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Discusses quality in all its various guises and expounds the theory that if there are untapped resources in the different areas amongst the various processes and types of worker, then an increase in quantity and productivity can ensue from these. It is the capability of people as much as anything which is important and higher quality performance from all activities therein which should then occur. Good financial management is also required to develop the capability of production and organization to provide consistently what is desired for basic success.

Investigates what approaches to quality lead to best quality and financial performance across different regions of the world. Reports a survey of 977 firms in Asia/South Pacific, Europe, and North America. Fifty‐two items that suggest how a firm might improve quality were factor analysed and grouped into 11 factors, each factor a broader approach to quality improvement than any one item. Actual quality was measured eight different ways. Each approach to quality improvement (factor) was correlated to each quality measure, as well as to several financial measures. The results suggest that a company’s approach to quality correlates to actual quality and to a lesser extent to financial performance. The major factors found to influence actual quality were the organization’s knowledge of quality management, its degree of customer focus, and management involvement. When the task was to predict performance outcomes in any region, the specific factors that best predict performance were found to vary from region to region. That is, there were specific models within a region that better predicted performance than the model which predicted performance across all regions.

Applies time‐series forecasting, a traditional operations analysis methodology, to develop a forecasting procedure and ordering policy for a natural‐gas customer of Columbia Gas of Ohio, USA. Evaluates six time‐series methods and four operating policies against four commonly used measures of error and the cost consequences of error to the customer. Demonstrates that time‐series forecasting and decision theory developed by operations and applied in an actual industrial situation can become a powerful marketing technique. Provides further insights into evaluating forecasting models and ordering policies, demonstrating that introducing optimal planned bias is a robust decision‐making/forecasting approach within services. There are three parts to the study. The first is a straightforward testing of forecasting methods, using the forecasts as the natural‐gas ordering policy. Results vary depending upon how well forecasts are fitted to the data. For example, one inaccurate forecast with a poor fit incurs a penalty cost of $179,270, while the best forecast results in a penalty cost of $27,081. The second part evaluates two additional complex ordering rules with the same forecasting methods, further reducing the lowest cost to $17,709. The third part is a technical analysis reflecting a redesign of the study, demonstrating the difficulty of generalizing when characteristics of the underlying demand change. Concludes that the best forecasting model/operating policy is to use the very basic forecasting model of simple moving average (or the equivalent, first‐order exponential smoothing) combined with an optimal planned bias ordering policy, i.e. with the planned introduction of bias.

Considers the approaches to quality improvement undertaken by organizations in Korea, New Zealand and the United States of America. Relates alternative quality improvement approaches to actual operating and financial performance. Productivity improvement approaches were also investigated and related to performance. Multiple quality and productivity interventions were correlated with eight actual quality, three productivity, and three financial performance measures. Results indicate that a specific profile of quality and productivity improvement approaches was significantly related to performance. The results varied in the different countries, but no country achieved significant correlations with all measures. The profiles varied, depending on whether organizations in the various countries were most interested in performance quality, productivity improvement, or financial performance.

Improving quality and productivity simultaneously is vital to organizational competitiveness. Although continuous improvement is accepted as the objective for world class competition, it is not clear as to which interventions achieve the best performance, which variables intervene by enhancing or restricting the achievement of high quality and productivity, or which measures are appropriate for evaluating differences. Develops a quality evaluation tool and total factor productivity measures for health care clinics. Uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to discriminate between high and low slack groups. Finds that hypothesized relationships and interactions between quality, productivity, and slack generally have statistically insignificant differences, exceptions being that health care consumers were able to identify characteristics of high and low quality care as well as health care professionals and that health care quality can increase with no decline in productivity when there is high‐slack. In general, high‐slack clinics could increase quality or productivity, but not both.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine whether business can benefit from ISO 9000, and examines how motivation impacts the depth of ISO 9000 implementation and how the depth of ISO 9000 implementation impacts a firm's performance in Taiwan.

