Profitability, Efficiency, and Market Structure in the Meat and Milk Processing Industry: Evidence from Central Europe

Zdeňka Žáková Kroupová and Gabriela Trnková ()
Additional contact information
Zdeňka Žáková Kroupová: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Gabriela Trnková: Department of Economics, Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Králové, 500 02 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

IJFS, 2025, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-30

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the impact of the market structure and efficiency on firm performance in the meat and milk processing industry in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia. Using stochastic frontier analysis and a profitability regression model applied to data from 2015 to 2021, the results indicate no evidence of collusive behavior in the examined markets. Instead, profitability is significantly driven by efficiency, supporting the hypothesis of an efficient market structure. Companies with higher market shares do not exploit their market power to set higher prices and increase profitability. The findings highlight efficiency as a critical determinant of performance in unconcentrated markets, offering valuable insights for stakeholders in the food processing industry and policymakers.

Keywords: food processing industry; performance; market structure; market share; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F2 F3 F41 F42 G1 G2 G3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/13/1/45/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/13/1/45/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:13:y:2025:i:1:p:45-:d:1608737

Access Statistics for this article

IJFS is currently edited by Ms. Hannah Lu

More articles in IJFS from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().