Efthalia Dimara

Consumer demand for informative labeling of quality food and drink products: a European Union case study

Purpose – The purpose of this work is to examine the range of information consumers seek on labels of quality products and construct an indicative check‐list of various types of informational labeling as well as to examine whether quality of information demanded segregates the market‐creating segments to be targeted by firms.Design/methodology/approach – An extensive interdisciplinary literature review based on findings in marketing, economics, geography and sociology reveals the often neglected range of factors forcing consumers to place importance on regionally denominated food and drink. The European Union (EU) has responded to growing consumer trends towards regional and traditional food and established special schemes regulating the production of such food and drink. A survey of 640 consumers of quality wine carried out within the framework of an EU‐funded program provides the empirical material of this work.Findings – The study records the range of informational labeling sought by consumers as well ...

Adoption of a quality assurance scheme and its effect on firm performance: A study of Greek firms implementing ISO 9000

An analysis of 143 firms in the Greek manufacturing and service sectors reveals that adopters of ISO 9000 quality assurance schemes are larger companies producing intermediate goods, but less profitable and with higher leverage than their non-adopter counterparts. The effects of adopting an ISO 9000 scheme on firm performance and especially on certain dimensions of profitability are not significant in a period of 5-6 years after adoption. Evidence suggests that the adoption of an ISO 9000 quality assurance scheme, being a continuous process of improvement, is beneficial in the long term and does not necessarily improve financial ratios in the short term. Active support policies for the promotion and dissemination of quality standards in the manufacturing and service sectors of Greece can be reconsidered and a more targeted policy should be implemented. Future research may be designed and implemented so that long-term and strategic effects of the adoption of the new ISO 9000:2000 standards are revealed.

Consumer evaluations of product certification, geographic association and traceability in Greece

Certification, geographic association and traceability of food and drink products are quality cues that have not been extensively researched by the current academic literature. These quality cues are highly valued by consumers possessing certain socio‐economic and demographic characteristics that form distinct and clearly‐defined market segments. A sample of 744 Greek wine consumers is used to assess the factors influencing consumer evaluations towards quality cues. An ordered probit model with sample selectivity reveals that these attributes are valued as highly important by consumers possessing certain socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The type and source of information received by consumers, their place of origin, income, age, sex, education and marital status all exert an independent effect on the evaluation process. The use of such quality cues may be potentially useful in creating niche markets and advancing rural localities through the support of small producers utilizing local raw materials and production techniques.

Strategic orientation and financial performance of firms implementing ISO 9000

The ISO 9000 scheme has been reproved for being a paper driven process with little if no impact on firm performance. As international scientific literature indicates a wide range of factors leading to the adoption of the ISO 9000 schemes, the impact of this adoption should be viewed and examined in a framework of the firms’ strategic orientation. A sample of Greek businesses that adopted the ISO 9000 scheme in the early 1990s is classified into three categories of strategic orientation, namely cost leadership, market differentiation and focus strategy. If all the firms are pooled together, there is no significant difference in their financial performance indicators after a period of six years following the adoption of ISO 9000. However, if the firms are examined separately and according to their strategic orientation, those firms pursuing a cost leadership strategy present statistically significant growth of financial profitability indicators, while those firms pursuing a market differentiation strategy present statistically significant growth of their turnover and market share. Thus, strategic orientation is a moderating factor influencing the relationship between registration to a quality scheme such as the ISO 9000 scheme, and the firms financial performance.

The effects of ISO 9001 on firms' productive efficiency

Purpose – This work sets out to explore the effects of ISO 9001 on productive efficiency of firms.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 1,572 firms from three Greek manufacturing industries is used for empirical work. The firms are from the food and beverages industries, the machineries industries as well as from the electrical and electronics appliances manufacturing industries and include both adopters and non‐adopters of ISO 9001. A stochastic frontier methodological approach is adopted and the effects of ISO 9001 can be modeled in four ways: as a managerial input alongside the conventional inputs of capital and labor, as a factor affecting technical inefficiency, as an input and a factor affecting technical inefficiency and as having no effect at all.Findings – ISO 9001 operates as a factor affecting technical inefficiency with non‐neutral effects on capital and labor. The combined effect of ISO 9001 with capital increases the level of technical inefficiency reflecting adjustment costs incurred wh...

