The level of management maturity in the Polish food sector and its relation to financial performance

Abstract

This article presents the issue of the level of maturity of management systems according to the ISO 9004:2009 self-assessment model in Polish companies and its influence on financial performance. The paper presents the results of research conducted on a group of 29 polish organisations operating in the food industry. The analysis showed that the level of maturity within a group of companies with at least one certified management system (no matter what kind of management system it was) is higher than within a group of companies without any system. Companies with an International Food Standard/British Retail Consortium certificate have a higher management maturity level in comparison to companies with ISO 9001. The link between maturity level and financial performance is not obvious. Performance measured by indicators such as: assets, revenue, and net profit is correlated with the maturity level or with key elements of maturity level according to the ISO 9004 model. On the other hand, there is no statistically significant correlation between the maturity level of a company and its financial efficiency measured by indicators such as: return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and return on sales (ROS). Moreover, in the case of companies where key elements of the ISO 9004 model such as managing and processes rank higher, lower financial efficiency is achieved as measured by ROA, ROE and ROS. Generally, according to the results of the research, there is no evidence that small and medium enterprises with higher maturity levels achieve higher financial efficiency.