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This argument is reinforced by the findings that for agribusiness the costs of waste and
product rejection experienced a larger decrease than that reported by the other industries. It
seems that the higher costs accrued to inventory among agribusiness firms may be due not
to increased quantity of inventory but the increased quality of the inventory control system.
6. Summary and conclusions
The results of the study imply that, for all other parameters measured, an agribusiness firm
responds to ISO 9000 certification in much the same way as firms in other industries. Results
of other studies (i.e., nonagribusiness orientated) may, therefore, be applicable to U.S.
agribusiness. Nevertheless, in areas such as firm image, waste, product rejections, and costs
of inventory control, the very nature of the agribusiness good may promote important
differences and thus must receive special consideration and further analysis.
The results focusing on the relationship between ISO 9000 certification and trade suggest
that firms wishing to establish a position in, conserve, or extend their presence in, the
European market would be well advised to consider ISO certification. This will allow these
firms to maintain a competitive advantage whereas meeting customer requirements. At the
same time, additional (nonmarketing) benefits may be derived from the QMS.
The researchers believe that due to the recent embrace of the ISO 9000 series by firms
from all industries, the original competitive advantage will eventually diminish as more firms
implement the QMS. The next move of the early adopters of ISO 9000 should provide a good
idea of what is in store for the agribusiness industry regarding quality management systems.
The tendencies of these first movers to consider, adopt, or adapt quality systems based on
HACCP principles, ISO 14000, or other third party certification programs should be the
focus of future research. Further, certain comments of the survey respondents seem to
indicate that ‘harmonization’ of the services provided by Registrars (the organizations that
actually certify a plant’s QMS), and hence true standardization of ISO 9000 across nations,
is an issue that remains to be fully evaluated.
Notes
1. The authors are indebted to our reviewers who recommended this test due to the
unequal sample sizes.
Acknowledgments
This research was conducted whilst author Capmany was a graduate student at the
University of Wageningen and visiting the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas
A&M University. This paper is based on a presentation given at the IAMA World Pre-
Congress VIII Building Relationships to Feed the World: Firms, Chains, Blocs. Punta del
Este, Uruguay. June 28-July 2 1998. The authors gratefully acknowledge the thorough efforts
of two anonymous reviewers and the editors.