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The objective of this study is to estimate the competitiveness for both the Greek food and beverage industry as a whole and the flour and milling industry, justifying the certain economic factors and the way which these factors affect on it.

The Greek food and beverage firms which published their balance sheets for the studying period were studied. According to the existing literature two equations were created and estimated as a simultaneous equations system.

Summarizing the results both for the whole food and beverage industry and the flour milling industry are observed significant similarities on how certain economics factors such as profitability, market share, sustainable growth, age and operating costs affect on competitiveness as measured in this work. This may happen due to the high degree of concentration but also in the special characteristics which present both the Greek food and beverage industry and the flour milling sector.

The fact that this work referred only in Greek firms can be a limitation of this research, in spite of that it can provide useful and safe conclusions for the Greek food manufacturing industry.

The provision of proposals for increasing firm competitiveness to managers as well as to policymakers.

The importance of food and beverage industry for the Greek economy as well as that the flour milling industry holds an important position in the Greek food and beverage industry makes the study of the competitiveness for both of them to be important from both an academic and research perspective.

The Greek food and beverage industry is the strength of Greek manufacturing and at the same time an important lever for the development of the entire Greek economy. The high quality products it produces and the organized promotion of its products in international markets are elements that give it an advantage and stimulate its competitiveness. The flour milling industry is one of the sectors in which there is intense competition and whose presence in terms of sales, turnover, employment and gross value is particularly important, so a simultaneous study of these cases is very important.

The aim of the study is to present the implications for the financing and sustainability of enterprises based on a ranking methodology for categorical financial data.

Taking advantage of the optimal scaling properties of correspondence analysis (CA), a ranking‐clustering procedure is proposed. The proposed method was applied to categorical financial variables (i.e family farm income, gross profit, gross income, labour income and profitability) collected from a stratified random sampling of 80 Greek pig farms using a structured questionnaire.

The cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups of pig farms. Several recommendations for managerial practices and financial development resulted from this study. For the farms belonging to cluster C₁, that present low rankings on both criteria, a development planning process must be applied that will focus on organizational and management issues. For the farms belonging to cluster C₂, that present low rankings on the “composite income” criterion, policy measures have to be undertaken, aiming at exploiting their own production coefficients, reducing fixed costs and increasing productivity. Finally, for the farms in cluster C₃, that present high scores on both ranking criteria, it is recommended to take actions that will improve their competitiveness.

The findings are limited to five selected financial variables. Therefore, future studies in the same or other business fields would benefit from incorporating a greater number of variables.

The proposed methodological scheme could be useful to practitioners and academics, due to the fact that limited studies have dealt with this ranking problem, particularly in relation to the Greek agricultural business environment.

The purpose of this paper is mainly to investigate how Greek Farmers perceive service quality provided by the Greek Ministry of Agriculture and secondly, to confirm the five quality dimensions proposed by the SERVQUAL instrument for the Ministry’s service.

A questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL scale, was used to determine farmers’ perceptions of service quality in the area of central Macedonia in Greece. A total of 245 completed questionnaires were collected.

The analysis has shed some light on the quality gaps for the services provided by the Greek Public sector, suggesting that there is scope for improvement strategies. The results revealed a three-dimensional structure instead of the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL instrument. “Social skills” of the human factor were revealed as being the most critical dimension of quality.

This paper provides guidelines for policymakers to develop strategies to identify service quality gaps, while the decrease of such gaps could result in the public services’ improvement.

The current study is the first attempt to measure farmers’ perceptions of the service provided by the Greece ministry of Rural Development and Food. Secondly, this study provides additional evidence that the modification of the SERVQUAL scale could be used in different service sectors and cultures.