Andrew Robson

The UK supermarket industry: An analysis of corporate social and financial performance

In a previous paper (Moore, 2001), the headline findings from a study of social and financial performance over three years of eight firms in the UK supermarket industry were reported. These were based on the derivation of a 16-measure social performance index and a 4-measure financial performance index. This paper discusses the formulation of the indices and then reports on: discussions with two supermarket firms concerning the overall results; inter-relationships between individual financial performance measures; inter-relationships between individual social performance measures; stakeholder group analysis; and inter-relationships between turnover, age and gearing with social performance measures. The paper discusses these inter-relationships, incorporating comments from the interviews with the two supermarket firms, and reports on both factor and cluster analysis. The interviews lend support for Preston and O’Bannon’s (1997) Available Funding Hypothesis in both its positive and negative form. The findings show that there are individual or combinations of related measures that could be used as surrogate measures for social and financial performance, instead of deriving a full index. However, the recommendation is that a full index continues to be used until there is further corroboration of these results. The findings also provide statistically significant support for the Negative Synergy Hypothesis (Preston and O’Bannon, 1997), show a statistically significant association between pre-tax profits (both lagged and contemporaneous) with community contributions, and show that all statistically significant associations between individual social performance measures are positive – suggesting that they are mutually reinforcing. The association of size with social performance, noted in the previous paper, is also reinforced. Findings in relation to the proportion of women managers and the number of women on the Board and positive associations with other social and environmental performance measures raise interesting gender issues for business ethics. Factor analysis leads to no clear conclusions but cluster does show two or three clear clusters of firms, where size would seem to be the main but not sole factor. Further areas of research are noted.

The impact of maintenance practices on operational and business performance

Maintenance and plant engineering are considered to be important parts of the strategy underlying successful manufacturing. The aim of this paper is to investigate the deployment level of good practice in these areas compared to other manufacturing processes and what impact they have on an organisation’s performance. It draws empirical results out of the data provided from a large‐scale benchmarking study carried out in a specific region of the UK and tests part of these with case research. The findings are discussed, highlighting any variations between company size, sector and world‐class status and the significance of any correlation found between practice and performance.

Impact of leadership and senior management commitment on business excellence: An empirical study in the North East of England

It is now almost becoming a cliche to state that strong leadership through s̀enior management commitment’ is the most critical `enabler’ when introducing change in any organization, be it related to implementing the EFQM Excellence model, lean/agile production philosophies or even in the introduction of E-commerce. There is no real disagreement amongst academics, management consultants and award-givers that without this crucial support, any initiative is very likely to fail. The central role of leadership and senior management commitment in implementing total quality management (TQM) or `organizational excellence’ programmes has been well documented (e.g. EFQM, 1999) and reinforced through numerous examples of role models such as Motorola, Milliken and Rank Xerox. Assessing or benchmarking the leadership process is also well established through the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA) and the European Quality Award (EQA) and best practice in leadership styles been identi® ed (see Oakland, 1993; Zairi, 1995, 1999). However, even though we know a great deal about what best practice is from these exemplar organizations and the world-class standards set by them, little is known of how widespread such practices are in the vast majority of businesses that are trying to emulate such goals. Given the universal agreement of how critical this role is in the successful implementation of cultural and behavioural change (see Oakland, 1999). One would expect to see good to best practice in many if not most organizations. But is this the case? The aim of this paper is to examine to what extent this message is being adopted by senior managers in industry as a whole. In other words, does practice bear out this important relationship? The authors are fortunate in having access to sets of data collected from a recent benchmarking study undertaken in nearly 750 manufacturing and service sector companies in the North East of England. The data are a record of the extent to which they have adopted a range of best management practices and have achieved a high level of operational performance in their development towards becoming world-class.

Achieving service excellence – measuring the impact of leadership and senior management commitment

This paper considers the relationship between leadership strategy and practice and operational performance within the service sector, identifying significant associations between various measurements with respect to an organisation’s theoretical world class status, size (as defined by number of employees) and sector. The paper identifies business‐wide strengths in practice and performance and areas where “across‐the‐board” improvements can be made. Empirical evidence is provided using data collected as part of a region‐wide study within the North East of England. A number of issues specific to the achievement of service excellence are addressed.

