-
Hrabrin Bashev
Agrarian Contracts, Process of Contracting and Contractual Order
Summary:
In modern conditions, much of the relationship between agrarian agents, and agricultural activity in general, is governed by some forms of contract. However, economic analyzes of agrarian contracts in Bulgaria are incidental, limited to individual types of contracts, and detached from the process of contracting and contract imlementation, and dominating institutional order. This article continues the presentation of a holistic A-M-P-O approach to the economic analysis of contracts and contractual relations of agrarian Agents by conducting an economic analysis of the available contractual Means, the agrarian contracting Process, and the resulting contractual Order. First, a classification of the principle types of contracts is made and their economic characteristics, possibilities and disadvantages for governing the relations of agrarian agents are analyzed. After that, the stages of the agrarian contracting process is analised, the critical factors of transaction costs presented, and a matrix for determining the most efficient governing form, depending on the combination of critical dimensions of agrarian transactions, suggested. Finally, the specific contractual and governance order resulting from the contractual process is analyzed, and the stages of the process of improving contractual relations in the agrarian sphere are presented.
-
Ventsislav Perkov
Barriers in Implementing Reverse Logistics in Bulgaria
Summary:
The present paper attempts to identify the main barriers in implementing reverse logistics in Bulgarian manufacturing and commercial enterprises. After the theoretical literature review, nine barriers are displayed. Based on a survey, the barriers are ranked according to respondents’ opinions. Barriers in implementing reverse logistics and the degree of importance of its implementation in enterprises are submitted by means of two-dimensional distribution. The next stage of analysis is connected with the study of relationship and direction of influence among the variables. The results show that the reverse logistics is essential for the implementation of more environmentally friendly manufacturing and trade but barriers are relatively irresistible. The reasons for this have their roots in the government policy and non-engagement of managers to problems that can be solved through reverse logistics.
-
Ninel Nesheva Kiosseva
Environmental Management and the Impact of Regulation in Bulgaria
Summary:
In placing increased emphasis on good environmental management, the Bulgaria government began providing resources on environmental management, such as guidance documents, case studies, and benchmarking studies. It also motivates businesses to understand the full spectrum of environmental costs and incorporate these costs into decision-making. Some of the difficulties are non-uniform definitions and non-uniform executions, and lack of comparable information. The report discusses the needs for good quality information to be available to both managers and society before further advances can be made.
-
Hrabrin Bashev
Why and How to Evaluate the "New" Governance Sustainability of Agriculture
Summary:
In Bulgaria, like in many other countries, there is practicaly no studies on the governance sustainability of agriculture and its importance for overall agricultural development. This study tries to fill the gap and suggesrs a holistic framework for understanding and assessing the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture. The new approach is “tested” in a large-scale study to assess the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture at national, sectoral, regional, ecosystem and farm levels.
It is proved that it is important to include the "missing" Governance Pillar in the assessment of the integral sustainability of agriculture and the sustainability of agricultural systems of different types. The multi-principal, multi-criteria and multi-indicator assessment of the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture found out that the overall sustainability is at a “good” but close to the “satisfactory” level. In addition, there is a significant differentiation of the levels of integral governance sustainability of the different types of agro-systems in the country. Moreover, the individual indicators with the highest and lowest sustainability values determine the “critical” factors enhancing and deteriorating the particular and integral governance sustainability of the evaluated agro-system.
Given the importance of holistic assessments of this type for improving agricultural sustainability in general, and the governance sustainability of agriculture in particular, they should be expanded and their accuracy and representativeness improved. The later requires increasing precision by increasing the surveyed farms and stakeholders, and using more "objective" data from surveys, statistics, professional experts in the field, etc.
-
Milena Beneva
Implementation of Environmental Factor in Pension Investments
Summary:
Modern financial markets create a new criterion for evaluating the investment performance of companies - a multidimensional approach that combines the financial, social and environmental aspects together. A sustainable and responsible investment approach is perceived as a long-term driver of value and many institutional investors around the world, incl. pension funds, integrate it into their traditional investment process. At the same time, Bulgarian private pension funds either neglect (underestimate) the issues of sustainable development, or changå their investment policy too timidly and uncertainly.
After an in-depth analysis of the sustainable and responsible investment practices imposed by the ecological leaders among the pension funds, the current research paper offers an adapted model for integrating the "green" investment trend, consistent with the organization and development of voluntary private pension funds in Bulgaria.
-
Hrabrin Bashev
To the Question of Economic Study of Agrarian Contracts
Summary:
Arround the globe, a huge number of theoretical and empirical studies and publications related to agrarian contracts of various types have been made. In Bulgaria, the studies of economic contracts in general, and of agrarian contracts in particular, are incidental, with individual researchers applying "their own" definitions and methodologies, which are often contradictory, non-comprehensive and highly debatable. The article attempts to answer several important academic and practical questions: what is an economic contract, what is the difference of the economic approach compared to other (legal, sociological, etc.) approaches to the study of contracts, what is the role of economic contracts in agrarian governance, why there is such a huge variety of contracts used by agents, etc. The achievements of the interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics are adapted and a holistic framework for the economic understanding and analysis of agrarian contracts and contractual relations in agriculture is presented. The system of agrarian contracts is seen as a complex, networked and multi-layered system, involving a variety of agrarian and non-agrarian Agents, who govern their relations and activities through various contractual Means (types of contracts), participating in the agrarian contractual Process, as a result of which in each particular time period in a given country, region, sub-sector, type of farming, agro-ecosystem, etc. dominates a certain contractual and governance Order. Like the economic analysis of the system of agrarian governance, the holistic analysis of the system of economic contracts is to apply an A-M-P-O approach, which includes an analysis of all its elements - Agents, Means, Process, and Order. The article offers an adequate economic definition of agrarian contracts and characterization of their place in the system of agrarian governance as bilateral or multilateral agreements related to agricultural production and services. After that, an economic characterization of the agents participating in the contractual relations is made, paying particular attention to their bounded rationality and tendency to opportunism. These two characteristics related to "human nature" are the reason for the existence of transaction costs and the need to choose an effective governing (contractual) form to increase the "rationality" of agents and protect against possible opportunism in their relationships.
