Quality Management Training in Small to Midsized Manufacturing Firms

Abstract

There is a substantial body of work in the literature linking quality management training to firm performance. Many of the conclusions and prescriptions are based on anecdotal evidence. In this paper, the results of an empirical study investigating the relationship between training efforts and firm performance in small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms are reported. The findings suggest that quality management training has a significant impact on performance, and that family-owned firms generally conduct less training than nonfamily-owned businesses. This apparent deployment gap might help explain the relatively high failure rate of family-owned businesses.