Managerial practices of quality costing: an evidence‐based framework

Purpose – This paper aims to use empirical data to classify and contextualize the various practices of quality costing. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses 23 “best practices” of quality costing extracted from the literature to survey quality managers of 88 publicly listed Jordanian manufacturing firms. Exploratory factor analysis is then used to create an empirical taxonomic framework. Findings – Factor analysis of the data identifies a six‐factor structure of the practices of quality costing (PQC). Inspection of the component items shows the factors to be conceptually meaningful with none of them containing conflicting items. All factors are reliable and valid and have statistically sound structures. Research limitations/implications – The classification provided can help managers to better visualize, understand and implement the concept of quality costing. It provides a framework within which practices can be structured and evaluated; managers can identify areas in their firms that are missing and may warrant improvement. The findings should be treated cautiously: the operational definition of PQC derives from an inconsistent literature. Furthermore, the findings are based on self reported data, collected through a questionnaire in Jordan and there is potential source bias or general method variance. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the body of knowledge through operationalizing the overall concept of quality costing by means of the PQC scale. The six factors identified represent latent constructs within PQC and the component items operationalize such constructs. Furthermore, the procedure provides an illustration of pragmatic application of exploratory factor analysis to empirical managerial data, which can be used in other contexts.