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The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between ISO 9000 certification and business performance for small-to-medium enterprises in the food and beverage (F&B) industry.

The research employed a qualitative approach based on case studies to investigate in depth how companies perceive ISO 9001. More specifically, four enterprises were examined, and a total of 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with top and middle managers from the companies. Questions were validated by experts and through pilot interviews. In total, 45 documents of a broad range related to the quality management system were examined. Personal observation and non-structured consultation with personnel were also used to evaluate the possible impacts and livelihood outcomes.

Research findings showed that the certified companies in the F&B industry gain a number of both internal and external benefits, including: quality awareness, increased productivity, increased personnel participation and efficiency, improved image and penetration into new markets. Regarding the financial benefits of certification, the findings are not as convincing, as one company reported no financial benefits, and the rest reported that financial benefits are indirect and intangible. Conclusively, it can be said that SMEs that wish to pursue certification should certainly expect benefits.

Although many studies have concentrated on analyzing the impact of the implementation of ISO 9001 certification, there is still a clear need for research in specific sectors. Practicing managers and researchers will be able to examine findings in order to evaluate benefits and weaknesses from certification, thereby identifying and acting before and after certification.

Although the F&B industry has shown a great preference for the ISO 9000 standard and has adopted it extensively, scant empirical evidence has been recorded on the subject. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the benefits for implementing the ISO 9001 certification and to the analysis of its application to the ever-important F&B industry in Greece, a country whose economy is particularly supported by SMEs and has been severely hit by the economic crisis. Researchers will therefore further their knowledge, understand benefits but also acknowledge weaknesses.

To propose a framework for purchasing and outsourcing decisions together with a process model for evaluating and assessing possible suppliers. The paper focuses in particular on the “planning” and “qualifying” phases of the process which, respectively, set the criteria and prepare a shortlist for invitations, before the final selection.

By reference to the literature, past experience and a priori reasoning, a conceptual framework and quantitative model are combined in a checklist to guide responsible managers through a formal, systematic decision‐making procedure.

The model is fully described, its strengths and weaknesses are discussed, and the modus operandi of the derived decision‐making framework is explained. The system and process are strongly advocated as the most appropriate instrument for the selection of suppliers of outsourced products and services in the contemporary business environment.

The system suffers to an extent from one of its defining strengths: relative simplicity, which may limit its applicability in more complex situations. This emphasises the importance of the procedures undertaken in the “qualification” phase. Assigning evaluative values codes to the various decision parameters involves a good deal of subjectivity, which could lead to misguided decisions. Further research and development is needed.

The advocated selection offers outsourcing decision makers a structured and systematic selection framework, which does not compromise their own professionalism, but rather encourages imagination, innovation, investigation and opinion based on critical observation. Its potential applicability covers the full range of industry sectors, beyond the outsourcing of product and component manufacture which have been the focus of the great majority of published studies.

The paper examines a widely investigated “hot topic” that is in fact surrounded by confusion and misunderstanding. It focuses on aspects of outsourcing practice that have so far attracted little attention from researchers.

Universities are increasingly looking at entrepreneurship as a way to bridge theory and practice. This is important in these challenging times when unexpected events and occurrences take place. It is becoming more important for universities to respond in an entrepreneurial manner to new trends to capitalise on learning and research opportunities. The aim of this chapter is to discuss how universities are acting in an entrepreneurial way by responding to educational and social challenges. This will help to understand fruitful new areas of teaching, research, service and engagement that can occur in a university setting based on entrepreneurial thinking.

Entrepreneurship is a new field of research in Russian higher education. This chapter discusses the emergence of entrepreneurial education in Russian universities by examining their key documents and relevant curricula. Findings indicate that only a few modern Russian universities develop entrepreneurial programmes that contribute to the income of the less funded from research organisations. These programmes are mainly student-paid graduate programmes aimed at providing students with hard skills. The study also addresses factors that influence students’ entrepreneurial intention following the theory of planned behaviour. Beyond attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, a new contextual variable of entrepreneurial environment and education significantly impacts intention. This result along with subjective norm influence implies that prospective graduate entrepreneurs in Russia are motivated to venture to contribute to their society. Finally, this study provides recommendations on how Russian universities could empower entrepreneurial education to undertake a substantial role in regional entrepreneurial ecosystem development.

The purpose of this paper is to respond to the increasing demands that education currently faces and develop a structured approach for the implementation of lean thinking (LT) in primary and secondary education (P&SE) and empirically validated it.

An extended literature review was conducted of studies on LT in education, service and manufacturing, in which a preliminary list was formed of LT dimensions, which were subsequently reviewed by a focus group. An instrument was generated, which was distributed to 1,400 education professionals, and 394 replies were received. The measures were tested for validity and reliability. After the first round of analyses, measures were tested further to strengthen the proposed instrument.

