The Revenue Implications of Financial and Operational Measures of Product Quality
研究了一家财富500强制造企业11家工厂的产品质量指标对未来销售的影响，发现财务指标（如外部失败成本）和非财务指标（如缺陷率、准时交付）都是未来销售的先行指标，且外部失败成本每增加1美元会导致累计销售减少26美元。
We examine the future sales implications of product quality measures for 11 plants of a manufacturing group in a Fortune 500 firm. Our results indicate that both financial quality measures, such as external failure costs incurred due to product failures at customer sites, and nonfinancial quality measures, such as defect rates and on-time deliveries, are leading indicators of future sales. While changes in defects and on-time deliveries affect sales in the subsequent quarter, changes in external failure costs are negatively associated with sales two and three quarters hence. Corroborating popular claims about the importance of external failure costs, we find that a $1 increase in external failure costs is associated with a cumulative sales decrease of $26, or approximately $10.40 in lost profits.