IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v13y2025i5p136-d1656162.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Concentration and Market Dynamics in Hungary’s Food Manufacturing Industry Between 1993 and 2022

Author

Listed:
  • Mahdi Imani Bashokoh

    (Doctoral School in Economics and Regional Science, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 7400 Kaposvár, Hungary)

  • Gergely Tóth

    (Institute of Rural Development and Sustainable Economy, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 7400 Kaposvár, Hungary)

  • Omeralfaroug Ali

    (Agribiotechnology and Precision Breeding for Food Security National Laboratory, Institute of Physiology and Animal Nutrition, Department of Animal Physiology and Health, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 7400 Kaposvár, Hungary)

Abstract

The changes in market structures in post-socialist economies have led to a significant increase in interest in the dynamics of corporate concentration and its broader socio-economic impacts. This study aimed to assess Hungary’s food industry over a 30-year period (1993–2022), with a primary focus on corporate concentration, by analyzing nine main sectors and their 38 subsectors using grounded theory, trend analysis, and sparse partial least squares-discriminant analysis. The findings reveal that the Hungarian food industry has been moderately to highly concentrated across all sectors (three and six major sectors, respectively). Two distinct periods of increasing corporate concentration were identified: 1996–1998 and 2004–2007, coinciding with post-communist economic reforms and Hungary’s accession to the European Union. These structural shifts led to a decline in the number of active firms, a reduction in workforce size, and increased challenges for smaller competitors; meanwhile, larger domestic companies expanded, and ownership structures transitioned toward privatization and internationalization. In the later years, market concentration showed a declining trend and then gradually stabilized.

