Quality and its Improvement in the Context of Agility in Polish Organic Food Processing

Abstract

Abstract In a world of increasingly advanced technology and market turbulence caused by geopolitical turmoil and the spread of diseases of affluence, there is a growing need to adapt products and services to current market requirements in response to consumer expectations. The need to find its place in a constantly changing further and closer business environment has been also recognized in the agri-food sector. Consumers, looking for alternatives to industrially produced food and wanting to improve their well-being, have in mind, above all, not only the health quality of the food but also the absence of physical and chemical contaminants, and therefore, they are increasingly inclined to purchase organic food products. Under these circumstances, many Polish enterprises that choose this type of production are looking for solutions that allow them to respond quickly to changing consumer expectations. This paper first critically analyzes the scientific literature by compiling publications on aspects of enterprise agility to analyze issues related to quality assurance and its improvement as a manifestation of meeting customer expectations. This allowed for the identification of the research gap and formulation of the research objective, i.e. the assessment of the quality improvement activities as important problems of agility in Polish organic food processing. The main part of the empirical research was conducted in 2021-2022 using a questionnaire dedicated to entities involved in organic food production. The research was comprehensive in nature. The questionnaire was distributed to the entire population surveyed whereas the amount of the results leads to the conclusion that the sample is representative. Statistical analysis and inference were carried out using Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk, ANOVA-Kruskal-Wallis, and U-Mann-Whitney tests.