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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of integrating ISO 9000 and total quality management (TQM) on operational performance of manufacturing organizations and their journey toward achieving world-class manufacturing (WCM) status.

The authors used a conceptual model and its empirical validation based on a sample of 2,961 responses from one developing and three developed economies. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to test five main hypotheses.

Plants that integrate ISO 9000 and TQM progressed faster toward achieving WCM status and have better operational performance in terms of quality management, inventory management, time-based performance, and competitiveness.

The sample from the developing economy includes only 254 responses, while the one from the three developed economies includes 2,907 responses.

Findings of this study have many implications for both academic and practitioners. These findings encourage practitioners to consider ISO 9000 and TQM as complementary, not substitutes.

Developing economies should follow the footsteps of developed economies in considering quality as a competitive advantage in global markets.

The paper addresses in a unique and unprecedented way the synergistic impact of ISO 9000 and TQM on operational performance. The study is the first in its kind to include responses from both developing and developed economies. The development of the synergy index was never addressed before.

International business; business ethics; international trade law; intellectual property

Undergraduate and Master's level courses in Business and Management, particularly with a focus on international trade.

This case covers the issues that surround piracy of intellectual property by highlighting illegal manufacture and distribution of millions of Zippo brand windproof lighters and considers the seriousness of the large-scale theft of intellectual property by civilized nations. The focus of this case is on the additional victimization of the producers of genuine products, mostly European and American, who have the policy of life-time repair-or-replace warrantee, which by extension, although wrongly, becomes applicable to their counterfeits. Some micro and macro aspects are covered in detail, some are alluded to, while others are left out for the teachers of this case to justify considering the local logic and culture.

There are major lessons embedded in this case: first, intellectual piracy is not less than the theft of tangible property. Second, the problem of piracy carried out by large, civilized countries is really serious because of its huge size. Third, if the rights of those developing innovation are not protected and they cut their investments in R&D, the consequence will hurt all people in the world – emerging and developed.

Teaching note.

Although life cycle costing (LCC) is well established in theory and practice, little is known about the conditions of its adoption and its impact on the achievement of cost-management goals. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the adoption and benefits of LCC.

The analyses are based on questionnaires collected from a survey of German firms.

The results demonstrate that the extent of LCC adoption is positively associated with the extent of guarantee and warranty costs, voluntary upfront and follow-up costs for ecological sustainability and the extent of target costing adoption. In contrast, the extent of LCC adoption is negatively associated with the amount of precursors and/or intermediates that are purchased. The results also demonstrate that firms perceive LCC to be beneficial for various aspects of cost management. Firms report that the greatest benefit of LCC is related to the identification of cost drivers.

This investigation provides a starting point for future studies of the conditions of LCC adoption and the benefits of LCC. This study is subject to limitations, particularly with respect to the operationalization of our independent variables, the number of contextual variables and the general limitations of survey research.

The results inform practitioners of the situations in which it is most appropriate to adopt LCC. In addition, this study identifies various cost-management goals that are supported by the use of LCC.

This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the conditions of LCC adoption and advances the literature regarding the impact of LCC on the achievement of cost-management goals. Furthermore, this study provides a starting point for future research into the implementation of LCC and the effects of LCC on management accounting practices.

The auto industry in the USA is facing tremendous challenges – plunging demands due to economic downturn, the gloomy trend in technology development, and fierce global competition. This article aims to examine the challenges of supply chain management and to propose a triple‐C (cease‐control‐combine) remedy for the North American auto industry's supply chain management.

The authors applied management theories, collected information from managers at different levels of the auto industry's supply chain management, and developed a novel theoretical model of sustainability in supply chain management for the auto industry.

It is argued that outsourcing to low cost countries – the current supply chain strategy – is not only unsustainable but also irresponsible for the auto industry and society. A triple‐C (cease‐control‐combine) remedy is proposed for the auto industry's supply chain management.

