Product Quality- Scope for Further Research

What Does “Product Quality” Really Mean?
Magazine: Fall 1984 October 15, 1984  Reading Time: 40 min
David A. Garvin
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-does-product-quality-really-mean/


Directions for Future Research

There is a clear need for more precise measures of product quality. Few studies have recognized the multiple dimensions of quality, and still fewer, the possibility that quality may have different meanings in different industries. Much of the empirical research on the correlates of quality needs to be replicated with these distinctions in mind. Similarly, analysts need to determine if the various dimensions of quality move together or separately, for otherwise, managers will be unable to position their companies to exploit particular quality niches.

These questions suggest two possible avenues of research. The first would focus on the determinants of consumer satisfaction, consumer perceptions of quality, and the relative importance of the various dimensions of quality in shaping buyer behavior. Andreasen, for example, has found that indexes of consumer satisfaction based on voiced complaints, objective measures of product nonperformance, satisfaction immediately after purchase, and satisfaction after initial problems have been resolved are not well correlated.72 Each apparently measures a slightly different aspect of consumer satisfaction. Similar research is necessary to understand the precise connection between consumer satisfaction and the various dimensions of quality discussed in this article. As Takeuchi and Quelch point out, for many consumers “quality is more than [simply] making a good product.”73

A second possible line of research would focus on manufacturing tradeoffs. Traditionally, analysts have argued that manufacturing operations could only be effective if they pursued a limited set of objectives.74 Low cost, high quality, rapid delivery, flexibility to volume changes, and flexibility to new product introductions were thought to be mutually incompatible. Tradeoffs were unavoidable, and anyone goal could only be achieved at the expense of others.

Japanese manufacturers, however, have succeeded in producing products that meet the twin objectives of high quality (conformance and reliability) and low cost. Their ability to do so has forced analysts to reconsider the concept of manufacturing tradeoffs, for many traditional assumptions no longer apply.75 This area clearly warrants further research. Tradeoffs among the various dimensions of quality and between these dimensions and the objectives of cost, flexibility, and delivery must be better understood. Do the different dimensions of quality require different forms of expertise, or are firms likely to succeed on several dimensions at once? Durability, for example, often requires the use of sturdy and oversized components; does it also guarantee superior reliability, or is that more a reflection of how the assembly process is managed? More generally, which of the dimensions of quality are primarily a reflection of manufacturing skills, and which reflect design and engineering expertise? These questions must be answered if companies are to devise and execute effective strategies for competing on the basis of product or service quality.


72.  A. R. Andreasen, “A Taxonomy of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction Measures,” Journal of Consumer Affairs, Winter 1977, pp. 11–24.

73.  H. Takeuchi and J. A. Quelch, “Quality Is More Than Making a Good Product,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 1983, pp. 139–145.

74. W. Skinner, “Manufacturing — Missing Link in Corporate Strategy,” Harvard Business Review, May–June 1969, pp. 136–145; W. Skinner, “The Focused Factory,” Harvard Business Review, May–June 1974, pp. 113–121; S. C. Wheelwright, “Reflecting Corporate Strategy in Manufacturing Decisions,” Business Horizons, February 1978, pp. 57–66.

75.  Wheelwright (July–August 1981).





See the future scope section in
Total Quality Management and Just-in-Time Purchasing: Their Effects on Performance of Firms Operating in the U.S. (Google eBook)


Hale Kaynak
Routledge, Jun 17, 2013 - 342 pages


This study investigates the relation of total quality management (TQM) and just-in-time purchasing (JITP) with respect to firms' performance, based on theories from operations management, organization theory, strategic management and marketing. U.S. companies have implemented TQM and JITP techniques to improve their global competitive position. The lack of empirical research on how these techniques effect firms performance makes it necessary to explain their strategic values as management innovations.

In this study, a cross-sectional mail survey was used with the target population of firms in the continental United States that have implemented either technique, or both. The results indicate that the extent of TQM and JITP implementation positively correlates with a firm's performance. Furthermore, the relation between JITP and financial and market performance is more significant in those industries that face high as opposed to low foreign competition.

In this study, the validity of findings was assessed in four parts: statistical conclusion, internal, construct, and external validity. Each validity type is defined and its threats are discussed. Based on the findings, a revised research model is offered. The author also notes likely avenues of future research for theorists and practitioners.

