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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.

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.

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.

In this article the author discusses the various points at which corrosion occurs in the bakehouse plant and mentions the probable factors involved. The three main sections of the baking industry are covered, viz. bread making, flour confectionery (cake making) and biscuit making. An increasing number of bakers are now beginning to realise that metallic corrosion need not be an inevitable occurrence of conditions of the bakery, and the following article, by a member of the staff of the British Baking Industries Research Station, will help bakers to avoid this unnecessary waste of money.

This paper examines bread wheat quality and its effect on vertical co‐ordination in the wheat supply chain. Wheat quality is defined by many different characteristics, which poses limitations on the effectiveness of industry grading schemes in meeting the quality needs of end‐users. Consequently, individual processors may have an incentive to segregate wheat based on their own quality specifications. The costs and benefits of wheat segregation are analysed using a simple economic model, and illustrated with a case study of supply chain management taken from the UK bread industry. Warburtons Ltd procures bread wheat varieties with specific intrinsic quality attributes from Canada using identity preserved supply contracts. The paper concludes that the benefits of wheat quality control will encourage millers and bakers to develop closer vertical linkages with wheat suppliers in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to determine composite flour and bread consumption, and to analyse economic efficiency by comparing Kazakhstan and Turkey.

The material of the study was analysed through cross-section, χ² and T-test, data collected from the online questionnaires of 269 families from Kazakhstan (131 families) and Turkey (138 families). The families were classified into four categories on the basis of their income level and into three categories on the basis of their education level and age level.

According to the study results, Kazakhstan and Turkey families consume different types of flours and breads; the consumption of composite flour per capita has been 2 kg/month, but the bread consumption per capita has been 2 pieces/day. A χ² analysis has shown that country, family size, age, sex, income and occupation had a significant effect on flour and bread consumption. It was detected that the price of composite flour products and bread is related to the income of a family. According to the survey data, in Kazakhstan and Turkey, the average monthly income of the families have been calculated as $675, and the average income per person have been calculated as $170. Families purchase of composite flour products and bread has been $6. There is an increase amount of flour and bread consumption (p<0.010) in the low-income level, but in families with high-income level, there is a decrease amount of consumption. The price of flour products and bread is associated with the income of a family; these products have seen as reasonable and practical products. The income level and age level affect the consumption of flour and bread. Although the education level and occupation of consumers are varied, flour and bread have been preferred by every age group of consumers as a conventional food, whether it is a healthy food or not. New trend of consumption healthy products as a composite flour and bread influences on consumers purchase.

Flour and bread constitute the main and strategically important food product worldwide. The food security of a country depends on the state of the grain economy and the broad availability of the population. Grain production is the largest branch of agricultural production, and it has an important economic and social significance. The flour and bread were the main economic and political problem thousands of years ago.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on analysing how foreign entry by a multinational enterprise (MNE) can act as a catalyst for change in field-level institutional logics in a transition economy context.

The paper presents an empirical single-case study on the effects of an MNE’s entry on a particular industry in an emerging market’s context. The empirical study follows abductive reasoning; based on the interplay of previous literature and empirical observations, it identifies mechanism through which MNEs can catalyse change in field-level institutional logics.

The study shows that in addition to general market transition influenced by state-level policies, individual companies’ strategies, actions and market behaviour also significantly contribute to the development of a host industry’s field-level institutional logics. More precisely, a case study of a Finnish MNE’s entry into the Russian bakery market identifies the mechanisms and various change pathways through which the entry of a single MNE into a transition economy can significantly alter the institutional logics of a particular industry.

The study employs a novel perspective that incorporates the ideas, concepts and insights of an institutional logics perspective to MNE entry research for empirical analysis and theory building.