PROFITABILITY IN FARMING-PRESUMPTION FOR DIGITALIZATION. EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM BULGARIAN HORTICULTURE

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the impact of selected factor variables in two directions, on the one hand their impact on the financial performance of firms in the agrarian sector and on the other hand as a prerequisite or barrier to investments related to digitalization in the sector. We use an econometric model with fixed effects of panel data to estimate the dependence between the activity results and the selected variables, taking into account the influence of the individual characteristics of the enterprises. The study is based on 733 companies operating in the "Crop farming" sector (NACE.BG – 2008), and covers a period of 13 years (2007 – 2020). Our dependent variable is the return on assets (ROA), and our assessment aims to analyze the main determinants that form it, such as debt level, size and age, etc.