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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report on the development and nomological testing of a 17‐item scale measuring the five dimensions of service convenience (decision, access, transaction, benefit, and post‐benefit) as proposed by Berry, Seiders, and Grewal.Design/methodology/approachA cross‐sectional survey methodology was used to collect the data.FindingsReliability and validity assessments provided evidence of the scale's psychometric validity. Service convenience was found to be a significant predictor of overall satisfaction in the context of personal cellular telephone and internet usage.Research limitations/implicationsThis study uses a student sample which may limit its generalizability to other respondents. Also, the cross‐sectional survey methodology does not allow for the investigation of causation. Future research should investigate other contexts outside of the cellular and internet services examined in this study and across a broader sample. Furthermore, the ability to retrospectively rate service convenience, the trade‐off between price and convenience, and the continuum of convenience need to be investigated further.Originality/valueThis study provides psychometrically valid scales to measure service convenience as conceptualized by Berry et al..

This study explored the experiences of quality professionals with the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system in the food industry in Canada. Similarities and differences between HACCP and ISO 9000 quality management systems were also highlighted. In this study, qualitative research was undertaken with selected medium to large‐sized food manufacturing companies. In‐depth telephone interviews were performed with quality professionals to allow the researcher the opportunity to elicit expertise and experience that are unique to the respondent. While the study was designed to be exploratory in nature and to form the basis for future research, several themes were identified. First, all companies used HACCP in conjunction with other internal programs such as product testing and supplier qualification to ensure product quality. Second, all companies perceived internal auditing as a way to ensure the quality programs. Finally, companies that had implemented both HACCP and ISO 9000 mentioned two main obstacles, i.e. resistance to change and fear of documentation.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the use of visual research methods in the area of recent marketing and consumer research. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was used to investigate visual method in articles from Journal of Consumer Research; Journal of Marketing; Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Marketing Management; Consumption, Markets, and Culture and Qualitative Market Research. Abstract, key words and methodology sections of all articles published in these six journals from 2002 to 2012 were scanned to identify which of them applied visual methods in their studies. The selected articles were then closely analyzed to discover how visual research methods were used and in what manner did they contribute to the marketing and consumer behavior discipline. Findings – This study found that a growing number of marketing and consumer researchers utilized visual methods to achieve their research goals in various approaches such as cultural inventories, projective techniques and social artifacts. Visual method is useful when research deals with children who are not fully developed and able to comprehend text messages and also advantageous when investigating informants’ metaphorical thoughts about a subject or the content of their mind. Originality/value – This paper examined how visual methods have assisted marketing and consumer researchers in achieving their goals and suggests when and how researchers can utilize the visual methods for future research.

Small and medium sized food businesses have been slow to adopt food safety management systems (FSMSs) such as good manufacturing practices and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). This study identifies factors influencing workers in their implementation of food safety practices in small and medium meat processing establishments in Ontario, Canada. A qualitative approach was used to explore in-plant factors that influence the implementation of FSMSs. Thirteen in-depth interviews in five meat plants and two focus group interviews were conducted. These generated 219 pages of verbatim transcripts which were analysed using NVivo 7 software. Main themes identified in the data related to production systems, organisational characteristics and employee characteristics. A socio-psychological model based on the theory of planned behaviour is proposed to describe how these themes and underlying sub-themes relate to FSMS implementation. Addressing the various factors that influence production workers is expected to enhance FSMS implementation and increase food safety.