IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v199y2018icp125-137.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Challenges and propositions for research in quality management

Author

Listed:
  • Fundin, Anders
  • Bergquist, Bjarne
  • Eriksson, Henrik
  • Gremyr, Ida

Abstract

From its inception, the field of quality management (QM) has been characterised by practice-driven development. Although QM has reached maturity as a field of research based on empirical enquiry, its practitioners still struggle to adapt QM implementations to reap their benefits. This study aims to identify their challenges to better understand how contemporary QM research addresses them. We propose approaches to bridge the potential relevance gaps between research and practice. A Delphi study of QM practitioners in Swedish private and public organisations, several of which operate globally, generated 49 challenges. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to cluster these challenges into themes, and the literature was reviewed to investigate how each theme has been addressed in QM research. The empirical investigation identified three themes related to future QM challenges—organisations' adaptability to rapid changes in the business environment, quality as a strategic concern for business owners, and managerial ownership of quality. By analysing these challenges, six propositions for future research were proposed to reduce potential relevance gaps. Future research should focus on how to make QM a strategic concern for owners, and explore how it can contribute to organisational ambidexterity and adaptability. Research should also determine how context influences the way QM is applied, and investigate how it can improve organisational learning and innovation. Finally, research should indicate how top managers can adopt the responsibilities of quality managers, and explore the ways the principal values of QM can be better integrated into organisations.

