Sime Curkovic

Toward a Measure of Competitive Priorities for Purchasing

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of measures of purchasing’s competitive priorities. We maintain that purchasing is a strategic contributor to the firm, and that the selection and retention of external suppliers is a fundamental and strategic purchasing task that manifests the function’s competitive priorities. Researchers and managers increasingly view the operations and purchasing functions as intimately linked, and as playing important roles in supply chain management. Ultimately, the performance of the operations management system, measured in terms of quality, cost, delivery and flexibility, depends on inputs secured by the purchasing function from the firm’s suppliers. However, in a search for substantive relationships, the purchasing literature has largely overlooked methodological issues such as measurement. Using empirical data collected from North American purchasing executives, a confirmatory factor analysis provides evidence that purchasing’s competitive priorities may be conceptualized similarly to the competitive priorities in operations, with key differences. The measures satisfy key measurement criteria including unidimensionality, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. Five competitive priorities form the basis of a multidimensional measure of purchasing’s competitive priorities, the individual factors of which will allow for the examination of linkages between purchasing, operations and other parts of the supply chain.

Quality‐related Action Programs: Their Impact on Quality Performance and Firm Performance

From analyses of the direct effects of 10 quality action programs on six firm performance outcomes, as well as their indirect effects through eight quality performance dimensions, two routes from action programs through quality performance to firm performance in the automotive supply industry are identified. The first is the product quality route, whose landmarks are superior quality performance on Conformance and Design Quality dimensions; the second is the relationship quality route, with superior Customer Responsiveness and Service. Both the product quality and the relationship quality routes lead to superior ROI; the former also leads to enhanced ROA, and the latter to enhanced market share performance. Associated key action programs are Committed Leadership, Cross-Functional Quality Teams, Employee Empowerment, Supplier Development, and Closer Customer Relationships. The first three are internally focused, while the latter two are boundary-spanning supply chain programs.

Validating the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Framework through structural equation modelling

Since its introduction in 1987, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) has come to have a major influence in the assessment of quality efforts and systems. Many public and private institutions, for example, use the measures derived from this award programme to carry out self-assessments. Many programmes at the local, state and international levels are based on the MBNQA. Implicit in this evidence is the assumption that the MBNQA adequately captures the major dimensions of Total Quality Management. This study empirically assesses this assumption. Specifically, it assesses the extent of fit between the factors of the MBNQA and their measures. It also evaluates the extent to which these factors really do capture this important higher-level construct known as TQM. The results reported in this study are based on a field survey consisting of responses gathered from 526 plant managers within the US automotive industry. The assessment is carried out using confirmatory factory analysis and structural equation models.

The new product design process and design for environment: “Crossing the chasm”

This paper examines the role played by environmental issues during the new product design process. These issues are studied through an exploratory research project based on case studies of ten companies. The firms studied can be categorized into one of five major groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. These groups strongly parallel the model of new product acceptance initially developed in the computer industry, as presented by Moore (1991). Of interest is the gap that exists between the early adopters and early majority users. This gap forms a chasm. Those factors that account for acceptance of environmentally responsible manufacturing in the innovators and early adopters are significantly different from those factors observed in the early majority, late majority, and laggards. This paper examines these and other differences, and the impact of these differences on the acceptance and use of environmental concerns within the new product design process.

Investigating the linkage between total quality management and environmentally responsible manufacturing

This paper explicitly examines the relationship that exists between total quality management (TQM) and environmentally responsible manufacturing (ERM) systems. It has been presumed in numerous past studies that such a relationship does exist. It has been argued that those firms that have successfully implemented a TQM system are better positioned to successfully implement an ERM system. This relationship, however, has not yet been statistically and empirically evaluated. In this study, the authors evaluate this relationship using a large-scale survey of plant managers as the data source and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling as the statistical tools. The study develops a series of measures for various aspects of both TQM and ERM. The results show that there is indeed a strong relationship between TQM and ERM. In many ways, ERM is conditioned by the presence of TQM. Furthermore, ERM systems have a parallel structure when compared to TQM systems.

A Critical Examination of the Ability of ISO 9000 Certification to Lead to a Competitive Advantage

Abstract The ISO 9000 series of standards has formalized systems for evaluating the ability of any firm to consistently design, produce, and deliver quality products and services. Despite its widespread international acceptance, ISO 9000 is surrounded by controversy and criticism. The literature is clearly divided in its assessment of ISO 9000, which is viewed as either a variant of Total Quality Management (TQM) or a paper-driven process of limited value. The primary objective of this article is to address the competing views of the standard in an attempt to show that ISO 9000 certification can be leveraged into a competitive advantage.

Environmentally Responsible Manufacturing: The development and validation of a measurement model

Abstract The concept of Environmentally Responsible Manufacturing (ERM) is relatively new and it is not surprising to note the lack of theory-based, empirically validated constructs and measures. Such constructs and measures are critical to the development and growth of rigorous research in this area. This paper develops and assesses such constructs and measures. Drawn from an exhaustive review of both the quality and ERM-related fields, this study uses the constructs and measures drawn from the Total Quality Management area to develop ERM-related constructs and measures. These are then evaluated using data from a survey of 526 plant managers in the US automotive industry. The resulting models, constructs, and measures are then studied using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results show the presence of an ERM framework and the presence of the underlying latent and manifest variables. The findings provide an important foundation to others interested in doing future research in this area.

An empirical analysis of the competitive dimensions of quality performance in the automotive supply industry

This paper examines the competitive dimensions of quality for first tier suppliers in the automotive industry. A theoretically relevant set of quality variables is identified from the literature. The results of a factor analysis show that quality is a two dimensional construct in the automotive supply industry. The core dimensions of quality are: product quality, which is primarily focused on design superiority and performance of the physical product; and service quality, which comprises both pre‐ and post‐sale service. The study reveals that both product quality and service quality are related to overall firm performance, regardless of whether asset based, investment based, or market based measures are used.

Quality and Business Performance: An Empirical Study of First-Tier Automotive Suppliers

A study of first-tier suppliers to the Big 3 North American automobile manufacturers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) examines the relationships between competitive dimensions of quality (for example, design quality and conformance quality) and over..

An Environmental Baldrige

This study develops an integrated theory about how Total Quality Management (TQM) based capabilities can be leveraged for Environmentally Responsible Manufacturing (ERM). It suggests that efforts should be coordinated to take advantage of the potential synergies between TQM and ERM. The means for capturing these synergies might be accomplished by using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework. The MBNQA framework was adapted to address environmental issues and it was shown that the framework can be used as a basis for an integrative definition of ERM. This adaptation of the MBNQA framework suggests that there is an environmental version of the MBNQA framework and that quality principles can be seamlessly integrated into the practice of managing environmental issues. However, an empirical examination of the linkage between TQM and ERM remains untested. The findings of this study provide an important foundation for accomplishing this goal.