Conclusiones referentes al patrimonio de las Baleares 1º de ESO

2.2.1 External motivations

The term „motivation‟ is used in this research to refer to the driving forces behind the adoption of QASs by firms. Motivations are categorized into two types, namely external and internal ones. External and internal motivation for adopting QAS are indicated in a number of research studies; for example, motivations to adopt ISO 9000 in the agri-food sector (Holleran & Bredahl, 1997; Turner et al., 2000; Lloyds Register Quality Assurance, 1995) and motivations to adopt HACCP (Henson & Northen, 1997; Henson & Holt, 2000) . External motivations identified include satisfying legal requirements established by national governments in domestic markets (Henson et al., 1999) or rules imposed by international customers (that is, HACCP certification is obligatory when exporting food products to

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developed countries), or requirements of players in the food chain. For example, retailers often insist that their suppliers have quality system certifications in order to increase assurance of the supply of safe foods. Therefore, satisfying a legal regulation and customer‟s requirements are external motivations to adopt QASs that was identified in previous research. The motivation for adopting a QAS differs among individual firms according to regulatory and market factors associated with their own particular circumstances. For example, certain manufacturers may implement HACCP regardless of government regulation, perhaps because it is the industry norm or is required by major buyers of their products. Others may not be induced to implement HACCP even if legally required to do so (Henson & Holt, 2000). Henson & Holt indicate four motives for adoption of a QAS, such as internal efficiency, accreditation, direct external requirement, and recommended good practice. They noted that customer requirement is the most important motive for businesses to adopt HACCP in the dairy sector of the UK. In another study of motivations for seeking a quality system by beef producers in the UK, Spriggs et al. (2000) report that the reasons for adopting a QAS are to ensure compliance with government regulations, to ensure compliance with supermarket regulations, to convince consumers of quality, and to protect large specialist producers.

A reason identified for adopting ISO 9000 is that it was externally imposed by international and national customers who do not identify high quality suppliers by self- auditing their production and quality processes. This argument is confirmed by a study among US businesses which show that the decision to select counterparts is positively influenced when suppliers have an ISO 9000 registration (Deloitte & Touche, 1994). Ferguson (1996)argues that many industrial buyers often use the list of ISO registered suppliers as their only source for identifying potential suppliers. Thus, despite the opinion expressed by early researchers on quality management that adoption of ISO is not externally mandated or controlled (Deming, 1986; Ishikawa, 1986; Juran, 1982), the reason for adopting ISO 9000 certification more recently may be related to a safe way of doing business with suppliers.

Maintaining existing markets and expanding new markets can be motivations for business firms in competitive global markets to adopt QAS‟s. Hobbs et al. (2002) argue that maintaining access to the US and other foreign markets are important reasons for Canadian businesses to make a decision to adopt HACCP. They noted that Canadian firms wishing to

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export meat, for example, to the United States must have a HACCP system in place although it is not yet mandatory under Canadian regulations. This situation is also referred to in a study of Nguyen et al. (2003)on obtaining HACCP and ISO for satisfying requirements of export.

Marketing advantage can provide a major explanation for the adoption of the ISO9000 system. In fact, Juran (1995) argued that the major reason for seeking certification is maintenance or expansion of markets. ISO9000 certification can be an important marketing cue, building up trust with industrial customers, and final customers. Research shows that anticipated marketing advantage, and specifically, increasing market share and providing access to new markets, have been critical factors that encourage the pursuit of ISO 9000 (Capmany et al., 2000). In one study, the ability to sustain or increase market share was ranked fourth and sixth among the top 10 anticipated benefits of ISO 9000 certification (Skrabec et al., 1997). This finding is also confirmed in the research of Briz et al. (2005) on motivations for applying ISO 9000 in the SME food industry in Spain, with „increase market share‟ and „access new markets‟ considered as motivations that were ranked highly. Unnevehr & Jensen (1998) indicated that firms have incentives for HACCP adoption to prevent losses of market share when an outbreak occurs.

There are further motivations to adopt a QAS, such as enhancing a company‟s reputation and image (see Hassan et al., 2009; Khatri & Colins, 2007; Ebrahimpour et al., 1997), increasing competitive ability and becoming a leader among competitors (see Rao et al., 1997; Briz et al., 2005; Capmany et al., 2000), being mandatory and recommended by corporates, trade and business (Turner et al., 2000; Deohar, 2003). While these motivations are highlighted in these articles, they are not considered as fully as the other motivations mentioned above.

2.2.2 Internal motivations

Internal motivation for firms to adopt a QAS that have been highlighted by some authors are cost reduction, and improvement of product quality (Ebrahimpour et al., 1997; Deohard, 2003; Hassan et al., 2009; Withers & Ebrahimpour, 1996; Jin et al., 2008). In particular, motivations of reducing costs and gaining efficiencies in operation have been documented in a number of studies (Ebrahimpour et al., 1997; Carlsson & Carlsson, 1996; Khatri & Colins, 2007; Seddon et al., 1993).However, it has been noted that ISO 9000 registration can result in non-value added costs if it is adopted solely on the basis of marketing (Curcovic & Pagell,

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1999). ISO 9000 registration can be leveraged into a competitive advantage when it is made consistent with a firm‟s strategic direction (Curcovic & Pagell, 1999). Thus, the willingness to adopt ISO 9000 can occur if it is perceived by the firm‟s management as important to competitive success (Withers & Ebrahimpour, 2000).

