Food supply chain integrity: the need to go beyond certification
| Published date | 11 September 2017 |
| Pages | 1589-1611 |
| Date | 11 September 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-09-2016-0357 |
| Author | Mohd Helmi Ali,Yuanzhu Zhan,Syed Shah Alam,Ying Kei Tse,Kim Hua Tan |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
Food supply chain integrity: the
need to go beyond certification
Mohd Helmi Ali
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
Yuanzhu Zhan
Business School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Syed Shah Alam
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
Ying Kei Tse
The York Management School, The University of York, York, UK, and
Kim Hua Tan
Business School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual model adopted from a strategy-structure-
performance paradigm for investigating the fit between the supply chain integration and halal food
supply chain integrity and the impact of halal food supply chain integrity on firms’performance in a
Malaysian context.
Design/methodology/approach –This study comprises a sample of a halal manufacturing firm in
Malaysia. A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. Data were gathered based on mailed and
personally administered questionnaires. SmartPLS was used to analyse the 254 valid responses.
Findings –The research findings indicate that internal integration and strategy have positive impact on
halal food supply chain integrity. The study results confirmed that customer integration and supplier
integration contributes to halal food supply chain integrity. It also finds that halal food supply chain integrity
has a significantly positive impact.
Research limitations/implications –The results suggested that a strategic collaboration with the
supplier pivoted around the quality and integrity of the raw materials should be undertaken.
Practical implications –The results from this study supports that the managers should adopt all halal
food supply chain integrity components to achieve a superior performance. Even though some of the
components did not yield significant results in terms of their relationships with firms’performance, these
dimensions were generally related to the standardised industry requirements, such as certifications.
Originality/value –The findings are original and unique and are based on established theories from the
literature on supply chain management practices. The research findings are useful to academics and
policymakers interested in fostering a halal supply chain in Malaysia.
Keywords Halal, Supply chain integration, Food integrity, Food supply chain integrity
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Prior to the last few decades, the food supply chain (SC) and predominantly localised and
mostly consistedof the small- to medium-sizedindependent local businesses(Roth et al., 2008).
The business concentration enables good visibility and control along the SC with lesser tiers
of suppliers (Tse and Tan, 2011). The deliberation of food SC for only the targeted nearby
market is due to the absence of technological infrastructures (i.e. transportation, cold
warehousing, and food technologies) which restricts food from travelling longer distances.
As a result of this, the earlier SC is considered as the more effective SC network
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 117 No. 8, 2017
pp. 1589-1611
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-09-2016-0357
Received 5 September 2016
Revised 4 December 2016
Accepted 4 January 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and the Ministry of
Education Malaysia for the funding to conduct the study under the ETP programme Grant No.
ETP-2013-047.
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Food supply
chain integrity
(Hearnshawand Wilson, 2013). For example,the smaller marketplace permitshigher attention
to each specific product; hence the quality is always maintained as the production is largely
based on more accurate sales forecasts. In addition, the SC concentration enables direct
interaction between the sellers and the buyers, which facilitates the control on the food
products’quality. A relatively more controlled marketplace minimises the risk of the
members of SC to be opportunistic and violate the norms of the shared values and trust.
Lyles et al. (2008) haveargued that under conditions of trust, thereis an expectation that the
partners of the SC are capable of performing the tasks expected which is gained from the
transparency of the business p rocess by the food manufac turer.
Today, food SC has changed significantly. Globalisation has forced food to travel a
greater distance and to be not only produced for local consumption. The longer food miles
has involved more actors in the SC, lessened the transparency, and created more
opportunities for the food to be adulterated, contaminated, or interfered with by
irresponsible suppliers in the SC to gain substantial profit margins (Roth et al., 2008).
However, the industry has responded by enforcing a controlling mechanism that aims to
safeguard the food quality and integrity (Elliott, 2014; Halim and Salleh, 2012; Manning and
Soon, 2014; Van der Spiegel et al., 2003; Tunçer, 2001) and thus increasing the trust of the
consumers through labelling. Literature highlighted that certification and labelling play a
significant role as a means of communication to the consumers in the food industry
(Angulo and Gil, 2007; Bhaskaran et al., 2006; Magkos et al., 2006). However, a plethora of
food scandals has hit the certified food products globally such as Malaysia’s Cadbury pig
DNA scandal (2014), the UK’s horsemeat scandal (2013), the USA’s salmonella outbreak in
peanut butter (2008-2009) and China’s melamine milk (2008). This has perplexed the
reliability of the current control mechanisms. In addition, much literature has argued the
effectiveness of certification in the food industry (e.g. Magkos et al., 2006; Powell et al., 2013;
Roth et al., 2008). In short, the food manufacturer is required to be extra vigilant in ensuring
their product is fulfilling the consumer expectations. Moreover, the food scandals have
shaken consumers’confidence in the food they consumed and they have demanded stricter
controls in food production. To date, the most current and emerging issues on food SC now
is food integrity. Food integrity as highlighted by Elliott (2014) is food that not only
encapsulates the issues of food safety and quality, but also the way it has been sourced,
procured, and distributed –as well as the honest and accurate provision of information
about those elements to consumers. Therefore, strengthening the argument of firms’
individual certification is never sufficient in the era of inter-SC competition. However, the
safeguarding measures being applied to all the players in the SC individually in ensuring the
integrity of the food products, are shown by existing scandals indicate that the mechanism
used is not sufficient and requires an additional manufacturing strategy in ensuring the
integrity of the SC.
This paper aims to address the shortcomings of current control mechanisms aimed at
safeguarding food integrity, by exploring the possibilities of SC integration in enhancing the
food integrity, extending the work of Van Donk et al. (2008) and Narasimhan and Kim (2002).
Van Donk et al. (2008) explore the limitations and barriers for SC integration that is
experienced by food manufacturers using a case study, which provided a suggestion that
the idea of SC integration in the food industry need to be contested in a wider context.
Narasimhan and Kim (2002) argue that research on SC integration need to examine specific
aspects of the firm/industry. In a nutshell, the study aims to propose a conceptual model and
adopt a partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the effect
empirically of SC integration on the efforts of safeguarding food integrity which, impacting
the firms’performance, using data collected from 254 halal manufacturing firms in
Malaysia. This research will provide evidence of the possibilities of SC integration in
facilitating control of food integrity. Moreover, the research can also be a proof to the
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