摘要：Dairy farming and dairy processing industry have rapidly changed in recent decades in "old" European Union members, “new” members, as well as in other East European transitional countries. In East European transitional countries, a specific pattern of changes could be noticed. Those changes have usually begun with foreign direct investments, whereupon acquisitions, concentration and consolidation are followed. The process finished with capital investments to meet competition challenges. Thus, the main aim of our paper is to investigate the impact of capital investments on different quantitative and qualitative features of dairy processing companies in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. Capital investments per employee significantly increase productivity measured by EBITDA and personnel costs. Also, statistically significant association of capital investments and foreign ownership is identified. On the other hand, capital investments per employee do not significantly affect the profitability of those companies, if they are not accompanied by changes in owners’ structure and know-how that foreign owners bring; regardless the country in which company operates. Amount of capital investment per employee are found statistically significant for country in which company operates of Slovenia and Croatia, but not Serbia.
关键词：dairy processing industry; capital investments; profitability; productivity
