Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Pavel SIMEK Author-Name: Jiri VANEK Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Technologies, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Michal STOCES Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Technologies, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Jan JAROLIMEK Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Technologies, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Jan PAVLIK Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Technologies, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Mobile accessibility expense analysis of the agrarian WWW portal Abstract: The article analyses the potential expenditures that would be required in order to make the agrarian web information source (the areas of agriculture, food industry, forestry, water management) accessible from the mobile devices. The following approaches were analysed: creating of the responsive layout for mobile web browsers, creating a native application for the Android platform, and creating three native applications in the cross platform environment for the Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The experimental evaluation was performed using the Agrarian WWW portal AGRIS (www.agris.cz), which is one of the most visited online information source in the Czech Republic for covering the areas of agriculture, regional, and countryside development. Keywords: agrarian sector, information source, mobile access, mobile device, native application, web application Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 197-203 Volume: 63 Issue: 5 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/313/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/313/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201705-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:63:y:2017:i:5:id:313-2015-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Eugenio DEMARTINI Author-Name: Anna GAVIGLIO Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety (VESPA), University of Milan, Milan, Italy Author-Name: Alberto PIRANI Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety (VESPA), University of Milan, Milan, Italy Title: Farmers' motivation and perceived effects of participating in short food supply chains: evidence from a North Italian survey Abstract: Local production supports the economies of place and increasingly makes sense as the citizen-consumers increase in number and awareness. Nonetheless, despite the value of the short supply chains, some researchers have reacted sceptically to the irrational optimism around this sales structure. A close relationship with consumers does not imply more profit or exchange fairness by definition. In fact, increasing marketing costs must be considered and there is still information asymmetry, and the profiteering farmers could take advantage of the consumer trust. Through data reduction we explored the farmers' motivation and perceived effects of participating in short food supply chains. We also analysed the location of farms along with their size, production, sale channels and the relative market share, as well as whether they adopted quality certifications. We found that the farmers that work within the short food supply chains opt for a sort of co-certification mechanism based on the consumer/producer relationships rather than opting for the quality certification. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis showed different motivations and perceptions of direct sales among farmers: those that were the largest and farthest from the point of sale, were positive toward the social values of short food supply chains, while the rest seemed less competitive and were more motivated by profit and survival. The results reaffirm that the local production may not be good per se, and the presence of profit and surviving-orientation to market should be considered a treat especially for the reputation of the whole system. Keywords: co-certification, farmers' market, local food, local trap, Short Food Supply Chains Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 204-216 Volume: 63 Issue: 5 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/323/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/323/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201705-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:63:y:2017:i:5:id:323-2015-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Hana URBANCOVA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Petr RICHTER Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Forestry Economics and Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Lenka KUCIRKOVA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Languages, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Martina JARKOVSKA Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Languages, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Employer branding in the agricultural sector: making a company attractive for the potential employees Abstract: The specificity of the agricultural sector (seasonality, the methods of obtaining human resources and so on) affects the situation in the labour market. The demand of agriculture companies for qualified workers is relatively high; unfortunately, people still prefer to work in the related or other fields where they have more suitable work conditions related. Building the brand of the employer, improving the awareness of the public and increasing the loyalty of the present employees can raise the offer of vacancies and obtain new qualified employees. The aim of the paper is to identify the benefits of human resource branding in businesses arising therefrom. A partial aim is to identify the present key managerial challenges of agriculture businesses. In the work, the data collected from a questionnaire survey (n = 108) were used together with the information from the Czech Statistical Office, in the opinion of which the labour market in the agricultural sector does not exhibit a positive trend. As a part of the evaluation, a factor analysis was carried out identifying three categories of benefits (the stabilisation of workers, organisational processes, and other benefits) crucial for the employer branding in agriculture. Keywords: agriculture companies, competitive advantage, employees, human resource branding, labour market Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 217-227 Volume: 63 Issue: 5 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/338/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/338/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201705-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:63:y:2017:i:5:id:338-2015-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Yung-Chang WANG Title: A conjectural variation approach to vertical integration in agricultural cooperatives Abstract: Under the assumption that agricultural cooperative is a form of vertical integration, this paper, using conjectural variations, solves the profit-maximizing problem faced by the members in the multi-plant firm model in which they are vertically integrated with the agricultural cooperative. The average principle, the marginal principle, and the linear combination principle are derived for the competitive behaviour, collusive behaviour, and Cournot behaviour, respectively. The Nash equilibrium and economic efficiency in the cooperative system are then discussed. Finally, the model is numerically solved in an illustration. The marginal principle ensures the cooperative system to remain socially optimal in the competitive market. Keywords: collusive behaviour, Cournot behaviour, Nash equilibrium, multi-plant firm Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 228-233 Volume: 63 Issue: 5 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/202/2016-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/202/2016-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201705-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:63:y:2017:i:5:id:202-2016-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Rapee PONGPANICH Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Author-Name: Ke-Chung PENG Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agribusiness Management, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Author-Name: Kamonthip MAICHUM Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Title: The performance measurement of listed companies of the agribusiness sector on the stock exchange of Thailand Abstract: Listed companies in the agribusiness sector of the stock exchange play a key role in driving the economic system of Thailand. They have an important role in terms of being the producers of agricultural commodities by covering all products from the upstream to downstream. The performance measurements of listed companies contain important information for forecasting the trends of agricultural production and yield. The paper studied and considered much of the literature on the performance measurement of organizations to look for relative variables and the optimal methodology. The study used panel data from 2011-2014, which collected the listed annual companies' statements. The aim of the study was to employ the Slacks Based Measure context-dependent Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM context-dependent DEA) for evaluating the efficiency in Decision Making Units (DMUs). The SBM context-dependent DEA was used to measure the performance of listed companies by employing attractiveness and progress scores. The results showed that when a listed company has a higher attractiveness and lower progress score, it has a better performance than its competitors and does not need to improve its efficiency. Therefore, the empirical results of the study can help farmers and governments to realize the trends of agricultural productivity and also help the listed companies to understand the characteristics of their competitors, leading to improvements in their organizations. Keywords: agribusiness sector, listed company, SBM context-dependent DEA, stock exchange, Thailand Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 234-245 Volume: 63 Issue: 5 Year: 2017 DOI: 10.17221/291/2015-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/291/2015-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-201705-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:63:y:2017:i:5:id:291-2015-AGRICECON