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Trust entails the assumption of risk by the trustor to the extent that the trustee may act in a manner unaligned with the trustor's interests. Before a strategic alliance is formed, each firm formulates a subjective assessment regarding whether the other firm will behave in a trustworthy manner and not act opportunistically. To inform this partner analysis and selection process, the authors leverage the concept of value of information to quantify the benefit of information gathering activities on the trustworthiness of a potential trustee.

In this paper, the authors develop a decision model that explicitly operationalizes trust as the subjective probability that a trustee will act in a trustworthy manner. The authors integrate the concept of value of information related to information gathering activities, which would inform a trustor about a trustee's trustworthiness.

Trust inherently involves some degree of risk, and the authors find that there is practical value in carrying out information gathering activities to facilitate the partner analysis process. The authors present a list of trustworthiness indicators, along with a scoring sheet, to facilitate learning more about a potential strategic alliance partner.

The need for a quantitative model that can support risk-based strategic alliance decision-making for partner analysis represents a research gap in the literature. The modeling of strategic alliance partner analysis decisions from a value of information (VOI) perspective adds a contribution to the trust literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that contribute to the successful implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in manufacturing firms.

The qualitative research method was used to study six diverse manufacturing firms in Virginia. A semi-structure method of data collection was used for the analysis.

The ERP software has emerged as a key enabler of system integration in organizations to reduce redundancy, improve efficiency, productivity and performance. Firms implement ERP not only to improve operations efficiency but to be more responsive to the customer needs in the global economy. The findings provide insights on the factors that these large and global manufacturing firms consider to be important to the success of ERP implementation and utilization.

The study is limited to large manufacturing firms and does not consider service industries or small and medium enterprises.

A considerable amount of time and capital are required for the acquisition and implementation of ERP systems. The results are useful to managers of manufacturing companies who are interested in using, modifying or upgrading an integrative technology software system, such as ERP.

This empirical study provides an in-depth analysis of factors that motivate firms to consider ERP systems, factors that are important when acquiring the system, key factors to implementation and cultural adjustments following implementation. To the best of our knowledge, no single study has examined all of these issues in one report.

The aim of this paper is to analyse how critical incidents or organisational crises can be used to check and legitimise quality management change efforts in relation to the fundamental principles of quality.

Multiple case studies analyse critical incidents that demonstrate the importance of legitimisation, normative evaluation and conflict constructs in this process. A theoretical framework composed of these constructs is used to guide the analysis.

The cases show that the critical incidents leading to the legitimisation of continuous improvement (CI) were diverse. However all resulted in the need for significant ongoing cost reduction to achieve or retain competitiveness. In addition, attempts at legitimising CI were coupled with attempts at destabilising the existing normative practice. This destabilisation process, in some cases, advocated supplementing the existing approaches and in others replacing them. In all cases, significant conflict arose in these legitimising and normative evaluation processes.

It is suggested that further research could involve a critical analysis of existing quality models, tools and techniques in relation to how they incorporate, and are built upon, fundamental quality management principles. Furthermore, such studies could probe the dangers of quality curriculum becoming divorced from business and market reality and thus creating a parallel existence.

As demonstrated by the case studies, models, tools and techniques are not valued for their intrinsic value but rather for what they will contribute to addressing the business needs. Thus, in addition to being an opportunity for quality management, critical incidents present a challenge to the field. Quality management must be shown to make a contribution in these circumstances.

This paper is of value to both academics and practitioners.

The focus of this chapter is quantum dialectical storytelling and its contribution to generate anticipatory knowledge of the future through the intra-play between the ante-narrative and the anti-narrative. The theoretical framework on quantum dialectical storytelling is based upon Boje’s triad storytelling framework interfused with Hegelian dialectics and Baradian diffraction. Through the inspiration of Judith Butler’s performative theory, Riach, Rumens, and Tyler (2016) introduce the concept of the anti-narrative as a critical reflexive methodology. By drawing on Hegel’s work on the dialectical phenomenology of critical reflexive self-consciousness, a dialectical pre-reflexive and reflexive framework emerges as intra-weaving modes of being-in-the-world toward future.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the future of total quality management (TQM) by determining the scope and depth of the influencing or driving factors that will shape the body of knowledge, known as TQM, into the future. The rapid rate of change in global and niche markets has increased pressure on organisations to become more competitive. TQM is not immune from such changes. Rather, TQM theory and practice must continually adapt to be in the vanguard of such change and potential future changes. The research to determine the influencing/driving factors for the future of TQM involved a panoptic literature review and an inductive grounded theory approach using multiple case studies. Overall, the research indicates that both the mechanistic and organismic aspects of TQM will continue into the future, along with the continual representative development of initiatives to meet current and future organisational change. Furthermore, the TQM discourse will remain a challenging research area for both academics and practitioners.

