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This paper reviews the nature, extent, and determinants of the overseas operations of the British food and drink processing industries with a view to analysing the competitiveness of the sector in international markets.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual model adopted from a strategy-structure-performance paradigm for investigating the fit between the supply chain integration and halal food supply chain integrity and the impact of halal food supply chain integrity on firms’ performance in a Malaysian context.

This study comprises a sample of a halal manufacturing firm in Malaysia. A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. Data were gathered based on mailed and personally administered questionnaires. SmartPLS was used to analyse the 254 valid responses.

The research findings indicate that internal integration and strategy have positive impact on halal food supply chain integrity. The study results confirmed that customer integration and supplier integration contributes to halal food supply chain integrity. It also finds that halal food supply chain integrity has a significantly positive impact.

The results suggested that a strategic collaboration with the supplier pivoted around the quality and integrity of the raw materials should be undertaken.

The results from this study supports that the managers should adopt all halal food supply chain integrity components to achieve a superior performance. Even though some of the components did not yield significant results in terms of their relationships with firms’ performance, these dimensions were generally related to the standardised industry requirements, such as certifications.

The findings are original and unique and are based on established theories from the literature on supply chain management practices. The research findings are useful to academics and policymakers interested in fostering a halal supply chain in Malaysia.

Although a number of studies have researched food firms’ unethical practices, the mechanisms used to prevent these practices remain underexplored from the perspective of corporate governance. As independent directors (IDs) have been viewed as a mechanism to deter corporate misconducts, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of the ratio of IDs on the board, IDs’ industrial experience and their participation in corporate governance training courses on food firms’ unethical production practices.

This study is based on a sample of 239 firm-year observations in Taiwanese food industries. The Poisson model with fixed effects was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results show that board independence and IDs with food industry expertise were not effective in deterring food firms from unethical production practices. The expected monitoring function of IDs would only realize when they complete a sufficient number of corporate governance training courses. These courses can make IDs aware of their responsibilities and roles in governing firms.

This study is the first to identify the effects of corporate governance practices on food firms’ unethical production practices. The value of this study may provide food firms practical solutions that enable corporate executives to behave ethically.

This paper aims to review the motivation and benefits of implementing halal food safety certification (HFSC) from the upstream perspectives. Food safety certification (FSC) has long been a prevailing issue in the field of food safety research. However, there remains a general paucity of research in religion-specific form of FSC, such as the HFSC. At present, the limited existing studies on HFSC focus on the demand side, but studies on the supply side are scarce and largely inconclusive. The review is further scrutinised by addressing the internal and external motivations and benefits of HFSC.

The explanatory and general review of this paper is based on an extensive literature review in FSC as well as the author’s personal reflections on past research in halal certification.

The internal motivations concern a firm’s internal processes, people and the available resources, while the external motivations relate to a firm’s external elements such as government intervention and market pressure. A firm can reap the internal benefits, such as improved product quality, or enjoy the external benefits of better marketing and larger market shares.

The paper offers unique acumens and advances of a less-researched side of the halal food chain. It also compiles the conclusions of FSC research that could have a significant bearing on the internal and external impetuses and advantages of HFSC.

This study aims to examine the factors shaping food firms’ intentions to control quality safety in the context of government regulation in China.

Based on 180 usable data samples collected via a survey, structural equation modeling and moderated multiple regression analysis were used to examine the research model.

It was found that quality safety capability, corporate social responsibility, collaboration between parties along supply chains and information-sharing among supply chain members have had different impacts on the intentions of food firms to control quality safety. It was also found that government regulation has a positive moderating effect on corporate social responsibility and on collaboration between organizations in a supply chain.

This research is limited to a particular sample: i.e. the managers of food firms from Guangdong Province in China. Thus, the results need to be generalized to encompass wider samples.

Previous studies have not explained well the mechanisms by which quality safety control has been established among China’s food firms. This study builds a theoretical framework for the factors affecting intentions to control quality safety by examining issues from the perspectives of food firms and by taking into account the characteristics of food supply chains. This approach addresses the gaps in current understanding and provides practical support to promote quality safety among food firms in China.

This study assessed the relationship among market orientation, innovation attitude and firm's innovativeness in the context of agri-food micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in a developing country context.

Cross-sectional primary data was collected using structured questionnaires from a sample of 521 agro-food MSMEs in Uganda. Data was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Results showed that interfunctional coordination influences both firm innovativeness and innovation attitude. On the other hand, competitor orientation does not influence innovation attitude, but negatively influences firm innovativeness, while customer orientation does not influence firm innovativeness, but positively influences innovation attitude. Results also confirm the positive influence of innovation attitude on firm innovativeness. These relationships vary by location, size of MSME, type of MSME.

The findings of study this imply that agri-food firms should focus on improving the internal coordination among departments so as to improve both attitude toward innovation and firm's innovativeness.

This study investigates market orientation and innovation in agro-food MSMEs in a development country.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that different external sources of knowledge play in product, process, market and organizational innovations in food SMEs.

