Yannis Politis, Fragoulis D. Krokos and Ioannis Papadakis
All food safety management standards require effective control measures of food safety hazards in order to ensure that food is safe at the time of human consumption. Furthermore…
Abstract
Purpose
All food safety management standards require effective control measures of food safety hazards in order to ensure that food is safe at the time of human consumption. Furthermore, ISO 22000:2005 requires a logical approach to be carried out for the selection and categorization of the control measures according to the level of effect on identified food safety hazards. The purpose of this paper is to describe the COntrol MEasures CATegorization (COMECAT) method for the categorization of control measures in food safety management systems (FSMS) in order to assist organizations to prioritize and deploy their efforts and limited resources mainly to control significant hazards.
Design/methodology/approach
A thorough clarification of the characteristics of the different control measures used in FSMS has been achieved based on the definitions and the descriptions given by the different food safety standards such as the ISO 22000, the IFS and the BRC standards. The basic approaches for the determination of control measures found in literature and web pages have been examined and the proposed methodology has been implemented in feta cheese production in order to evaluate its applicability.
Findings
A decision tree model has been proposed as the most suitable approach for the categorization of control measures in FSMS. The implementation of the proposed COMECAT method in feta cheese production revealed its applicability. The method was able to identify the different risk level of food hazards and prioritize and deploy the organization’s efforts and limited resources for their management accordingly.
Originality/value
In the literature, there is a lack of justified methodologies for the categorization of control measures in FSMS. Most of the approaches concern attempts of private companies operating in the food industry or business consultancies and which can be found in their web pages. This paper describes a well-justified model for the categorization of control measures which is easy to implement and which results in more robust decisions.
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Yannis Politis, Charalambos Litos, Evangelos Grigoroudis and Vassilis S. Moustakis
The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality industry.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Two surveys using questionnaires were conducted: the first one for the development of the model's criteria and sub‐criteria and the second one for the assessment of the criteria and sub‐criteria weights. The model was tested on a number of Greek high‐class hotels.
Findings
Compared with other business excellence models the proposed model includes criteria and sub‐criteria that are more applicable to hotels. The model studies the factors that drive excellence in the hotel sector as well as the importance of these factors as they have been defined by the managers of the hotels. The implementation of the model in a number of high‐class Greek hotels shows its applicability and suitability to be used as a benchmarking system.
Research limitations/implications
Time limitations, as the project was co‐funded by the European Union, have limited the implementation of the proposed business excellence model to a small number of Greek hotels in the area of Crete.
Originality/value
The critical success factors for high‐class hotels have been identified and a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality sector has been developed.
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Yannis Politis, Apostolos Giovanis and Spyridon Binioris
The purpose of this paper is to implement a multi-criteria preference disaggregation approach to measure logistics service quality (LSQ) of manufacturing companies’ supply chains…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to implement a multi-criteria preference disaggregation approach to measure logistics service quality (LSQ) of manufacturing companies’ supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
A total 216 Greek manufacturing companies took part in a survey with the use of a dedicated questionnaire. They were asked to assess the LSQ of their primary supplier regarding a predefined set of criteria and sub-criteria. The data were analysed with the multi-criteria satisfaction analysis method, which represents an ordinal regression based approach used for customer satisfaction measurement.
Findings
Weak points of the suppliers as well as dimensions that drive satisfaction were identified. Furthermore, the competitive advantages of the suppliers as well as their priorities for improvement were spotted.
Research limitations/implications
The sampling framework, including only the manufacturing companies operating in a specific area of Greece, does not ensure the full generalisation of the results. A larger sample of manufacturing companies from all over Greece would be useful to obtain more reliable results and would enable the comparison of LSQ for different manufacturing sectors.
Practical implications
The method used to assess LSQ of manufacturing companies can be installed as a permanent customer satisfaction barometer to measure, control and improve the LSQ provided to manufacturing companies as well as to other business sectors.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a method to explore the relationships between LSQ and industrial customers’ satisfaction to prioritise strategic plans of companies in the supply chains.
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Glykeria Karagouni, Aimilia Protogerou and Yannis Caloghirou
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the emerging concept of autotelic capabilities and their impact on operational capabilities, and in particular, technological…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the emerging concept of autotelic capabilities and their impact on operational capabilities, and in particular, technological capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
Autotelic capabilities and their dimensions are discussed since they constitute a novel framework for new venturing in knowledge‐intensive, low‐tech industries. Links among the dimensions of autotelic capabilities and technological capabilities formation are explored, focusing on production technologies.
