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Organizations worldwide use national quality awards for improving organizational excellence. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched its business excellence awards for the private and public sectors almost two decades ago. Within the past dozen years, UAE companies have made considerable progress in introducing and developing their quality management systems. The purpose of this paper is to report the advance of UAE organizations in business excellence initiatives and highlight the contributions of the award-winning organizations in adopting business excellence approach.

This research used a qualitative approach to study award-winning organizations. Initially, secondary data were gathered from the Office of Department of Economic Development which is responsible for the administration of the Dubai Quality Award (DQA). Data were entered and categorized according to the description of organizational practice, company name, industrial sector and DQA criteria. The data were then analyzed using NVivo 10.0 software.

The DQA fosters and guides the excellence journey of aspiring organizations not only to win a quality award, but to strengthen their quality initiative through an informative assessment report. The DQA model was perceived by all organizations as a useful approach to quality improvement. Winning organizations have exhibited unique programs developed to embrace the DQA factors. Recommendations for aspiring organizations are discussed.

This paper should help managers to plan their journey toward business excellence and to create greater awareness of excellence frameworks and their usefulness when embarking on the path of excellence. This paper adds to the knowledge of the UAE’s excellence awards scheme and to the knowledge of business excellence best practices deep rooted in multi-cultural organizational environments. It highlights future research avenues for excellence frameworks.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the use of business excellence in Asian organisations. The study examines the effectiveness of business excellence in the organisations that adopt it as well as the approaches used to deploy business excellence. Finally, the study investigates the attitudes of organisations with respect to business excellence awards.

A questionnaire survey of 74 organisations across five Asian countries was carried out in order to collect quantitative data. In addition, qualitative data was collected from 21 discussion groups held in all five countries and from 13 interviews held with senior executives of organisations that had won business excellence awards.

The organisations believe that business excellence is important in helping them reach their organisational goals. The results also show that participation in and winning business excellence awards is a key objective for many organisations in the region. However, the region still suffers from some barriers to long‐term commitment to business excellence including lack of development of a business excellence culture, a lack of resources and a failure to fully educate the majority of staff in business excellence.

The study was directed at organisations that were deploying business excellence. It therefore provides an insight into their activities but it does not explore levels of adoption of business excellence in the study countries and consequently, does not investigate reasons for non‐adoption in organisations that have not used business excellence.

National productivity organisations and national award administrators have a crucial role to play in ensuring that Asian organisations are aware of business excellence initiatives and that the necessary support structures and activities to facilitate deployment are made available.

While there are many studies on the adoption of business excellence in western countries, no such studies have been carried out in Asian countries to date. Even in the west, few studies have obtained the views of so many national award winners (30 in this study) and few have investigated the role of the award administrators. Given that the adoption of business excellence in Asia lags western countries, it is important to understand how it has been adopted in Asia and the perceptions of the organisations that have adopted it.

Through the analysis of different initiatives of all EU countries in relation to business excellence models, there is a need to map these initiatives and to compare the most “interesting” quality awards of European Union by means of their substantial differentiation from European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) model. The aim of this paper is to propose the necessity for a diverse business excellence system, which respects the cross‐cultural differentiations of EU countries.

This research is based on information gathered by means of structured questionnaires, telephone interviews with representative Quality Award organizations and other written material collected from literature.

The findings are summarized as follows. EU countries do not have a common framework to address business excellence, however the “European Quality Award” based on the “EFQM Excellence Model” is the most widespread in the previous decade. There is a tendency towards own developments on national quality awards in the current decade. There is a clear indication of Quality Awards “nature” across EU: there are the national ones which are supported by their governments in the sense of financial support to organizations and the private ones which are supported by associations, chambers, private organizations and non profit organizations. There is a tendency of all social and business partners (in the governmental and private sector) to participate in the organizations so as to administer and manage the awards and business excellence models. This participation varies according to the political system of the EU country.

This paper reviews only 31 major Total Quality Awards out of the 51 that are identified excluding entrepreneurship awards and regional ones that tend to represent their national quality awards. Future research could include a sector analysis, such as SMEs business excellence awards, or a thorough analysis of public sector awards.

The paper reviews all major NQAs in EU and indicates an inclination to move from EFQM model to a more dynamic system of business excellence, which respects the diverse cultures of EU nations. The models, which are called TQM models, business excellence models or national quality award ones are used throughout the paper with the same meaning.

This paper is based on both a structured survey and on literature review. It is the first time that is proposed to be published.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative analysis and usage overview of the most common business excellence models: the European Foundation for Quality Management Model, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Model, the Deming Prize Model and the Iberoamerican Model for Excellence in Management.

