Exzellenz in der österreichischen und deutschen Molkereibranche – ein Vergleich

Companies must communicate about their activities or products to be perceived as an outstanding company. Representing excellence, in terms of “top performance” and “outperforming others”, offers companies the opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The present article compares the Austrian view on excellence and its communication in the dairy industry with the German one by means of two regional studies. To this end, their focus on sustainability (self-reports) and the presentation of awards and certifications (third-party reports) are used as expressions of excellence. We evaluated 22 expert interviews conducted in Austria and Germany using Mayring's qualitative content analysis at category level. The descriptive website analysis of 197 Austrian and German dairies complements the study.

The results show that dairies from both countries must stand out from the market by performing outstandingly and differentiating themselves due to increasing product requirements and competitive pressure. Excellence in the dairy industry is described as a multi-causal and relative parameter in which sustainability is aligned. In this context, the communication of awards and certificates have different weights. Austrian dairies communicate won awards more clearly than German. In both countries mainly product awards are displayed; and certificates are considered signs of excellence only to a limited extent. Overall, external reports are mostly dependent on financial and human resources; to a lesser extent this applies to self-reports.