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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between supply chain quality management (SCQM) and firm performance (including quality safety performance and sales performance) leveraging social co-regulation as a moderator.

Using survey data collected from 203 food manufacturers in China, a series of hierarchical linear modeling analyses were conducted to test hypotheses on the relationships between SCQM and firm performance.

The findings are threefold. First, all three dimensions of food SCQM practices, i.e., supplier quality management, internal quality management, and customer quality management, have significant positive effects on an enterprise's quality safety performance and sales performance. Second, SCQM practices can also increase sales performance indirectly through quality safety performance as a mediator. Third, while social co-regulation has no significant effect on the relationship between supplier quality management and quality safety performance, it has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between internal quality management and quality safety performance, customer quality management and quality safety performance.

This study not only integrates SCQM with social co-regulation but also explores the regulating effect of social co-regulation through empirical analysis, thereby providing a theoretical base for future research. However, this research is confined to China and so the results are not necessarily generalizable to other countries.

The findings inform managers of the importance in enhancing awareness of food quality and safety as well as in improving their sensitivity to salient quality demands of external stakeholders in order to achieve better SCQM practices. The findings can also inform policymakers of the significance in designing a systematic multi-agent cooperation mechanism for food SCQM as well as to build an effective information sharing mechanism for social co-regulation of food safety.

This study contributes to knowledge by empirically examining the relationships of SCQM practices with firm performance. It also expands the scope of SCQM research by incorporating social co-regulation in the study framework.

The objectives of this study are to find out why tour operators implement quality assurance, and what problems and challenges they face in doing so.

This study utilized a multiple‐case study approach, interviewing the senior managers of three accredited tour operators using formally structured questions.

The purposes for which the tour operators attained ISO 9000 certification were image building, promotion and advertising; to rectify the varying standards amongst different departments; to build an understanding of the operations; to review the operation procedures and system, and the management of the tour operators; as well as to legitimize the senior management's action to make changes. A number of negative aspects to the ISO 9000 certification were found, including the high cost of implementation, lukewarm reception by staff, reduced effectiveness over time and that consistency of procedures did not equate to good or improving quality.

As the current research used a very small sample, only limited generalizations can be made.

Tour operation is a service‐based business in which it is difficult to standardize service quality – but, where an attempt is made, there does seem to be a significant reduction in human error.

A body of literature exists in which arguments for and against the use and practices of the ISO 9000 certification in different sectors are presented, but the tour operator industry is neglected. This paper examined the value of quality assurance certification in the tour operators sector to fill the void.

Integrating health, social and informal care and seeking for new effective collaborations is a major topic in many countries, and requires innovation and improvement in current practices. Conceptual quality management models can facilitate practice improvement. However, a generic quality management model for integrated care was lacking. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of multiple studies that resulted in a validated generic quality management model for integrated care. The Development Model for Integrated Care (DMIC) is the basis for a digital tool for self-evaluation and is being used in multiple ways in a large number of integrated care settings.

A literature review, a Delphi study and concept mapping study were executed to identify the essential ingredients of integrated care. A next step was an expert study on the development process of integrated care over time. Lastly, a survey study in 84 integrated care networks was performed to empirically validate the model. Based on the model, a digital self-assessment tool was created to apply the model in practice.

The studies showed that integrated care is a complex and multi-component concept but generic elements can be assessed. The literature and expert study resulted in a set of 89 elements of integrated care. The elements were grouped in nine clusters; “quality care”, “performance management”, “inter-professional teamwork”, “delivery system”, “roles and tasks”, “patient-centredness”, “commitment”, “transparent entrepreneurship” and “result-focused learning”. Four developmental phases named “the initiative and design phase”, “the experimental and execution phase”, “the expansion and monitoring phase” and “the consolidation and transformation phase” were found. The findings showed that the model is applicable for multiple integrated care settings.

The DMIC has the potential to serve as a research framework for integrated care, and the use as an evaluation tool on multiple levels. Further research is suggested about more explicitly involving the perspectives of clients, research on the involvement of multiple stakeholders and their professional backgrounds and the use of the model in other countries.

The DMIC is the basis of a digital web-based assessment tool, which is being used in the Netherlands in multiple integrated care settings. Applying the tool helps in assessing the current state of integrated care practice and defining suggestions for further improvement and development. It is also being used to benchmark multiple settings and is adopted in guidelines or care standards for integrated care.

A generic conceptual and validated model that can be supportive for integrated care practices, policy and research was lacking. The results of the summarized studies in this paper present such a conceptual model for integrated care and gives suggestions for further use in an international audience. Results in a Canadian study showed that the model can also be used in other settings and countries. This contributes to the opportunities for use of the model in integrated care practice, policy and research also in other countries.

In the present context of a health-concious society, management of pharmaceutical supply chains has become more complex because it involves the life-saving interest of human being and requires the participation of different stakeholders such as pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, customers, information service providers and regulatory agencies. Limited research is available in the area of pharmaceutical supply chains. This paper aims to find the gaps in the literature by reviewing research papers on different strategic issues of supply chain management in the pharmaceutical sector.

In total, 136 research papers, mainly from refereed international journals, were reviewed to identify the issues of supply chain management (SCM) in the pharmaceutical supply chain. On the basis of a review, gaps are identified and research agenda is proposed.

It is observed from review that the pharmaceutical sector is not widely researched in developing countries because of many complexities in this supply chain. The share of pharmaceutical firms in the global market is also not very significant. Based on an extensive review of pharmaceutical supply chains, research gaps are identified in different areas such as inventory management, new product development, process development, capacity planning, network design, plant design, pipeline and development management, outsourcing logistics activities, reverse logistics, Lean manufacturing, green SCM and implementation of E-business processes and performance management. These strategic issues have been further classified into three broad categories, i.e. resources, processes and performance.