This study is based on a web-survey of 214 food European SMEs. Binary logistic regression models were utilized for data analysis.

The findings support the recent studies that suggest that the introduction of different types of innovation is associated with different types of source of knowledge. They indicate that collaboration with customers matter for product innovations in food SMEs while collaboration with competitors is more important for organizational innovations in this type of firm. In addition, collaboration with science base actors does not appear relevant to innovation in food SMEs, supporting previous works that highlight the predominant role of market base actors in innovation in this type of firm.

In line with previous research on innovation in SMEs, the generalization of the findings to all European food SMEs may be limited due to the low response rate and the difficulties in collecting innovation data from micro-firms. Data used in the study were gathered from single informants also which may have resulted in self-report bias. Besides, cross-sectional data were employed so no causal inferences could be drawn.

Although the food industry is a major sector for the European economy, little attention has been given to the sources of knowledge that may be used for innovation in this industry. This paper offers interesting insights into the importance of external sources for innovation. Moreover, past research dealing with collaboration for innovation usually focus on product and process innovations. The paper adds to these by incorporating market and organizational innovations.

Today's environment imposes traceability compliance on food firms. Power within the interorganisational relationships in the food supply chain may hinder the integration necessary for that traceability to be effective. The purpose of the present study is to define the configuration of power in food industry‐distribution relationships from the food industry perspective.

The variables of power configuration considered in this study have been classified as mediated and non‐mediated power sources, in accordance with the criteria used by French and Raven. The Rasch model employed in the treatment of the values given by the food industries to the construct perceived power (mediated and non‐mediated power sources) permit a unidimensional measurement of that construct. Thus, the model estimated using this methodology explains power‐shaping in the food industry‐distribution relationships in the Canary Islands.

The results obtained are mostly based on the distributors' use of mediated power sources; they describe a situation that does not contribute to a high level of commitment in such relationships, since the negative effects of this type of power do not favour the climate required for the implementation of active traceability.

The data applied in this study were gathered prior to the implementation of traceability as a legal requirement, and consequently it would be advisable and useful to conduct a post‐implementation.

The paper adopts a business management approach, aimed at improving relations in the food supply chain. The methodology employed allows food firms to establish suitable chain integration strategies, facilitating the effective implementation of traceability. The paper presents a conceptual framework and analytical methodology which sustain the present study and subsequent work.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model and examine the relevance of a set of five dynamic drivers to building and sustaining the innovation capability of agri-food firms.

The empirical data were acquired through a recent study of 436 Greek agri-food firms. Regression analysis was employed to examine the correlation between innovation drivers and each of the four innovation capability dimensions, namely, product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation and marketing innovation.

The findings verify that quality orientation and process management are the two most important innovation drivers. However, the impact of learning orientation, collaborations and environmental dynamism on a firm’s agri-food innovation capability is yet to be investigated.

This study has not investigated how firms’ characteristics form the drivers and barriers to innovation at the company. Moreover, a second limitation is related to the kind of innovation that drivers boost. This research does not separate between radical and incremental innovation.

In order to maintain their sustainable development and enhance their whole innovation capability, agri-food firms should closely relate their innovation capability dimensions to the formulation of a strategy and harmonization of innovation and innovation drivers’ activities.

The main contribution of this paper is that it develops an appropriate research framework (a proposed structural model) for examining the links among the five innovation drivers with each of the four innovation capability dimensions.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of firm-specific determinants on the entrepreneurial success (measured through the objective financial performance) of the Czech food processing firms over 2003-2014 and with the main particular focus on capital structure and productivity as the tough challenges of the firms in transition and emerging economies.

Determinants of profitability are tested econometrically, as for the estimation technique, both-way fixed effects controlling for variety over the time and across enterprises were applied. The collected micro-panel data set consists of 10,509 observations and includes 1,804 firms. Estimated regression models with fixed effects are used to quantify the determinants of the financial performance, operationalized through three key performance indicators – price–cost margin, return on assets and return on equity.

Estimated econometric models supported hypothesis assuming a positive relationship between the labour productivity and profitability. In line with the assumptions based on the development of the Czech food market, high leverage of firms led to the decrease of profitability, which can be explained by the high financial distress costs and worsened market position of firms in the competitive environment. Ageing of firms and firm size were associated with the increase of profitability indicators.

The findings of the presented research are important for investors considering agribusiness as a part of their investment portfolios and for policymakers to enhance the economic efficiency of the food industry through regulations and public support, and particularly, from the firm management viewpoint, e.g. to pay attention to the debt policy due to the negative impact of high indebtedness on firm profitability, and to the productivity factors, which proved to be important drivers of entrepreneurial success.

Although the firm-specific factors responsible for firm performance have already been studied, the food processing industry has received limited interest from the empirical analysts, and the results are not always unequivocal. This study is expected to contribute to the literature on this subject, both empirically and methodologically, as to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has been encountered yet where the factors determining the profitability of the Czech food processing industry have been the focus. With regards to the collected micro-data set and the estimation technique, the study can be considered as extensive not only from the perspective of the research in the Czech Republic but also from the international perspective.