Designing a Green Quality Management Model in Food Industry with Emphasis on Environmental Performance Improvement (Case study: Ardabil province)

In recent years, issues related to environmental protection and sustainability in the food sector have become a global concern. Also, the not-so-favorable conditions of our country in terms of environmental protection and the need to pay attention to green concepts at the management levels of organizations led to this innovative research aimed at designing a green quality management model in the food industry with an emphasis on environmental performance improvement. The ultimate purpose of this research is to be practical and in terms of methodology, a descriptive survey was used as well as a qualitative approach that has been done using the Grounded Theory method. To collect data, a library method was conducted within the literature on the subject matter and a purposive sampling method and theoretical saturation principle were used. In-depth and semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 16 officials and experts of companies active in the food industry in Ardabil province. The information obtained from the two phases was combined and data analysis was performed in a three-step process of open coding, axial and selective, with the help of MAXQDA software. The findings of this study show that the paradigm pattern of green quality management in the food industry has 5 components: green human resource management (causal conditions), green management thinking (contextual conditions), technology management, and environmental management system (interventional conditions), green management innovation (strategies) and supply chain green (consequences). Therefore, the success of the food industry to upgrade environmental performance will depend on the establishment and proper implementation of the designed model and the superior management of these components.