The findings confirmed that the instrument developed is both valid and reliable and that the proposed measures consist actual dimensions of LT in P&SE. A number of success factors that would be required for LT initiatives to be implemented effectively within the P&SE context in a holistic perspective were revealed.

Although a number of studies have been developed on LT in the manufacturing or service sector, its implementation in education and particularly in P&SE remains scant. The instrument developed provides sufficient knowledge of which are the most important dimensions to consider when pondering LT in education.

While LT has been the subject of previous research in education, this study represented the first look at lean in P&SE and was the first of its kind to develop and validate in a real environment a lean implementation instrument for use in educational institutions. Researchers and practitioners can use the proposed instrument to build models of facilitating practices to improve performance while contributing to economic growth and enhancing social empowerment.

The purpose of this chapter is to conduct a structured literature review to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship and emotional intelligence in academic settings as well as the current entrepreneurship pedagogy for flexible, innovative and creative graduates. One hundred and twenty-eight peer-reviewed papers were analysed based on Webster’s and Watson’s (2002) methodology. Papers classified into three topics and a content analysis was implemented to discuss about the publication year, journals, authors, frequency of keywords and research method adopted. The contribution of this chapter is twofold. It is a bibliometric study which provides a macropicture of a research field, its evolution and connections among studies, in order to be a starting point for future researchers who are already studying entrepreneurial education or entrepreneurship-related scientific areas. Also, this chapter helps academics to improve educational programmes and curriculum to increase students’ entrepreneurial intention taking into account the factors that affect it.

Primary education (PE) forms the foundation of high-quality education systems, but it is often underestimated. This paper aims to develop and empirically validate a measurement instrument to study the current stage of total quality management (TQM) implementation in PE.

This study developed a seven-dimensional and a 37-item instrument administered to education professionals at public PE institutions in Greece to determine the current stage of TQM implementation at their institution; 2,088 responses were received in total. Principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were adopted to test the research instrument.

The findings supported the validity and reliability of the instrument and demonstrated that the proposed measures represent actual dimensions that can be used to explore the implementation of TQM in PE. Results also showed that the respondents rated highly the positive impact that TQM can have on their schools, although nonhuman resources have been found inadequate and problematic.

The field of TQM in PE lacks empirical evidence; this paper provides deep insight into the elements that demonstrate the perception and status of TQM implementation and can support quality implementation plans.

This study adds value to the TQM literature by developing an instrument for use in PE educational institutions and validating it in a real environment. Practitioners and researchers are thus supplied with the means to facilitate TQM practices, identify weaknesses and opportunities and contribute to social empowerment.

The entrepreneurial education has obtained special attention by researchers hoping to develop better entrepreneurship programmes that may result in higher entrepreneurial activity outputs of students. The culture on its own is one of the main determinants, among others, of the entrepreneurial activities undertaken in different countries. In that sense, this research contributes to a greater understanding of the relationship between culture and entrepreneurial education. Using one of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s surveys, the National Experts’ Survey, the authors used Structural Equation Models to analyse the sample of N =  445 experts in Mexico as an effort to achieve a consensus about which of these two constructs is dependent on the other, ‘entrepreneurial education’ or ‘cultural and social norms’. The results of this chapter show that in Mexico there is an influence of the cultural and social norms on entrepreneurial education at all levels, primary, secondary, and superior. Nevertheless, an important limitation of the study was that it does not differentiate between private and public education, but yet it contributes to the understanding of the less visible entrepreneurial educational levels in the literature. This chapter aims with the phenomena of how teaching entrepreneurship works by analysing the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s social environment variable effect on entrepreneurial education. This research contributes to the evidence that the teaching practice under the socio-cultural dimension enables to detect the continuity factors to make an educational transformation.

Literature has identified possible factors to entrepreneurial behaviour, including some antecedents of entrepreneurship intention among university students. This study stresses on the field of study and the attendance of an entrepreneurship course as moderators for such intention. Following the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the study compares the results of a survey with a sample of 220 students, conducted in two universities, one public and one private, the latter teaching an entrepreneurship course.

The authors found that (1) Ajzen’s TPB predicted entrepreneurial intention; (2) different field of studies show significant difference on entrepreneurial intention; (3) family and/or friends influence is associated with higher entrepreneurial intention, attitude and perceived behaviour control; (4) the intention to attend an entrepreneurship course is strongly associated with entrepreneurial intention; and (5) however, business-related studies and men do not indicate higher intention to take entrepreneurship course, contradicting previous studies.

The results open further topics for discussions that can be researched with qualitative studies, such as the reason why students who take entrepreneurship course do not predict higher entrepreneurial intention. Meanwhile the intention to attend an entrepreneurship course is associated with entrepreneurial intention.