Suggested Citation

  • Fundin, Anders & Bergquist, Bjarne & Eriksson, Henrik & Gremyr, Ida, 2018. "Challenges and propositions for research in quality management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 125-137.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:199:y:2018:i:c:p:125-137
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.02.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527318301178
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.02.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Hochrein & Christoph H. Glock, 2012. "Systematic literature reviews in purchasing and supply management research: a tertiary study," International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(4), pages 215-245.
    2. Hochrein, S. & Glock, C. H. & Bogaschewsky, R. & Heider, M., 2015. "Literature reviews in supply chain management: a tertiary study," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 75187, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    3. Calvo-Mora, Arturo & Ruiz-Moreno, Carolina & Picón-Berjoyo, Araceli & Cauzo-Bottala, Lourdes, 2014. "Mediation effect of TQM technical factors in excellence management systems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 769-774.
    4. Wiengarten, Frank & Pagell, Mark, 2012. "The importance of quality management for the success of environmental management initiatives," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 407-415.
    5. Anders Fundin & Bo Bergman & Mattias Elg, 2017. "The Quality Dilemma: Combining Development and Stability," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Tomas Backström & Anders Fundin & Peter E. Johansson (ed.), Innovative Quality Improvements in Operations, chapter 0, pages 9-33, Springer.
    6. Michael Browne, 1968. "A comparison of factor analytic techniques," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 33(3), pages 267-334, September.
    7. Adrian S. Choo & Kevin W. Linderman & Roger G. Schroeder, 2007. "Method and Psychological Effects on Learning Behaviors and Knowledge Creation in Quality Improvement Projects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(3), pages 437-450, March.
    8. Wu, Sarah Jinhui & Zhang, Dongli, 2013. "Analyzing the effectiveness of quality management practices in China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 281-289.
    9. Grosse, E. H. & Glock, C. H. & Müller, Seb., 2015. "Production economics and the learning curve: A Meta-Analysis," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 74127, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    10. Jackson, Sherry Avery & Gopalakrishna-Remani, Venugopal & Mishra, Rajat & Napier, Randy, 2016. "Examining the impact of design for environment and the mediating effect of quality management innovation on firm performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 142-152.
    11. Louis Guttman, 1954. "Some necessary conditions for common-factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 19(2), pages 149-161, June.
    12. Zeng, Jing & Anh Phan, Chi & Matsui, Yoshiki, 2015. "The impact of hard and soft quality management on quality and innovation performance: An empirical study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 216-226.
    13. S. E. Michaels, 1964. "The Usefulness of Experimental Designs," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 13(3), pages 221-228, November.
    14. Gerard P. Hodgkinson & Denise M. Rousseau, 2009. "Bridging the Rigour–Relevance Gap in Management Research: It's Already Happening!," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 534-546, May.
    15. El Ouardighi, Fouad, 2014. "Supply quality management with optimal wholesale price and revenue sharing contracts: A two-stage game approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 260-268.
    16. Daniel A. Levinthal & James G. March, 1993. "The myopia of learning," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(S2), pages 95-112, December.
    17. Zeng, Jing & Zhang, Wenqing & Matsui, Yoshiki & Zhao, Xiande, 2017. "The impact of organizational context on hard and soft quality management and innovation performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 240-251.
    18. Alfred Kieser & Lars Leiner, 2009. "Why the Rigour–Relevance Gap in Management Research Is Unbridgeable," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 516-533, May.
    19. Grosse, Eric H. & Glock, Christoph H. & Müller, Sebastian, 2015. "Production economics and the learning curve: A meta-analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PB), pages 401-412.
    20. O’Neill, Peter & Sohal, Amrik & Teng, Chih Wei, 2016. "Quality management approaches and their impact on firms׳ financial performance – An Australian study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(P3), pages 381-393.
    21. Henry Kaiser, 1974. "An index of factorial simplicity," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 39(1), pages 31-36, March.
    22. Temponi, Cecilia, 2006. "Scalable enterprise systems: Quality management issues," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1-2), pages 222-235, February.
    23. Phan, Anh Chi & Abdallah, Ayman Bahjat & Matsui, Yoshiki, 2011. "Quality management practices and competitive performance: Empirical evidence from Japanese manufacturing companies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(2), pages 518-529, October.
    24. S. James Morrison, 1957. "The Study of Variability in Engineering Design," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 6(2), pages 133-138, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shih-Nien Lee, 2024. "Examining the Impact of Organizational Culture and Risk Management and Internal Control on Performance in Healthcare Organizations," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 14(1), pages 1-4.
    2. Birch-Jensen, Andrea & Gremyr, Ida & Halldórsson, Árni, 2020. "Digitally connected services: Improvements through customer-initiated feedback," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 814-825.