Preview the book
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=zVOKfGrR-oYC

Determinants of Electoral Success

METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF NEW PARTIES' ENTRY AND ELECTORAL SUCCESS
Peter Selb and Sandrine Pituctin
Party Politics, 2010
https://kops.ub.uni-konstanz.de/xmlui/bitstream/handle/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-144777/selbparty.pdf?sequence=3

Forecasting Congressional Elections
 Carl E. Klarner
Department of Political Science, Indiana State University, 2009 paper


The first time a collection of scholarly forecasts were published in academic journals before the election was held was in the October 1996 issue of American Politics Quarterly  (Campbell and Garand 2000), although other academics had published their point-predictions before elections (Fair 1978).

Abramowitz (2006) published his congressional forecasts for the 2006 election, only two published statistical models forecasting the 2008 congressional elections were publicized. One of these was published by Lockerbie (2008) and the other by Klarner (2008).

 Lockerbie predicted that the Democrats would pick up 25 seats in the House, while they actually picked up 20 or 21. The dependent variable in his model was the number of seats picked up by the Democrats. His predictor variables were survey respondents’ prospective evaluations of the economy as well as a variable measuring how long the party of the President has been in the White House. A final predictor variable measured the number of open seats, adjusted for which party is at advantage during the election year. This adjustment is done by multiplying the figure by “-1” if survey respondents judge it to be a good year for the
Republicans, and “1” for a Democratic year. The variable takes a value of “0” if the public forecasts no clear favorite. Lockerbie theorized that open seats present the biggest opportunities for an advantaged party to pick up seats since incumbents so often win.

The theoretical motivation of the Klarner (2008) House  model is based on variables that have been identified by scholars in the field, such as incumbency, the previous office holding experience of non-incumbents (Jacobson 2004), the partisan disposition of the district (Highton 2000), and incumbent ideological moderation (Erikson and Wright 2005). The national level factors used (midterm penalty, presidential approval, change in real per capita income, vote intention) are close to those used by Abramowitz (2006), although he uses no measure of the health of the economy.


Pollyvote.com publicized fifteen forecasts for the 2006 House elections, seven of them purely quantitative in nature. . . Authors of six of these models fully explained the methods by which they generated their forecasts.

Most tellingly, when the proportion of seats that are competitive in an election (i.e., won by five
percent or less) is regressed on the proportion of seats that are open, only nine percent of variance is explained (analysis not shown).

In an election year that favors one party, that party campaigns heavily in opponents’ districts that are closest to swinging toward the favored party.
http://www.apsanet.org/~lss/Newsletter/jan2009/Klarner.pdf


Successful re-election strategies in Brazil: the 48 electoral impact of distinct institutional 49 incentives
Electoral Studies (2001) –



PARTY ORGANIZATION, IDEOLOGICAL CHANGE, AND ELECTORAL SUCCESS
A Comparative Study of Postauthoritarian Parties
Grigorii V. Golosov, Working Paper #258 - September 1998
http://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/258.pdf

Using Transcendental Phenomenology to Explore the “Ripple Effect” in a Leadership Mentoring Program - Information

Using Transcendental Phenomenology to Explore the “Ripple Effect” in a Leadership Mentoring Program
Tammy Moerer-Urdahl
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
John W. Creswell
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
International Journal of Qualitative Methods 2004, 3(2)
2004 paper

Online version available at  http://wigan-ojs.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/IJQM/article/viewFile/4470/3594


Transcendental phenomenology, based on principles identified by Husserl (1931) and
translated into a qualitative method by Moustakas (1994), holds promise as a viable procedure for
phenomenological research. However, to best understand the approach to transcendental
phenomenology, the procedures need to be illustrated by a qualitative study that employs this
approach.

 This article first discusses the procedures for organizing and analyzing data according
to Moustakas (1994). Then it illustrates each step in the data analysis procedure of transcendental
phenomenology using a study of reinvestment or the “ripple effect” for nine individuals who have
participated in a youth leadership mentoring program from the 1970s to the present.
Transcendental phenomenology works well for this study as this methodology provides logical,
systematic, and coherent design elements that lead to an essential description of the experience

The political marketing planning process: improving image and message in strategic target areas - Information

The political marketing planning process: improving image and message in strategic target areas
Paul R. Baines Middlesex University Business School, London, UK
Phil Harris Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK Barbara R. Lewis Manchester School of Management, Manchester, UK
Marketing Intelligence & Planning 20/1 [2002] 6-14

Online version available at authors web page  http://phil-harris.com/wp-content/uploads/p6.pdf


References
Baines, P.R., Harris, P. and Newman, B.I. (1999a),
``New Realpolitik: political campaigning and
the application of political marketing across cultures’’, Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy Conference, May 1999, Humboldt University, Berlin.

