Prabha Bhola

Impact of quality management practices on performance stimulating growth: Empirical evidence from Indian IT enabled service SMEs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the contextual quality management practices (QMP) and to empirically examine their underlying dimensions and its direct influence or association with performance in context to Indian IT enabled service small- and mid-size enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach The methodology adopted in this study is sequential exploratory mixed method approach. This study adopts two stage processes of capturing data, first identifying critical QMP/indicators as obtained from review of literature, followed by in-depth interview based on semi-structured questionnaire from sample of 20 select service SMEs. Based on comprehensive compilation of literature as well as through in-depth interview 21 QMP have been identified. Structured instrument has been developed taking measures as identified. The QMP relevant to SMEs have been derived from Kaynak (2003), Samat et al. (2006), Salaheldin (2009), Kim et al. (2012) and Talib et al. (2013b). The research instrument developed was customised and adapted to the background of Indian IT enabled service SMEs. Similarly for measuring quality performance five items have been identified from previous literature. Five-point Likert scale ranging from “5=strongly agree” to “1=strongly disagree” is used to show the agreement of the respondents. Exploratory factor analysis has been deployed to identify underlying dimensions of QMP. Thereafter, linear regression modelling has been done to better understand the relationships between QMP and quality performance. Findings A three-factor solution has been obtained and the individual practices could be reconfigured into three dimensions, namely, organisational management, capacity management and quality documentation and security management (QDSM). The findings reflect that strength of Indian IT enabled service SMEs pertaining to quality implementation lie with customer focus, training and service-level management (SLM). Regression analysis shows that all three factor dimensions are positively influencing quality performance. The predictor score of three factor dimensions clearly reflects that Indian SMEs in service sectors have been focusing more on organisational culture and QDSM. The overall findings resemble very interesting insights which gives indication of unstructured pattern of approach. Keeping in view the pattern of practices it can be predicted that Indian digital SMEs are not practicing continuous improvement. It could be inferred that Indian IT enabled service SMEs approach is non-continuous in nature. Research limitations/implications Further analysis may be needed to measure the construct using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The research paper is limited by including only six service sub-sectors which may not be adequate to generalise the results for the entire IT enabled/digital service SMEs within India. The same study can be extended by incorporating more quality management (QM) variables and other contextual factors within the organisation and by involving other service sector SMEs. Future research could be done by incorporating multi-contingency framework and moreover researchers may deploy other sophisticated tools and techniques to investigate how individual QMP are interrelated and its influence on performance by means of linkage research. The conceptual model developed can be validated by incorporating other service sector SMEs by deploying CFA and structural modelling. Practical implications This study could be beneficial to entrepreneurs and managers of start-ups and other service industries towards understanding improvement and changing their implementation approach. The theoretically grounded conceptual framework developed could provide entrepreneurial insights to new service managers and entrepreneurs who can better allocate their scarce resources to build quality and scalability effectively. Originality/value This study adds to the literature in identifying and showing importance of QMP in Indian IT enabled service SMEs. This choice is appropriate for this study as no prior research has been found to be conducted on this particular sector from Indian context, especially from service SMEs point of view. This research contributes in identifying new QMP (i.e. service reporting; content management; SLM and information and security management). Overall, the results of this study contribute towards advancing the understanding of the dimensionality of QM. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first study being undertaken in context to Indian IT enabled service SMEs and is believed that the study provides valuable knowledge from the perspective of QM issues pertaining to Indian service firms.

Exploring Quality Management Practices and Its Pattern Analysis in Indian Service SMEs

Substantial research exists on quality management practices in context to large organisations with plethora of studies in manufacturing organisations while exiguously aiming service sector SMEs. As more and more organisations strive to remain competitive, the concepts and practices of quality management have received increased attention by Indian industry. The contribution of service sector in Indian economy has increased at a faster rate in comparison with other sectors. Considering the pressing need this research explores the literature for a near exhaustive list of practices in quality management by deploying qualitative and descriptive approach. Thereafter, twenty service organizations were surveyed for comprehending their adoption of the type of quality management practices. On the basis of their prioritization or apportioning weight to those practices, a descriptive pattern analysis has been deployed to detect perceived level of adoption/implementation of quality management practices. The findings represent that out of twenty one quality management practices; thirteen practices substantially have been ranked on priority while others require phenomenal acclimatization towards implementation in the Indian scenario. Analysis also reflects that the strength of service SMEs lies with customer focus, management leadership and customer feedback. Further with the integration of contextual factors, as supported by theory, a conceptual framework has been proposed exhibiting relationship between quality management practices with performance and growth. The methodological approach led to the emergence of unique dimensions culminating into new findings with both managerial and entrepreneurial implications. Directions for future scope of research and suggestions for improvement have also been recommended.

Critical linkages between quality management practices and performance from Indian IT enabled service SMEs

The purpose of this paper is to critically investigate the relationship among quality management (QM) practices with their direct and indirect effects on performance outcome by means of conceptual extension and generalisation. The paper uses factor analysis and structural equation modelling which has been tested using cross-sectional data collected from IT enabled small and medium service firms in India. The analysis shows the interdependency of QM practices and the importance of a systematic approach for managing QM practices. The findings from this study indicate that the nature of the interrelationships between these core QM practices is unique to the Indian context. The unique contribution of this study has been in terms of its model-building approach towards designing a linkage model showing interdependencies among critical QM practices with its direct and indirect effects on performance outcome. Such a holistic framework with plausible interaction effects has not been studied earlier in the Indian context with sector-specific relevance to IT enabled service SMEs. Further the paper recommends suggestions for improvement along with managerial implications and future scope of study.

