This chapter investigates the impact of enterprise demographics on food
manufacturing enterprise’s experiences (strategies, changes and challenges) of non- regulatory FSMS in New Zealand. Enterprise attributes included in the analysis were the sub-sector of the food manufacturing industry, size and exporting status. The analysis revealed that such demographics influenced the food manufacturing enterprise’s experiences of non-regulatory FSMS. This has not been reported previously.
During the implementation of non-regulatory FSMS, different strategies were chosen by respondents with different attributes, to develop their systems. The human
47 61 22 31 69 41 16 82 9 13 41 58 33 8 33 83 42 8 92 0 8 42 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Technical knowledge and skills
of employees
Resistance to change by employees Commitment to food safety
by top management Commitment to food safety
by employees The cost of development
and implementation The cost of training and education
Infrastructure Increased paper work, record keeping and documentation Rapid changes in government regulation
Government support The access to adequate information
% of respondents Ch alle n gin g ar e as
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resources differ in different enterprises. Larger sized enterprises have an advantage in being able to hire and retain technically competent and experienced employees. They are then in a position to develop their systems in house. In the food manufacturing industry of New Zealand, the sub-sector of “animal products” is more developed than
the other two sub-sectors. There are more experienced employees in enterprises in the sub-sector of animal products than the other two sub-sectors. Therefore they can develop their system by using their own employees.
The sub-sector had more impact on changes in food safety and quality management and production costs following the implementation of non-regulatory FSMS, while it had little impact on changes in the market performance and relationships with customers. In New Zealand, the regulatory environments are different for different sub-sectors of the food manufacturing industry. The regulating system for the sub- sector of animal products is more stringent than those of the other two sub-sectors. In New Zealand, the sub-sector of “animal products” is regulated under the Animal Product Act 1999, while the sub-sectors of “vegetal products” and “products with long
shelf life at ambient temperature” are regulated under the Food Act 1981. The
requirements of the Animal Product Act 1999 are more stringent than those of the Food Act 1981. The sub-sector of animal products is also more mature and developed than the other sub-sectors. For instance, the dairy industry is world-leading in process technology, and a risk-based food safety management system is in place (Archer, 2013). Most enterprises in this sub-sector were relatively experienced in the field of food safety and quality management, and had invested more in food safety and quality management before the implementation of non-regulatory FSMS than other
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and quality management and production costs. Many non-regulatory FSMS are requirements from major customers. Changes in the market performance and relationships with customers did not vary among different sub-sectors.
The enterprise size had notable influences on changes in food safety and quality management and market performance, while it had less notable impact on changes in production costs and customer relationships. Large sized respondents experienced less notable changes in food safety and quality management and market performance following the implementation of non-regulatory FSMS. This may be explained by the fact that a larger food enterprise has a lot more to lose from a food safety incident, and will have more resources than a smaller enterprise. Thus, large sized enterprises are likely to invest in food safety and quality management even if they do not
implement non-regulatory FSMS. The implementation of non-regulatory FSMS will therefore have less of impact on these large enterprises compared with medium and small sized enterprises.
The exporting status had some impact on changes in food safety and quality management and market performance. Domestic market focused respondents experienced more substantial improvements in food safety and quality management than the export focused enterprises. Exporting respondents improved their ability to attract new customers and to have access to overseas markets, while domestic market focused respondents were more satisfied with access to the domestic market.
Enterprise attributes had an impact on whether respondents met challenges in certain areas; however, the six most challenging areas were the same for each category.
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Although the financial and human resources differed in different enterprises, most of them faced similar challenges during the implementation of non-regulatory FSMS. Taken together, these empirical research findings help explain why enterprise characteristics have a notable impact on the propensity of food manufacturing
enterprises to implement non-regulatory FSMS in New Zealand. To my knowledge, this is the first time that the influence of these enterprise demographics on the experience of non-regulatory FSMS has been investigated. It provided clear information on the implementation process of these non-regulatory schemes, such as what kinds of benefits can be achieved through implementation and what kinds of difficulties and challenges can be expected for a certain group of enterprises.
Scheme owners should maximize the incentives for food enterprises to implement these schemes and minimize or even mitigate the barriers. For example, more user- friendly standards should be compiled to decrease the cost of implementation in smaller sized enterprises. These findings can also be included in the risk assessment of different types of food manufacturing enterprises when third-party certification bodies decide to adopt a risk oriented auditing practice in order to improve the audit quality.
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