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The Evaluation of Strategic Management Implementation in Agricultural Enterprises in the Slovak Republic
Vol 16 , Issue 1 , January - June 2015 | Pages: 1-10 | Research Paper
Published Online: January 03, 2015
Author Details
( * ) denotes Corresponding author
1.
* Mária Kadleèíková, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
2.
Michal Filo, External Lecturer, Former PhD. Student, Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
3.
Zuzana Kapsdorferová, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the implementation of strategic management in selected agricultural enterprises in the Slovak Republic.
Design /Methodology/Approach: Qualitative data have been collected from a questionnaire survey. Furthermore, using Porter’s model of five forces, an evaluation has been made of managers’ perception of choosing opportunities, threats and success factors. The presence of statistically significant differences in the perception of these ‘parameters’ in disparate production zones and between diverse groups of agricultural enterprises according to the number of employees and to the area of agricultural land in their ownership was tested using the Kruskal-Wallis test, with post-hoc testing employing the Steel- Dwass-Critchlow-Fligner testing procedure. The presence of a trend in the perception of these
‘parameters’ of the competitive environment was tested using the Jonckheere-Terpstra test with respect to the number of employees and the area of agricultural land belonging to the enterprise. The exact p- value, in the case of the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Jonckheere-Terpstra test, was calculated utilizing Monte Carlo simulation (Mehta and Patel, 1996). We used the Steel-Dwass-Critchlow-Fligner testing procedure (Critchlow and Fligner, 1991) as a post-hoc test in the instance that null hypothesis can be rejected of the Kruskal-Wallis test.
Findings: Eighty-one individual holdings and agricultural farms have been included in the survey. From the group surveyed, only 38.9 per cent of farms elaborated their vision and only 12.3 per cent of farms prepared a strategy in written form. The enterprise strategies are predominantly oriented towards growth, survival, development, and innovation. The most significant opportunities listed include subsidies, favourable weather conditions, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a functioning land market and economic accessibility to modern technologies. Conversely, the most serious threats mentioned comprise adverse government decisions, the import of cheap and low quality foodstuffs, volatile food prices, the evolving CAP, and the financial and economic crises. With respect to business success factors, the agro-managers identified the following: subsidies, inputs, and farm gate prices, management knowledge and experience, weather, European Union policy, and the quality of the agro- commodities produced.
Research Limitation/Implications: There had been following three limitations on the research:
1. Collection of the qualitative data was focused on the agricultural holdings with major orientation
on the primary production and additional diversification of the farming activities; 2. Research was carried out in all the agro-ecological zones of the Slovak Republic; 3. The all surveyed agricultural holdings are included into the official statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: The Letters of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Practical Implications: From a theoretical and practical viewpoint, well executed strategic management can ensure the survival of an enterprise, and can contribute to successful outcomes which could position the enterprise in the forefront of the respective business sector.
Originality/ Value: The study offers beneficial sources of information about the state of strategic management in the agricultural holdings and its impact on the farm performance and their incomes. Furthermore the study reveals attitudes of the farms towards the new recent trends in agricultural production.
Keywords
Strategic management, Opportunities, Success Factors, Agro-managers, Threats, Individual farms, Agricultural holdings.
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