe. These results are complementary to the results of studies that evaluated comparative advantages on the product basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates product differentiation, both in vertical and horizontal dimensions, in the instant noodles industry. It first presents theoretical models that predict firms' product differentiation behaviour before testing the theories using the case of instant noodles industries in three Asian countries: Indonesia, India, and Japan. The vertical differentiation behaviour is examined using the ANOVA test followed by the Bonferroni correction to investigate which brands exhibit the most evident vertical differentiation behaviour. The horizontal differentiation strategy is explored using a descriptive analysis method. Using information on the selling prices and product variants of instant noodles leading brands in each country, the empirical findings confirm the models' predictions. The study claims that companies apply the principles of 'minimum differentiation' as their vertical differentiation strategy and 'maximum differentiation' when differentiating horizontally. These strategies are implemented by choosing prices close to each other and producing distinguishable variants from competitors. These findings bring the theories of product differentiation into a real-life application and provide insights into how firms in the food products industry behave in differentiating their products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agris On-Line Papers in Economics & Informatics is the property of Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Consulting Center of the Faculty of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The food and agricultural sector will face numerous challenges in the next decades, arising from changing global production and consumption patterns, which currently go along with high resource use, causing ecological and socio-economic impacts. The aim of this paper is to illustrate and evaluate the practical applicability of the Hot Spot Analysis methodology in the context of supply chain management in companies. The HSA is a method to identify social and ecological problems along the entire life cycle of a product. Special emphasis is put on a customized implementation in the value chain beef of McDonald's Germany. The HSA of McDonald's beef value chain shows that the main ecological problems arise in the phase of raw material extraction, whereas the main social problems can be identified in the phase of slaughtering. Finally, the paper shows potentials and shortcomings of such a customized application and how the results can be implemented in the sustainability management of a company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study measures the static and dynamic agricultural competitiveness of Vietnam by the RCA and the NRCA. The dynamics of the trade competitiveness indicators are assessed in three ways: OLS regression, Markov matrices, and trend analysis. The paper, moreover, tests the consistency between the RCA, NRCA, and RTA indices. The results show that (i) Vietnam, generally, achieves strong competitiveness in crop and fishery sectors whilst it has weak competitiveness in livestock and processed food sectors; (ii) the country has the convergent pattern of agricultural competitiveness with the high stability of strong competitive and uncompetitive sectors; (iii) the country's agricultural export strategy and competitiveness pattern are based on the natural-resource-intensive and traditional agricultural products with a slight improvement over time; and (iv) the RCA, NRCA, and RTA indices are strongly consistent in identifying the degrees of competitiveness and determining whether a country obtains competitiveness while they are weakly consistent in ranking competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the market concentration in the Czech food and beverages industry over the period of 2003-2014, to quantify disparities among particular sectors and to investigate the trend of market concentration. The concept of convergence is applied when investigating the trend in the long term. The market concentration in the Czech food and beverages industry has increased on average. In sectors with relatively low market concentration in 2003, the values of concentration increased more rapidly after 2003. On the contrary, the most concentrated sectors tend to change slowly over time and the concentration in some sectors even declined. On the basis of the absolute ß-convergence model estimation, it was concluded that there is a trend for convergence of the market concentration in the long run to one and the same point for all sectors of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agris On-Line Papers in Economics & Informatics is the property of Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Consulting Center of the Faculty of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This empirical study aims to shed light on the dynamic linkages among investments, technical efficiency and productivity of food processing at a sectoral level. We use data obtained from meat and milk processing firms operating in the Czech Republic. The data set covers a period from 2011 to 2015. Being based on a production function frontier framework and the Divisia index our study is focuses on the estimation of technical efficiency and productivity of Czech Food processing firms in connection with the received investments. The results of the conducted analysis have shown that investments, directed to a production process of meat and milk processing firms operating in the Czech Republic, do have a positive effect on their technical efficiency. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to increase the capacity of raw milk processing. Higher TFP in food processing industry may result in higher TFP in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the current knowledge of business process modelling languages, which is increasingly important also in the agri-food industry. It describes the history of business process modelling, currently mostly used alternatives-UML, BPMN, EPC and recaps their strengths and features in which they outperform the others. As demonstrated all three notations can adequately model business processes. They do however differ in some specific features. In some aspects, each of the languages always outperforms the others. Important is that except of some general objective features where the languages differ, there is also a lot of subjective perception of how the single notations perform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the effects of sectoral determinants on profitability of the Czech food processing industry over the period of years 2003-2014. Large micro-level sample (N = 10,509) for 12 years and across 9 food subsectors in the Czech Republic was utilized to create a sectoral panel dataset, which was used in the empirical analysis. As for the methods, regression models with fixed effects were employed. Sectoral profitability served as the dependent variable in regressions and it was operationalized by two variables, i.e. ROA and ROE. Both profitability indicators revealed the same influence of investigated determinants. Obtained results