The Role of the Strategy in the Innovation Ability of the Hungarian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers

Abstract

The current production of the Hungarian agricultural machinery manufacturing sector, which used to see better days, lags behind the production of the previous years to a great extent. The organisational structure of the Hungarian agricultural machinery production has totally been transformed, primarily regarding its ownership structure. The general problem of this sector is that they can only spend slight amounts on development an innovation relative to foreign-owned concerns. As a consequence, loss of market is not surprising as a bit more than one-quarter (26-27 percent) of the current total domestic market turnover derives from domestic manufacturers. The extent of market loss and the general situation of the national agricultural machinery manufacturers justify that the present of this sector must be dealt with by searching the ways-out of the crisis and make steps to develop. The conclusions of our paper are based on the examination results of questionnaires and in-depth interviews that were carried out at 58 Hungarian agricultural machinery manufacturing companies. The characteristic features of the companies that were involved in the examination reflect the situation of the entire sector in Hungary properly. According to our experience and sources, the Hungarian conditions are also applicable and typical of the agricultural machinery production of the other ex-Socialist countries. In our paper first of all the method of the empirical research is presented where the structure of the questionnaire used in the research and the process of data recording and processing are shown in details. In our present study some of our results together with those based on univariate descriptive statistics are published. Besides the brand-new or highly developed products and technological (procedure) innovations, furthermore, some of the indicators of the strategy of the companies are also presented.

Trenutna proizvodnja poljoprivrednih mašina u Mađarskoj u velikoj meri zaostaje za proizvodnjom prethodnih godina. Organizaciona struktura mađarske proizvodnje poljoprivrednih mašina je potpuno transformisana, pre svega u pogledu vlasničke strukture. Generalni problem ovog sektora su male investicije u razvoj inovacija u odnosu na strane proizvođače. Posledica toga je gubitak tržišta, tako da ne čudi što malo više od jedne četvrtine (26 -27%) sadašnjeg ukupnog domaćeg prometa potiče od domaćih proizvođača. Stepen gubitka tržišta i opšte stanje nacionalnih proizvođača poljoprivrednih mašina pokazuju da ovaj sektor mora da se bavi traženjem puteva za izlaz iz krize i daljim razvojem. Zaključci našeg rada su zasnovani na rezultatima ispitivanja preko upitnika i ličnih razgovora sa ispitanicima iz 58 mađarskih preduzeća za proizvodnju poljoprivrednih mašina. Karakteristične odlike kompanija koje su učestvovale u ispitivanju pravilno odražavaju situaciju celokupnog sektora u Mađarskoj. Prema našem iskustvu i izvorima, mađarski uslovi su takođe primenljivi i tipični i za proizvodnju poljoprivrednih mašina u ostalim bivšim socijalističkim zemljama. U našem radu, pre svega je predstavljen metod empirijskog istraživanja tako što su detaljno prikazani struktura korišćenih upitnika i postupci sakupljanja i obrade podataka. U našem sadašnjem istraživanju prikazani su neki od naših rezultata zajedno sa rezultatima deskriptivne statističke analize. Pored potpuno novih ili visoko razvijenih proizvoda i inovacija tehnoloških postupaka, takođe su predstavljeni i neki od indikatora strategije preduzeća.