Conference Abstract Book

15 Hypotheses development Food Safety Culture and Financial Performance • Mature organizational and safety cultures are associated with improved financial outcomes through enhanced processes, fewer operational failures, and efficient resource use • As an integral component of organizational culture, FS-culture contributes to lowering quality-related costs and sustaining long-term competitiveness • Organizations with a well-developed FS-culture experience fewer disruptions, lower operational expenses, and higher profitability • Empirical evidence further indicates that FS-culture maturity reduces the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) by minimizing failures, rework, and non-conformities H2b: Food safety culture positively influences financial performance (Boyce et al. (2015); Ying & Allaqtta (2023); Wu et al. (2023); Jespersen et al. (2019); Kabiesz (2024); Spagnoli et al. (2024)