The role of socio‐cultural, political‐legal, economic, and educational dimensions in quality management

The impacts of supply chain finance initiatives on firm risk: evidence from service providers listed in the US

Purpose

This study empirically investigates how supply chain finance (SCF) initiatives together with different firm capabilities and resources (i.e. information technology (IT) capability, operational slack and political connections) affect the financial risk of service providers.

Design/methodology/approach

This study collects secondary longitudinal data to test for a direct impact of SCF initiatives on service providers' financial risk. It further investigates the moderating effects of the service provider's IT capability, operational slack and political connections. Additional tests and analytical strategies are performed to ensure the robustness of the results.

Findings

The findings indicate that SCF initiatives help service providers mitigate financial risk. The risk reduction is greater for service providers with higher IT capability, operational slack and political connections, but the last factor applies only to multinational corporations, not domestic companies.

Research limitations/implications

The data used in this research is limited to SCF service providers publicly listed in the United States, which may restrict the generalisability of the findings. Nonetheless, the research urges scholars to focus more on the financial risk implications of SCF in different market contexts.

Practical implications

This study encourages service providers to embrace the power of SCF initiatives for mitigating financial risk and allows them to evaluate their SCF investments in light of different firm capabilities and resources.

Originality/value

This is the first study investigating the impacts of SCF initiatives and various firm capabilities and resources on service providers' financial risk. The empirical findings provide important implications for future research and practices.

The moderating effect of structural barriers on TQM-performance relationship in Egyptian service organizations

Purpose

This paper aims to empirically investigate how structural barriers affect the relationship between total quality management (TQM) practices implementation and organizational performance in service industries.

Design/methodology/approach

This research hypothesized the moderation effect of structural barriers on the relationship between TQM practices implementation and organizational performance. A questionnaire was adopted to collect data form 153 Egyptian service companies. Moderated regression analysis was used to test the study hypothesis.

Findings

The empirical analysis suggests that structural barriers partially moderate the relationship between TQM practices implementation and organizational performance. The analysis reveals that the effect of Quality Improvement, Process Improvement, External and Internal Relations and Employee Development – being as TQM dimensions – on performance is moderated by structural barriers. While the results provided insufficient evidence on the moderating effect of structural barriers on the relationship between both Performance Management – being as a TQM dimension – and performance.

Research limitations/implications

This research presents a new perspective for researches to understand the TQM–Performance relationship in the light of the contingency theory. However, the adopted sampling technique and the small sample size might limit the generalizability of the research findings.

Practical implications

This study provides useful insights for service organizations about the necessity of developing suitable structural platform for supporting their TQM efforts to boost their performance which, in turn, improves their competitiveness.

Originality/value

This research proposed and empirically validated how structural barriers play a significant role as moderators to the relationship between TQM implementation and organizational performance within service organizations context.

The impact of TQM practices on organizational learning case study: automobile part manufacturing and suppliers of Iran

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the correlations between TQM and organizational learning in the context of automobile part manufacturing and suppliers of Iran.

Design/methodology/approach

A research project is carried out in 191 automobile part manufacturing and suppliers plants, using the questionnaire method. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is applied to assess the measurement instrument reliability and validity. The correlations between latent constructs are examined through Partial Least Squares (PLS) method.

Findings

Findings indicate that, both, the core and infrastructure aspects of QM practices have significant positive effect on organizational learning. At the lower levels, HRM and information and analysis contribute to enhancement of the organizational learning.

Research limitations/implications

It is recommended that a more complete construct be designed for measuring the organizational learning. Some contextual factors such as culture need to be noticed in future researches.

Practical implications

in this article some beneficial insights are addressed to assist managers in recognizing the organizational problems which weaken the organizational learning.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the TQM advance, organizational learning research literature and provides better foundations for organizational learning improvement through TQM practices in the Middle East. By investigating the correlations between infrastructure and core QM practices and organizational learning, this study fills the current gap in this field.

Convergence theory in quality management: evidence from the petroleum industry

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of top management support for quality and human resource management practices on quality results in the petroleum industry.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was used to collect data from managers in the petroleum industry. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypotheses.

Findings

Consistent with previous studies, the results provide support for the importance of top management commitment to quality in emphasizing other quality practices. The relationship between top management support and employee involvement was also significant.

Research limitations/implications

A larger sample is needed to validate the findings of this study. Future studies should address the impact of other quality management practices on quality outcomes.

Originality/value

The findings provide support for the convergence theory and contingency theory in quality management.

Micro‐enterprise quality

Purpose

In the developing world most citizens rely on self‐employment and micro‐enterprise operations as their only source of income. Given competition from large‐scale industrial outfits, most micro‐enterprises are finding it difficult to compete in terms of quality or price. This paper aims to investigate this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The research employs case study methodology to examine how quality management could be employed in keeping such enterprises competitive.

Findings

A number of general propositions are developed and potentially fruitful research areas identified.

Originality/value

The paper compares the literature with actual field observations to provide practical insights that may be of value to micro‐enterprise owners, and might indirectly help raise their standard of living.