In order to achieve such goals, the authors have performed a set of statistical analysis over public data sets, related to each one of the analyzed models, as well as making a comparative analysis of the model contents.

The different business excellence models do share a similar set of principles and criteria. However, different adoption patterns have been found across regions of the globe, regarding the use of such business excellence models over the last decades.

As far as the authors were able to find out, based on the literature review carried out, this is the first time that a set of statistical data results, related to the worldwide implementation of business excellence models, is being presented for publication.

Although studies of national quality awards and their benefits in fostering organizational excellence are ample in many countries, such relevant studies are rare in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE launched its Business Excellence Awards for the private and public sectors almost two decades ago. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to shed light on benefits that UAE organizations have experienced through the Dubai Quality Award (DQA) and to understand the adoption of key DQA implementation factors. It also discusses implications and provides direction for future research. This study would be useful for managers considering whether to embark on the path of excellence through the DQA.

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceived benefits of participating in a quality award process. A total of 13 organizations that received the award between 2010 and 2013 are studied. This limit was set to include as many organizations as possible while not allowing too much time to have elapsed. Secondary data files were received from Department of Economic Development of Dubai. Data were registered in a MS Excel® spreadsheet by categorizing them according to the description of organizational practice, company name and industrial sector. These were then analyzed to extract the benefits and to capture lessons learned in the process. The data were also analyzed in the light of DQA criteria and key actions were recorded.

The study highlighted six major perceived benefits of quality awards in the UAE context and the results achieved by winning organizations on their journey of excellence. This study illustrates the enabler and results sides of the DQA in terms of perceived benefits. The analysis of winning organizations shows that a few sectors have been notably awarded. Although, winning organizations in the past four years fairly represent the trading, finance and retail sectors, the DQA is still not sufficiently utilized by all sector organizations. The represented sectors are mainly service-oriented and demonstrate that the key enabler, customer focus, has been given its due importance. As such, these organizations understand customer satisfaction, customer engagement and customer appreciation.

This is the first step toward an understanding of the current status of best practices of winning organizations on the road to business excellence through the DQA. This can be further developed by measuring business performances through other methods. This study provides an objective depiction of the current level of best practices and perceived benefits of the DQA. This study would be useful for managers considering whether to embark on the path of excellence through the DQA.

The purpose of this paper is to compare some major National Quality Award/Business Excellence Models (NQA/BEM) in terms of the criteria employed and their relative weights. It shows that these models vary both in terms of criteria and their weights. Whereas some of them are changing weights frequently, others are almost static. It employs the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to allocate scores to 12 criteria identified in the model by Agrawal et al. (1998) to propose a modified quality award model similar to that. The six quality award models used in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan and India are compared with the proposed model using AHP and their relative rankings are obtained.

First, a literature review is done to identify various quality award models globally, with their features being compared. Furthermore, paired comparison technique is used to rationalize the relative weights of proposed 12 criteria, and then AHP is again used to rank this proposed model with six major award models.

This paper shows that the six NQA models vary substantially on parameter weights. They do not include some relevant criteria to evaluate the organizational performance holistically. It also reveals how some models have been revising criteria weights very frequently, whereas others are static. In some models, the results get much higher weightage than enablers, and hence the performance may not be sustainable. The modified Agrawal et al. (1998) model is taken as a base model, with weights rationalized in it using the AHP. The rankings obtained using AHP reveal that proposed model scores over the other six prominent quality award models. The result also reveals that for organizational excellence, the quality of people plays a major role in the successful implementation of quality processes. Hence, it is very important to focus on improving the quality of people before expecting improvement in the quality of products and services.

The paired comparison results are based on the researchers’ own perception and do not consider interdependence among the criteria, which is a limitation of AHP. Analytic network process can be further explored to overcome the limitation. The proposed model has not been tested in a variety of real-world situations, which can constitute a scope for further work in the direction.

The proposed model framework and weightages evolved using AHP can provide a universally acceptable quality award model framework. The companies can adopt it with or without modifications to address their contextual adaptation. It can possibly become a standard model framework globally. This model does not capture the measurement of the softer aspects that impact the people quality. As people play an important role in the success of the implementation of any practice, hence measurement of people quality is another important aspect that can be further studied and researched.

This comparative study & analysis of National Quality Award/Business Excellence Models using AHP is presented for the first time. The authors have not come across any such studies in their literature review. This paper is an original conceptualization of the application of the AHP on the various Quality Award model parameters, and it has been submitted exclusively to JAMR for publishing.

