Ensuring the Marketing Activities of Agricultural Enterprises: Strategic and Tactical Decisions

Abstract

The strategy of agricultural enterprises is transformed under the influence of external requirements. Limited opportunities for agricultural enterprises to adapt to harsh economic and environmental conditions, especially in developing countries, determine strategic opportunities and decisions. The purpose of an article was to study the features of the strategy and tactics of marketing activities of agricultural enterprises to identify their effectiveness in order to support the development of activities. The methodology is based on the theory of strategic decision-making and the concept of sustainable agriculture to identify the effectiveness of strategies and tactics of marketing activities of agricultural firms in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia. The results show a low level of strategic orientation of rural enterprises. State support does little effort to stimulate differentiation and niche specialization of agricultural producers, as evidenced by the constant dynamics of agricultural production. Investing in physical assets is the most effective tool to support the agricultural sector. Cooperation and collaboration among enterprises is not widespread and single-owner farming is the most common organizational form in the agricultural sector. Producers' pricing policies remain stable and depend on market conditions: product prices fluctuated slightly. The practical value of the results lies in taking into account the identified effective ways of state support for agricultural producers in promoting the strategy of differentiation of agricultural products.