Marián Tóth

Craft Beer in Slovakia

The objective of this chapter is to evaluate how globalization of the Slovak economy, economic growth, inflow of FDI in brewing industry, affected not only the structure of the standard beer market but also the expansion of craft brewing. In particular, we evaluate how the interplay between the developments of standardized and globalized traditional beer industry, income growth resulting in increasing demand for beer diversity, and development and dissemination of craft brewing technology and know-how, changing lifestyles and expansion of entrepreneurship as well as government policies affected the growth of craft breweries. A survey was performed among craft breweries. A structured interview was used as a tool of data collection. There were 20 owners of craft breweries in Slovakia interviewed (out of total number of 51). The survey was focused on factors affecting demand for craft beer, the impact of traditional beer market characterized by homogenous products on demand for differentiated craft beer in Slovakia, types of beers produced by craft breweries, motivation behind starting the craft brewery, factors influencing the supply of craft beer, availability of inputs, know-how for craft beer production, regulation of craft beer production, government support for craft beer production, and vertical and horizontal cooperation in micro-brewing. Results show availability and better prices of technologies and inputs for brewing beer, know-how and EU subsidies have a positive impact on the supply side, while higher incomes, increasing demand for product diversity, and changing lifestyles had a strong positive impact on the demand side. On the other hand, there are some barriers for expansion also. The major ones are bureaucracy, lack of qualified brewers and taxation policy.

Online grocery retailing in Germany: an explorative analysis

The paper focuses on the German food retailing industry with its market characteristics and the status quo of online food retailing in Germany by analysing data from market research institutes and consumer direct questionnaire. The paper examines the consumers’ perceptions of online as well as offline grocery shopping. As a result, an online grocery model was created using PLS-SEM modelling. It illustrates all major success factors related to the consumer’s willingness to shop for groceries online in Germany. The main factors influencing the willingness to shop for groceries online are awareness of benefits, need for more convenience, and change of the lack of trust in the new distribution channel. We identified some consumer groups that are more open to online shopping as they benefit more from online grocery shopping. Especially working mothers and young professionals are the consumer groups with a high potential interest.

Risk of agricultural production in russian orel region

The paper evaluates the risk of agricultural farms in Russian Orel region by using the modified Markowitz portfolio theory. We analyse individual farm data of agricultural animal and crop production with respect to yield, price and revenue agricultural risk. Farms included in the analyses represent four organizational legal forms and the range of agricultural products produced by these farms is wide. Therefore the research focused on the grain and milk production only. Over the period 2010 to 2014 the effects of Russian ban on import of agricultural products from EU can be observed in form of increased price level of individual commodity prices. Risk and return are negatively related and investors are comparing the risk with profitability. The same stands for farmers. They select the type of production based on expected return. The result show that the systemic yield, price and revenue risk of grain production is higher when compared to milk production. This is due the nature of animal and crop production. Climate and weather risk has much lower effect on animal production when compared to crop production. Therefore the overall risk of crop production is higher. But farmers consider the risk not isolated but in relation to profitability. The profitability of crop production is higher as in Orel region more than 90% of agricultural production is not animal related and farms are profitable with and also without subsidies. Our empirical study shows that in case of equal expected profitability animal production is more profitable for the farmer as it is linked to lower yield, price and revenue risk.