Baines, P.R., Lewis, B.R and Ingham, B. (1999b), ``Exploring the positioning process in
political campaigning’’, Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 3 No. 3.
Baines, P.R., Lewis, B.R. and Yorke, D.A. (1999c),
``Marketing planning for UK political parties: co-ordinated local campaigning’’, Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference, July
1999, University of Stirling, Stirling
Butler, P. and Collins, N. (1994), ``Political marketing: structure and process’’, European
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 19-34.
Butler, P. and Collins, N. (1996), ``Strategic analysis in political markets’’, European
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 10/11, pp. 32-44. Curtice, J. and Steed, M. (1980), ``An analysis of voting’’, in Butler, D. and Kavanagh, D. (Eds), The British General Election of 1979, Macmillan Press, London, p. 409.
Dunnion, B. (1998), ``Building successful political brands: lessons from the Mary Robinson Campaign’’, paper presented at the Political Marketing Conference, September 1998, University College, Cork. Egan, J. (1999), ``Political marketing: lessons from
the mainstream’’, Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference, University of Stirling, Stirling, June.

Farrell, D.M. (1996), ``Campaign strategies and tactics’’, in LeDuc, L., Niemi, R.E. and Norris, P. (Eds), Comparing Democracies: Elections and Voting in Global Perspective, Sage Publications, London.

Lock, A. and Harris, P. (1996), ``Political marketing ± vive la difference!’’, European
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 10/11, pp. 21-31. Maarek, P.J. (1995), Political Marketing and Communication, John Libbey and Company, London. Mandelson, P. (1988), ``Marketing Labour: personal reflections and experience’’, Contemporary Record, Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 11-13.
Newman, B.I. (1994), The Marketing of the President: Political Marketing as Campaign Strategy, Sage Publications, London. Niffenegger, P.B. (1989), ``Strategies for success
from the political marketers’’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 45-51.
O’Cass, A. (1996), ``Political marketing and the marketing concept’’, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 10/11, pp. 45-61
O’Cass, A. (1997), ``Political marketing in times of discontinuous change’’, Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester.
Plasser, F., Scheucher, C. and Senft, C. (1998), ``Is
there a European style of political marketing: a survey of political managers and
consultants’’, paper presented to the Political Marketing conference, September 1999, University College, Cork.
Shama, A. (1975), ``The marketing of political candidates’’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 767-77.
Shea, D.M. (1996), Campaign Craft: The Strategies, Tactics and Art of Political Campaign Management, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT. Smith, G. and Saunders, J. (1990), ``The application of marketing to British politics’’, Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 5 No. 3, Spring, pp. 295-306.
Wring, D. (1997), ``Reconciling marketing with
political science: theories of political marketing’’, Proceedings from the Academy of Marketing Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester. Yorke, D.A. and Meehan, S.A. (1986), ``ACORN in
the political marketplace’’, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 8, pp. 63-76.

Political marketing – vive la différence! - Information

Political marketing – vive la différence!
Andrew Lock and Phil Harris
Faculty of Management and Business,
The Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
European Journal of Marketing,
Vol. 30 No. 10/11, 1996, pp. 14-24.

Posted by Phil Harris on http://www.phil-harris.com/wp-content/uploads/Vive-le-Difference-1996.pdf

The explicit use of techniques in politics which we would now describe as
marketing dates back at least to 1920 in Britain (Wring, 1994). Since the Saatchi
and Saatchi poster – “Labour isn’t working” – it has become commonplace to
speak of political marketing, and many marketers have come to believe that
there is a direct transference of their concepts and tools to the political arena.

In this paper, we consider the differences between political and mainstream
marketing and suggest some areas in which we believe that marketers may
learn from the political science literature. At this stage we confine our analysis
and most of our examples to mainland British politics.

