Promoting excellence : An international study into creating awareness of business excellence models

Purpose – This paper aims to share findings from a major international study, focusing on how custodians of business excellence (BE) frameworks promote and create awareness of frameworks at the national level. Design/methodology/approach – The project was commissioned by the present custodians of the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF), with the objectives of enhancing the ABEF and increasing its usage within Australia. The methodology consisted of a literature review, three surveys, a series of focus groups and key informant interviews. The study involved input from 16 countries world‐wide. Findings – Awareness of the ABEF is lower than was previously estimated in Australia, with under 10 per cent of randomly sampled organisations being aware of the model. ABEF evaluators perceived the methods of promoting the ABEF to be relatively ineffective. World‐wide, custodians of BE models reported that awareness of BE had generally increased in their country in the last three years. Based on an international survey, various examples of good promotional practice from model custodians world‐wide are reported. Research limitations/implications – The primary focus is on the Australian context, although the findings draw on a range of international sources and hence are of relevance to all BEF custodians. Practical implications – The findings from the project were used to redesign the ABEF, and are expected to help inform national business excellence strategies world‐wide. Originality/value – The paper is one of the first to focus on how a BEF custodian can and should create national awareness of a BE framework.