No 1/2020, March

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No 1/2020, March

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Diversifying Effect of Digital Competence

Adrián Csordás DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120101
No 1/2020, March
pp. 3 - 13

ABSTRACT

Information and communication technology determines not only the development of companies but also the development of nations. Among other things, with the usage of eGovernment, the administrations can put „digitally pressure“ on their citizens which can lead to the appreciation of the role of digital competence. Based on data from the European Statistical Office, the digital competences of the EU Member States were examined between 2015 and 2017. A significant relationship was found between the level of digital knowledge and the level of unemployment. There is a strong positive correlation between the levels of digital competence and corporates training. In the clustering of countries, three distinct groups were created. The underdeveloped, developing and developed countries differed not only in the number of digitally educated people but also in the distribution of the digitally qualified groups.

KEYWORDS

ICT, EU, unemployment, training.

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E-AGRO: Intelligent Chat-Bot. IoT and Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Farming Industry

Jayalath EkanayakeLuckshitha Saputhanthri DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120102
No 1/2020, March
pp. 15 - 21

ABSTRACT

This study develops a chat room and a Chat–Bot to discuss the prevailing issues related to farming with peers and expertise and support farmers to make timely decision on farming. A standard set of questions was identified through discussions and surveys with farmers, expertise and other stakeholders. Intents, which the users might want to know, and examples, which the users use to explain a specific intent and entities that are different objects referring to an intent were identified from the questions. Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) was used to train a model, which predicts an intent based on the given example. The Chat-Bot was implemented in a cloud platform and therefore, the client end does not require more computational resources.

KEYWORDS

Chat-Bot, Agriculture, Chat-room, Artificial Intelligence, Farming Industry, intents, examples.

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Application of the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) Model in the Demand of the Household Animal Sourced Food in West Java

Bayu KharismaArmida S. AlisjahbanaSutyastie Soemitro RemiPutri Praditya DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120103
No 1/2020, March
pp. 23 - 35

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to determine the effect of demographic and socio-economic factors and household responses to household changes in prices and income against the demand for household animal-sourced food in West Java Province. The study used cross-section data sourced from the National Socio-Economic Survey (SUSENAS) of West Java Province in 2017 analyzed through the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS). The results showed that the demand for household animal-sourced food in West Java was influenced by price, income, and social demographic factors. All groups of animal-sourced food were categorized as normal goods, as characterized by an income elasticity value of more than zero. The income elasticity established meat commodities as the highest with eggs being the lowest. The nature of the commodity determined that all animal-sourced food groups except eggs are luxury goods. Luxury goods are categorized as such due to their above one value of the demand response against changes in income- which in this paper refers to the commodities of fish, meat, poultry, and milk. The own-price elasticity also showed meat as the most responsive commodity to price increases compared to fish, poultry milk, and eggs. The five groups of commodities achieved a negative elasticity value, as reflected by the reduced share when the decreasing demand responds to the commodity price increase. The cross-price elasticity of most animal-sourced food commodity groups achieved negative elasticity values, which indicated that the related animal-sourced food commodity groups were complementary, whereas positive elasticity values indicate the related food commodities group as a substitute.

KEYWORDS

West Java province, QUAIDS, animal sourced food, elasticity.

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Consumer Preferences in the Content of Loyalty to the Yoghurt Brand

Ingrida KošičiarováZdenka KádekováMária HolotováĽubica KubicováKristína Predanocyová DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120104
No 1/2020, March
pp. 37 - 48

ABSTRACT

The aim of submitted paper was to analyze customer preferences in the context of loyalty to the brand of selected food products in the segment of yoghurts. In order to achieve the mentioned aim, we used methods of survey, structured questionnaire (sample of 693 randomly chosen respondents) and blind test (sample of 100 respondents testing the four yoghurts – 2 yoghurts of traditional brands and 2 yoghurts of private labels). For a deeper analysis of the obtained results, totally four hypotheses were set out and tested by using the statistical methods of Contingency table chi-square test, Pearson´s chi-square test, Cramer's coefficient, Friedman test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. The results of the survey proved that more than 30 % of respondents consume yoghurts on a daily basis, 30 % of respondents prefer to buy the yogurts of private labels, more than 64 % of respondents consider themselves as loyal consumers and based on the package, the tested sample of private label yoghurt (sample A) would be purchased by 56 % of respondents while the same sample of yoghurt (sample A) would be purchased for its taste just by 47 % of respondents.

KEYWORDS

Yoghurt, private label, traditional brand, consumer preference, loyalty.

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The Impact of Energy Consumption and Agricultural Production on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Portugal

Nuno Carlos LeitãoJeremiás Máté Balogh DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120105
No 1/2020, March
pp. 49 - 59

ABSTRACT

The consequences of climate change heavily influence the Mediterranean region. However, the Portuguese CO2 emission shows a decreasing tendency, the evolution of livestock and animal production have significantly increased its level in agriculture. The article investigates the role of the agricultural output and energy consumption in the environmental pollution in Portugal. It explores the short and long-run cointegration between carbon dioxide emissions and agricultural activities such as crop production, livestock production, and agricultural land use applying Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), Granger causality, Newey-West Standard Errors regression, as well as ARIMA model for the period of 1960-2015. The causality relation between CO2 emissions and agriculture is also analyzed. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root tests suggest that all variables are stationary. ARDL model demonstrates a long-run relationship between CO2 emissions, agriculture, and energy consumption. Results indicate that agricultural activities and energy use have a positive effect on environmental pollution; therefore, the Portuguese agriculture needs to achieve a higher level of sustainable development, with reducing the impact of animal husbandry and intensive crop production.

KEYWORDS

Climate change, carbon dioxide emissions, agricultural production, time series, Portugal.

