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This paper aims to define an extended QoS model to accurately describe the quality of web service in the open distributed environment and propose a fuzzy evaluation approach for services selection based on the extended QoS model.

The extended QoS model classifies the quality criteria of web service as five composite quality criteria, and each composite quality criterion is composed by one or more sub‐quality criteria. Considering the multiple forms of representation for the quality criteria and different types of quality value could not be compared directly, a scaling fuzzy measure for quality criteria is introduced. Based on the scaling fuzzy measure of the quality criteria, a fuzzy synthetic evaluation system for services selection is proposed.

The quality of web service has multiple facets and multiple forms of representation. The fuzzy synthetic evaluation system can deal well with the fuzzy and implicit concepts about quality evaluations and provides higher expressive force and adaptability.

The quality of service in this paper is static preset.

The extended QoS model and the synthetic fuzzy evaluation system cover the shortage of the related researches and lay the foundations for QoS‐oriented service description and services selection.

Refractory materials are now used in all major industries that demand high-temperature resistance, including petrochemicals, steel, cement and aviation. Businesses must decrease operating costs, enhance product technology, sell well and manage corporate risks in decision-making, notably supplier selection, to be more competitive. The study aims to determine the key criteria and factors of supplier selection and to evaluate the importance of the key factor of the supplier selection criteria for the refractory materials manufacturers in Taiwan.

Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used to rank these factors for the decision maker. The AHP method is suitable for verifying refractory supplier selection criteria and providing references. The weighted loss scores for each supplier are then determined using the relative importance as the weights. Supplier selection criteria are ranked using their aggregate weighted loss scores. The provider with the lowest loss score should be chosen.

Product quality is the most significant of the five criteria: product quality, production technology, logistics capacity, service capability and supplier background. Professionalism is the most significant aspect of product quality, whereas equipment and capacity are vital in manufacturing techniques. The studies also show that the delivery rate is essential for logistics and service capabilities.

This research has important implications for refractory suppliers in promptly fine-tuning the production and service to enhance customer satisfaction, which is key to business sustainability.

The application of an AHP technique to a real-world industrial issue is what makes this research unique. This research addressed one of the most critical topics in supply chain operations by offering better judgement for supplier selection via the use of suitable quantitative methodologies.

Through a two-stage survey, this paper examines how researchers judge the quality of answers on ResearchGate Q&A, an academic social networking site.

In the first-stage survey, 15 researchers from Library and Information Science (LIS) judged the quality of 157 answers to 15 questions and reported the criteria that they had used. The content of their reports was analyzed, and the results were merged with relevant criteria from the literature to form the second-stage survey questionnaire. This questionnaire was then completed by researchers recognized as accomplished at identifying high-quality LIS answers on ResearchGate Q&A.

Most of the identified quality criteria for academic answers—such as relevance, completeness, and verifiability—have previously been found applicable to generic answers. The authors also found other criteria, such as comprehensiveness, the answerer's scholarship, and value-added. Providing opinions was found to be the most important criterion, followed by completeness and value-added.

The findings here show the importance of studying the quality of answers on academic social Q&A platforms and reveal unique considerations for the design of such systems.

This paper proposes a development methodology that uses the assessment criteria of the national quality award as the basis for creating a self‐assessment tool to measure quality performance in organizations. The Singapore Quality Award (SQA) assessment criteria were used as the framework for developing the self‐assessment tool. The SQA award criteria were translated into a multi‐item questionnaire. The self‐assessment tool is used to assess quality performance in various functions of the organization. The scores obtained using the assessment tool was tested against those of the recent SQA applicants. Results showed significant correlation between the assessment score bands and the actual score bands that they received on their SQA application. As of the end of 1998, about 200 business organizations in Singapore had used the self‐assessment tool. Self‐assessment tools using different national quality award criteria could also be developed based on the proposed development methodology described in this paper.

This paper aims to define a hierarchical and multi-criteria framework based on pillars of the Modernization of Higher Education to evaluate European Accounting Doctoral Programmes (EADE-Model).

The authors applied a quali-quantitative methodology based on the analytic hierarchy process and the survey approach. The authors conducted an extensive literature and regulation review to identify the dimensions affecting the quality of Doctoral Programmes, choosing accounting as the relevant and pivotal field. The authors also used the survey to select the most critical quality dimensions and derive their weight to build EADE Model. The validity of the proposed model has been tested through the application to the Italian scenario.

The findings provide a critical extension of accounting ranking studies constructing a multi-criteria, hierarchical and updated evaluation model recognizing the role of doctoral training in the knowledge-based society. The results shed new light on weak areas apt to be improved and propose potential amendments to enhance the quality standard of ADE.