Increasing competitive pressure from global markets and technological developments has resulted in the continual demand for business improvement philosophies and methodologies in operations management to address this challenge. The Six Sigma approach to business improvement has emerged in both the practitioner and academic literature as having a significant role in this area. There are many documented case studies of organizational applications of Six Sigma, where large‐scale improvements in defect and process measures have been attributed to this approach, mainly in the mass‐manufacturing sector. Moreover, there are claims, less well documented, that Six Sigma can be used as a change management approach at a strategic level and thus it can be applied to other sectors such as service industries. It is contended that there is a paucity of critical reviews of the Six Sigma literature, beyond that of descriptive accounts. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically review the literature of Six Sigma in relation to its effect on organizations and those that work in them. A broad theoretical perspective is used to guide the review process. The paper structure is based on the dichotomies within the Six Sigma literature, namely, what is Six Sigma — strategic change or operational methods; is Six Sigma a TQM appendage, or something new; will workers in a Six Sigma environment have more empowerment or be more controlled and is Six Sigma applicable to the service sector or only for that of the manufacturing sector?

Increasing competitive pressure in all business sectors (e.g. private, public SME) is reflected in the continuing quest for business improvement philosophies and methodologies to address this challenge. Recent developments have included increased organisational and academic interest in the six sigma approach to business improvement. There are many organisational examples (mainly USA and UK based) of large scale improvements in defect and process measures attributed to this approach. However, there is a paucity of critical studies on six sigma beyond that of “how to” and that of descriptive accounts, with a focus on measures and results rather than employee involvement and motivation. The aim of this paper is to explore the development of six sigma in a multilevel case analysis, from both a process perspective and a people perspective. The findings show that the case organisation had to widen its conception and application of six sigma to include people and organisational criteria to enable the approach to become embedded in the organisation.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate whether the UK regional electricity companies (RECs) has used total quality management (TQM) as a “push” or as a “pull” change methodology. “Push” is the operational improvement role of TQM; “pull” is the strategic or direction giving, improvement role of TQM. Following the onset of privatisation in 1990 there has been evidence of the RECs adopting TQM in both “push” and “pull” methodologies with varying degrees of success. An evaluation of the change processes involved will enable improved change models to be developed leading to increased business effectiveness in this £30 billion industry. Other possible benefits include the possible generalisations to other utilities such as water, roads, gas and telecoms. The research methodology includes a comparative case study analysis of five RECs, which have used TQM as their overarching approach to change. One of the cases is analysed to a more in‐depth level based on the multiple case findings. The findings indicate that the “push‐pull” analysis enables the full range of TQM activities to be evaluated in the RECs studied. Overall, there is a need to have a balanced portfolio of operational or “push”‐based TQM activity that is driven by strategic or “pull”‐based TQM planning and activity.

Today, the global education market is one of the faster growing sectors, and it has attracted several new actors or what we call educational brokers who are now responsible for shaping national agendas. The newer actors in education are vastly different for the former players in that whereas previous actors engrossed national educational systems through the provision of technical assistance to meet international standards, best practices, and benchmarks, these newer players are for-profit entities that emphasize austerity, leanness, human resource maximization, performance targets, and competition. Therefore, in this new educational landscape, national governments are seen as “clients” who receive “expert” advice from “external consultants” that have an assortment of experiences across different sectors. Education governance is no longer a statist endowed but one that incubates in laborites of best practices resonates with existing case studies and results driven based on Big Date collected. We argue that educational brokers are responsible for the emergence of a hybrid form of education governance that use business and market techniques to reform strategies within the education sector. We conclude by suggesting that collectively educational brokers are using what we call “educational sub-prime mechanisms” – higher interest rates, reduced quality collateral, and less advantageous terms to counterweight higher credit risk – to manage educational portfolios and newer forms of educational risk.

Six sigma is a popular approach to drive out variability from processes using powerful statistical tools and techniques. Although originally introduced by Motorola in 1986 as a quality performance measurement, six sigma has evolved into a statistically oriented approach to process and product quality improvement. Many organisations have reported significant benefits as a result of six sigma project implementation, though not all are yet success stories. This paper reviews the literature related to the critical success factors for the effective implementation of six sigma projects in organisations.