reported positive influence of higher market concentration on sectoral profitability and also the increase of productivity was associated with the increase of ROA and ROE. It was confirmed that high indebtedness affects the profitability negatively. Contrary to the expectations, the effect of the import penetration on the profitability was not proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a basic overview of the development of production and trade in the case of poultry meat in the Czech Republic. The goal of the actual analysis is to identify the main developmental trends and tendencies forming the development of Czech production and trade in the case of poultry meat. From the results of the analysis, we can observe the increasing growth in time of domestic demand for poultry meat (primarily chicken meat), and further, also a certain level of stagnation in the area of domestic production, whose rate of growth is significantly lower as compared to the rate of growth of actual consumption. In the course of the years, the domestic market is becoming more dependent on imports of poultry meat primarily from EU countries. The negative trade balance of the Czech Republic in relation to partner countries increased significantly within the analyzed period. As far as the comparative advantages of Czech poultry meat trade are concerned, those are gradually fading away more and more in time - or rather, the comparative disadvantage is deepening, both in relation to the countries of the EU, as well as in regard to third countries. Only some sub-aggregations are capable of maintaining comparative advantages, which are additionally characterized by a low level of processing. This paper was supported by the institutional research intentions MSM 6046070906. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food industry as an important part of the agriculture sector markedly influences through its financial economic results development both in agriculture and in related links of the food chain. The objective of the present paper is to identify negative and positive these aspects of results obtained in this sector in 2007-2009 and to reveal some risks that can retard the agriculture sector and/or to indicate positive trends that will lead to its development. Some segments - manufactures influencing the results of the food industry as a whole in a pronounced way were selected for analysis. The graphical model Spider Analysis was used for an expeditious and objective evaluation of results in the branches of manufacture and their position within the studied sector for the given period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meat industry is one of the key sectors within the food industry in the Czech Republic. Development, especially in the pork production, is unfavourable. Negative foreign trade balance and low self-sufficiency is reported. Czech market products compete with foreign imports of meat and economic performance of enterprises plays an important role in this field. Article aims to identify qualitative factors limiting the competitiveness of the meat industry and to identify groups of enterprises with key position. The size of a company was confirmed as an only factor limiting the competitiveness. Statistically significant differences among the three performance indicators (out of the four analysed) were demonstrated. The larger the enterprise, the greater values of indicators are. Form of company ownership, drawing subsidies and region of the company cannot be confirmed as factors influencing the eco nomic performance and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian agri-food sector has traditionally been one of the strongest in the national socio-economic system. In the last ten years, commercial exchange trends have shown growing openness towards foreign countries and in particular to European Union (EU) countries. Both the primary sector and food industry are strongly influenced by their territorial location so much so that several authors have highlighted territorial specialisation and its effects on that territory's features also considering the contribution of the Italian Regions. The following work will analyse the patterns of agri-food specialisation in the Italian Regions. In particular, the Lafay Index will be used to evaluate competitive advantag e at a Regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to determine the relationship between working capital and profitability of companies operating in the food industry in the Czech Republic and then find out how working capital affects the profitability of these companies from 2009 to 2019. In the first part of the research we estimate the links between working capital measured by variables such as cash conversion cycle, current assets ratio, current liabilities ratio, working capital ratio and corporate profitability measured by return on sales. In the next part of the research, we estimate the effect of working capital measured by variables such as cash conversion cycle, current assets ratio, current liabilities ratio, working capital ratio on corporate profitability measured by return on sales. Correlation analysis and the GMM method will be used to determine the relationship between working capital and the profitability of companies and how working capital affects the profitability of these companies. The results of the correlation analysis showed statistically significant links between return on sales and variables such as cash conversion cycle, current assets ratio, current liabilities ratio and working capital ratio. The results of the GMM method showed a statistically significant effect of variables such as cash conversion cycle, current assets ratio, current liabilities ratio and working capital ratio on the profitability of companies measured by the return on sales indicator. All mitigated effects have been demonstrated for companies operating in the food industry as a whole, as well as in the production of food products and beverages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agris On-Line Papers in Economics & Informatics is the property of Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Consulting Center of the Faculty of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent decades as a result of the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the Internet, we have witnessed major changes in companies. The ICT support of the processes is becoming more and more extensive and comprehensive, which enables the realization of digitalisation. The interconnection of processes, machines, people in a single network makes another level of optimisation available. The changes turned up by digitalisation are not only technological, but they also have an impact on the company's organisation and strategy. Our study aims to create an analytical framework and map the opportunities that digitalisation promises in the food industry and the organisational changes that ICT and technological development bring, with special emphasis on the impact on strategy, employees, and corporate culture. Our results show that companies are not consciously engaged in digitalisation yet, but they exploit their opportunities and make improvements in this sense. Adaptation of digital solutions is often