ALBERT

Description: This paper addresses the assessment of the price transmission of dairy products in Hungary. Monthly prices are used in testing the hypothesis of asymmetric price transmission between farmers and retailers. The magnitude of short- and long-run asymmetric transmission between price levels is measured through a nonlinear autoregressive distributed model (NARDL). The cointegration of variables is validated through bounds test of the NARDL model. The estimated NARDL model proves the existence of long- and short-run asymmetric relationships between producer milk price and most retailer dairy product prices. Furthermore, the model confirms the presence of a significantly positive long-run price asymmetry for butter, buttercream, sour cream, and Trappista cheese. The positive long-run price transmission asymmetry results could be explained by the strong market power of milk processors, which are granted through their concentrations and the absence of competitiveness in the market. The short-run asymmetry of price transmission could be explained by implementing some policy interventions, such as the milk quotas, which limit milk production. Analyzing the asymmetric relationship between the producer milk price and the retailer dairy product prices could give a clear vision of the dairy sector and how prices move between market actors, highlighting the retailers’ purchasing power feature, and its role in determining the market price interaction.

Description: Consumers are paying close attention to green products to reduce the environmental impact on health issues. As the scope of this research, this current study focuses on determining consumers’ purchase decisions regarding green products using a survey conducted in a fast-growing developing country. This research was descriptive and considered a conceptual framework for extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which was selected as the primary theoretical model. The significant contributions and main objectives of this study are as follows—to explore the present scenario of green marketing in Bangladesh with previous studies, and to fill a research gap regarding green purchase decisions by applying the TPB model with adding additional constructs, such as environmental concerns, green perceived quality, and future green estimates. A range of qualitative and quantitative techniques were adopted to collect data from the target groups, where a sample of young educated Bangladeshi consumers (n = 638) was used to consider the measurement and structural models by applying a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method. The empirical findings show that consumers’ environmental concern (EC), green perceived benefits (GPB), green awareness of price (GAP), green willingness to purchase (GWP), and future estimation of green marketing (GFE) have a strong positive influence on consumer’ green purchase decision (GPD). Still, the green perceived quality (GPQ) has a negative influence on green purchase decisions (GPD). To inform consumers about green or eco-friendly products, this study provides valuable suggestions to companies, marketers, and policymakers for designing green marketing tools such as green advertising, green branding, and eco-labels. Based on these findings, it gives some managerial insights for the promotion of green products and green marketing.

Description: This research aims to determine the demographic and economic factors affecting agriculture cooperation activity in Kosovo. Primary data was collected from 249 farmers in Kosovo through structured questionnaires using the random sampling technique. The results show that the level of cooperation among farmers in Kosovo is low due to the lack of trust in the cooperative institutions. The binary logistic regression analysis used in the study shows that location, gender, age, education level, trust, and farm size have significantly influenced the cooperation activity. Findings also highlight that the farmers who live in rural areas, as well as those who are young and have got a higher level of education and trust, show a higher level of activity associated with cooperation, whereas farms managed by (older) men with lower level of education are less likely to cooperate. Estimation indicates that medium sized farms show a high level of cooperation, which can be statistically verified, and only the type of farming has nonsignificant influence in cooperation.

Description: Nowadays small and medium sized enterprises have become increasingly important in contribution to job creation and economic growth both in national and European level. Considering the rapidly and continuously changing business environment, due to the impacts of globalization and concentration, staying competitive is a great challenge for companies in the 21st century, especially in fashion retail sector. The current paper is intended to map the current situation of the sector—focusing primarily on SMEs—through the extensive literature review; and provide a better understanding of sector-specific competitive factors in fashion industry. The research methods are the analysis of different related articles, reports and other scientific literature sources, in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey. The survey was validated by confirmatory factor analysis, data were analyzed and evaluated through PLS-SEM model. The main findings of the study show that the most important competitive factor is the compliance with consumer needs. Furthermore, the research also points out that SME sector lag behind chains, thus, they need to focus more on better understanding and meeting consumer expectations. In this activity, it would be useful if they received EU and domestic support for educational assistance.

