Javier García-Bernal

Total Quality Management in Firms: Evidence from Spain

Researchers and managers agree on the importance of organizations adopting a total quality management model. However, while an organizations adoption of such a model can be considered a potential source of competitive advantage, and therefore value generating, its implementation is not always successful. The authors focus on the importance of complementarities among the elements of the EFQM Excellence model in the process of its implementation by the firm, and the influence of these complementarities on business performance. They classify a sample of firms into four groups according to the level of quality implemented by the firms for each element of the EPQM Excellence model. The authors find that firms with a higher level of quality in all the criteria of the EEQM Excellence model obtain better results, while firms with the lowest scores in all the variables obtain the worst results. Additionally, the find that firms that make partial adjustments do not improve their results significantly. Thus, this model should be implemented not in terms of isolated decision making for each of the model variables, but rather the decisions should be part of a coherent course of action, since the variables show complex relations of complementarity among themselves.

Expected quality in European football attendance: market value and uncertainty reconsidered

The aim of this article was to deepen the study of the determinants of the sporting event’s demand. Specifically, this study is focused on the relationship between the expected quality of the event and attendance at the European football stadiums. The study explores the Rottemberg Hypothesis (1956), which states the existence of a positive effect of the outcome uncertainty on attendance demand and approximates with dynamic indexes the outcome uncertainty and the quality of the contestant teams. From the estimation of the attendance equation using quantile regression (which takes into account the heterogeneity of the demand) highlights the fact that the attractive aspect of the event, approximated by the market value of the players taking the field, has a positive and significant impact whatever typology of venue. In addition, this study provides empirical support to the assumption that game day demand is more related to the quality of contestant teams than to outcome uncertainty level.

Increasing the organisational performance benefits of TQM: an approach based on organisational design

Adopting total quality management can improve firms’ organisational performance. The current work examines how firms can increase the benefits traditionally linked to this approach to management. Under the theoretical and conceptual framework of transaction cost theory, we study the economic capacity of total quality management to efficiently manage the organisational design problems arising in firms. The empirical results show that adopting total quality management in a way that is consistent with organisational design postulates increases the organisational performance benefits of TQM, because firms can exploit the complementarities between total quality management and organisational design.

Determinants in the adoption of total quality management (tqm) in the construction sector: a management perspective

Aunque la evidencia empirica muestra la existencia de una relacion positiva entre adopcion de la Gestion de calidad total (GCT) y una mejora en el desempeno organizativo, el nivel de difusion es desigual entre las empresas del sector de la construccion. El principal objetivo del presente trabajo es identificar los factores relevantes que impulsan a los directivos de las empresas de la construccion a adoptar la GCT. Especificamente, analiza el grado al cual las expectativas de los gerentes de las empresas sobre los efectos del GCT en el desempeno de su negocio determinan si es que ellos adaptaran GCT o no. Los resultados muestran que las expectativas relativas a la mejora financiera, las cuestiones ambientales, y la satisfaccion de los clientes y los empleados conducen a los directivos de las empresas del sector de la construccion a adoptar GCT.

Diluting the perverse element of rational altruism

Some authors have demonstrated the value of egalitarian sharing rules in teams, even when team members have distinct abilities and make different contributions to team performance. However, we show the appearance of an undesirable component of rational altruism when marginal productivities differ across team members and an egalitarian sharing rule is used. We call this new component of rational altruism the Perverse Element of Rational Altruism (PERA). The presence of the PERA decreases team efficiency. In this sense, and considering several scenarios, an analysis of welfare implications and the evolution of team efficiency are presented.

The Bertrand solution revisited: strategic price setting

The industrial organization literature typically uses different models of strategic interaction to represent different degrees of competitive intensity. The current work shows how the Bertrand solution can converge towards the Cournot solution by modelling the presence of firms’ strategic behaviours during the process of mutual price adjustment that takes place until the equilibrium solution is reached. Specifically, the results of this work show how price competition between firms can lead to an equilibrium solution with a lower competitive intensity than initially expected. The author illustrates this process using a concrete example. Introducing the concept of rational altruism, the author shows how firms can have an incentive to strategically modify their reaction functions and, as a consequence, to increase their prices.