    3. Alfnes, Erlend & Gosling, Jonathan & Naim, Mohamed & Dreyer, Heidi C., 2021. "Exploring systemic factors creating uncertainty in complex engineer-to-order supply chains: Case studies from Norwegian shipbuilding first tier suppliers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    4. Lee, Jung Young & McFadden, Kathleen L. & Lee, Min Kyung & Gowen, Charles R., 2021. "U.S. hospital culture profiles for better performance in patient safety, patient satisfaction, Six Sigma, and lean implementation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    5. Gomes, Paulo J. & Silva, Graça Miranda & Sarkis, Joseph, 2020. "Exploring the relationship between quality ambidexterity and sustainable production," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    6. Parast, Mahour Mellat & Safari, Arsalan, 2022. "Enhancing the quality and competitiveness of small businesses: A pooled cross-sectional analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    7. Culot, Giovanna & Orzes, Guido & Sartor, Marco & Nassimbeni, Guido, 2020. "The future of manufacturing: A Delphi-based scenario analysis on Industry 4.0," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    8. Cho, Young Sik & Linderman, Kevin, 2019. "Metacognition-based process improvement practices," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 132-144.
    9. Ladinig, Thomas B. & Vastag, Gyula, 2021. "Mapping quality linkages based on tacit knowledge," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    10. Parast, Mahour Mellat & Golmohammadi, Davood, 2019. "Quality management in healthcare organizations: Empirical evidence from the baldrige data," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 133-144.
    11. Saporiti, Nicolò & Cannas, Violetta Giada & Pozzi, Rossella & Rossi, Tommaso, 2023. "Challenges and countermeasures for digital twin implementation in manufacturing plants: A Delphi study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Escrig-Tena, Ana B. & Segarra-Ciprés, Mercedes & García-Juan, Beatriz & Beltrán-Martín, Inmaculada, 2018. "The impact of hard and soft quality management and proactive behaviour in determining innovation performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1-14.
    2. Gomes, Paulo J. & Silva, Graça Miranda & Sarkis, Joseph, 2020. "Exploring the relationship between quality ambidexterity and sustainable production," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    3. Haffar, Mohamed & Al-Karaghouli, Wafi & Irani, Zahir & Djebarni, Ramdane & Gbadamosi, Gbolahan, 2019. "The influence of individual readiness for change dimensions on quality management implementation in Algerian manufacturing organisations," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 247-260.
    4. Alsawafi, Ahmed & Lemke, Fred & Yang, Ying, 2021. "The impacts of internal quality management relations on the triple bottom line: A dynamic capability perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    5. Younès El Manzani & Mohamed Larbi Sidmou & Jean-Jack Cegarra, 2018. "Does IS0 9001 quality management system support product innovation? An analysis from the sociotechnical systems theory," Post-Print hal-03080217, HAL.
    6. Jacqueline Fendt, 2013. "Lost in Translation? On Mind and Matter in Management Research," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(2), pages 21582440134, May.
    7. Bai, Danyu & Tang, Mengqian & Zhang, Zhi-Hai & Santibanez-Gonzalez, Ernesto DR, 2018. "Flow shop learning effect scheduling problem with release dates," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 21-38.
    8. Erlantz Allur & Iñaki Heras-Saizarbitoria & Olivier Boiral & Francesco Testa, 2018. "Quality and Environmental Management Linkage: A Review of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-15, November.
    9. Yoo, Sun-Young & Vonk, M. Elizabeth, 2012. "The development and initial validation of the Immigrant Parental Stress Inventory (IPSI) in a sample of Korean immigrant parents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 989-998.
    10. Timothy Clark & Mike Wright, 2009. "So, Farewell Then . . . Reflections on Editing the Journal of Management Studies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 1-9, January.
    11. Bullinger, Bernadette & Kieser, Alfred & Schiller-Merkens, Simone, 2015. "Coping with institutional complexity: Responses of management scholars to competing logics in the field of management studies," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 437-450.
    12. Amara, Nabil & Olmos-Peñuela, Julia & Fernández-de-Lucio, Ignacio, 2019. "Overcoming the “lost before translation” problem: An exploratory study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 22-36.
    13. Jaber, M.Y. & Peltokorpi, J. & Glock, C.H. & Grosse, E.H. & Pusic, M., 2021. "Adjustment for cognitive interference enhances the predictability of the power learning curve," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    14. Cho, Young Sik & Linderman, Kevin, 2019. "Metacognition-based process improvement practices," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 132-144.
    15. Riehl, Kevin & Kiesel, Florian & Schiereck, Dirk, 2022. "Political and Socioeconomic Factors That Determine the Financial Outcome of Successful Green Innovation," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 132099, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    16. Schiele, Holger & Krummaker, Stefan, 2011. "Consortium benchmarking: Collaborative academic-practitioner case study research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 1137-1145, October.
    17. Chen, Lujie & Jia, Fu & Li, Taiyu & Zhang, Tianyu, 2021. "Supply chain leadership and firm performance: A meta-analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    18. Siew Mooi Ching & Anne Yee & Vasudevan Ramachandran & Sazlyna Mohd Sazlly Lim & Wan Aliaa Wan Sulaiman & Yoke Loong Foo & Fan kee Hoo, 2015. "Validation of a Malay Version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale among Medical Students in Malaysia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-11, October.
    19. Assadej Vanichchinchai, 2023. "The relationships between soft and hard factors of the Toyota way: a socio-technical perspective," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 768-779, June.
    20. Cheng Chen & Susanne Weyland & Julian Fritsch & Alexander Woll & Claudia Niessner & Alexander Burchartz & Steffen C. E. Schmidt & Darko Jekauc, 2021. "A Short Version of the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale: Development and Psychometric Properties," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-15, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:199:y:2018:i:c:p:125-137. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.