The adoption of ISO requires the production of extensive documentation, including manuals specifying who is responsible for quality and how quality is to be achieved, job instructions explaining how QAS tasks are performed and records proving that the system works (Curkovic & Pagell, 1999). Also, the production process is documented and then audited to ensure the process is followed. By following ISO 9000 procedures, an ISO 9000 certified firm can improve its operational efficiency by reducing product failure rates, improving management control of the firm activities, familiarizing staff with production, processes, and through establishing corrective action procedures. Internally driven reasons to adopt ISO 9000 (e.g., to improve operational efficiency or to reduce error rates, wastage, and costs) are shown in research by Turner et al., (2000). Seddon et al., (1993)studied ISO 9000 firms and found the internal motivation of cost reduction as one the often cited adoption benefits.

Others argue that lowering the transaction costs between business partners in the value chain would be an advantageous internal motivation to adopt QAS (Caswell et al., 1998; Holleran

et al., 1999). This has the potential of reducing transactions costs by serving as the seller‟s

guarantee of quality. In particular, transaction costs involved in an exchange between a customer and supplier may include supplier identification, contract negotiation and contract verification and enforcement. Some or all of these types of transactions costs may be potentially reduced, thereby increasing firm and/or sector competitiveness (Holleran et al., 1999). However, sometimes high costs related to adoption of ISO 9000 may serve as a barrier to entry, excluding from commerce those firms that can not incur the registration cost or are uncertain of recouping it (Tsekouras et al., 2002). Several studies have shown that food producers adopt HACCP in order to satisfy downstream customers in the food chain (Mazzoco, 1996; Henson et al., 1998).

Finally, profitability is an important factor in the decision for SMEs to invest in a QAS. Glancey (1998) argues that small firm entrepreneurs typically rely on retained profits as their primary source of capital for expansion so as to avoid external lenders having a stake in the

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firm. This implies a positive relationship between profitability and the decision to undertake further investment. Thus, profitability is expected to have a positive relationship to the decision to adopt ISO 9000 as a new investment, at least in SMEs (Tsekouras et al., 2002).

Improving quality of product is also an internal motivation to adopt a QAS (Withers & Ebrahimpour, 2000; Henson & Holt (1999; 2003); Turner et al., 2000; Jin et al., 2008; Mandonado-Siman et al 2009; Mazzoco, 1996; Bredahl & Zaibet, 1995; Deohar, 2003). Bredahl & Zaibet (1995) show that most firms who adopt a QAS have seen not only a decline in transactions cost, but also have experienced improvements related to their production processes and final product. Fearne et al. (2001) argue that motivations to adopt QAS‟s are to obtain goals such as a safety and quality guarantee. In this regard, it was found in recent research in India and China that improving product quality is an important motivation to adopt HACCP by firms in the agri-food sector (Deodhar, 2003; Jin et al., 2008). Conversely, research in the UK found that firms seeking to improve operational efficiency may view a QAS, such as ISO 9000, as a tool to improve internal operations (Holleran et al., 1999). Walgenbach (2007)in his qualitative interviews found that internal motivation is enhancing business processes. Ebrahimpour et al., (1997) indicated that „improving product quality‟

motivation is ranked high among motivations to adopt ISO 9000. Further, other internal reasons for firms to adopt a QAS are improving operational efficiency and reducing production costs (Henson & Northen, 1999; Henson & Holt 1999; Turner et al., 2000; Lloyd Register Quality Assurance, 1995; Madonadon-Siman et al., 2009; Nguyen et al., 2004) and being recognized as employing “best practice‟, a „good system‟, and new technology and innovation (Henson & Holt, 1999; Herath & Henson; Deohar, 2003; Miles et al; Jayasinghe- Mudalige & Henson; Mandonado-Siman, 2009).

Studies on QA systems and quality assurance devoted to the dairy industry are very few, even in developed countries. For example, in the EU, there are studies on dairy supply chain and coordination regimes, the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) with changes of chains (Dries et al., 2004), but not specifically in quality management. In the UK, an exemption was Henson and Holt (2003), who studied the motivation of dairy firms to adopt HACCP, which indicated that four broad motivations - internal efficiency, accreditation, direct external requirement and good practice existed-for the adoption of QAS‟s. With respect to the dairy industry, Beekhuis-Gibbon et al., (2011) studied implementation of a HACCP based-system to prevent and control mastitis in dairy herds in Ireland; Karaman et al, (2012), studied

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barriers and benefits of the implementation of HACCP in the Turkish dairy industry, but at more technical level, not managerial approach. In New Zealand, one study on HACCP/RMP and export performances for meat sector was undertaken by Cao (2007).

Thus, in summary, motivation to adopt quality assurance systems may be external or internal, with major external motivations including satisfying legal regulations, and maintaining and expanding markets, while major internal motivations are reduction of costs, and improvement of quality. Adopting a QAS can also provide a means of selecting high quality suppliers and reducing the transaction costs of dealing with them. However, motivations to adopt QAS‟s are diverse and they may differ between individual firms, across countries, as well as sectors within the food industry. Much of the research reported here is focused on individual QAS‟s, and there is not a comparison between QAS‟s, so it is difficult to draw conclusions. Furthermore, many of the results report evidence from the developed economies such as the US, Canada, and UK, and it is not clear how these results apply to emerging economies, such as Vietnam.

Although these previous studies have provided a good insight into the motivations for food processors to adopt QASs, they are subject to some limitations. They often disregard the context within which a firm operates (Manchester Business School, 1996). In the following section, literature on these context factors is explored more fully.