The proposed triple‐C strategy will save the auto industry money in R&D investment, reduce quality cost and inventory waste, help the industry go through the volatile economy, and achieve sustainable development. With close relationships and strong supports from suppliers, the industry can speed up technology development, introduce new gas efficiency models quickly, and become less dependent on gas price. Finally, the triple‐C strategy will help the industry keep jobs and generate new jobs in the USA. These activities lead to public support and restored corporate image.

The current business environment is analyzed, problems of current supply chain strategy discussed, and a new supply chain strategy remedy for the North American auto industry proposed.

Total quality management (TQM) at the industry end along with quality function deployment (QFD) molds product quality. It flows to the customer at the market end with a value called quality perception, embedding the concept of probability of acceptance and quality uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and validate the existence of upcoming term “quality uncertainty” in the backdrop of information asymmetry.

Theories of probability and reliability engineering are used for mathematical modeling and analysis. Fault tree and success tree method is specifically applied to analyze quality uncertainty and quality perception at the market end.

Quality perception is an outcome of combined probability of information symmetry and TQM or product quality, whereas its inverse is quality uncertainty. Determining quality perception or uncertainty of any product type is possible in a market scenario, and its impact on product life cycle and company revenue can be accessed accordingly.

The model proposed here helps compute information symmetry and quality perception at the market end. More data exploration methods can be investigated to apply this model precisely in real life setting.

It is of equal importance to measure quality uncertainty due to information asymmetry and commensurate revenue loss to the company. Based on this, a policy mix of maneuvering for quality perception enhancement can be developed at both ends of supply chain processes.

With quality perception defined and modeled, the paper attempts market orientation to quality paradigm. It adds a new dimension to quality management.

Electronic commerce has existed in the business‐to‐business marketplace since the 1970s, in forms such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic funds transfer (EFT). With the emergence of the Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, electronic commerce entered a new era which opened the door for an electronic business‐to‐consumer marketplace. Although the retail side of electronic commerce is still in its infancy, the Web medium offers great potential for building the customer‐base, promoting sales, and improving after‐sales service. Examines the concept of relationship marketing, which has caused a paradigm shift in business‐to‐business marketing during recent years. Extends the concepts of network marketing to the Web retail marketplace, and develops a market process model for Web retailing that outlines the stages of the relationship building process.

Many studies have found that Lean practices provide better performance in a stable business environment. However, there is limited information on how Lean practices influence performance gains (defined in this paper as improvement and sustenance of performance) in an uncertain (complex and dynamic) environment. This study aims to investigate how the implementation of Lean helps to sustain performance in such context.

The study draws on an in-depth investigation of two capital goods manufacturing engineer-to-order (ETO) cases, in which performance sustenance is discussed in relation to the extent, locus and extensiveness of implemented Lean practice bundles.

Findings indicate that a higher extent of Lean practices’ implementation, covering both shop floor and transactional processes, increases the possibility of performance sustenance in ETO. Furthermore, a coherent approach in the pre-, during- and post-implementation phases of the Lean change process is required to foster performance sustenance. Lean practices in ETO are modified to suit context change from repetitive manufacturing.

This study proposes performance sustenance as a performance measure in a highly uncertain context, such as ETO, as a single reference cannot effectively measure performance improvements over diverse orders. From this perspective, appropriate Lean implementation contributes towards building capabilities for flexibly and proactively managing uncertain circumstances.

Even companies operating in highly uncertain (complex and dynamic) contexts may benefit from significant performance gains, thanks to the Lean implementation. This can be achieved by a balanced implementation of practices at shop floor and transactional processes, and their mindful customisations.

The study compares Lean implementation in ETO with that of high-volume–low-variety systems established in the literature. It qualitatively discusses how Lean implementation as an overarching effort both in shop floor and transactional processes leads to better sustenance of achieved performance improvements in shop floor under high uncertainty.

The purpose of this article to review key points about the radio frequency identification, and productivity enhancement in SCM through the use of radio frequency identification. To understand radio frequency key points fundamental on that are identified and reviewed. Some applications of radio frequency identification in supply chain are briefly reviewed and five cases of radio frequency identification implementation in supply chain are discussed.

