Search results

This paper aims to explore the relationship between quality management practices and their impact on performance.

First, critical quality management practices are identified and classified in three main categories: management, infrastructure, and core practices. Then, a model linking these practices and performance is proposed and empirically tested. The empirical data were obtained from a survey of 133 Tunisian companies from the plastic transforming sector.

The results reveal a positive relationship between quality management practices and organizational performance. Moreover, the findings show a significant relationship between management and infrastructure practices. In addition, the results illustrate a direct effect of infrastructure practices on operational performance and of core practices on product quality.

The conceptual model proposed and tested in this study can be used by researchers for developing quality management theory. In addition, this model may offer a flow chart to practitioners for effective quality management implementation.

The proposed model is the first one to distinguish the direct effects of infrastructure practices on performance from the indirect effects of these practices through the core practices. Besides, the use of path analysis method to study the direct and indirect relationships between quality management practices and their effect on performance dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between restrictive covenants and accounting conservatism. More specially, the authors try to explain how the use of restrictive covenants of public debt may affect accounting conservatism.

The sample is composed of non-financial firms and for each firm one debt contract is considered. The authors have used the Ball and Shivakumar (2005) models to test the relationships. All variables were retrieved from Mergent Fixed Investment Securities and COMPUSTAT Databases.

The findings of this study show that the more the firm relies on bond covenants, the higher is the degree of conservatism. The authors found also that these firms also exhibited a widely significantly increased level of conservatism in the years following the issuance of debt.

The results should be interpreted with caution because the use of covenants does not take into consideration the tightness of their inclusion in the public debt contract.

This paper makes a timely contribution to the debate of timely loss recognition by confirming the complementarity between the inclusion of restrictive covenants in the debt agreement and the accounting conservatism before and after the emission of public debt.

Since China's accession of the World Trade Organization (WTO), its construction industry has attained unprecedented growth. However, for the sources of this enormous growth, a controversy regarding the total factor productivity growth (TFPG) still remains in production practice and extant studies. In view of this, the purpose of this paper is to measure TFPG and to explore its sources in the industry post-WTO accession.

This study presents an innovative source analysis of TFPG. Stochastic frontier approach is adopted to measure TFPG and to explore its sources by decomposing TFPG into technical progress (TP), technical efficiency change (TEC), allocative efficiency change (AEC) and scale efficiency change (SEC). Although China joined WTO in 2001, to provide an effective baseline, the study period is from 2000 to 2017.

The empirical results reveal that TFPG presented an overall downward evolutionary trend, but it still maintained a high growth post-WTO accession. From the perspective of decomposition, TP was the main source of TFPG. Furthermore, as a neglected source, interaction effects among TP, TEC, AEC and SEC have been demonstrated to have a significant influence on the cumulative TFPG.

To make the results be reliable, the authors discuss the empirical findings mainly by revealing the reasons behind the evolutions of TFPG and its sources. Based on these revealed reasons, government and policy makers can further refine and summarize some more detailed and targeted policy implications to improve TFPG.

By providing many empirical evidences to solve the aforesaid TFPG controversy, this paper, therefore, enriches the body of knowledge on growth theories, especially at the level of industrial economics.

Iraqi society has suffered from loss or fragility of human security since 2003. The developmental policies, programs and plans of the successive Iraqi Governments throughout the transitional period have not been able to achieve human security, despite the availability of different resources. They have also not prevented or limited the spread of corruption, according to domestic and international reports. Now the country faces a large phenomenon of corruption and the dilemma of human security loss. This study aims to ascertain the nature of the relationship between the phenomenon of corruption and the dilemma of loss or fragility of human security in Iraq since 2003 to learn about the form of this relationship, how the selected variables contribute to the two phenomena and determine the degree of impact of corruption and its dimensions on human security and its components.

This research uses the social survey methodology of the sample taken from the Iraqi society and benefits from system analysis approach to identify the inputs and outputs of the variables researched. Moreover, the study uses the case study methodology to collect data and information precisely in an in-depth manner to support qualitative and quantitative analysis and clarifies the situation at the macro level of both phenomena.

Findings show the prevalence of corruption structurally in the Iraqi state and society. The contribution of dimensions and selected indicators in the spread of corruption and lack of human security varies. Findings also underline a strong statistical correlation between the two variables and their reverse relationship. In other words, the more the corruption is, the less the opportunities of human security are. There is also a strong impact of corruption and its dimensions on the conditions of human security factors.

The paper provides profitable findings and recommendations, which can be used by the Iraqi relevant institutions to eliminate corruption, achieve human security and benefit from its indicators in research and development.

The new addition of this research can be represented by linking the two phenomena and trying to build national standards with the capacity to describe, interpret and predict.

The purpose of this study is to explore the total quality management (TQM) practices and identify their effect on the nonfinancial performance (NFP) in the automotive engineering industry in Ethiopia. Despite many studies investigating the relationship between TQM practices and NFP, rare research has been conducted on TQM in automotive industries, making this a hugely unexplored field.

The data underlying this study was collected using more than 500 self-administered questionnaire survey, distributed to the employees working under different departments and factories under one automotive engineering industry. Extensive data screening and refinement processes for discarding irrelevant items for the questionnaire (Likert five-point scale) were carried out. The data was employed to test the proposed theoretical model, established with the objective of assessing the effect of TQM practices on the NFP in the case industry. Empirical validated relations have been proofed for previously done researches that there were positive relations between the TQM practices and NFP. Different statistical tools applied include descriptive data analysis, correlation analysis, mean scale test, reliability analysis and factor analysis, and finally, two models were developed based on structural equation modeling by using SPSS and AMOS-26 software.

Results found in this study were quite surprising. Initially, there was a total of ten TQM factors. The six independent factors survived from factor analysis only two factors (employee involvement and innovation) were contributing to the NFP. The study was acted as a performance evaluation system to track the industry NFP. Although the study focused on the effect of TQM practices, for more results it is recommended to conduct a 360-degree further research study to reveal the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and challenges of the case industry performance.

Every research has its own limitations. The way the analysis is conducted in this study ensures that the limitations do not compromise the validity of the results obtained. Control variables (industry type, size, age, process type and technology used) are not considered in the research which may affect the results obtained. The study included the automobile industry alone, so the obtained results cannot be generalized to other industries.

The positive relationship between the TQM practices and NFP measures indicates the importance of each of these practices in improving the industry. Researchers/managers/practitioners can use this developed model periodically to understand where the industry stands in the quality management journey. They can also analyze the effect of TQM practices on financial as well as operational performance measures. The research findings can also motivate the top management of the industry for better planning of goals, to arrange resources in time, in pursuit of improving quality, employee and industry performance.

The Ethiopian manufacturing industry is required to improve their manufacturing and service quality, in order to enhance their productivity and boost their competitiveness in an international market, which is the basis of this study. This study signifies one of the first attempts to empirically explore this linkage between TQM and performance in the Ethiopian automotive industry context.