Description: An evaluation of research studies is considered an important task to make future adjustments for securing and adjusting policies. This article presents the results of a study that explored the research that has been published with food security, price volatility, and price transmission as keywords. The study involved a bibliometric evaluation of statistical outcomes from 899 scientific publications from 1979 to June 2020 related to the subject, registered in the Web of Science database. The collected articles were used to measure bibliometric indicators and evaluate the research work on food security and agricultural products’ price movement. An analysis of the development and the identification of the related topics of greatest interest on this subject was also carried out. The analysis results found that a rising number of studies have been registered over the years, emphasizing the following keywords: food security, climate change, agriculture, health, nutrition, consumption, and income. The analysis proves that the shift in scientific research trends associated with food security analysis is linked with health and food nutrition status. Furthermore, the word "impact" was significantly present in the analyzed papers, which reveals that econometric analysis should address the relationship between price movement and nutrient intake to achieve nutritional security.

Description: In order to meet the rising global demand for food and to ensure food security in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 2, technological advances have been introduced in the food production industry. The organic food industry has benefitted from advances in food technology and innovation. However, there remains skepticism regarding organic foods on the part of consumers, specifically on consumers’ acceptance of food innovation technologies used in the production of organic foods. This study measured factors that influence consumers’ food innovation adoption and subsequently their intention to purchase organic foods. We compared the organic foods purchase behavior of Malaysian and Hungarian consumers to examine differences between Asian and European consumers. The findings show food innovation adoption as the most crucial predictor for the intention to purchase organic foods in Hungary, while social lifestyle factor was the most influential in Malaysia. Other factors such as environmental concerns and health consciousness were also examined in relation to food innovation adoption and organic food consumerism. This paper discusses differences between European and Asian organic foods consumers and provides recommendations for stakeholders.

Description: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an innovative strategic management tool of socially and environmentally conscious business organizations in the 21st century. Although external CSR activities are better researched, firms’ internal CSR activities such as workplace health promotion and its impact on employee wellbeing are less understood, especially during a pandemic where job security is relatively lower in many sectors of employment. Additionally, wellbeing and good health have been recognized as important targets to achieve as part of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 3. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between health-related work benefits and employee wellbeing, satisfaction and loyalty to their workplace. Large scale survey research was performed with responses from 537 employees in Hungary and 16 hypotheses were tested. Data analysis and path modelling using PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling) reveal two-layers of factors that impact employee wellbeing, satisfaction and loyalty. We term this as ‘internal locus of control’ and ‘external locus of control’ variables. Internal locus of control variables such as mental and emotional health leads to wellbeing at the workplace but do not directly impact employee satisfaction and loyalty. In contrast, external locus of control factors such as healthcare support leads to wellbeing, satisfaction and loyalty. Employer commitment to healthcare support system is found pertinent especially during the pandemic. We discover wellbeing as a unique standalone construct in this study, which is vital as is it formed by mental and emotional wellbeing of employees, albeit not a determinant of employee workplace satisfaction and loyalty. We theorize workers’ self-reliance and preservation as possible explanations to the disassociation between employee wellbeing and loyalty to workplace during times of crisis and the pandemic.

Description: The twenty-first century has been full of fundamental changes in consumers’ behavior patterns, especially with the use of diverse social media knowledge-sharing platforms. Therefore, companies have highlighted the significance of knowledge sharing and the importance of social network use in purchasing processes. Accordingly, his paper tries to reveal how consumer purchase behavior (CPB) can be affected by consumer knowledge sharing behavior (CKSB) and the moderating role played by value co-creation dimensions, which are citizenship behavior (CB) and participation behavior (PB), within a sustainable e-commerce field. To test our hypotheses deducted from the literature review, we opted for the PLS-SEM method. We also employed other innovative approaches, such as the IPMA matrix, MAICOM test, FIMIX approach, and CTA analysis, to evaluate the outer and inner model. Our statistical population covered individuals living in Hungary with at least one online purchase involvement. We distributed the questionnaire via various online platforms and, finally, 433 completed questionnaires were prepared for analysis. The results showed that CPB, CB, and PB are positively influenced by the CKSB. However, the link between CPB and CB was not confirmed. As for the moderating role of gender, the permutation test was applied to compare male and female groups and see the difference between them. With a focus on CKSB, this study contributes to the success of international marketing strategies to attain higher competitive advantages.