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The purpose of this paper is to summarize and analyse the results of several food quality and safety audits (ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ELOT 1416 and Codex Alimetarius) carried out in Greek food companies processing products of animal origin.

Specifically, both a quantitative and a qualitative review of the results were carried out.

It was revealed that the biggest ratio of non-conformities was recorded within the frame of ELOT 1416 standard (Greek scheme for the certification of HACCP Management Systems), or ELOT 1416 and ISO 9001 where a combination of standards was used. The highest ratio of observations was recorded against ELOT 1416 when used in combination with ISO 9001. The highest average of non-conformities per audit was recorded in meat (red meat and poultry) companies. With regards to the observations recorded, the highest average per audit was recorded in companies processing eggs. Considering the number of workers, the highest average of non-conformities per audit was observed in small companies.

The limitations of the present study can be summarized into the fact that although a high number of audit reports were taken into account, an audit is an observation of the condition of a company on the day of the audit and the results can also be highly dependent on the skills of the auditors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge this is the first paper that analyses a high number of audit reports from Greek food companies and its conclusions can be of significant value to both the auditors and the industry enabling a more focused approach in the conduction of audits and implementation of the standards.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there are differences in terms of the effect of the ISO 9001 non-conformity process on the cost of poor quality in different sectors. In particular, to investigate the effect on six sectors of companies which manufacture their products mainly through machines and plant (i.e. capital-intensive companies). An additional aim is to understand what the reasons for these differences are and why ISO 9001 has limitations in reducing the different categories of costs of poor quality.

The paper is based on a questionnaire administered to a sample of 42 companies divided into six different sectors: chemical, pharmaceutical, mechanical, food, ceramic and steel. Respondents were asked to give a percentage score for the contribution the ISO 9001 non-conformity process makes to the reduction in total cost of poor quality and to its categories: scrap, rework, machine stoppage, re-inspections, rejected products and recall cost. A one-way Anova test was applied to the means of the percentage scores to determine whether there are differences between the means of the total cost of poor quality and its categories. Qualitative comments and suggestions from the companies provided information that helped explain the reasons for such differences.

The results of the research show that there is no difference within and between the sectors in the means of the total cost of poor quality and scrap cost, whereas there are significant differences in the means of the other costs of poor quality between the six sectors. The ISO 9001 non-conformity process has limitations in reducing the costs of poor quality and suggestions concerning the limitations of ISO 9001 in the Research and Development process emerge.

The generalizability of the research findings is limited because of the use of just six sectors of capital-intensive companies. Further research about differences in different sectors is needed.

The implications of this research are useful for consultants and managers who want to understand what the limitations of the ISO 9001 non-conformity process are on the cost of poor quality in the six sectors. The findings clearly show how, together with ISO 9001, they should take into account other improvement processes such as periodic maintenance and revamping.

The paper discusses in a quantitative way and for the first time the effects of the ISO 9001 non-conformity process on the cost of poor quality.

Generic quality management system standard ISO 9001 and the automotive quality management system standard IATF 16949 both require organisations to demonstrate continual improvement in their customer satisfaction and the number of non-conformities identified during quality system audits. However, the long-term trends of these two parameters under ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 standards are not researched so far. It is expected that under continual improvement, organisations will achieve a step-function/stair-case shaped pattern. This study evaluates if this expectation is true when long-term performance of certified organisations is assessed.

A longitudinal exploration of three organisations certified to ISO 9001 standard and three certified to IATF 16949 standard is done. The observations are further substantiated using secondary data for the same ten years period about customer satisfaction of the major automobile manufacturers.

It is observed that none of the two indicators, i.e. the customer satisfaction and number of non-conformities, in any of the six organisations show step-wise/stair-case type improvement. All indicators followed random up and down patterns like ocean waves. It is paradoxical that certified organisations are claiming continual improvement and are remaining certified but there is actually no long-term improvement.

