Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2016, 62(9):395-406 | DOI: 10.17221/260/2015-AGRICECON

Strategy for SMEs in the area of primary agricultural productionOriginal Paper

Helena CHLADKOVA, Sylvie FORMANKOVA
Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic

The goal of the paper was to define recommendations of a suitable business strategy for SMEs in the area of primary agricultural production. First, the external environment was analysed to define suitable recommendations for the industry, and also to discover opportunities and threats through fitting strategic analyses, that affect the aforementioned businesses. Secondly, it was necessary to get familiar with the internal environment and functioning of specific businesses in the industry (namely those that operate in the Western region of Prostějov at the foot of the Drahanska Highlands) and to evaluate their efficiency to define their strengths and weaknesses. The paper demonstrates that there is a wide range of means that can be taken advantage of when defining fitting strategies for agricultural businesses, e.g. the Porter's Five Forces Model, the IFE and the IE Matrix, the SWOT Matrix as well as the general strategies by Ansoff. Among the most important recommendations for increasing the competitiveness of SMEs in the agricultural industry, there belong: taking advantage of all the suitable agricultural subsidies, taking advantage of accredited agricultural advisors, making sure that the legal requirements of governmental bodies are met, increasing revenues for arable farming (through a good quality seed stock, chemicals and fertilizers, the foundation of suitable storage facilities in order to postpone the sales of the grain after the harvest season), creating sales cooperatives/associations to balance the competing force of buyers, rejuvenating the workforce, solidifying the ownership structure in the businesses, entrepreneurial diversification (electrical energy production), increasing quality in animal farming.

Keywords: agricultural business, competitiveness, external and internal environment, opportunities and threats, strengths and weaknesses

Published: September 30, 2016  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
CHLADKOVA H, FORMANKOVA S. Strategy for SMEs in the area of primary agricultural production. Agric. Econ. - Czech. 2016;62(9):395-406. doi: 10.17221/260/2015-AGRICECON.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Annual reports of the ZS Bohuslavice, a.s., Zemědělská společnost TERRIS Budětsko, a.s. and Zemědělské obchodní družstvo Ludmírov (2008-2012).
    2. Arcas N., Garcia D., Guzman I. (2011): Effect of size on performance of Spanish agricultural cooperatives. Cahiers Agricultures, 20: 382-386.
    3. Bagchi-Sen S., Scully J. (2007): Strategies and external relationships of small and medium-sized enterprises in the US agricultural biotechnology sector. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 25: 844-860. Go to original source...
    4. Baldari M., Di Gregorio D., Sara M. (2013): The economic evaluation of investments in vineyards at high plant density: analysis of a case study in a DOC area of Calabria Region. Evoluzione dei valori fondiari e politiche agricole: 27-37.
    5. Bílý V. (2013): Návrh strategie pro malé a střední podniky v odvětví zemědělství. (Strategy for small and mediumsized enterprises in the agriculture sector). [Diploma thesis.] PEF Mendelu, Brno.
    6. Campos-Climent V., Apetrei A., Chaves-Avila R. (2012): Delphi method applied to horticultural cooperatives. Management Decision, 50: 1266-1284. Go to original source...
    7. Chong Lei M., Jing Z. (2015): Identifying management strategies to improve sustainability and household income for herders on the desert steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. Agricultural Systems, 132: 62-72. Go to original source...
    8. Crescimanno M., Farruggia D., Galati A., Schimmenti, E., Siggia, D. (2013): Can Coopetition be a winning strategy for for small fruits companies in Sicily? In: 6th Annual EuroMed Conference of the EuroMed-Academy-ofBusiness. Cascais, Sept. 23-24: 674-685.
    9. CSO (2015). Czech Statistics Office, Praha. Available at: http://www.czso.cz (accessed July 2015).
    10. David F.R. (1991): Strategic Management. Macmillan Publishing company, New York.
    11. Drucker P.F. (2009): Drucker na každý den 366 zamyšlení a podnětů, jak dělat správně věci. (The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.) Management Press, Praha.
    12. Duda J., Tlačbabová M. (2012): Barriers to organic milk production. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 60: 55-60. Go to original source...
    13. European Commission (2012): Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) [online]. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/smedefinition (accessed March 2015).
    14. Gurská S. (2011): Strategy Proposal for the Wine-growers Association of Czech Republic. [CD-ROM]. In: Firma a konkurenční prostředí 2011: 260-270.
    15. Hammel G., Prahalad C.K. (1990): The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review. Available at https://hbr.org/1990/05/the-core-competence-of-thecorporation (accessed February 2015).
    16. Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (IAEI) (2013): Jak začít podnikat v zemědělství (How to start a business in agriculture.) Available at http://eagri.cz/public/web/file/261965/Jak_zacit_podnikat_v_zemedelstvi.pdf (accessed February 2015).
    17. Kim Ch. (2011): Strategies for Risk Management of Agricultural Business in Agricultural Companies. Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development, 18: 633-666.
    18. Kim J.Y., Choe Y. (2013): The Strategic Implication from Analysis on Agricultural Companies within the Framework of Resource-Based View. Korean Journal of Food Marketing Economics, 30: 1-27.
    19. Kim W.CH., Mauborgne R. (2009): Strategie modrého oceánu. (Blue Ocean Strategy.) Management Press, Praha.
    20. Koontz H., Weihrich H. (1993): Management. Victoria Publishing, Praha.
    21. Kučerová R. (2005): Analýza vývoje základních charakteristik odvětví mlékárenského průmyslu v ČR. (Analysis of the development of the basic characteristics of the sector of the dairy industry in the Czech Republic.) Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 53: 93-100. Go to original source...
    22. Němec J. (2001): Bonitace a oceňování zemědělské půdy České republiky. (Valuation and pricing of agricultural land Czech Republic.) VÚZE, Praha.
    23. Porter M.E. (1998): Competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. 1st ed. Free Press, New York.
    24. Porter M.E. (2004): Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior perform. 1st ed. Free Press, New York.
    25. Prokeš M., Tomšík P. (2012): Increasing competitiveness of wine producers in strategic alliances VOC. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis. 60: 293-298. Go to original source...
    26. Syrovatkova M., Hrabak J., Spilkova J. (2015): Farmers' markets' locavore challenge: The potential of local foodproduction for newly emerged farmers' markets in Czechia. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 30: 305-317. Go to original source...
    27. Tichá I., Hron J. (2013): Strategické řízení. (Strategic Management.) Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, Provozně ekonomická fakulta, Praha.
    28. Ungureanu G., Brezuleanu S., Brezuleanu O. (2011): Study of risks strategy in agricultural companies (Case study: SC "KOSAROM" SA PASCANI). In: Management of technological Changes, Book 2: 761-764.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content