forced by the labour shortage, the pressure to achieve higher efficiency and thus to remain competitive and to service the growth strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a research study that analyses chosen factors that affect food purchases in Vysočina Region with focus on a regional food. The quantitative research, conducted in 2015 in each district of Vysočina Region (Jihlava, Žďár nad Sázavou, Třebíč, Havlíčkův Brod and Pelhřimov), analysed the opinions of 819 respondents. They were selected by quota sampling methods according to gender. Data have been processed with correspondence analysis; the results show that brand and price are significant factors that influence consumers in Vysočina Region when they buy food, the labels on the food packaging do not seem to be a strong signal of quality. Statistical tests based on contingency tables proved that regional food is strongly preferred by women and consumers over 65 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to determine the impact of debt funding sources structure on liquidity of companies in food industry in the Czech Republic from 2006 to 2016. With the purpose to fulfill the aim, we examine existence and character of relationship between the debt funding sources structure (long-term loans, short-term loans, other long-term liabilities, other short-term liabilities, debt equity ratio) and liquidity of the companies (cash ratio, quick ratio and current ratio) in food industry in the Czech Republic. The relationship between debt funding sources structure and liquidity of companies is tested through correlation analysis, Granger causality test and generalized method of moments (GMM). The liquidity of companies was positively influenced by the long-term loans in companies (cash ratio and quick ratio) in food industry in the Czech Republic. The results also indicate that there is the negative impact of other current liabilities on liquidity of companies (cash ratio, quick ratio and current liquidity) in food industry in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact evaluation of public investment is essential for policy makers to evaluate the effectiveness of public resource allocation and for company management from various industries to determine whether to participate in grant programmes. This article aims to use statistical and econometrical methods (such as propensity score matching, average treatment effect on treated, difference-in-difference approach and pooled regression with time lags) to evaluate the impacts of investment support from the Rural Development Programme, national sources and the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation on selected key economic indicators. This representative case study of 412 companies from the Czech food and beverage industry during the period from 2007-2015 noted some interesting findings, many of which go against previous findings. The food and beverage industry is an important beneficiary of public investment subsidies. Investment support increases investment activity and the size of supported companies. This investment support could lead to a crowdingout effect, which has been revealed in recent studies. Simultaneously, investment support changes the capital structure of participants towards higher use of bank loans and positively affects long-term profitability. However, there were not any significant, positive effects on the intensity of the use of fixed assets and labour productivity, which has been a key impact indicator for programme evaluations. However, research revealed positive dynamic effects of investment support on improving resource efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the agrarian sector several tens of billions Czech crowns of state and European aid is redistributed annually. The openness of related data and any other that can support economic stability and competitiveness of Czech agrarian sector is a challenge not only for officials but also for research and non-profit sector. In order to determine the current state of availability of open data in agrarian sector 10 departmental institutions have been selected, which are the main producers of agricultural data in the Czech Republic, along with the CZSO (Czech Statistical Office) which is another significant source of agricultural data. The evaluation took place in the first quarter of 2016. The result is a statement that data in formats that allow further processing is published only by two out of ten surveyed departmental organizations. A similar situation prevails in the National Catalog of Open Data where there is no data coming from regarding the agricultural sector. It is proven that making the data open can bring benefits to both farmers themselves, end consumers and other commercial entities. On the other hand, it is necessary to ensure the safety of data providers, data creators and in turn, the national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is a global issue nowadays. At the European level, it is a sector, in which we are investing many resources. In particular, the Agri-Food sector plays a central role in the policies of the European Commission and the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, as well as being the main theme of Expo 2015 that will be held in Milan, Lombardy. In the Lombardy region, the farmers represent 2% of the entire population, cultivating about 80% of the agricultural land. Increasing needs to develop a common body of knowledge shared at the regional and national level so as to make it possible to effectively monitor cropping systems, water stress and impacts of climate changes affecting more frequently the territory, are becoming more and more urgent. In this context, the project Space4Agri (S4A) intends to support the regional and local needs in terms of management of the agriculture sector, by designing and developing an information and knowledge based platform for managing geospatial and mainstream information by making it accessible over the Internet by standard communication technologies (Geo&Mainstream ICT). This platform has been designed to allow data workflows integrating i) spatial data and observations, ii) non-spatial information available from existing agronomic databases, iii) data collected in the field by farmers, agronomists and volunteers using mobile applications, iv) data collected by unmanned aerial sensors, and/or data produced by researchers as a result of applying scientific analysis on high quality remote sensing data. Foreseen results of the Space4Agri project and from other similar ongoing research activities may significantly spur the socio-economic development of Europe and create new growth opportunities for companies, public administrations, students and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the project of European Commission entitled "International comparisons of product supply chains in the agri-sectors: determinants of their competitiveness and performance on EU and international markets" (COMPLETE). It says that the project aims to strengthen competitiveness of agri-food sector in the Europe. Moreover, the project will provide comprehensive perspectives on different elements which contributes to agri-food supply chain such as farms and food manufacturers.