Longitudinal studies for the generic quality management standard ISO 9001 and the quality system standard for automotive sector IATF 16949 are rare. The revelation about ocean wave patterns observed in the long-term trends for customer satisfaction and the number of non-conformities in ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certified organisations is a startling finding. It is outlandishly different from the conventional perception of a staircase-styled continual improvement pattern expected a priori in certified organisations.

Workplace mavericks are often labeled as non-conformists. They are perceived to be the employees who disregard organizational policies and procedures, and who invite huge risks in the pursuit of goals that sit outside what the organization dictates as the core business or practice. While this may be accurate to a degree, it is not the complete story. Guided by recent conceptualizations of non-conformity and positive deviance, this qualitative study interviewed 27 observers of mavericks (observer-types) in the workplace, and 28 interviews with mavericks (maverick-types). Results highlight that while maverick individuals do challenge organizational norms, they do so for the benefit of others, including the organization. Additionally, they are not wildcard non-conformists as they do in fact conform. However, they are conforming positively to higher level hyper-norms or organizational goals, and therefore operate in what could be termed as bounded non-conformity. Understanding the form that this bounded non-conformity takes is key for organizations to mitigate perceptions of the risk posed by maverick individuals, while maximizing the rewards that maverick employees can offer to organizations, especially for informing ideas and plans around more radical change and innovation. In this way, organizations can benefit from the numerous and unique contributions of mavericks in the workplace, such as innovative, unorthodox, and out-of-the-box thinking, while at the same time still ensuring the effective governance and risk management of the organization.

The paper aims to give a quantitative assessment of the benefits obtainable by using information and communication technologies to integrate the order‐to‐payment process involving manufacturers and specialized retailers in the home appliances industry.

Standard business processes were defined and activity base costing was applied to develop the cost model with the support, i.e. validation and data provision of most of the companies operating in the Italian home appliances market.

The bottom line is €96 per order‐to‐payment cycle in the conventional, paper‐based scenario, compared to €23 in the integrated scenario involving the exchange of structured electronic documents. The potential savings amount to about 80 per cent of the costs, almost equally shared between the retailer and the manufacturer. A significant part of the benefits comes from the reduction in the management costs of non‐conformity issues.

The assessment considers only tangible benefits and does not include more intangible advantages, such as cycle time reduction, compliance with regulation and easier and faster accessibility to documents.

The paper measures the benefits of using trade process integration technologies and presents a methodology that can be applied to other industries and to particular supply chains. The difficulties in assessing the benefits have been claimed to be one of the main barriers to adoption.

The paper provides a model to assess the order‐to‐payment cycle costs, considering both the costs of the “perfect cycle” (where no errors occur) and the cost of managing non‐conformities. At present, there is no benchmark available in the literature for the order‐to‐payment cycle costs in conventional and integrated conditions that could help companies to assess the expected benefits of integration.

American and Lebanese women may feel they have different needs and therefore have different wants. This distinction brings to the fore the importance of an integrative analysis of forced and voluntary (push-pull) factors that influence entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to compare Lebanese and American women to determine their push-pull drive for entrepreneurship. Background: women entrepreneurship is developing in various cultural settings internationally as well as domestically. This research paper attempts to address the inference of autonomy, creativity, and non-conformity in comparing American and Lebanese women entrepreneurs with respect to the push-pull framework of entrepreneurship.

An interpretive analysis of 102 extensive in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs from the USA and Lebanon allows the exploration of the relevance and salience of the proposed push-pull gender related entrepreneurship framework. Contrasting American and Lebanese women responses explains why the number and rate of women entrepreneurs is greater in the USA than in the Arab world, and attempts to answer why American women are more entrepreneurial and how the environment impacts them.

Emerging patterns of female business entrepreneurship in this analysis demonstrate that forced push entrepreneurship is more prevalent among women from a developing economy such as Lebanon than in industrially advanced USA. By contrast voluntary pull entrepreneurship claims more global validity as discovered in the US business culture. Entrepreneurial dimensions analyzed include autonomy, creativity, and non-conformity.

