ENTERPRISING MANAGEMENT IN THE AGRARIAN SECTOR OF BULGARIA
Todorka Atanassova
Department of Management, Trakia University, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
tatanassova@abv.bg The social and economic reforms in the agricultural sector in Bulgaria had a great impact on the development of agricultural entrepreneurship in Bulgaria at the end of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century the en-trepreneurial management in the agricultural sector is characterized by its high-risk nature as “few of the entrepreneurs really know what they are doing”. There is a lack of “methodology, sufficient professional experience and knowledge” about the specificity of agribusiness and its management. The number of Bulgarian agricultural entrepreneurs with previous experience in the field and awareness of the risk factors before starting their own business is relatively small. At the same time, Bulgarian plant and animal production need to possess quality and meet the existing European standards for realization on the European market. Bulgaria’s successful integration in EU demands a timely fulfillment of the pre-set requirements for compatibility in the agricultural sector. The aim of the current paper is to study and analyze the process of formation, establishment and development of the entrepreneurial management in the agricultural sector in Bulgaria. To achieve successfully the above objective and in correspondence with the essence of the ag-ricultural entrepreneurship, the following methods are applied: questionnaire and interviews with entrepreneurs who have been involved in agribusiness for over five years. For a period of three years (2006–2008) 100 entrepreneurs were questioned to outline the problems hindering the successful management of agricultural farms that vary in size and legislative statute. Following the results of the empirical study and the determined managerial problems, we offer a system of methods for their effective solution.
Keywords: entrepreneurship; management; agricultural; strategies; European integration
|
