Abstract:

Innovations are regarded across all industrial branches as an influential factor of competitiveness. A need for innovations is driven mainly by competition on free markets and subsequent needs to sustainably manage production value for customers and other stakeholders. Further specific consequences in that field can be discussed within food and feed processing industry branches. Government policies in EU member countries in this area of business activities focus on instruments, which can help to mitigate main constraints of innovative activities of food and feed producers to encourage their sustainable competiveness mainly on the single European market like different types of encouragements. Food and feed manufacturers from Visegrad 4 member countries had similar conditions, when they entered this market in year 2004. So, prevailingly the respective policy instruments are providing financial encouragements in order to promote investments of food and feed manufacturers to meet actual trends and production standards, covering also food and feed safety or hygienic rules.  This article provides an insight into the development of long term financial structure among businesses active in industry Manufacture of prepared animal feed (EU NACE code 10.9) as a specific branch within the scope of the food, beverages and tobacco manufacturing industry. Authors explore development of the financial structures and production performance of companies settled in V4 member countries, using secondary corporate financial data in the period of years 2007 – 2015, covering economic crises period and consecutive economic upturn, in order to provide an identification of similarities and dissimilarities among active businesses entities in this area of entrepreneurial activities. Development of financial structure, production performance and investments of business entities in observed branches are then discussed as the partial factors of innovativeness, covering different economic size categories of businesses.