A decision support system for the selection of quality‐based programmes in small firms

Over the last year, the introduction of effective quality systems and the achievement of high quality products represented fundamental competitive incentives for the adoption of total quality management practices. Unfortunately, many empirical studies demonstrate that most of the quality based programmes introduced within small firms did not improve their competitive position and profitability. The reason for such a failure is threefold: ambiguity of quality dimension, lack of suitable decisional tools and distinctive features characterising small firms. Hence, the objective of this paper is to provide small firms’ managers with a decisional tool (derived from the Fuzzy Sets Theory) aimed at supporting the evaluation process and at selecting the most suitable investments within different competitive contexts.