A survey questionnaire was mailed to the 1,668 companies with ISO 9000 certification, and a total of 441 usable responses were returned. Using a structural equation model, this study empirically examines the relationship between ISO 9000 motivation and ISO 9000 implementation depth and how implementation depth influences firm performance.

The results demonstrate that a positive relationship exists between the extent to which companies implement ISO 9000 and firm performance. Additionally, internal motivation fully mediates the relationship between external motivation and ISO implementation depth. Furthermore, the implementation of ISO 9000 directly and positively influences operational performance and indirectly affects market performance, in turn positively impacting business performance.

This study represents a first attempt to construct a conceptual framework that integrates the motivations behind implementing ISO 9000 certification, the implementation depth underlying processes, and ISO 9000 performance.

This paper describes the results of a research project where respondents from a variety of disciplines were questioned about how they perceive quality improvement. Structured interviews were held with top managers from the fields of engineering, operations, strategic planning, marketing, planning, and human resources. We asked the following questions: How is quality defined by someone in (your field)? How do you define quality as it relates to your company’s products and services? What are approaches to quality that you view as leading edge? We find that there are differences in how quality is perceived by different functions. In spite of a long history of definition of quality terms, we find that more work is needed to overcome differences in functional perspectives when communicating quality plans and strategies.

Modern scholars of the history of economic thought recognise that John Bates Clark’s earlier works bear far less formal abstraction and, instead, fervently appeal for economic reforms that are inspired by Protestant ethics and German Historicism. After the violent Haymarket incident in Chicago in 1886, Clark is assumed to have entirely dismissed his preoccupation with social reforms and ethics. We provide a counterpoint to this common understanding by finding out that Clark’s originally ethical impetus persists throughout his writings beyond Haymarket. The striking parallelism of his earlier ideas on moral progress and the role of Protestant ethics herein and his later model of natural evolution and entrepreneurial change allow us to characterise Clark’s economics as persistently reformative in character. Further, his application of marginalism must not be understood as purely deductive analysis. Instead, it shows the ideal of an economy that performs analogously to a coherent organism. Clark’s theory of value and distribution is found to build substantially on his reformative claim that the American economy should be founded on a principle of equal and voluntary exchange. This republican idea of the economy is integrated into an ontological reflection of the very preconditions of social wealth.

Surveys, from an American perspective, the existing literature on economic explanations of the behaviour of universities and scholars. The modern literature is put in historical perspective introduced by a brief discussion of the positions of two of the earliest and most distinguished contributors to the literature: Adam Smith and Max Weber. Discusses the human capital and implicit contracts literatures of the behaviour of scholars, the latter elaborated in terms of the issue of tenure. The most common theoretical economic analysis of the university is the view that it is best thought of as a non‐profit organization. Discusses variants of this view, with special attention to the literature on rent‐seeking in academe. Goes on to the empirical literature on the economics of academe in the areas of academic institutions, academic earnings functions, the earnings and status of minority scholars and academic production functions. Briefly considers the relevance of the current literature to the Althoff system, suggesting that Althoff′s able, trusted advisers, and his system of institutes, may have allowed him to avoid several inefficiences that have been identified by economists as present in other academic institutions. Although the centralization of decision making in the hands of one decision maker may be efficient if the decision maker is exceptionally able, more commonly the most efficient system will be a decentralized system that allows for greater diversity and competition. Concludes with a discussion of how hypotheses on the efficiency (and fairness) of various aspects of the Althoff system could, in principle, be tested.

Studies have shown that actors who affiliate with multiple categories generally do so at their own peril. Still, category spanning is routinely observed, although it is less understood. We address this gap by a longitudinal study of category spanning among nanotube technology inventors. Our results highlight the importance of the evolving structure of category relationships, actor embeddedness within the structure, and interactions with other factors, including the attractiveness of related categories. When a category is relationally similar to others, associated inventors are more likely to engage in category spanning, whereas when a category is dissimilar, inventors are more likely to remain within it.