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

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

Table 3

Comparison of arguments made against ISO 9000 before 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.

firm more profitable and was a customer requirement. The data also suggests that the main
reasons for both groups (i.e., agribusiness and other industries) are market oriented. Never-
theless, the idea that certification would reduce the firms’ costs, suggests that firms also
expected other benefits, aside from an enhanced market position. More importantly no
statistical difference was found between the means or medians of the two groups of firms.

The primary reason, stated by the agribusiness subsample, for seeking certification was
that ISO was expected to provide a marketing/competitive advantage whereas firms in the
other industries stressed that ISO was expected to turn the firm in to a leader among its
competitors. These results suggest that for agribusiness firms the market-oriented benefits of
the certificate are still the main incentive to seek certification whereas for the other firms
these marketing benefits are but a component of the overall benefits expected.

5.2. Arguments made against ISO 9000 before seeking certification

As can be seen in Table 3, the primary arguments made against ISO before seeking
certification were that the process was too time consuming and that it involved tedious paper
work. This is to be expected because the QMS is highly document-based. The least important
argument mentioned by both groups were that certification was not needed. This result is
indicative that both groups of firms perceived the certificate as a necessity further nonagri-
business firms had reasonably clear expected benefits of the certificate. This may indicate a
trend towards more informed decision making by the firms. Though ISO 9000 in general, and
certainly in the U.S., is still a relatively new QMS, information about the systems’ advan-
tages and downfalls is becoming available. Regardless, there is a stronger ranking for the
argument (no clear benefits) by agribusiness firms suggesting that information is not as clear
for this industry. As the number of certified companies in a specific industry increases, the
benefits and costs of the QMS become clearer to other companies that have not yet
implemented the standard. More informed decisions can then be made by firms that are
considering certification.

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