The dynamic interplay of micro, meso, and macro levels of the integrated framework of gender entrepreneurship is taken into further depth by exploring the gender autonomy debate, and highlighting creativity and non-conformity within the push-pull framework of entrepreneurship. This research contributes to reach scopes of practice and research. At the practice level the results show that the economic need is more than the self-satisfaction need to the initiation of new start-up business enterprises for Lebanese women compared to American women. This research sheds a new light on the balancing act of women entrepreneurs between tradition and modernity, between Oriental and Western cultures, and between Americans and Lebanese Arabs.

Presents a benchmarking model for quality management systems through ISO 9000 auditing. A knowledge base of implementation principles and guidelines is established for the fulfilment of each of the ISO 9001 clauses followed by a set of inquire‐observe‐assess checklists. A statistical model is attached to generate the average number of non‐conformities or defects D of an industry. The D value thus established is the benchmark D of a particular industry in a particular business environment or country which can be updated every six months in tandem with the surveillance ISO 9000 auditing. The model enables objective decisions on certification to be made, based on whether the D value of a company falls within the D control limits.

This paper aims to explore the way in which informational asymmetries between the two parties to a contract for the sale of goods are dealt with under two legal regimes designed for transnational sales contracts: the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the proposed Common European Sales Law (CESL).

Having considered the different types of informational asymmetry that can exist in a contract of sale, the paper undertakes a doctrinal legal analysis of the relevant provisions first in the CESL and then the CISG to identify what, if anything, has been done to deal with informational asymmetries. The paper primarily exposes and analyses these rules and compares the approaches taken under both legal regimes.

The CESL has a more detailed set of rules which address informational asymmetries. This might be because the genesis and context of the CESL (being limited to the EU) might make it easier to agree on more extensive rules. However, the CESL has not yet been adopted.

A seller in a contract of sale governed by CESL will be subject to more detailed (and onerous) requirements when it comes to the disclosure of information.

This is a first attempt to compare the treatment of informational asymmetries under the CISG and CESL, and will be of interest to scholars of both transnational and EU private law.

This paper aims to examine how conflicting brand preferences between a social group and an individual may lead the individual to hide their consumption. Specifically, the authors examine the conditions under which hiding behaviour is most likely to occur and the impact of susceptibility to interpersonal influence on the decision to hide.

Two experiments were conducted using a combination of student and adult samples. Analysis of variance and regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings suggest that individuals are most likely to hide their consumption behaviour when group sanctions for non-conformity are severe, but the likelihood of being caught is low. Further, individual differences in susceptibility to interpersonal influence are found to affect individuals’ decisions to hide their consumption behaviour.

By identifying hidden consumption behaviour as a possible response to preference conflict, this research contributes to the literature on social influence and extends our understanding of how consumers behave when influenced by social group pressure.

The present work establishes hiding behaviour (a concept which has yet to be thoroughly explored in the literature) as an alternative yet viable response to preference conflict.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the results of several food safety audits carried out by the Food Standards Agency in meat and poultry-processing companies and slaughterhouses in the UK and audits in aquacultures carried out by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council and the Marine Scotland.

Specifically, both a quantitative and a qualitative review were carried out.

It was revealed that in meat and poultry companies, the highest average proportion of major non-conformities (MNCs) within the total number of companies was recorded in slaughterhouses, while based on the type of product, the corresponding percentage of MNCs was found in poultry companies. Both in meat/poultry companies and aquacultures, small-sized companies presented the highest average percentage of MNCs. It was also revealed that a very high percentage of MNCs and minor non-conformities were recorded in relation to “record keeping.”

The limitations of the present study can be summarized into the fact that although a high number of audit reports were taken into account, and record keeping and past actions were reviewed as part of the audits, the audit represents only a snapshot in time and can heavily depend on the skills of the auditors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is very limited literature available that analyzes the results of audits and looks for trends in the food industry in the UK. The conclusions of this study can be of significant value to both the auditors and the industry by enabling a more targeted approach in the conduction of audits.