This paper explores major strategic areas of pharmaceutical supply chains for research. Findings of the paper will be highly useful for researchers to decide direction of future research.

How do organisations know which problems are worthy of their attention? Despite good intentions, many attempts to solve problems fail. One reason for this failure might be because of attempts to solve non-problems or to solve problems with insufficient means, a concept proposed by Deming as tampering. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a definition of tampering, outline what is currently known about possible practical implications of tampering and to suggest how to extend this knowledge by proposing an agenda for future research.

To fulfil the purpose, a narrative literature review was conducted.

Through this review, common aspects of what constitutes tampering are identified and the following definition is proposed: Tampering is a response to a perceived problem in the form of an action that is not directed at the fundamental cause of the problem, which leads to a deterioration of the process or the process output. In addition, recommendations are generated regarding how tampering manifests itself in practice and why tampering occurs. These recommendations could be studied in future research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that suggests a revitalisation of tampering. The results presented in this paper form the basis for continued studies on how tampering in organisations can be understood, managed and prevented.

Discusses how, in response to a desire by Japanese quality practitioners to promote QC technique, seven new QC tools were brought together. Provides the recommended manner for the utilisation of these techniques. Asserts quality thinking should become pro‐active rather than re‐active. Exemplifies the tools. Describes a number of relations methods. Discusses the process decision programme chart. Asserts this is also used to anticipate the unexpected and to plan contingencies. Concludes that the seven new QC tools are being promoted by the Japanese Society for QC Technique Development indicating they can be used most effectively when combined in an interrelated manner.

The current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) are followed in the pharmaceutical sector to ensure that products are consistently produced and controlled to the appropriate quality standards as required by the marketing agencies. The purpose of this paper is to share improvement experiences due to implementation of lean principles combined with cGMP in a pharmaceutical company.

To conduct the study, an intensive review of literature has been conducted. For analysis of the problems existing in the selected production line, the 5‐whys methodology was followed. The current state value stream map (VSM) has been developed after making several company visits and necessary computations. For improvement of the system, various lean strategies have been proposed and the future state VSM developed.

The methodology assisted this company in reducing lead times, cycle times and WIP inventory in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, the storage area was reduced by 38 per cent and production staff was reduced by 50 per cent.

The prime purpose of a lean strategy is to eliminate wastes and to search for continuous improvement in processes. The proposed lean strategies indicated scope for improvement in production efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing operations.

The guiding principle of cGMP is that quality is built into a product, and not just tested into a finished product. This paper makes several contributions to the pharmaceutical manufacturing company. The proposed lean strategies are considered to be highly valuable for implementation in similar manufacturing industries.

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize the paradigm of meaningful innovation (MI) by exploring the theoretical basis, identifying its core concepts and key processes, and supporting it with evidence from leading world-class enterprises.

Based on a systemic literature review on the evolution of innovation paradigms, this study builds a conceptual framework to explicate the core concepts and process of MI. Moreover, a horizontal embedded case study of GREE electric appliances is conducted to further enrich, refine and support the proposed framework.

The main finding of this study is that MI could be regarded as a process of integrating innovation elements (resources, capabilities, systems, etc.) with internal and external innovation meaning to obtain outcomes with both economic value and social significance. As a “long-termism” paradigm with meaning identification and conversion as its core, MI is driven by the collaboration of “deductive mechanism” and “reflective mechanism.”

Based on the previous studies concerning innovation paradigms on the internal and external meaning, this paper proposes an integrated framework of MI. In this framework, enterprises can consider internal and external meanings through deductive and reflective mechanisms, to better coordinate resources, capabilities, institutions, markets and other factors to achieve higher innovation performance.

To present the internal dialogue of a TQM practitioner using the conceptual lens of reflective practice.

This study used a pragmatic philosophical approach to collect qualitative critical reflection data and quantitative career construction data from stratified and purposively sampled respondents, using structured questionnaires. The qualitative data were analyzed through reconstruction, while the quantitative data were analyzed through co-construction using the percentage agreement value and Wilcoxon–Mann Whitney test.

Five questions were found to be valuable for steering the internal dialogue for critical reflection, thus recommended as a must-have in a TQM practitioner's toolkit. This study found the career adapt–abilities scale to be a valuable tool for assessing the career construction of a TQM practitioner. This was supported by a 64% agreement and non-significant difference between the two groups of raters used, p < 0.05 (U = 3356.5, W = 7451.5, Z = 1.9826), two-tailed.

The pragmatic philosophical stance used in this study lends it to a certain level of subjectivity. However, the inputs from the three other participants neutralize the subjectivity. Most notably, this study is not about consensus-seeking but rather verifiable/testable self-reflection.

The theory-informed results presented in this study are useful for the continuing professional development of TQM practitioners.

This study provides insights for applying an individual-level self-assessment tool for TQM implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to apply value stream mapping (VSM) for enabling leanness in an Indian camshaft manufacturing organisation.

Literature on lean manufacturing and VSM has been performed. A suitable organisation has been identified for conducting the case study. The current state map has been developed after making necessary observations and calculations. Then various improvement proposals have been identified and the future state map has been developed.

The industrial impact as a result of implementing the proposals has been determined. The improvement in leanness parameters has been found.

The implementation study has been conducted in only one organisation. But the organisation has implemented world‐class strategies such as ISO quality management system. Hence, the experiences gained by the conduct of this implementation study are feasible and deployable in similar organisations.

In order to acquire lean characteristics, modern organisations are focussed on the test implementation of various lean tools. The results of the implementation study indicated significant improvement in lean characteristics.

The implementation study reported in this paper is an original contribution of the authors, which has been conducted in a typical Indian industrial scenario. By the virtue of its research background and practical compatibility, the implementation study is considered to be highly valuable.