Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Martina KÖNIGOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Jan HRON Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Methodology for the identification of managerial competencies in knowledge-based organizations Abstract: In the current entrepreneurial environment characterised by the dynamic development and changes, organizations have to promote the development of their employees in order to achieve a competitive advantage. Therefore, the personality of a manager who is a holder of specific knowledge, abilities, skills, traits, motives, attitudes and values becomes increasingly important as it is the main source for gaining a competitive advantage. Managerial competencies, i.e. the individual characteristic necessary to reach the required level of a manager's performance, together with an efficient management thus become the key factor of success. The article focuses on the identification of managerial competencies in knowledge-based organizations in the Czech Republic. The first part of the article focuses on the theoretical approaches to managerial competencies, competency models and knowledge-based organizations. The second part of the article deals with the proposed methodology for the identification of managerial competencies. The final part summarizes the benefits and difficulties of applying the competency-based approach as a tool of the efficient management of organizations for the purpose of achieving a competitive advantage. The utilization of managerial competencies to achieve competitive advantage is important in all fields including the economics and management of agriculture and other similar fields. Keywords: manager, managerial competencies, knowledge-based organizations, human resource management, competitive advantage Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 347-353 Volume: 58 Issue: 8 Year: 2012 DOI: 10.17221/206/2011-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/206/2011-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201208-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:58:y:2012:i:8:id:206-2011-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alessandro ANTIMIANI Author-Workplace-Name: National Institute of Agricultural Economics Research (INEA), Rome, Italy Author-Name: Anna CARBONE Author-Workplace-Name: University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy Author-Name: Valeria COSTANTINI Author-Workplace-Name: University of Roma Tre, Roma, Italy Author-Name: Roberto HENKE Author-Workplace-Name: National Institute of Agricultural Economics Research (INEA), Rome, Italy Title: Agri-food exports in the enlarged European Union Abstract: This paper explores the agri-food export dynamics in the New Member States and the Old Member States of the European Union during the enlargement process. The analysis relies on two different approaches based on the similarity and the sophistication indices of exported goods using a disaggregation at 95 items. The analysis shows that different and somehow divergent paths are in place. On the one side, the Czech Republic and Poland are involved in a quality catching up process and increase their competitiveness. On the other side, Bulgaria and Romania seem to be still trapped in the low-quality segment of the agri-food market with a decreasing competitiveness performance in the richest segment of the European market. Keywords: agri-food sector, EU enlargement, trade similarity, export sophistication Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 354-366 Volume: 58 Issue: 8 Year: 2012 DOI: 10.17221/145/2011-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/145/2011-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201208-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:58:y:2012:i:8:id:145-2011-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Harun UCAK Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Nigde University, Nigde, Turkey Title: Producer price disparities in the EU agriculture: divergence or convergence? Abstract: The issue of price disparities in the EU commodity markets has given rise to a fair amount of empirical and theoretical research. Price convergence studies were generally on the aggregate level, and investigated the convergence of inflation among countries. This study aims to investigate the convergence of agricultural price disparities among the EU member states, based on different individual agricultural products. The analysis shows the existence of agricultural price convergence among the EU member states since 1991, even including some countries were not members of the EU. Furthermore, the speed of convergence differs among agricultural products and also between the sub-periods as 1991-2000 and 2000-2008. Keywords: convergence, EU agriculture, producer prices, integration, agricultural markets Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 367-371 Volume: 58 Issue: 8 Year: 2012 DOI: 10.17221/84/2011-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/84/2011-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201208-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:58:y:2012:i:8:id:84-2011-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Karel Janda Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley, USA Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Workplace-Name: University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Economic Research & Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Ladislav Kristoufek Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Information Theory and Automation, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: David Zilberman Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Berkeley, USA Title: Biofuels: policies and impacts Abstract: This paper provides a general overview of the technological, social, environmental, economical, and policy considerations related to biofuels. While the biofuel production and consumption exhibited significant increase over the first decade of the new millennium, this and further increases in biofuel production are driven primarily by government policies. Currently available first generation biofuels are not economically viable in the absence of fiscal incentives or high oil prices (with a few exceptional cases, especially in the case of the most developed Brazilian sugarcane production of ethanol). Also the environmental impacts of biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels are quite ambiguous. The literature review of the most recent economic models dealing with biofuels and their economic impacts provides a distinction between structural and reduced form models. The discussion of structural models centres primarily on computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The review of reduced models is structured toward the time series analysis approach to the dependencies between prices of biofuels, prices of agricultural commodities used for the biofuel production and prices of the fossil fuels. Keywords: biofuels, ethanol, biodiesel Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 372-386 Volume: 58 Issue: 8 Year: 2012 DOI: 10.17221/124/2011-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/124/2011-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201208-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:58:y:2012:i:8:id:124-2011-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jan ŠIROKÝ Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, Technical University Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic Author-Name: Anna KOVÁŘOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, Technical University Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic Author-Name: Kateřina RANDOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, Technical University Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic Title: The role of the value added tax on foodstuffs in the consumer basket Abstract: When looking for economic policy instruments in the times of economic crisis, even tax instruments are considered, particularly the changes (increases) of the value added tax rates. Most of the EU member states have two VAT rates, while foodstuffs and non-alcoholic beverages are included under a reduced rate. If increasing the reduced VAT rate, the significance of the foodstuff or non-alcoholic beverages in the consumer basket, the regression of the VAT in these commodities and the significance of the impact on households should be considered. This article tries to point out this issue by analyzing the impacts of changes in the VAT rates, or the actual VAT paid by the average households in the Czech Republic in the period from 2005 to 2010. Keywords: value added tax, vat rates, changes of rates, consumer basket, tax burden, foodstuffs and non-alcoholic beverages Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 387-395 Volume: 58 Issue: 8 Year: 2012 DOI: 10.17221/188/2011-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/188/2011-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201208-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:58:y:2012:i:8:id:188-2011-AGRICECON