Suggested Citation

  • Mahdi Imani Bashokoh & Gergely Tóth & Omeralfaroug Ali, 2025. "Corporate Concentration and Market Dynamics in Hungary’s Food Manufacturing Industry Between 1993 and 2022," Economies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-28, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:5:p:136-:d:1656162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/5/136/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/5/136/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Autor & David Dorn & Lawrence F. Katz & Christina Patterson & John Van Reenen, 2017. "Concentrating on the Fall of the Labor Share," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 180-185, May.
    2. Guanming Shi & Jean-paul Chavas & Kyle Stiegert, 2010. "An Analysis of the Pricing of Traits in the U.S. Corn Seed Market," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1324-1338.
    3. Sylvie Bonny, 2017. "Corporate Concentration and Technological Change in the Global Seed Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-25, September.
    4. Maywa Montenegro de Wit & Matt Canfield & Alastair Iles & Molly Anderson & Nora McKeon & Shalmali Guttal & Barbara Gemmill-Herren & Jessica Duncan & Jan Douwe Ploeg & Stefano Prato, 2021. "Editorial: Resetting Power in Global Food Governance: The UN Food Systems Summit," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 64(3), pages 153-161, December.
    5. Sophia Murphy, 2008. "Globalization and Corporate Concentration in the Food and Agriculture Sector," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 51(4), pages 527-533, December.
    6. Kimberly A. Eddleston & Robert F. Otondo & Franz Willi Kellermanns, 2008. "Conflict, Participative Decision‐Making, and Generational Ownership Dispersion: A Multilevel Analysis," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 456-484, July.
    7. Michael L. Katz, 2019. "Multisided Platforms, Big Data, and a Little Antitrust Policy," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(4), pages 695-716, June.
    8. Karolina Pawlak & Małgorzata Kołodziejczak, 2020. "The Role of Agriculture in Ensuring Food Security in Developing Countries: Considerations in the Context of the Problem of Sustainable Food Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-20, July.
    9. Eleni A. Kaditi, 2013. "Market Dynamics in Food Supply Chains: The Impact of Globalization and Consolidation on Firms’ Market Power," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 410-425, September.
    10. Yu, Wantao & Chavez, Roberto & Jacobs, Mark A. & Feng, Mengying, 2018. "Data-driven supply chain capabilities and performance: A resource-based view," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 371-385.
    11. Attila Jambor & Matthew Gorton, 2025. "Twenty years of EU accession: learning lessons from Central and Eastern European agriculture and rural areas," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jennifer Clapp & Indra Noyes & Zachary Grant, 2021. "The Food Systems Summit’s Failure to Address Corporate Power," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 64(3), pages 192-198, December.
    2. Hidayat, Ariodillah & Robiani, Bernadette & Marwa, Taufiq & Suhel, Suhel & Susetyo, Didik & Mukhlis, Mukhlis, 2024. "A Crude Palm Oil Industry Concentration and Influencing Factors: A Case Study of Indonesia as the World's Largest Producer," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 16(01), March.
    3. Scott Slater & Mark Lawrence & Benjamin Wood & Paulo Serodio & Amber Akker & Phillip Baker, 2025. "The rise of multi-stakeholderism, the power of ultra-processed food corporations, and the implications for global food governance: a network analysis," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 42(1), pages 177-192, March.
    4. Kyoji Fukao & Cristiano Perugini, 2021. "The Long‐Run Dynamics of the Labor Share in Japan," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 445-480, June.
    5. Nan Wang & Yunning Ma & Yongrok Choi & Seungho Kang, 2025. "Efficiency Evaluation of the World’s Top Ten Seed Companies: Static and Dynamic Analysis in the Context of Global Consolidation and Sustainability Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-25, April.
    6. Ufuk Akcigit & Sina T. Ates, 2023. "What Happened to US Business Dynamism?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(8), pages 2059-2124.
    7. John Van Reenen, 2018. "Increasing differences between firms: market power and the macro-economy," CEP Discussion Papers dp1576, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Joshua Greenstein, 2020. "The Precariat Class Structure and Income Inequality among US Workers: 1980–2018," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 447-469, September.
    9. Satyajit Chatterjee & Burcu Eyigungor, 2023. "The Firm Size-Leverage Relationship and Its Implications for Entry and Business Concentration," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 132-157, April.
    10. Zhigang Feng & Anne Villamil, 2022. "Funding employer-based insurance: regressive taxation and premium exclusions," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(2), pages 509-540, April.
    11. Lin William Cong & Zhiguo He & Jiasun Li & Wei Jiang, 2021. "Decentralized Mining in Centralized Pools [Concentrating on the fall of the labor share]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(3), pages 1191-1235.
    12. Perotti, Enrico & Döttling, Robin, 2017. "Secular Trends and Technological Progress," CEPR Discussion Papers 12519, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Hanna Dudek & Joanna Myszkowska-Ryciak & Agnieszka Wojewódzka-Wiewiórska, 2021. "Profiles of Food Insecurity: Similarities and Differences across Selected CEE Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    14. Susmita Das Riya, 2021. "Impact of industry on agricultural development in Sylhet region of Bangladesh: Farmer’s perception," International Journal of Agricultural Research, Innovation and Technology (IJARIT), IJARIT Research Foundation, vol. 11(2), December.
    15. Andrea, Colciago & Rajssa, Mechelli, 2019. "Competition and Inequality: Aiyagari meets Bertrand and Cournot," Working Papers 398, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2019.
    16. Lu Han & Hanping Hou & Z. M. Bi & Jianliang Yang & Xiaoxiao Zheng, 2024. "Functional Requirements and Supply Chain Digitalization in Industry 4.0," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 26(6), pages 2273-2285, December.
    17. Angela Dettori & Michela Floris, 2023. "Improving continuity by simplifying the structure of family firms: a replication study," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 635-660, June.
    18. Kalayci, Eda & Becker, Jan U. & Barrot, Christian, 2024. "Understanding customers’ choice for digital D2C versus multi-brand operations," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 256-273.
    19. Pilar García-Perea & Aitor Lacuesta & Pau Roldan-Blanco, 2020. "Raising markups to survive: small Spanish firms during the Great Recession," Working Papers 2033, Banco de España.
    20. Muhammad Mumtaz Khan & Muhammad Tahir Akram & Rhonda Janke & Rashad Waseem Khan Qadri & Abdullah Mohammed Al-Sadi & Aitazaz A. Farooque, 2020. "Urban Horticulture for Food Secure Cities through and beyond COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-21, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:5:p:136-:d:1656162. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.