QUALITY MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN ROMANIAN INDUSTRIAL FIRMS – AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON
QUALITY MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN ROMANIAN INDUSTRIAL FIRMS – AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON

Summary/Abstract: Quality, as a competitive factor, plays a crucial role in the development of manufacturing strategies and practices of industrial firms, and can have a determining impact on the competitive position of the company. Our paper seeks to analyze the role of quality in Romanian manufacturing companies compared to an international sample of manufacturing plants. For an in-depth analysis we consider company-level quality issues from three different perspectives: (1) the strategic role of quality, i.e. quality as a strategic objective and orderwinner criterion, (2) the operational role of quality, i.e. quality improvement projects carried out by companies and (3) the effect of quality on manufacturing performance. Results of our analysis suggest that both Romanian and international manufacturing companies place a great emphasis on quality on the strategic level. On the operational level Romanian manufacturing companies seem to put more effort in implementing quality improvement programs, but this surplus of efforts does not seem to pay off in a higher level of operational performance.

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