Quality Practices for a Competitive Advantage in Smaller Firms
研究了184家美国小企业的质量实践，发现它们倾向于采用能促进变化的做法，以灵活性作为竞争优先策略。
This exploratory study examines the quality practices used in smaller entrepreneurial firms. The current literature defines flexibility as one of the primary competitive priorities for smaller firms. This study develops an exploratory proposition that relates the characteristics of quality systems used by small firms, and their value, to the competitive priority of flexibility. A survey of 184 small firms in the U.S. was conducted using the classification scheme for quality systems consistent with the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA) performance criteria. Overall, the results support the proposition that small firms tend to employ quality practices that enable change and that position the firm to pursue flexibility as a competitive priority. The paper concludes with a discussion of the insights generated by the findings and directions for future research.