Regional Image and the Consumption of Regionally Denominated Products

A number of quality products and services, often catering for niche markets, have become associated with certain regions. This geographical association has proved important in influencing the mentality of urban consumers, their behaviour and, consequently, the demand for such products. This work identifies three sets of elements of the regional resource base that contribute towards consumer-constructed regional images-namely, factors related to nature and the environment; factors related to history, tradition and heritage; and amenity experiential factors. The relation between consumer-constructed regional images and a variety of consumer needs is discussed. Data from a wide survey of Greek wine consumers are utilised and a microeconometric approach is employed to test the effects of consumer-constructed regional images on consumer expenditure on regional wines.

Resources and Activities Complementarities: the Role of Business Networks in the Provision of Integrated Rural Tourism

Abstract This paper focuses on the role of business networks, and especially on the ways in which formal and informal interactions among economic agents shape the tourist product. Local businesses are considered as agents who realize and/or create economic opportunities and develop new goals and strategies. Businesses are not viewed as independent entities, but as actors whose actions are embedded in structures of ongoing relations. As such, similar resources and activities based in rural tourism destinations do not necessarily have the same consequences at different times and places. Business networking is a crucial factor in organizing activities and resources at the local level, leading to spatially different levels of integration. Such differences are focused on here, using illustrative examples and findings from the case-study regions in the UK, Spain and Greece.

The Effects of Regional Capital Subsidies on Productivity Growth: A Case Study of the Greek Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry*

Capital subsidies form a major instrument of industrial and regional policy for economically developed countries all over the world, including many European Union and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Research findings have challenged the effectiveness of capital subsidies in assisting productivity growth. This paper treats capital subsidies as a new input and estimates a stochastic production frontier that is not bound by the restrictions imposed by approaches used in previous research works. It is shown that capital subsidies affect total factor productivity growth through technical change and not through scale efficiency, while the disadvantaged location of firms affects technical efficiency.

The impacts of regulated notions of quality on farm efficiency: A DEA application

Recent European Union policy has attempted to regulate agricultural quality production through schemes that either place emphasis on the physical properties and the geographical zone of production of denominated products or on methods and processes of production of organic products. This paper attempts to examine the effects of these two distinct regulated notions of quality on farm efficiency, by estimating efficiency scores using data envelopment analysis (DEA) on a sample of Greek black currant producers who either employ conventional methods of production or organic methods, and who are located either inside or outside a denominated zone of quality production. Findings indicate that the location of the farm significantly affects the technical and scale efficiency scores in the sample of conventional producers, while it does not have any statistically significant effect in the sample of organic farmers. Thus, regulating quality in terms of organic production weakens the effectiveness of regulating quality in terms of the geographical area and denomination of production. Due to these conflicting impacts of quality policy on farm efficiency, the incentives for the cultivation of organic products should apply only outside the denominated areas of quality production.

The socio‐economics of niche market creation

Farmers’ decision to adopt organic cultivation and create niche markets is their response to the changing notions of quality and the gradual abandonment of the productivist logic in agriculture. This decision is analyzed within a multi‐level social ecological context designed to account simultaneously for all facets/parts of the farmers decision‐making process. Social ecology provides a contextual platform conceptualizing global‐regional‐local relationships within which niche markets for food products are created. Emphasis is placed on farmers’ perception of the “environment” within which they have to decide on their participation in a policy scheme. Elements of the macro (global), meso (national/regional) and micro (farm household) “environmental” levels, affect the farmers decision to adopt organic cultivation. Accordingly, a decision‐making tree reflecting how farmers perceive that environment and form their decisions is constructed, and statistical models test the impact of factors in the global‐regional‐local levels on this decision‐making process.