Search results

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.

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.

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.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality industry.

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.

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.

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.

The critical success factors for high‐class hotels have been identified and a business excellence model applicable in the hospitality sector has been developed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Greek debt crisis (2009–2018) was an event that received unprecedented media attention worldwide. The media reproduced a highly negative image of Greece, addressing the crisis in exceptionalist terms, usually under a moralistic and culturalist explanatory framework. Drawing on earlier research, this chapter focusses on the culturalist discourses developed by popular Greek mainstream news media, of conservative and liberal political orientation, such as Kathimerini, Athens Voice and Protagon.gr. Through what is understood as a ‘self-orientalising’ process, such media tend to reproduce the neo-orientalist hegemonic crisis and austerity discursive construction, as enunciated by the EU's political and economic establishment. Under this lens, austerity emerges as a modernising project that would presumably correct Greece's irregularities and would make Greece European and economically competitive for global capitalism. The period studied concerns the years of the crisis between 2010 and 2015. The analysis discloses the classist underpinnings of such discursive repertoires and their antipolitical and antidemocratic character. The analysis also discusses the disciplinary effects of such media practices, which mystify austerity and the processes of expropriation it unfolds, and passivises civic culture, and counterhegemonic resistances, by promoting a collective ‘self-bashing’ strategy.

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.

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.

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.

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.