Over the past few years, certification standards have become increasingly relevant for the agribusiness sector. Substantial parts of the value chain are already certified by standards such as QS, IFS or EurepGap. It is not known, however, whether these approaches can actually ensure a high quality control. This article is based on the analysis of the data base of the QSsystem with more than 72,000 companies involved. It tries to deduce some first empirically rich hypotheses about the connection between auditing quality and the institutional framing of the certification.
Due to the complex structure of certification schemes the risk of flaws and scandals is generally high. It has further increased by several developments during the last years. With regard to their potential effects, it is questionable whether the certification approaches are actually able to detect deficiencies within the system and thus prevent crises which may lead to its breakdown. Hence, the ability of a standard to meet its objectives of food quality and safety needs to be enforced. In this contribution we launch the implementation of a controlling tool which automatically monitors audit quality based on information of the respective data bases. By analysing possible negative influences, opportunistic behaviour can thus be detected.
