Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Irena Antošová Author-Name: Naďa Hazuchová Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Marketing and Trade, Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Jana Stávková Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Marketing and Trade, Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Title: Income situation of agricultural households of EU countries Abstract: One of objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy is to ensure an appropriate living standard for agricultural households. The paper uses EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data to assess the income situation and living conditions of agricultural households. The agricultural household income does not reach the average household income in any of the EU countries. Multidimensional cluster analysis is applied to classify EU countries according to the income situation of agricultural households. The cluster analysis revealed five segments and the fact that living conditions at a satisfactory level can be achieved irrespective of the economic status of the agricultural household, although it depends on an appropriate setting of agricultural policy. The index of living conditions is constructed and used for the comparison. Based on the analysis results, the variables included in the assessment of the living standard of agricultural households should be taken into account when fulfilling the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy, especially the part that relates to improving the living conditions of agricultural households. The current EU-SILC database is appropriate for the evaluation of the household income situation. However, it does not reflect the specifics of agricultural households, so additional measurement is needed. Keywords: agriculture, economic status, EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, job sector, living conditions, poverty Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 121-128 Volume: 67 Issue: 4 Year: 2021 DOI: 10.17221/474/2020-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/474/2020-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-202104-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:67:y:2021:i:4:id:474-2020-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Filippo Gambella Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy Author-Name: Leonardo Bianchini Author-Workplace-Name: Department DAFNE, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy Author-Name: Massimo Cecchini Author-Workplace-Name: Department DAFNE, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy Author-Name: Gianluca Egidi Author-Workplace-Name: Department DAFNE, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy Author-Name: Agostino Ferrara Author-Workplace-Name: School of Agricultural, Forest, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy Author-Name: Luca Salvati Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics and Law, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy Author-Name: Andrea Colantoni Author-Workplace-Name: Department DAFNE, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy Author-Name: Donato Morea Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mechanical, Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy Title: Moving toward the north? The spatial shift of olive groves in Italy Abstract: Southern Europe is becoming a hotspot for climate change. Appropriate mechanisation is necessary for reducing soil compacting in such contexts. The olive tree distribution - a typical Mediterranean crop - showed a well-defined latitude gradient with progressive decline moving towards the north. Climate change, however, has supposed to cause a significant shift towards the north in the geographical range of olive trees. Our study analyses the spatial distribution of the olive tree area in Italy, a region within the species' ecological range apart from the Northern region, which is now becoming progressively specialised in this crop because of local warming. Results indicate that olive cultivated area increased in Northern Italy, especially in flat districts and upland areas, while decreasing (more or less rapidly) in central and southern Italy because of land abandonment. Keywords: agriculture, climate variations, landscape, mechanisation, Northern Italy, socio-economic system Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 129-135 Volume: 67 Issue: 4 Year: 2021 DOI: 10.17221/467/2020-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/467/2020-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-202104-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:67:y:2021:i:4:id:467-2020-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ľuboslav Szabo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, Faculty of Business Management, University of Economics in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Patrik Richnák Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Production Management and Logistics, Faculty of Business Management, University of Economics in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Author-Name: Klaudia Gubová Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Production Management and Logistics, Faculty of Business Management, University of Economics in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic Title: New dimension of logistics innovations development in agricultural enterprises in Slovakia Abstract: The research article's primary aim was to provide a comprehensive and systematic view of a new dimension of logistics in the form of logistics innovations in agricultural enterprises in Slovakia. The intention thereof was to define and then analyse selected logistics innovations in agricultural enterprises. The research object was formed by 95 agricultural enterprises in Slovakia. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument. MS Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics 20 were used to process the data in the questionnaire. The univariate descriptive statistics and multivariate descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data. The research results were tested and evaluated by means of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Medium-sized agricultural enterprises in Slovakia represented the largest segment (68%) of the study. The agricultural enterprises mostly understand the use of smart technologies as an innovation in logistics (mean = 4.43). The results of the research showed that the analysed agricultural enterprises intend to innovate mainly the production logistics (mean = 3.20). Out of the logistics processes, the agricultural enterprises want to innovate mostly the inventory management (mean = 4.55). Lean logistics is the most frequently implemented logistics innovation in agricultural enterprises (mean = 3.64). The hypothesis testing has proven that there is a statistically significant relationship between the utilisation of lean logistics and production logistics innovation. In addition, it was proven that there is a statistically significant relationship between the utilisation of radio frequency identification (RFID) and the logistics process innovation - inventory management. Keywords: agricultural logistics, lean logistics, logistics outsourcing, quick response, radio frequency identification Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 136-143 Volume: 67 Issue: 4 Year: 2021 DOI: 10.17221/444/2020-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/444/2020-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-202104-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:67:y:2021:i:4:id:444-2020-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Hana Urbancová Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Human Resources, University of Economics and Management, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Pavla Vrabcová Author-Workplace-Name: Economics Department, University of Economics and Management, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Implementing selected strategic documents focused on increasing efficiency and competitiveness of agricultural enterprises in the Czech Republic Abstract: Strategic documents are considered the basic tools for managing and coordinating any company's development, setting the basic development directions and goals that the company wants to achieve and the ways to achieve them. It is always necessary to reconcile the diverse interests of interest groups in relation to the development of a given enterprise to make efficient use of resources and opportunities, as far as possible without conflicts. The classification, meaning, and contents of companies' strategic documents are most often based on their established practice. The article's main goal is to identify the level of implementation of a group of implemented strategic documents aimed at increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of agricultural enterprises in the Czech Republic. The data, which were subjected to factor analysis, were obtained via a questionnaire survey from 70 agricultural enterprises in the Czech Republic. The results part contains also results from qualitative research (focus group, n = 7). The results showed that agricultural enterprises implement groups of so-called conservative strategies and competence development strategies. Most of the surveyed agricultural enterprises have a formulated innovation strategy, while 56% of enterprises do not have an implemented environmental strategy. Keywords: human resource management strategy, innovation, mission and vision, tools for managing and coordinating, Varimax method Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 144-151 Volume: 67 Issue: 4 Year: 2021 DOI: 10.17221/381/2020-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/381/2020-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-202104-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:67:y:2021:i:4:id:381-2020-AGRICECON Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jerzy Marzec Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Econometrics and Operational Research, Institute of Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences, Cracow University of Economics, Kraków, Poland Author-Name: Andrzej Pisulewski Title: Measurement of technical efficiency in the case of heterogeneity of technologies used between firms - Based on evidence from Polish crop farms Abstract: In the present study, we have investigated several competing stochastic frontier models which differ in terms of the form of the production function (Cobb-Douglas or translog), inefficiency distribution (half-normal or exponential distribution) and type of prior distribution for the parameters (hierarchical or non-hierarchical from the Bayesian point of view). This last distinction corresponds to a difference between random coefficients and fixed coefficients models. Consequently, this study aims to examine to what extent inferences about estimates of farms' efficiency depend on the above assumptions. Moreover, the study intends to investigate how far the production function's characteristics are affected by the choice of the type of prior distribution for the parameters. First of all, it was found that the form of the production function does not impact the efficiency scores. Secondly, we found that measures of technical efficiency are sensitive to distributional assumptions about the inefficiency term. Finally, we have revealed that estimates of technical efficiency are reasonably robust to the prior information about the parameters of crop farms' production technology. There is also a resemblance in the elasticity of output with respect to inputs between the models considered in this paper. Additionally, the measurement of returns to scale is not sensitive to model specification. Keywords: Bayesian approach, crop farms, random coefficients, stochastic frontier analysis Journal: Agricultural Economics Pages: 152-161 Volume: 67 Issue: 4 Year: 2021 DOI: 10.17221/347/2020-AGRICECON File-URL: http://agricecon.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/347/2020-AGRICECON.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/age-202104-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:67:y:2021:i:4:id:347-2020-AGRICECON