Provides key elements of radio frequency identification and the integration of supply chain and radio frequency identification for generating new systems with higher level of profitability, efficiency, and productivity.

To make supply chain system functional and successfully operational manufacturers can use radio frequency identification solutions to reduce operating costs through decreasing the labor costs, claims, and returns. This will help them to increase the operating income. They also can reduce working capital by enabling reductions in inventory and lowering the inventory write‐off from the return goods and those items that are un‐saleable at the end. It is the collection of such strategies that can bring higher level of profitability and productivity to the supply chain.

This sophisticated technology is more useful to the management for one or more of the following facts: better supply chain and inventory management; reducing counterfeiting and fraud controlling; tracking work‐in progress; reducing administrative errors; reducing rework; better management of warrantee claims; capable of working in suitable and harsh environments; better supply chain efficiency; cost saving and profit enhancement.

Due to the fact that a better management of production system is related to the full understanding of the technologies implemented and the system under consideration, sufficient background on the radio frequency identification technology is provided and supply chain management system including profitability and productivity enhancement are discussed.

The construction industry has been subject to substantial criticism for its short-term “hit-and-run” relationships which are focussed on win-lose situations. Despite the wide recognition of these problems the industry persistently resists the radical demanded of it. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to investigate why this might be the case by reviewing the governance problem confronting clients and decision makers in construction procurement, as conceptualised in transaction cost economics (TCE). Second, to critically analyse and question the efficiency and effectiveness of various safeguarding approaches, which are taken for granted and commonly practiced in construction, from a lean perspective.

The analysis of this paper is based on an in-depth critical review of 76 construction procurement and contractual-related articles, ranging from 1994 to 2016, using theories of Lean construction and TCE as an analytical lens.

Findings reveal that clients and decision makers often tend to safeguard their project-specific assets, against opportunism and exploitation, through the deployment of formal contractual arrangements and governance structures. These arrangements and structures typically dominate the management of the project delivery often to the detriment of the project itself; but because there is a belief that interests are safeguarded, clients and decision makers feel they have taken the best course of action. This goes a long way to explaining the coherence of the current construction model.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to demonstrate the usefulness of using principles of Lean construction in association with TCE when analysing construction-procurement-related issues. In particular, the use of a “lean” lens helps to expose the impact of procurement governance arrangements on process flow. The study also provides a potential research agenda that can lead to the development of prescriptive conceptual frameworks for causal analysis of institutionalised waste in construction.

The paper attempts to expose to clients and decision makers the amount of waste (and unnecessary cost) they embed by adhering to prevailing unfit-for-purpose contractual governance approaches. It also helps decision makers to consider alternative procurement arrangements and organisational techniques that could be of value and support collaborative ways of working.

The study contributes to the overall understanding of waste in construction by providing insight into various imperfect procurement and contractual arrangements, which are taken for granted and impede efficiency and improvement efforts in construction. The findings presented provide a theoretical anchor and rationale for developing alternative approaches to the design and delivery of capital projects.

Circular business models can improve resource use in a financially and environmentally feasible way. However, companies struggle to choose among the vast variety of ways to achieve circularity within a business model. The purpose of this paper is to offer a pragmatic guide for making strategic decisions on circular business models.

This paper develops a conceptual model of six different strategic approaches to circular business models and provides examples to business cases and practice to illustrate these.

This study identifies two critical strategy choices companies should make. First, an innovation strategy addresses the extent to which circularity is achieved with internal or external stakeholders. Second, a resource strategy addresses how companies achieve circularity by narrowing, slowing or closing resource loops. Using examples from business practice, this study illustrates how the combinations of these two strategies can be used to design competitive circular business models. Key managerial questions are also identified to help decide upon a feasible strategy for circular business model innovation.

While different types of circular business models have been described, it is less clear what the strategic choices are that companies need to make to find feasible business cases for circularity in terms of value proposition, value creation and delivery and value capture. This study outlines these through a “circular business model strategy framework”.