Conceptual Modelling of Assistance System Based on Analytical Determination of Factors Related to Safety in Automotive Driving in Indian Context

This research attempts to identify the significant factors, analytically, in connection with safety in automotive driving and to develop a conceptual model of the electronic controller for the vehicle using such knowledge. Every year millions of people, around the world, meet casualties due to road accidents and the average lives lost per year in India alone is to the tune of hundred and fifty thousand strong. Such accidents are attributed to driver’s fault, road condition, traffic environmental factors and faults in vehicle mechanism. Researchers have focused primarily on these factors since the other factor ‘weather’ is beyond human control. The above three factors or causes have been studied, in Indian context, in this work and a concept model of driver assistance system, involving speed control module, is proposed.

A Framework to Identify Service Quality Determinants of IT Enabled Scalable Ventures: A Study from Indian Context

The introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) has altered the service delivery around the world by making it more accessible and cost effective across e-service markets. In a country like India the problem of health is an enormous one where a majority of poor are outside the effective medical network. In order to address these problems many information and technology (IT) oriented new ventures have been established to eliminate the gap in health inequity by creating network of hospitals exclusively in non-urban areas. Despite of huge popularity of these services, identifying the quality of such services need careful attention. Exhaustive review of literature highlights that there exists little understanding for such a study in IT enabled Indian healthcare domain in context to new ventures/start-ups with an emergence of a gap. With the increasing rise of technology enabled new healthcare ventures there have been high rates of failure too due to lack of providing quality service, so it has become imperative to prioritize the contextual and sectoral specific settings of service quality issues as it is being felt increasingly that it is the quality that would ultimately decide the value of services. This paper thus attempts to prioritize the context specific service quality dimensions in IT enabled scalable healthcare ventures from Indian context with focus in non-urban regions by deploying technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methodology as multi-criteria decision making technique. Further this paper proposed a conceptual model as conjectural understanding of the antecedents to the start-ups and as a guide that can provides new entrepreneurial insights to the service managers who can better apportion their resource in order to build quality and scalability.

A heuristic synthesis of multistage planetary gearbox layout for automotive transmission

The automatic transmission system is very crucial for the high-speed vehicles, where the planetary or epicyclic gearbox is a standard feature. With the increase in design intricacies of planetary gearbox, mathematical modelling has become complex in nature and therefore there is a need for modelling of multistage planetary gearbox including the shifting scheme. A random search-based synthesis of three degrees of freedom (DOF) high-speed planetary gearbox has been presented in this paper, which derives an efficient gear shifting mechanism through designing the transmission schematic of eight speed gearboxes compounded with four planetary gear sets. Furthermore, with the help of lever analogy, the transmission power flow and relative power efficiency have been determined to analyse the gearbox design. A simulation-based testing and validation have been performed which show the proposed model is efficient and produces satisfactory shift quality through better torque characteristics while shifting the gears. A new heuristic method to determine suitable compounding arrangement, based on mechanism enumeration, for designing a gearbox layout is proposed here. An important finding on automotive gear shift quality due to closer gear ratio is also reported in this work.

Neoteric quality improvement approach in resource constrained Indian service SMEs: a concept note

The present study endeavours to observe and reconnoitre the improvement practices rooted amidst quality environs in Indian service SMEs milieu. A mixed method strategy combining qualitative and quantitative statistical techniques, analyses to expound on a conceptual model in the context of improvement implementation under major resource constrained situation, have been explicated in the recommended proposition. A neoteric improvement practice has been proposed in this work, built upon exploratory learning and analysis using OLS regression method. The pattern depicts three improvement zones viz., spasmodic, isochronous and continuous. This study recommends Indian service SMEs to adopt isochronous improvement which is not a continuous incremental procedure but is sufficiently effective with relatively lesser difficulty and with somewhat less rigor.

Integrating fuzzy MCDM methodology to investigate quality management practices in Indian digital service SMEs

Managing quality has become an imperative for digital enterprises in service sector to gain competitive advantage and to achieve long-term business success. Considering the pressing need; issues are investigated here. This paper develops a concurrent framework to explore and prioritise quality management factors in context to Indian digital service SMEs by combining AHP-TOPSIS under fuzzy environment. The multistage methodology, propounded in this article delves into unexplored indicators of contextual quality management practices leading to new contribution towards the findings in a much refined manner. Furthermore, the model has been validated using NGT in order to reinforce the findings.

An approach to prioritize quality dimensions of IT enabled small service firms: A study of Indian SMEs

In todays globally competitive market it is important to adopt quality management principles not only for making profits but also for survival. In India small and midsized enterprises dictate market in terms of sheer number of organizations characterized by dynamics of entrepreneurial fortitude while suffered failure due to poor service quality. With rise of e-business introduced by ICT, service delivery of enterprises grew. However it is seen in practice that many IT projects have suffered missed deadlines, budget overruns, and unsatisfactory quality or unmet performances whereby organizations often go through frustrations and may have serious impact on their operations. In response to the context it is vital for small firms to adopt effective quality orientation approach. Taking scenario into consideration there is a need for deeper investigation to identify context specific dimensions of quality attributes pertaining to IT enabled Indian small service firms. This paper thus attempts to identify and prioritize quality management dimensions based on comprehensive compilation and subsequent analysis of literature followed by data collection and in-depth interview. Further, TOPSIS as multi criteria decision making technique has been deployed to prioritize the same. Paper provide rich conjectural understanding of antecedents to service ventures and start-up survivals which can provide entrepreneurial insights to service managers as well as entrepreneurs who can better apportion their scarce resources to build quality and scalability in an efficient and effective manner.