Findings
The suggested links among autotelic and technological capabilities highlight the need to go beyond individual‐centered explanations of entrepreneurial activities towards the formation of integrated capabilities. They strengthen the assumption that autotelic capabilities exist as higher‐order capabilities in low‐tech but knowledge‐intensive venturing, are very specific, can be managed, and endue new ventures with technological capabilities.
Research limitations/implications
As it is only a theoretical approach, the hypotheses’ validity needs empirical evaluation and further theory building and development. Research could include the rest of operational capabilities, issues of causalities and the empirical exploration of the concept’s generalizability across a variety of contexts.
Practical implications
Entrepreneurial and/or managerial teams should realize the importance of possessing and further cultivating autotelic capabilities in recognizing technological patterns connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of science and technologies. Intentional and organized cultivation of autotelic capabilities supports competitive new venture creation and sustainable development of both operational and dynamic capabilities.
Originality/value
The paper forms a part of the pioneering autotelic capabilities perspective, developed by the authors, which offers an alternative approach to much conventional entrepreneurial thinking. It is an original contribution to relevant literature, with both theoretical and practical value.
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Sotirios Koussouris, Yannis Charalabidis and Dimitrios Askounis
As the society has long ago left the “industrial age” and entered the “information age”, people, enterprises and above all decision makers are constantly trying to get the best…
Abstract
Purpose
As the society has long ago left the “industrial age” and entered the “information age”, people, enterprises and above all decision makers are constantly trying to get the best out of the opportunities and the technologies offered, for facilitating their life and their work. One of the most active and promising domains nowadays, is eParticipation, which is actively promoted by all stakeholders, as there is a great need of reconnecting citizens with the decision makers and re‐engaging them into the democratic procedures, especially as during the last years this gap is expanding, with the most convincing proof being the huge figure of voter turnout during the latest European elections. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of the most active and well‐known eParticipation action pilot projects funded in the European Union is presented, alongside with a methodological framework that has been followed for mapping, assessing and evaluating those projects, using a beyond the state‐of‐the‐art classification method.
Findings
Conclusions of the performed work are in a position to outline the current status quo of eParticipation in Europe, highlighting lessons learned and opportunities for future activities and research.
Originality/value
This paper includes valuable information towards practitioners, decision makers and administration officials, based not only on the established knowledge and on the experiences gained, but also on the identified gaps of the domain, aiming to support them in understanding the status quo of the domain and in the design process of future research roadmaps for eGovernace and policy modelling.
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Evangelos Grigoroudis, Panagiotis Kyriazopoulos, Yannis Siskos, Athanasios Spyridakos and Denis Yannacopoulos
Internet service providers (ISPs) constitute a highly competitive market, while the unstable market conditions directly affect customer preferences and make ISPs to develop a…
Abstract
Purpose
Internet service providers (ISPs) constitute a highly competitive market, while the unstable market conditions directly affect customer preferences and make ISPs to develop a “mass customization” strategy, individualizing services and approaching every customer in an individual way. However, customization requires an in‐depth analysis of current customer preferences and an evaluation of future behavior. The main objective of the paper is to present a framework for analyzing changes of customer preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents detailed results of independent customer satisfaction surveys conducted in different time periods in the Greek ISP market. The analyses are based on non‐parametric statistical techniques and the multicriteria satisfaction analysis method, which is a multicriteria preference disaggregation approach.
Findings
Results are mainly focused on the evaluation of potential trends of e‐customer preferences. Furthermore, results of a benchmarking analysis are also presented, based on the evolution of satisfaction levels for the quality characteristics of the provided services.
Research limitations/implications
Future research in the context of the presented study may be focused on satisfaction benchmarking analysis, given the rapid changes of the market conditions. An extended satisfaction survey will give the ability to analyze customer preferences in comparison with the main ISP competitors.
Practical implications
The presented study may help organizations in highly competitive markets dominated by rapid technological progresses to track short‐term changes of customer preferences.
Originality/value
The analyses presented are based on the combination of multicriteria analysis and non‐parametric statistics. The main advantage of these methods is that they respect the qualitative (ordinal) form of collected survey data.
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Yannis Charalabidis, Euripidis N. Loukis, Aggeliki Androutsopoulou, Vangelis Karkaletsis and Anna Triantafillou
The purpose of this study is to develop a novel approach to e-participation, which is based on “passive crowdsourcing” by government agencies, exploiting the extensive political…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a novel approach to e-participation, which is based on “passive crowdsourcing” by government agencies, exploiting the extensive political content continuously created in numerous Web 2.0 social media (e.g. political blogs and microblogs, news sharing sites and online forums) by citizens without government stimulation, to understand better their needs, issues, opinions, proposals and arguments concerning a particular domain of government activity or public policy.
