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This study aims to explore how customer-perceived quality is affected by innovation in traditional products in the bread, bakery and pastry industry. The study assesses whether innovating traditional products is an effective strategy, especially in traditional industries.

This study followed a quantitative method of analysis. Data were gathered from a sample of 200 Italian bread consumers and analysed using a two-pronged correlation analysis, and two hypotheses were tested using Pearson’s correlation.

The results showed the negative relationship between customer-perceived quality and innovating traditional products in traditional industries embedded in closed contexts.

The study has several academic implications. First, by focusing on the traditional food industry, the study contributes to the theory by answering the call for research in this field; second, the findings contribute to the embeddedness construct and, third, to the studies of customer-perceived quality and to the literature on innovation.

The findings are particularly interesting for entrepreneurs and consultants in traditional industries who make decisions on whether it is better to innovate or to remain anchored to tradition.

The present study clarifies the shadowy side of innovation in traditional industries, such as the bread, bakery and pastry industry, and it reveals how tradition plays a meaningful role in those sectors.

Cost management is essential in every organisation, especially in an increasingly competitive environment (Jain & Yadav 2006:352). The management of distribution costs has become increasingly important because of the rising fuel costs in recent years (Gaffney 2008:40). Delivery routes should be optimised in order to reduce distribution costs. This article presents a comprehensive segment margin approach model for determining the financial viability of delivery routes. A specific bakery (henceforth referred to as Bakery A) was selected as a case study, and the use of general management accounting principles in determining the financial viability of delivery routes was specifically investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and evaluate for quality characteristics and β‐glucan analysis during different stages of the oat flour and/or oat bran based bread baking process.

A 100 per cent wheat flour (WF) formulation was substituted with 30, 50 and 70 per cent oat flour (OF) or oat bran (OB) to improve its nutritional quality characteristics of bread. The flour blends were evaluated for quality characteristics (loaf volume, texture profile analysis) and β‐glucan analysis during different stages of the bread baking process.

A significant decrease in specific volume, number of cells and crumb brightness was observed with increasing WF substitution levels with OF or OB. The crumb hardness was observed to be negatively correlated with specific volume of OF (r =−0.90, p<0.0001) and OB (r =−0.84, p<0.0001) bread. The level of β‐glucan was significantly reduced by 37.8 −42.9 per cent in dough during 45 min fermentation time, which indicating the enzymatic action. The β‐glucan content of OF and OB bread was found to increase from 0.13 g/100 g bread (db) (control) to 1.35 and 3.61 g β‐glucan/100 g bread (db) for 70 per cent WF substitution with OF and OB, respectively. Results show that a bread of acceptable quality can be prepared by substituting WF by up to 50 per cent for OF and up to 30 per cent by OB.

Replacing white bread with oat flour/bran containing β‐glucan facilitates human consumption of soluble dietary fibre.

The paper provides a comparative evaluation of the oat flour and/or bran based bread and its critical factors influencing the level of β‐glucan during baking process, which attributes to improve the nutritional quality.

This case can be used in teaching Marketing Management, Principles of Marketing and Consumer Behavior. More specifically, marketing strategies, growth strategies, market segmentation.

This case is designed for undergraduate and MBA students.

This case illustrates the challenges a woman faces taking on the running of her family business, without any prior experience. Hema is a well-educated girl with a diploma in childhood education from UTM-Johor; she was happily working as a school teacher. Her parents are entrepreneurs Encik Sittumalai and Puan Rani. Her Mother Puan Rani set up a business in 2005, under the name of Blitz, producing and selling Indian cookies. In 2010, Blitz was one of the best homemade Indian cookies in the market of Johor Bahru, and supplied their products to five main Indian restaurants. In March 2012, Rani was diagnosed with final stage colon cancer and as a result the business was halted, and the organization was not able to pay employees’ salaries. Hema found herself left with no choice but to resign from her teaching job and take care of the family business.

From this case, it is expected that the students will be able to: understand the fundamental functions of marketing; learn about the four Ps of marketing including product, price, promotion and place; learn about different techniques and strategies to analyze organizations and market situation including SWOT and Porter’s five forces; gain knowledge about market segmentation and growth strategies; identify problems and challenges faced by a new manager in running a company; analyze a situation whereby a new manager needs to adapt to a new role, duties and responsibilities; analyze the external and internal environment using SWOT; understand competition using Porter’s 5 forces; think thoroughly, deeply and critically to make a decision that can solve the problem in hand.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows: use advanced frameworks and tools to convey complex ideas related to corporate social responsibility and ethics; apply relevant concepts and theories of ethics and corporate governance to a practical situation while making decisions; demonstrate understanding of the importance of stakeholders when developing socially responsible thinking; and analyze ethical and legal conflicts that need to be considered by employees in situations of whistleblowing.

Sara Khan was a Pakistani-American who had moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2015 to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in accounting. After graduation, she started working for a baked products manufacturer, Dough Fresh, which was a business unit of Dubai-based Fresh Foods Co. Three years later, she enjoyed her work in the company that embraced strong ethical values and socially responsible practices. She was recently given the task of delivering a financial statements’, investment projections’ and cost-cutting presentation to the senior management of Dough Fresh. Her performance at completing this task was of critical importance for her obtaining the eagerly awaited promotion to the senior accountant position. One day, while Sara was looking through some files to update the financial statements’ records, she came across a deleted purchase order of poppy seeds that amounted to AED 680,000. While poppy seeds were widely used as ingredients in baked products in other countries, they were illegal in the UAE. After approaching her colleague from the purchasing department, she realized that the purchasing manager, who was the grandson of the chairman, was closely involved in the matter. Moreover, it appeared that poppy seeds were used unwashed, which triggered deleterious health consequences and made them highly dangerous to consume. As Sara spent more time researching about poppy seeds and whistleblowing laws in the UAE, she questioned whether she should divulge this information or keep it for herself. Making this decision was extremely challenging. Because the UAE laws regarding whistleblowing were not comprehensive and constantly evolving, she was not certain whether her identity and reputation would be protected in case she decided to blow the whistle. Even more, she worried immensely about the prospect of her colleagues losing their jobs if this information became public, as many of them needed the money to support their families back home and to finance expensive health-related treatments of their relatives. At the same time, she was also aware that if poppy seeds were consumed by people unknowingly, this could lead to serious and even fatal health consequences. All things considered, Sara was caught between deciding what was the right thing to do.