Chinese consumers’ purchasing: impact of value and affect

Purpose – Purchases of luxury fashion brands continues to grow rapidly in metropolitan China, creating a significant global marketplace. Associated behaviour is maturing, exhibiting levels of sophistication and is risk averse, consequently, purchasing intention and willingness to pay more represent areas for marketer consideration, as do the potential impact of consumer‐perceived brand value and affect on these outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 431 Chinese consumers located in Beijing was undertaken within shopping malls specialising in luxury brands, fashion items included. The analysis undertaken considers the influence of value and affect on purchase intention and consumers’ willingness to pay extra, achieved by deploying confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equations modelling (SEM).Findings – Functional and social value positively influence consumers’ willingness to pay premium prices, impending purchase intentions and affective attitude towards luxury brands, functional...

Business excellence in the public sector - A comparison of two sub-groups with the "private" service sector

Over the past decade, the public sector in the UK has made great effort in adopting business excellence thinking. To what extent have such practices taken root and what has been their impact? Presents some of the key results from a recent empirical study of 119 public sector organisations in North‐East England. They show considerable strengths in some of the related HR practices, leadership issues, service delivery and quality matters. Equally, many of them face major challenges in adopting appropriate performance measurement systems, in eliminating waste and reducing costs, and in being innovative in service design.

Made in the 21st Century: How Far Have we Come on the Journey to Excellence?

The ‘Made in Europe’ studies, published during the 1990s, were a landmark in advancing our understanding of ‘best manufacturing practice’, and the extent to which it is effectively deployed. The studies revealed links between practice and performance, and profiled various sectors, countries and organization types in terms of their characteristics, strengths and opportunities for improvement. The ‘Made in Europe’ findings have exerted significant influence on public policy and business support strategies, and the studies’ original research tools have subsequently developed into a leading-edge suite of benchmarking tools known collectively as PROBE – ‘PROmoting Business Excellence’. This paper describes the development and current status of this suite of international improvement tools, which has reached 32 countries and has established a dataset containing over 4000 individual site benchmarks. The paper reflects upon the lessons learned from 10 years of experience of deploying diagnostic benchmarking in support of organizational change and learning. It presents a ‘then and now’ comparison of PROBE data for UK manufacturers, and looks forward to further developments and growing momentum in the spread of good practices, arguing that the next 10 years may be less about the state of the art of best practices as such, and more about applying the social sciences to stimulate and support diffusion and adoption of those practices.

What can we learn from “leading” service practitioners about business excellence?

It is reasonable to assume that levels of business excellence will vary considerably amongst a group of organisations; two recent studies of organisations in north east England support this hypothesis. Draws on these benchmarking data. Relates to 28 business excellence practices and 19 operational performance measures covering strategy, human resources, service delivery and quality, service design and innovation, service value and measurement and business performance. Identifies the extent of any significant differences in overall practice and performance attainment levels between service leaders and their counterparts. Also considers combinations of attributes that best discriminate between levels of attainment. Derives a subset of measures that have the potential to provide an insight into a service organisation’s level of practice adoption and corresponding performance. Also considers additional characteristics to ascertain what association, if any, they have with the level of practice adoption and operational performance amongst the service organisations. All significant differences are highlighted at the 5 per cent significance level unless otherwise stated.

TQM enablers and business sustainability: An empirical study of the service sector in the North East of England

The extent to which an organisation is successful can be influenced by a number of its strategies and business initiatives. This success can be measured internally, using traditional measures such as profitability, return on net assets and cash flow. Equally, this success can also be measured in terms of external measures such as growth, the competition and the impact of a changing business environment. This paper attempts to assess the association between the extent to which TQM initiatives have been successfully implemented and the changes in performance measures both internal and external. This has been done by analysing benchmarking data collected from nearly 450 service organisations from the North East of England. The survey results suggest that the TQM enablers have the greatest impact upon operational performance and then business performance, but only limited impact on external measures of sustainability such as business growth, competitive advantage and change management.

Does quality drive employee satisfaction in the UK learning sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to assess the nature and extent of the link between employee satisfaction and organisational performance.Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the link between staff satisfaction and organisational performance, presenting findings from 21 colleges of Further Education that have participated in both a survey of staff satisfaction (covering over 2,600 staff from these colleges) and in a diagnostic benchmarking exercise using the “Learning PROBE” methodology.Findings – The results suggest that whilst each of the measured aspects of work are regarded as being important by a majority of survey respondents, the level of “satisfaction” displayed in each of these attributes is indicated by only a minority of those surveyed. The findings support the existence of a link between staff satisfaction and organisational excellence. Staff satisfaction levels are most strongly associated with the leadership and service processes indices, and ...