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The aim of this study is to compare the relative efficiency of quality management practices among American, Japanese, and Taiwanese firms located in Taiwan. Data envelope analysis (DEA) technique is used to measure the relative efficiency of these firms. Quality management practices and organizational performances are treated as input and output factors respectively. The firms are grouped in four based on their efficiency levels. These groups are referred to as robustly efficient, marginal efficient, marginal inefficient, and distinctly inefficient units in DEA. The results of the analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the levels of efficiency among the three typologies of firms – American‐, Japanese‐, and Taiwanese‐owned firms. The study found that the efficiency of quality management practices for Japanese‐owned firms is the highest, even though almost all of their employees are Taiwanese; also, American‐owned firms’ efficiency is higher than that of Taiwanese‐owned firms. It was also observed that the ethnocentric quality management practices of foreign firms in Taiwan might have contributed to the inefficiency of Taiwanese firms. The study shows that Taiwanese and US firms can benchmark the efficient practices of Japanese firms in order to be the best‐in‐class.

Develops a strategic planning framework for long‐range marketing policy making. Uses this framework to explore the relationship between marketing orientation and total quality management and extends Kotler′s model of three types of marketing strategic orientation on the perspective of total quality management. Uses two group consensus management techniques (quality function deployment and analytic hierarchy process) and competitive benchmarking to demonstrate how a particular company can make a decision on which strategic marketing orientation to adopt. Furthermore, shows how a company can evaluate itself relative to its competitors on the basis of strategic marketing orientation.

A two‐stage framework is developed on supply chain quality and technology management. This is based on a survey of the perceptions of practicing managers from Hong Kong’s business corporations. The two‐stage process involves empirical assessment of strategic supply chain quality and technology variables, and then using quality function deployment to deploy them to improve the competitiveness of the supply chain. This will help to achieve synergy among suppliers by focusing on the critical strategic variables to achieve sustainable competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for disaster relief supply chain quality management (DRSCQM).

This paper introduces a structured approach to making decisions in the following areas: system foundation, system constraints, initial sudden natural disaster encounter point(s), the intensity of disaster, the efficacy of the disaster relief supply chain systems, and post-disaster relief management.

The context-intervention-mechanism-outcome logic provides guidelines for facilitating Lean Six Sigma to eliminate wastes and improve the overall performance of the DRSCQM.

The theoretical frameworks will enhance the current knowledge base in DRSCQM literature and will also be helpful to manage disaster relief operations and supply chains. However, there is a need to conduct empirical studies based on the proposed frameworks in the future.

A transformation process based on Dr Deming's plan-do-check-act cycle has also been proposed to show how a relief organization can assess its current maturity level, react to it, develop more sustainable disaster relief practices, and move the entire system in the right direction.

The systemic and holistic procedure developed in this paper views the environment of disaster relief as dynamic, complex, chaotic, and ever-changing and takes into account the fact that relief organizations’ actions often involve a team of diverse specialists working on a project basis.

The framework presented here helps to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of disaster relief supply chain management. This is timely and important now as there continues to be an increase in climate-related natural disasters.

Today’s business environment is considerably complex and, as a result, more factors influence the organization’s ability to compete effectively. Organizations today compete on several factors such as time, price, technology, innovation, quality, reliability, and information management. In all these, equipment maintenance and reliability are important strategies that can considerably influence the organization’s ability to compete effectively. This paper develops strategies that look into these important competitive factors. It shows that equipment maintenance and reliability management are importantly associated with an organization’s competitiveness and must be given adequate attention in the organization’s strategic planning.

The aim of this paper is to identify the features or dimensions that customers use to assess the quality of a virtual service or operation. It will focus on identifying those characteristics that are perceived by customers as a necessity in achieving customer satisfaction in a virtual operation.

Asserts that an environmental quality assessment programme is essential in ensuring sustainable development. Management needs a programme to enable it to provide value in its product and service delivery at high quality while also ensuring the safety and health of both the users of its services and the environment. Argues that, in order to achieve this goal, the value chain of the product must be studied from its inception to the end of the product’s life. Provides discussions and suggestions as to how this study could be undertaken and achieved.

This paper presents a customer‐centric six sigma quality management as an extension of the traditional six sigma way. It views product quality and process reliability as key to achieving six sigma and adopts a holistic view of quality. The aim is to offer practical guidelines to business leaders, practicing mangers and those interested in quality, the new directions in quality management. It views reliability management as an integral part of any six sigma strategy since the focus in reliability management is on process reliability and dependability. Thus, by bringing both product and process quality together, a customer‐centric six sigma can be achieved.