The Technological

Frontier for Agriculture

in Eastern Europe
A compilation of Case Studies (Research Concept)

Ricardo Alonzo Cortez Arias

Summary
This research is intended to develop insight through case studies among the territories of
Eastern Europe and the way that more and more agricultural endeavors take place in the form
of large-scale agricultural enterprises. The Eastern-European countries see nowadays a
complex scheme between productivity, profitability and irrigation systems, and this is where
technology shows up helping on developing new techniques of agriculture which represent a
breakthrough in the usual operation, a dogma-breaker interaction is taking part in front of us,
still the literature -if any- has not approached it. The regulations of the EU (Macours, Swinnen
2000), present in some countries since the recent 2007, represent several challenges to the
improvement path that technology offers. Then, the line between effective harvests and
regulations-complying crops fails to show up itself clearly. Are the “Bio” products worth the
cost? Is GMO such a bad business model concerning its possible damages to human health?
How is the relationship between farmers and large-scale enterprises happening? And finally
how are the large-scale enterprises (AGRA EUROPE 2014) merging themselves with the
culture of these countries? This research intends to show through a compilation of case studies
relevant facts on these subjects to finally spread some light over the technological frontier
that can today change the agriculture as we know it.

Objectives
 To analyze the actual state of the agriculture sector in Eastern Europe
 To draw and map new value chains happening in such countries
 To create new theory on agriculture and agribusiness

Methodology
Two groups will be part of the scope of this research:

 Large-scale companies
 Small-scale Farmers

The research methodology will be a mix between qualitative and quantitative research due to
easiness to address the issues of both test groups. Even if Collis, Hussey (2014) argue that a
researcher usually applies a mixed-model research when he’s not able to rely on only
quantitative or qualitative data, this model will be used in the research with the hope of a
better understanding of the phenomenon and good will to better answer the research question.
On their own, Saunders et al. (1997) take the subject from a different point of view arguing
that qualitative and quantitative methods don’t exist in isolation and mixed-model research
grants insight and new possibilities to answer questions from new perspectives, and in an
effort to allocate mixed-model research they created a diagram of different approaches. This
research follows the model to build case studies provided by Eisenhardt (1989).

This research concept is related with the thematic field of Human resource management,
corporate employment cultures and labor incentive systems in large agricultural enterprises;
interactions with technological innovations in agriculture.

References
AGRA EUROPE (2014): Interview: Eastern European agriculture sector is on the rise - News,
analysis and expert comment on the CAP, agriculture, agribusiness, farm trade and the food
industry worldwide. Available online at https://www.agra-net.com/agra/agra-
europe/crops/grains/interview-eastern-european-agriculture-sector-is-on-the-rise-
456578.htm, checked on 2/10/2017.

Collis, Jill; Hussey, Roger (2014): Business research. A practical guide for undergraduate &
postgraduate students / Jill Collis & Roger Hussey. Fourth edition.

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. (1989): Building Theories from Case Study Research. In The
Academy of Management Review 14 (4), p. 532. DOI: 10.2307/258557.

Macours, Karen; Swinnen, Johan F.M. (2000): Causes of Output Decline in Economic
Transition. The Case of Central and Eastern European Agriculture. In Journal of Comparative
Economics 28 (1), pp. 172–206. DOI: 10.1006/jcec.1999.1643.

Saunders, Mark; Lewis, Philip; Thornhill, Adrian (1997): Research Methods for Business
Students. Fifth Edition: Pearson Education Limited.