Analysis of quality management practices in services

Abstract

Theory building efforts in quality management have begun in earnest. However, while services continue to dominate the developed economies of the world, these studies have mostly focused on manufacturing firms. Research that addresses this limitation by specifically addressing quality management in service organizations is presented in this paper. Through a survey of 170 US service firms, this study empirically develops and validates 11 constructs for quality management in services. A comparison between this study and other empirical quality management studies highlights many distinct quality management constructs in services. It also shows that all empirical studies have some gaps in the coverage of their constructs, reiterating the need for continued quality management theory building research in services and manufacturing.