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Does Agricultural Trade Competitiveness Matter? The Case of the CIS Countries

Tamás MizikPéter GálÁron Török DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120106
No 1/2020, March
pp. 61 - 72

ABSTRACT

The paper aims to analyse the comparative advantage patterns of agriculture in the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is relatively understudied in the literature, especially in Central Asia. Agriculture still plays an important role in the region but in a different way than before. Despite that, the majority of the CIS countries are net food importers. Based on the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index, country-level analysis shows that Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia have the highest Balassa indices in the region, and Belarus, Ukraine and Azerbaijan are also having some comparative advantage. Product level analysis pointed out that the region’s major agricultural export products groups are cereals. It is important to emphasise that the top five product groups have high, between 3.0-4.4, RCA values. It implies that the regional trade structure is consistent with comparative advantages. However, stability and duration tests show that these are not persistent, since survival chances fell appreciably from 2000-2003 to 2012-2015.

KEYWORDS

CIS, agri-food trade, trade structure, revealed comparative advantages.

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Individual-level Employment Transitions in Rural Viet Nam

Quang-Thanh NgoThuy-Khanh Hong ThaiVan-Tien CaoAnh-Tuan NguyenNgoc-Hieu HoangNgoc-Danh Nguyen DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120107
No 1/2020, March
pp. 73 - 91

ABSTRACT

Structural transformation in rural areas is a key issue in economic development. While much of the literature on structural transformation has so far focussed on household- or commune levels or even higher aggregate levels, little is known about the individual member level. The paper aims at examining factors that affect the individual-level employment rural transitions in Viet Nam, namely: (1) non-transient farm; (2) positive transient farm; (3) out-of-wage transition; (4) transitory farm-household work; and (5) transitory wage-household work. By taking advantage of the Viet Nam Access to Resources Household Survey with data on 2,698 individuals for two years, 2008 and 2016, using multivariate probit models estimated by generalized structural equation method, we find that individual-level human capital and social capital are important factors affecting employment transition status in the rural area. In addition, changes in individual and household characteristics and local climate conditions at commune level are important to influence various types of employment transitions. These results have implications for the development policy on rural transition in developing countries, highlighting the importance of recognizing the positive aspects of changes in individual-, household-, and commune-levels for rural transformation. Promotion of education attainment is necessary at both individual- and household-level to spur the transition out of farming. Broadened policy mechanisms which support and encourage non-farm employment at the household level are also needed. Likewise, development initiatives that focus on increasing the human and social assets of the individual farmers and farming households are more likely to be successful in supporting livelihood diversification and reducing vulnerability.

KEYWORDS

Individual-level employment transitions; non-transient farm (persistent farm); positive transient farm; out-of-wage transition; transitory farm-household work, transitory wage-household work; rural transformation.

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CRM and its Importance for Business Competitiveness

Peter StuchlýRoderik VirághMarcela HallováEdita Šilerová DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120108
No 1/2020, March
pp. 93 - 98

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with emphasis on the importance for the competitiveness of a business. The aim of the present article is to seek whether a business pursues customer value on a regular basis regardless of its size. Monitoring customer value can thus be one of the criteria that measure the success of implementing an overall customer relationship management concept in a particular business. CRM system is also used in agribusiness.

KEYWORDS

CRM systems, CRM implementation criteria, customer value, business size, agribusiness, competitiveness.

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Level of Financial Literacy and Food Waste in Polish Households

Monika SzafrańskaAndrzej KrasnodębskiZuzana Kapsdorferová DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120109
No 1/2020, March
pp. 99 - 109

ABSTRACT

The aim of the presented research is to show on food waste and determine the level of financial literacy of food consumers as a factor affecting the probability of occurrence of food waste in Polish households in comparison with selected demographic and economic factors conditioning this phenomenon. The main source of data used for analysis and conclusions was primary information obtained from own research (n=1021, PAPI method). To analyze the data, total statistical indicators, the one-way analysis of variance (the F test) and the logistic regression were used. The conducted analysis demonstrates that among the elements creating financial literacy, only financial attitudes determine consumers' inclination to waste food. The higher the score obtained from this module, the less food is thrown away from households. From the group of factors that significantly determine the occurrence of food wastage, financial attitudes have the weakest impact. The strongest impact has respondent’s education.

KEYWORDS

Financial literacy, food waste, household awareness, natural resources, food chain.

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Towards Future Oriented Collaborative Policy Development for Rural Areas and People

Miloš UlmanPavel ŠimekJan MasnerPavel KogutTuula LöyttyPatrick CrehanKarel CharvátAntoni OlivaStein Runar BergheimMilan KalašDenis KolokolTommaso Sabbatini DOI: 10.7160/aol.2020.120110
No 1/2020, March
pp. 111 - 124

ABSTRACT

Rural areas in Europe are at risk due to depopulation, failing generation renewal, and a multitude of influences ranging from market-based, regulatory, to societal and climate changes. As a result, current rural policy is no longer keeping pace with these changes. We propose an advanced rural policy development framework in order to deliver more accurate foresight for rural regions, contributing to new and enhanced policy interventions. The proposed framework combines new quantitative and qualitative epistemological approaches, previously unused unstructured data with traditional research information, grassroot perspective with expert knowledge, current situation analysis with forward looking activities. We argue that by using the proposed methods, policy teams will be able to enhance the effectiveness of their policy making processes, while rural stakeholders will be given the opportunity to become valuable policy influencers and solution co-creators. The ability to quickly experiment and understand the impact of a variety of policy solutions will result in saved time and costs. The framework is part of an ongoing experimental verification and testing in twelve pilot regions across Europe and Israel.

KEYWORDS

Rural areas, policy, European Union, foresight, text mining, system dynamics modelling.

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