The European 'horsemeat scandal': a welcome opportunity for the halal supply chain?

The 'horsemeat scandal' that engulfed most of Europe in 2013 raises some interesting customer behaviour questions (Xie, Bagozzi, & Østli, 2013), with further implications for business relationships involving multiple buyers and a single supplier. This meta-analytical study explores these relationships across two levels - business-to-business (B2B); and business-to-consumer (B2C). On the one hand, the B2B component suggests that when multiple buyers, such as the UK's largest supermarket chain (Tesco), six large French retailers (Auchan, Casino, Carrefour, Cora, Picard, Monoprix), and Dutch behemoths such as PLUS and Boni, become reliant upon a single supplier, Comigel, there are bound to be some practical trust implications. From a B2C perspective, on the other hand, buyer trust and consumer confidence (see Gray, Wert-Gray, & Carlon, 2013), as well as consumer perceptions (Akdeniz, Calantone, & Voorhees, 2013) and attitudes, are bound to change as a consequence of breaches in trust thus providing an opportunity for alternatives such as halal foods (Muhamad & Mizerski, 2013).