Purpose – In many industries (e.g. cars and clothing) manufacturing complexity and unpredictability have increased over the last couple of years because of an increasing variety of products and shortening product life cycles. At the same time the manufacturers in these industries appear to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop understanding about the quality of user generated content (UGC) on web sites from the point of view of the customer. This is an area not yet explored, while the use of UGC is expanding on many web sites and its importance is rapidly growing....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the field of risk management in relation to the connection to quality management. It poses and attempts to answer three questions. What can quality teach risk management? What can risk management teach quality? What must both risk and quality...

In an effort to identify the quality factors perceived to be most important in relation to the use of Web sites, a survey was undertaken. The questionnaire utilized was based on the SERVQUAL instrument that identifies five quality dimensions in service environments. The results indicate that the...

Although total quality management might be defined as a passing fad there are three key reasons why it will remain (or return as) an important issue on the agenda for top management. First, there is growing pressure because of the use of the Internet to create excellence at the operational...

Purpose – To assess the relative value of the 2000 version of the ISO 9000 series of quality management system standards in comparison with the 1994 version. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 773 organisations in The Netherlands which have all been certified to the ISO 9000 standard...

Purpose – This paper seeks to develop insights into the charity selection criteria used by individual donors, and the information that charities provide to individual donors. Design/methodology/approach – Charities are defined as organizations involved in health, international aid,...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the intra‐organisational diffusion of management innovations, taking Six Sigma as an example. Design/methodology/approach – The study focuses on Six Sigma implementation among companies operating in Ireland. It makes use of a theoretical...

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a framework that can be used for analysing services in the automotive industry. Design/methodology/approach – Existing categorisation schemes for services are investigated and evaluated in terms of their applicability to services in the automotive...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how in many industries manufacturing complexity and unpredictability have increased in recent years because of increasing product variety and shortening product life cycles. Simultaneously, manufacturers in these industries appear to have more...