Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: M. Lošťák Author-Workplace-Name: Czech University of Agriculture, Prague, Czech Republic Title: The influence of intangible forms of capital on farms Abstract: Intangible issues, which are often very difficult to be quantified become more and more the field of interest of social sciences. There are many research works demonstrating that various types of knowledge, institutions, social networks, and social relations have a great influence on human activities as for efficient achievement of the actors' goals. This paper relates expert knowledge (shaping professional qualification) to human capital and tacit knowledge (understood as a broader, general, and contextual knowledge) to cultural capital. Both forms of capital exist in their primary form only in concrete individual persons. Concerning collective persons (firm, community), cultural and human capitals are transformed into intellectual capital. Work with specific knowledge, tacit knowledge and capitals corresponding to them shows the role of social networks and social capital in their organization. Using the analysis of two farms based on natural experiment, the paper demonstrates the role of tacit knowledge and cultural capital (opposing to the overestimated role of expert knowledge and human capital). The conclusions outline social determination of both types of knowledge through social networks and social capital needed for an efficient work of a farm. Keywords: social capital, cultural capital, human capital, intellectual capital, expert knowledge, tacit knowledge, social networks Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 251-262 Volume: 52 Issue: 6 Year: 2006 DOI: 10.17221/5022-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/5022-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-200606-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:52:y:2006:i:6:id:5022-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: R. Perlín Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Title: The co-operation of rural municipalities - chance or condition of achievement Abstract: Czech settlement structure as well as the structure of public administration on municipal level is extremely disintegrated. Besides a great number of very small villages - small settlement units - there exists a big share of very small municipalities with self-government. Those municipalities can and often do cooperate in voluntary associations, which can transfer some of their competencies by a specific municipal treaty. This paper is focused on the discussion of possibilities and limits of cooperation among rural municipalities. Different forms of existing collaboration are discussed and possibilities of new forms of municipal collaboration are drafted, including the possible presumed and real dangers of such collaboration. Keywords: public administration, self-government, rural development, cooperation of municipalities, development strategies Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 263-272 Volume: 52 Issue: 6 Year: 2006 DOI: 10.17221/5023-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/5023-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-200606-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:52:y:2006:i:6:id:5023-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Z. Bednaříková Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Z. Trávníček Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: V. Vávra Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Regional differentiations of rural villages in the Czech Republic Abstract: Rural villages are the sole subjects in rural area which integrate all elements acting in the rural area to one functional whole. They can be therefore taken as the pivotal element of rural development. The research was done in 2004 and was based on the search for rural villages' characteristics and exploration of the elements of regional differentiation. The project results from the presumption of difference between the rural villages given by their size, location in specific areas or on exposed roads, distance from civic centers etc. It is supposed that these characteristics have specific and significant connections with such phenomenon as the level of unemployment, the level of civic and technical facilities in villages, the activity of inhabitants and the village itself, etc. The challenge was to define problem characteristics of rural areas, which mirror significant regional differences, structure and interconnectedness of these differences and their importance for future regional development. Interdependence of particular indicators was explored by statistical evaluation. Keywords: rural villages, rural area, regional differentiations, differentiation criteria, set of villages Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 273-280 Volume: 52 Issue: 6 Year: 2006 DOI: 10.17221/5024-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/5024-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-200606-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:52:y:2006:i:6:id:5024-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: A. Wolz Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural Development in Central & Eastern Europe (IAMO), Halle (Saale), Germany Author-Name: J. Fritzsch Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural Development in Central & Eastern Europe (IAMO), Halle (Saale), Germany Author-Name: J. Pencáková Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Agricultural Development in Central & Eastern Europe (IAMO), Halle (Saale), Germany Title: The impact of structural social capital on farm income in the Czech Republic Abstract: The change of the economic system from the socialist central planning system to the market economy required the reorganisation not only of agricultural production, but also of the organisations supporting it. In the Czech Republic, agricultural production is characterised by a dualistic structure, i.e. private farmers on the one side and corporate farms on the other. However, among both groups some had been economically more successful than others. In general, a varying adoption of production factors, i.e. land, labour and capital is identified as being of influence. Namely, their ability to collaborate with other farms which is discussed under the concept of social capital, will be analysed in this paper. Based on the findings of a survey among a sample of 62 farms by adopting factor and multiple regression analysis, it can be deduced that social capital is indeed a significant factor determining farm income. Keywords: corporate farms, private farms, cross sectional models Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 281-288 Volume: 52 Issue: 6 Year: 2006 DOI: 10.17221/5025-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/5025-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-200606-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:52:y:2006:i:6:id:5025-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: M. Polišenský Author-Workplace-Name: Czech University of Agriculture, Prague, Czech Republic Title: The significance of the personality of knowledge: its contribution in creating and utilizing the system of knowledge in organization Abstract: How does an organization utilize knowledge for the reproduction of its culture in innovations, it was a key-point of the question for an approach based on the methodology of social process in the recent past. Then the formation of knowledge was considered a process of power politics with the consequences for knowledge management. In the framework of those projects, attempts were made in organizations to extract the knowledge from experts and specialized professionals that it might be codified and saved in extensive databases; only then the remainder of employees ought to have possibility to consult them and add the results of their own ideas to these databases. Poor success of such attempts only illustrates the methodological failure of utilizing information technologies for knowledge formation, its storage and transfer. Moreover, when a new fact was soon discovered even in the framework of the new approach, that there was an abyss-like difference between information (that information technologies operate with) and the knowledge, then the significance of personality increased again. The research that was done with the "champions of organizational learning" in the framework of knowledge management emphasized their import in catching the best experience, knowledge codification and its distribution in the organizations. Among other qualities, the knowledge is strongly personalized: it means it is connected with personal experience, attitudes, and evaluations. On the other hand, an advantage of new methodology was that the possible social actions, connected with the knowledge management, search for a strategy, and implementation were studied. These very changes in methodology have been a valuable contribution even for the research into the role of personality within this social process, however. They induce circumstances and means for studying the infrastructure of relationships that make possible the impact of individual authority in organization in general. In this paper, we also pay attention to this social process in teams as compared to collectives and how team-leaders emerge within them. Keywords: knowledge management, information technologies, personality of science, epistemic authority Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 289-300 Volume: 52 Issue: 6 Year: 2006 DOI: 10.17221/5026-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/5026-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-200606-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:52:y:2006:i:6:id:5026-AGRICECON