Most organizations recognize that total quality management (TQM) is important but many do not know where to begin or how to sustain it in the long run. There are many examples of organizations that have successfully implemented quality management but there are also as many organizations that have failed in their implementations and perhaps many more that hesitate to embark on the quality journey. In fact, the growth and adoption of TQM in companies have to be facilitated increasingly by national governments. National governments are increasingly playing an active role in promoting and encouraging organizations to embrace TQM practices. Many countries have established national quality awards or business excellence awards to recognize deserving companies. Presents an excellence model for implementing and sustaining business excellence through a structured approach in implementing some of the best practices in TQM found in national quality award winners. Hopes that such a model would guide aspiring organizations in their quality journey. Develops the model using a case study approach on four past winners of the Singapore Quality Award.

The paper aims to present a review and comparison of the Russian Federation Government Quality Award (RFGQA) with the three major business excellence models, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Award and Deming Prize.

The paper briefly reviews the RFGQA through a desk-top research method. Then, it adapts the comparative approach used in a similar study by Vokurka et al. (2000). Thus, the comparative analysis consisted in contrasting two characteristics of the RFGQA with those of the MBNQA, EFQM Award and Deming Prize, namely, award descriptors (i.e. objectives and criteria) and emphasis placed on excellence criteria (i.e. weighting). The study also includes a mapping assessment to explore up to what extent the RFGQA addresses the criteria of the major models.

Although the RFGQA was designed based on the concept and structure of the EFQM model, the results of the study indicate that there are still differences among them, especially in terms of internal business processes. RFGQA finds more differences with the MBNQA and Deming Prize excellence models than with the EFQM.

This research would benefit organisations and managers in Russia, as they will be able to acquire a deeper knowledge on the RFGQA. This may facilitate its awareness and implementation.

The paper expands the current knowledge in the area of quality management and models for business excellence, as it is among the very first investigations to have studied the RFGQA model.

This paper seeks to present a comparative study of framework, criteria and criterion weighting of 20 Excellence Models/National Quality Awards (EM/NQA), to identify their common features, contradictions and to propose suggestions for development and review of EM/NQA. It also aims to provide some clues to attain sustenance of business results.

This study is based on a literature review using the internet and research databases (Emerald and EBSCO). Nine generic criteria are identified and their relative importance within each model is computed based on scores given to their respective contents in the criteria/sub‐criteria of each EM/NQA. The average relative importance of nine criteria, discussions with experts and the author's own experience helped to visualise the emerging scenario and suggest improvements.

EM/NQA frameworks have different shapes. Most EM/NQA start with the criterion “Leadership” and end with “Results”. Ancient wisdom emphasises that the ultimate goal of business is the wellbeing of society. Although the criteria of EM/NQA are similar, the criterion weighting changes due to external environment and cultural factors. The study classifies nine criteria into core criteria, i.e. the need for survival, internal environment criteria, i.e. differentiators, and goodwill criteria, i.e. ensuring sustainability. The focus on goodwill criteria needs to be enhanced to ensure sustainable business growth.

This study is an attempt to integrate the common learning/contradictions of EM/NQA and provide clues to achieving sustainability. Many EM/NQA custodian websites have limited information in the public domain. A periodic review of models made this study difficult. Future research may focus on studying the impact of criteria weighting in different countries/economic environments to enhance the effectiveness of excellence models.

The study may help the GEM council, custodians and managers to review EM/NQA and develop strategies for sustainable results.

This paper is based on a literature review, the author's own experience, and interaction with experts. It provides an analysis of 20 EM/NQAs, highlights the need for a universally acceptable model, and suggests emerging dimensions of excellence.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of how organisations successfully deploy business excellence (BE) by comparing the tools and strategies implemented by organisations at different levels of BE maturity.

The study used a combination of a questionnaire, discussion groups and interviews with respondents including private sector organisations across India, Japan, Republic of China, Singapore and Thailand. These countries were selected due to them being considered as having the most advanced BE organisations in Asia by the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) that commissioned the study. Once triangulated, the quantitative data were analysed through use of the IBM SPSS Statistical software package.

The study has shown that on average, organisations with higher BE maturity outperform their less mature counterparts. The study also revealed that organisations with a high BE maturity were more likely to use specific tools and were more likely to use some of these tools more effectively. Finally, the study identified differences in strategic approaches to BE between organisations with high and low BE maturity.

Only five Asian countries were considered due to resource limitations. However, the study of 74 organisations represents one of the most comprehensive to date with 30 of these organisations being award winners.

The findings offer guidance to those organisations wishing to progress from a low level of BE maturity to a more advanced level. The findings have already assisted the APO and its 20 member countries in the development and implementation of strategic interventions at a regional and national level.

No other study in Asia has been conducted on such a large sample of BE-orientated organisations. The study was also unique in its focus on the tools and strategies that should be used for successful BE deployment. In addition, the study is one of only a few in Asia that has studied the results of BE on organisational performance.