References

Butler, P. and Collins, N. (1994), “Political marketing: structure and process”, European Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 19-34.
Farrell, D.M. and Wortmann, M. (1987), “Party strategies in the electoral market: political
marketing in West Germany, Britain and Ireland”, European Journal of Political Research, Vol.
15, pp. 297-318.
Harrop, M. (1990), “Political marketing”, Parliamentary Affairs,Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 277-92.
Kaid, L.L. and Holtz-Bacha, C. (1995), Political Advertising in Western Democracies: Parties and
Candidates on Television, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Kavanagh, D. (1995), Election Campaigning: The New Marketing of Politics, Blackwell, Oxford.
Newman, B.I. (1994), The Marketing of the President: Political Marketing as Campaign Strategy,
Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Nossiter, T.J., Scammell, M. and Semetko, H.A. (1995), “Old values versus news values: the British
general election campaign on television”, in Crewe, I. and Gottschalk, B., Political
Communications – the General Election Campaign of 1995, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
O’Shaughnessy, N. (1990), The Phenomenon of Political Marketing, Macmillan, Basingstoke
Rothschild, M. (1978), “ Political advertising: a neglected policy issue in marketing”, Journal of
Marketing Research, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 58-71
Wring, D. (1994), “Marketing in British election campaigns: an overview”, working paper
presented at the British Academy of Management Conference, University of Lancaster,
September 1994.

Managing Marketing Teams - Information

Managing Marketing Teams
Jay Edwards, Murdoch University, USA
Andrew Honeycutt, Shorter University, USA
Craig Cleveland, Saint Leo University, USA
ABSTRACT
With the emergence of global information and technology, firms have reformulated marketing and
technological teaming in a concert effort to accommodate transnational marketing relationships
that enable firms to compete in a global business society. Given the competitiveness of
organizational distinction and implication, firms have proactively created an internal synergy that
enable marketing teams to better excel in an environment of obscurity and uncertainly. Marketing
management has evolved into phenomena that require constant reassessment of vision, mission,
and strategy in an unrelenting effort to maintain organizational survival and competitiveness in a
global recessive business economy. Information technology has greatly inspired this renewed
sense of competition; moreover, organizations that embrace the challenge of integrating
technology within marketing teams will only become the change agents the business world
community will aspire to duplicate for great strategic advantage.
Journal of Business & Economics Research – January, 2011 Volume 9, Number 1
http://cluteonline.com/journals/index.php/JBER/article/viewFile/943/927


References
El-Ansary, A. I., Zabriskie, N. B., & Browning, J. M. (1993). Sales teamwork: A dominant strategy for
improving sales force effectiveness. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 8(3), 65-72.
Provitera, M. J. (1995). Sales management and sales teamwork. American Marketing Association Summer
Proceedings, 176-184.
Varney, G. H. (1989). Building productive teams. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Zenger, J. H., Musselwhite, E, Hurson, K. & Perrin, C. (1994). Leading teams: Mastering the new role.
Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin.

Servant Leadership Trends Impact on 21st Century Business - Information

Servant Leadership Trends Impact on 21st Century Business
Dr. Oris Guillaume
Shorter University, Rome, GA
Dr. Andrew Honeycutt
Shorter University, Rome, GA
Dr. Craig S. Cleveland
Saint Leo University, Duluth, GA
ABSTRACT
Servant Leadership (SL) has been in the forefront of business theory for the past decade and yet has
been slightly utilized to describe and analyze specific areas of the concerns of business today. This
study will attempt to apply the theories of Servant Leadership to the concerns of outsourcing, internetrelated business and the trends associated with the Baby Boomer generation.

http://thejournalofbusiness.org/index.php/site/article/viewFile/94/93

References

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: A Journey into the nature of legitimate power and
greatness. Mahwah, NJ. Paulist press
Greenleaf, R. K. (1978, November). The leadership crisis: A message for college and university faculty.
Humanitas: Journal of the Institute of Man, 14, 3. Pittsburg, PA: Dusquesne University Press.
Pfeffer, J., &Veigs, J.F. (1999).Putting people first for organizational success. Academy of
Management Executive, 13, 2, 37-48.
Spears, L., (2004). Practicing Servant-Leadership, Leader-to-Leader, 34, Fall 2004. 825. Retrieved from,
from ProQuest database.
Pfeffer, J., &Veigs, J.F. (1999).Putting people first for organizational success. Academy of
Management Executive, 13, 2, 37-48.
Spears, L. C. (1998).Introduction. In L. C. Spears (Ed.), The power of servant leadership. New York:
John Willey and Sons Inc