Theoretical and practical implications of this paper are directed to academics, policymakers and PhD programmes administrators.

The research is original in drafting a hierarchical multi-criteria framework for evaluating ADE in the Higher Education System. This model may be extended to other fields.

Important evaluation criteria as they are perceived by quality managers in American and US‐based Japanese firms are examined. For this study, three different groups of companies contained within four industries were considered. They included American firms using a traditional approach to manufacturing management, Japanese firms operating in the United States, and American firms attempting a Japanese approach to manufacturing management. This study identified price, on‐time delivery, and the supplier′s product quality as the three major criteria for evaluating vendors. The attitudes of quality managers concerning the importance of these variables were counter to the impressions portrayed in the academic and managerial press. Also differing from the literature was how much the managers in these different types of firms linked the evaluation criteria and overall organisational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytic hierarchy planning-based framework to establish criteria weights and to develop a school performance system commonly called school inspections.

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model uses pairwise comparisons and a measurement scale to generate the weights for the criteria. The validity of the approach is confirmed by comparing the outputs of school inspection and the outputs of the model in a sample of schools.

The framework proposed enables school management to address several issues pertaining to its competitive advantage with other schools, the two most important being establishing its performance ranking in the marketplace and identifying the service elements that most require improvement. This study develops a cohesive approach to identify which quality attributes or dimensions require attention.

For school inspections, the data collection and computational problems would increase with the increase in the number of criteria and sub-criteria, as well as the number of schools considered in the selection. Although the range of reported AHP applications is extensive in many disciplines, examples in school quality and inspection remain still rare; as a result, this study could not compare its results with other AHP applications in school inspection or assessment.

The AHP method has the distinct advantage that it decomposes a decision problem into its constituent parts and builds hierarchies of criteria. AHP enables assessors to capture both subjective and objective evaluation measures of school quality. By providing a useful mechanism for assessing the consistency of the evaluation measures and alternatives, the AHP reduces bias in decision making.

The AHP model also provides a more systematic evaluation of a given school’s qualitative performance criteria. The proposed AHP model is attractive to assessors and decision makers because its pairwise comparison procedure enables them to offer a relative (rather than absolute) individual criterion assessment on those qualitative factors.

The AHP model could become a sustainable component of overall school system quality improvement by maturing over time. The AHP annual scores could be used as realistic and measureable gauges for measuring school improvement.

With the growth in popularity of academic social networking sites, evaluating the quality of the academic information they contain has become increasingly important. Users' evaluations of this are based on predefined criteria, with external factors affecting how important these are seen to be. As few studies on these influences exist, this research explores the factors affecting the importance of criteria used for judging high-quality answers on academic social Q&A sites.

Scholars who had recommended answers on ResearchGate Q&A were asked to complete a questionnaire survey to rate the importance of various criteria for evaluating the quality of these answers. Statistical analysis methods were used to analyze the data from 215 questionnaires to establish the influence of scholars' demographic characteristics, the question types, the discipline and the combination of these factors on the importance of each evaluation criterion.

Particular disciplines and academic positions had a significant impact on the importance ratings of the criteria of relevance, completeness and credibility. Also, some combinations of factors had a significant impact: for example, older scholars tended to view verifiability as more important to the quality of answers to information-seeking questions than to discussion-seeking questions within the LIS and Art disciplines.

This research can help academic social Q&A platforms recommend high-quality answers based on different influencing factors, in order to meet the needs of scholars more effectively.

This study aims to investigate the supplier selection criteria, relationship quality and level of collaboration in Asian food businesses, while also examining the link between these practices and business performance. The research focusses on food manufacturing and exporting companies in two emerging economies, China and Vietnam.

Food manufacturing and exporting companies in two emerging economies – China and Vietnam were surveyed and analysed to extract factors that reflect supplier management and business performance along with their relationship by factor analysis and hierarchical regression. Then, a two-step cluster analysis was applied to identify clusters based on supplier management and explore how different business performance groups manage their suppliers.

Four clusters that are distinct sets of food firms with detailed references about their typical characteristics revealing their business performance and supplier management practices. Also, the study confirms that certificates, reliability and inspection results constitute the factor of quality-related criteria for food firms. It is an interesting insight into what firms prioritise in selecting and maintaining collaboration and relationships with suppliers that reflect actual demanding specifications for supplier conformity.

The study reveals the business status of the studied companies and each group's specific references, such as the criteria they prefer to select suppliers, the relationship quality and the level of collaboration.

The study is a useful reference for both researchers and practitioners to have a comprehensive view of supplier management in the food industry based on the viewpoint of Asian food manufacturers.

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.