The purpose of this article is to pinpoint the factors that may
affect the decision of a small enterprise to adopt a QAS, with the
intent of contributing to a rapid diffusion of QAS in European
small food enterprises.The conclusions are useful to small European
food enterprises which are attempting to shape an efficient
quality strategy. The results are also useful to the public authorities
that wish to encourage the application of quality assurance
systems in the EU food industry, because these systems are in
accordance with the EU policy which aims to encourage small
enterprises to apply best practices and adopt successful business
models that will enable them to flourish in the global market.
These research results may also be useful for understanding the
adoption by enterprises of other certification schemes like
‘‘organic,” ‘‘Eurepgap”