Design/methodology/approach
This approach is developed and elaborated through cooperation with potential users experienced in the design of public policies from three countries (Austria, Greece and the UK), using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques: co-operative development of application scenarios, questionnaire surveys, focus groups and workshops and, finally, in-depth interviews.
Findings
A process model for the application of the proposed passive crowdsourcing approach has been developed, which is quite different from the one of the usual active crowdsourcing. Based on it, the functional architecture of the required supporting information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure has been formulated, and then its technological architecture has been designed, addressing the conflicting requirements: low response time and, at the same time, provision of sufficiently “fresh” content for policymakers.
Practical implications
Taking into account that traditionally government agencies monitor what the press writes about them, our research provides a basis for extending efficiently these activities in the new electronic media world (e.g. newspapers websites, blogs and microblogs, online forums, etc.) to understand better the needs, issues, opinions, arguments and proposals raised by the society with respect to important domains of government activity and public policies.
Social implications
The proposed approach provides a new channel for the “voice” of the society to be directly communicated to the government so that the latter can design its policies and activities based on the social needs and realities and not on oversimplified models and stereotypes.
Originality/value
Our paper proposes a novel approach to e-participation, which exploits the Web 2.0 social media – but in a quite different way from previous approaches – for conducting “passive crowdsourcing”, and elaborates it: it develops an application process model for it and also an ICT infrastructure for supporting it, which are quite different from the ones of the existing “active crowdsourcing” approaches.
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Stefano Harney and Cliff Oswick
This paper seeks to confront the orthodoxy of global business education with some insights from postcolonial theory in order to develop a new critical pedagogy adequate for a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to confront the orthodoxy of global business education with some insights from postcolonial theory in order to develop a new critical pedagogy adequate for a global sociology of management and accounting.
Design/methodology/approach
Reviewing the state of play in postcolonial theory and noting the new politicisation in that field, the paper asks what relevance this politicisation might have for an alternative to orthodox global business education.
Findings
The paper finds that the texts available to postcolonial theory present a wealth beyond the regulation of colonial and neo‐colonial regimes and in contrast critical management studies do not have texts that express such wealth or reveal global business as the regulator of such a wealth. Instead critique and indeed the anti‐globalization movements risk, appearing as regulators of wealth and business, threaten to emerge as the true carnival of wealth and path to freedom.
Research limitations/implications
To dissociate critique from regulation and business from wealth, business and management education must seek out these texts in the fantasies among students and in the differences that obtain, as Dipesh Chakrabarty has argued, at the heart of capital.
Originality/value
This article embraces the fantasies of the fetish of the commodity as part of an immanent politics, claiming both an excess of wealth and an access to wealth, based on a new fetish adequate for the globalized limits that students and teachers encounter.
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Valérie Hémar-Nicolas, Gaëlle Pantin-Sohier and Céline Gallen
While recent academic research on entomophagy has predominantly focused on adults, the purpose of this child-centred research is to obtain a better understanding of young consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
While recent academic research on entomophagy has predominantly focused on adults, the purpose of this child-centred research is to obtain a better understanding of young consumer acceptance of insect-based foods.
Design/methodology/approach
Two qualitative studies were conducted with a total of 43 French children aged 8–13 years. Study 1 (n = 22), based on semi-directive interviews, and Study 2 (n = 21), based on focus groups, included projective techniques and exposure to different types of insect-based products to help children express their feelings and thoughts.
Findings
The evidence shows that in Western children’s minds, insects are considered as culturally non-edible. Children predominantly reject insects as food because of their sensory properties and the disgust they arouse. However, their interest in eating insect-based food is embedded within experiential contexts specific to childhood, in particular the peer group, which makes insect-eating fun and challenging, and the family, which offers a protective and reassuring setting.
Practical implications
The authors advocate changing children’s sensory perception of insect-eating food through sensory and participatory activities. Manufacturers and policymakers should also draw on children’s peer culture to associate insect-eating with positive social experiences and foster peer influence.
Originality/value
Drawing on cognitive psychology theories and the literature in food science on food rejection, the authors contribute to emerging consumer research on alternative food consumption (AFC) focusing on cognitive, emotional and social factors of acceptance or rejection of insect-based foods by children.