Factor Analysis of the Competitiveness in the Sheep Meat Production

Bozhidar Ivanov

Abstract: Competitiveness in the economy is among the most important and research driving concept and topic. There are different definitions and understandings of the economic competitiveness. The study assumes that competitiveness demonstrates the ability of meat production from sheep farming in Bulgaria to maintain and enhance the market share position in the trade aspect and to sustain and increase the added value of its production. The competitiveness research is done by the tools of index method, which takes into account the production and value components. Besides, the competitiveness is considered as an outcome attainment, and a methodology is elaborated and applied in order to explore what is the significance and impact of selected factors to explain and determined the measured index of competitiveness in the production of meat from sheep farming. Five factors are selected to be scrutinized through applying the CPR method. The rank scores and significance coefficients from the CPR method show that the share of sheep meat delivered in slaughterhouses is among the most important and influencing factor, along with two more factors naming the prices of live animal in sheep farming and efficiency are envisaged as causal factors for competitiveness.

Keywords: competitiveness; factor analysis; meat; ranking; sheep industry; statistical significance

Date published: 2023-04-01