This case study can be used in a higher level undergraduate business course on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

SIR GEORGE EDWARDS, managing director of the British Aircraft Corporation, made a plea for recognition of the value of the aerospace industry in a recent address to the Manchester Branch of the Institute of Directors.

After completion of the case study, students are expected to demonstrate understanding of the process of strategy formulation (which include conducting situational analysis) and strategy implementation.

Perusahaan Azan, which trades under the brand name Roti Azan for its fresh bread and Azan for its dry bread or rusks, was established as a family business in 1968 by Haji Abu Bakar bin Ali in his hometown in Kuala Pilah, in the state of Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia. In the mid-1980s, the management of the business was passed on by Haji Abu Bakar to one of his sons, Haji Mohd Ghazali bin Haji Abu Bakar. Haji Ghazali was named managing director in 1985 and officially inherited his father’s company in 1987. By 2004, Perusahaan Azan breads had started to penetrate major grocery stores nationwide, and later the business began to expand internationally in 2010, with Oman and Iraq among the first countries it ventured into. The company sold both its fresh and dry bread in local stores; however, in the international market, only dry bread types were sold, specifically wholemeal rusks and long rusks, which had longer shelf lives. Post-pandemic, by 2022, the company had exited the retail fresh bread market and had focused only on its contractual fresh bread and retail dry bread markets. He thought about the main strategic choices he had of going forward, either to revive its retail fresh bread segment or venture into a coffee shop business. The former was the bread and butter of the company in the last 50 years. However, he knew that re-entering this market was getting more difficult, as it requires competing head-to-head with the giant breadmakers. There were also issues of rising costs and high wastage. For the latter coffee shop project, the company did not have experience in directly “serving” the customers, with its businesses so far had been mainly in production. He pondered on the best decision to undertake to sustain the company’s profitability into the next generation. Few family businesses can pass this crucial stage. He knew he had to act fast to ensure that the company’s plans for the future could be successfully implemented. The case study is suitable for use in teaching courses in strategic management, organisational management and integrated case study for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in the programmes of business administration, Muamalat administration and accounting.

The case study is suitable for use in advanced undergraduate students in management, business administration, Muamalat administration and postgraduate students in MBA, Master in Muamalat Administration or other related master’s programmes with a course in strategic management, organisational management and integrated case study.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

This case considers the buyout of Panera Bread from the perspective of a private equity fund. In early 2017, KLG Managing Director Tom Denning is considering a leveraged buyout of Panera Bread, a rapidly growing fast-casual restaurant company. A surprising Bloomberg News story signals that the deal process is broadening and KLG will have to act quickly if it hopes to buy Panera Bread. Students assume the role of Tom Denning as he prepares an investment recommendation for KLG's investment committee. In doing so, students are required to consider a very large and expensive investment. Students are challenged to create an investment recommendation by performing due diligence, determining additional questions to ask, and pricing a buyout bid that incorporates an optimal capital structure and meets KLG's return requirements. The Panera Bread case is designed to give students insight into the private equity investment process.

Wheat is the staple food in many parts of the world and bread is one of the most important products of wheat flour. There is a need for innovations in bread making to increase its shelf life and consumer's attraction. Fermentation is mostly done by yeast but it does not produce appreciable amounts of organic acids, which are required to enhance the shelf life of bread. The present study aims to determine the effect of bacterial and yeast culture blends on the quality and shelf life of sourdough bread and to observe the sugar utilization during fermentation.

Three treatments were made using different blends of bacterial cultures (homo‐fermentative and hetero‐fermentative) and baker's yeast compared with a control having only baker's yeast. Chemical analysis, sugar utilization (Sucrose, glucose and fructose) through high performance liquid chromatography, sensory characteristics (both internal and external) and microbial count (Bacterial and fungal count) for each treatment were conducted at different storage intervals.

The hetero‐fermentative bacteria i.e. Lactobacillus plantarum along with baker's yeast exhibited the best results regarding the utilization of sugars during fermentation (after 3 h of fermentation 0.0158 mg/ml sugar remained), objective evaluation of bread and its sensory characteristics. The bread prepared using the blend of hetero‐fermentative bacteria (0.5 per cent) and yeast (0.5 per cent) also showed greater resistance against bacteria (9×10¹ cfu/g after 60 h of storage) and mold (1.1 ×  10² cfu/g after 60 h of storage) growth.

Hetero‐fermentative bacteria along with baker's yeast can be utilized in sour dough to improve major bread characteristics. This study is a step further in improving the shelf life of sourdough.

Presently only baker's yeast is being used by bread industry for fermentation purpose but a blend of bacterial culture along with baker's yeast can give better performance for better quality and shelf life of the bread.

The UK product market for bread is analysed. Some of the main trends visible in this market are discussed. The segmentation of the bread market is examined and illustrated, and some of the major constraints on suppliers to that market are considered. Some of the product market strategies used by UK bakery companies are described. The conclusion speculates on future scenarios based on suggested threats and opportunities deriving from the Single European Market, and the potential break up of RHM plc.