Ismail Sila

An investigation of the total quality management survey based research published between 1989 and 2000: A literature review

There has been a plethora of published research related to total quality management (TQM) in the last few decades. However, very few studies focused on cataloging critical factors of TQM. One of the objectives of this literature review was to investigate the state of TQM by examining and listing various TQM factors identified based on survey studies conducted in different countries and published in a variety of journals over the past decade. An examination of 76 survey studies that used an integrated approach to TQM showed that the TQM factors could be grouped under 25 categories. An analysis of the 347 survey based research articles published between 1989 and 2000 using these 25 factors as a framework revealed the most frequently covered TQM factors in the literature. Another goal of the paper was to analyse the objectives of these articles by year and type of journal they were published in to determine the trends in TQM survey based studies and recommend future direction for research. The analysis showed that the objectives of the 347 studies could be grouped under six categories.

Critical linkages among TQM factors and business results

Purpose – To empirically investigate the relationships among critical TQM factors and business results.Design/methodology/approach – Twenty‐three hypotheses regarding the relationships among TQM factors and business results have been developed through literature review and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The study utilized survey data obtained from US manufacturing companies.Findings – Provides information about the results of each hypothesis, their implications, and how these findings compare to previous studies. Pays special attention to the relationships between TQM factors and business results and discusses findings in this area by offering insights from 22 previous studies that analyzed TQM‐performance relationships.Research limitations/implications – Researchers could use the results of this study to explore various related hypotheses in more detail and improve the accuracy of future empirical quality management studies. The study makes specific recommendations for such future studi...

Examination and comparison of the critical factors of total quality management (TQM) across countries

Various empirical studies have been published about the critical success factors of TQM extracted using a survey approach in a particular country or region. Several studies compared critical TQM factors across different countries, but overall there has been little attempt in the literature to analyse the TQM factors within the context of a contingency approach. Quality gurus such as Deming and Juran contend that quality management concepts are universally applicable, but this is only their personal prescriptions and must be examined empirically. This study analysed and compared 76 empirically validated TQM factors and their impact on various performance measures across countries. The findings showed that top management commitment and leadership, customer focus, information and analysis, training, supplier management, strategic planning, employee involvement, human resource management, process management, teamwork, product and service design, process control, benchmarking, continuous improvement, employee empowerment, quality assurance, social responsibility, and employee satisfaction were the most commonly extracted factors across these 76 studies.

Quality in supply chains: an empirical analysis

Purpose – To analyze the state of supply chain quality management in manufacturing companies by testing several hypotheses regarding the knowledge these companies have about their different supply chain partners, the attributes that characterize customer‐supplier relationships and the factors that determine the development of quality specifications in a supply chain, and the effect of supply chain quality management activities of companies on product quality.Design/methodology/approach – Six hypotheses related to supply chain quality management have been developed through literature review and tested using survey data from US manufacturing companies.Findings – Provides information about the results of each hypothesis, their implications, and how these findings relate to the previous literature.Research limitations/implications – The study offers insights into what the findings suggest and provides guidelines for future research to tackle issues raised by these findings. There were also some research limit...

Factors affecting the adoption of B2B e-commerce technologies

The objective of this study is to analyze the factors affecting the adoption of Internet-enabled business-to-business electronic commerce (B2B EC) and test their applicability in different contexts. We used 275 responses from an online survey of North American firms and tested our hypotheses with Multiple Regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). We found that scalability is the biggest contributor to B2B EC usage. We also compared each adoption factor across adopters and nonadopters of B2B EC. Six of the nine adoption factors tested distinguished adopters of B2B EC from nonadopters. Then we analyzed the effects of these factors on adoption using several contextual variables, including firm size, firm type, management level of respondents, and country of origin of firms. The results showed that all of the contextual variables, except country of origin, influenced some of the adoption factors. Managers can use the findings of this study to understand which factors will most likely facilitate the implementation of B2B EC and be prepared to manage the effects of these factors on their initiatives more effectively. Many of the studies in this area have not tested the effects of contextual variables on B2B EC adoption. Thus, we contribute to the limited literature on this issue. The study shows that the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework provides a strong foundation for the study of B2B EC. It also provides evidence that this framework is strengthened further when contextual variables are integrated into the theoretical model.

Do organisational and environmental factors moderate the effects of Internet-based interorganisational systems on firm performance?

We developed a model of the relationships among several organisational, interorganisational and technological factors, the adoption of Internet-based interorganisational systems (IBIS) and various measures of firm performance. We used structural equation modelling to empirically test these relationships. The findings showed that adopting IBIS indirectly improves the operational performance of firms through business process performance. The positive effect on financial performance of adopting IBIS is not direct, but through the mediating effects of operational performance and business process performance. We also utilised multiple group analysis to test some of the model relationships across firms using several organisational and environmental factors as moderators. The organisational factors tested are firm type, age and ownership type. The environmental factors consisted of dynamism, complexity and hostility. We found that the organisational factors are significant moderators and that complexity and hostility are not significant moderators. However, the effects of dynamism as a moderator are less clear.

Book Review of Supply Chain Networks and Business Process Orientation: Advanced Strategies and Best Practices. By K. McCormack, W. C. Johnson and W. T. Walker (CRC Press, Tampa, 2002), xix + 219 pp., US

This book was written with the premise that horizontally and well-integrated supply chain networks will increasingly dominate the competitive business world. It introduces the concept of business process orientation (BPO), covered by the authors in an earlier work, as the core principle connecting companies in a supply chain network. This concept is used throughout, particularly as it relates to supply chain performance and supply chain maturity. The importance and contribution of Internet technologies to supply chain maturity are also discussed in a separate chapter. The authors use easy-to-understand language and explain the concepts covered practically. They also suggest that the survey instruments developed could easily be used by managers to evaluate their companies’ supply chain networks. The statistical methods used for data analysis are not complex or rigorous, making it easy for managers to understand as well. The two case studies at the end also serve a practical purpose by putting some of the concepts discussed into perspective. One of the good attributes of the book is probably its use of survey methodology to test the various hypotheses formulated by the authors. Thus, rather than basing the whole book on personal prescriptions, the authors empirically tested their research ideas, which gave their arguments and conclusions more credibility. However, the small sample sizes obtained from the different survey studies conducted might have potentially created issues of generalization. Overall, Supply Chain Networks and Business Process Orientation can be used as a useful source by managers interested in learning more about the importance of BPO for designing and creating effective supply chain networks. It can also be used by supply chain management researchers as a background study to conduct more rigorous analyses related to supply chain networks and BPO.