ACTA SCIENTIARUM POLONORUM - SGGW

Innovativeness of food production enterprises in Wielkopolskie Voivodship... 141enterprises is the quality management system based on the ISO 9001:2006 standard implementedby 16 companies. Eight companies implemented the systems based on wholesalerstandards i.e. IFS (International Ford Standard) or BRC (British Retail Consortium.Global Standard-Food). Four larger enterprises concerned about their environment implementedan environmental management system based on the ISO 14001 standard andtwo of them possessed a safety management system according to the ISO 18001 standard.This data points to the existing discipline of all companies and respect for legal regulationsand understanding of issues concerning safety of employees and environment. Mostenterprises (16) implemented their quality management systems between 2003 and 2006while four of them did this before 1999.EFFECTS OF INNOVATIVENESSReplies provided by respondents are shown in Table 1 and suggest that innovationspositively affect company’s activities in many ways. Everyone declares that it contributedto diversification of offered products. Innovations contributed to an increase in sales andshare of current business activity or they enabled entry into new market segments or theycontributed to an increased flexibility of production processes in nineteen companies.Thus, a better adjustment of the companies’ offer to their customers’ needs took place. As18 managers noticed – innovations lead to an increase in product quality. Additionally,Table 1. Importance of innovative activity for food producing enterprisesTabela 1. Ważność działalności innowacyjnej dla przedsiębiorstw przetwarzających żywnośćEffects of innovativenessNumberof replies1. enabled entry into new market sectors, increased share in the market sectorwhere a company remains active192. replaced old products or processes with new ones 173. increased diversification of products 254. improvement of the production process’ flexibility 195. increased effectiveness in utilizing a company’s resources 146. increased quality of products 187. improved process of storage 108. increase in sales level 199. improvement in the occupational safety and health 1010. decrease in negative impact on environment 1511. superiority over competitors’ actions/increase in a company’s competitiveness 1512. perceiving a company as competitive 1013. decrease of product unit costs 1114. decrease in the number of deficits and complaints 1615. improved relations with customers and deliverers 16Source: Own survey data.Źródło: Badania własne.Oeconomia 10 (1) 2011