ISO 9000 -- A MARKETING TOOL FOR U.S. AGRIBUSINESS

C. Capmany et al. / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review 3 (2000) 41-53

Table 2

Comparison of arguments for seeking ISO 9000 certification

^aUn-paired t-test (2 tailed) of means (heteroscedastic).

^bMann-Whitney-Wilcoxon rank sum test (2 tailed) of medians (adjusted for ties).

Average score: 0 for Not Important, 1 for Somewhat Important, 2 for Very Important.

agribusiness industry may turn to other QMS such as HACCP. For now though it can be said
that ISO 9000 certification enhances the image of a firm’s product.

5. Comparison with other industries

The responses of the agribusinesses subsample were compared to those of firms in other
industries to determine if U.S. agribusinesses are experiencing different impacts after the
adoption of ISO 9000 QMS. If similar, the concerns of the agribusiness community over the
applicability of the QMS may prove unfounded. Two simple tests comparing the responses
were employed with the results reported in Tables 2-5. Each test had a null hypothesis that
the samples were drawn from the same population, with the alternative hypothesis being that
the samples are drawn from different populations. The first test, is an un-paired two-tailed
heteroscedastic t test of the means over the various categories considered. The second is a
nonparametric statistical technique—the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon rank sum test of the
medians.¹ The test statistic was adjusted for ties, an issue given the small number of
categorical answers available to each survey question. Each of the sets of results is discussed
in detail below.

5.1. Reasons for seeking certification

Respondents were queried about the factors considered as they sought ISO 9000 certifi-
cation (i.e., ex ante). Table 2 summarizes the answers. The top reasons for seeking certifi-
cation were that ISO 9000 would provide a marketing/competitive advantage, turn the firm
into a leader among its competitors, provide access to other markets and increase the firm’s
market share. Also mentioned were that certification would reduce the firm’s costs, make the

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