Measuring Success Factors of Quality Management in the Shipping Industry

It is generally accepted that quality management is considered a valuable competitive factor for firms that confers them competitive advantages and enables them to achieve superior performance. Although there have been numerous studies examining general quality management practices and implementation, industry-specific studies on quality management practices and factors that influence their success in the shipping industry are rather few. This study seeks to identify the factors that are critical to successful quality management, and attempts to develop a reliable, empirically tested, and rigorously validated measurement instrument for quality management, for the shipping industry. We conducted a large-scale survey of shipping industry executives and applied a rigorous research methodology to treat the survey data. We identified four success factors of quality management, which are top management commitment and participation, quality information and performance measurement, employee training and empowerment, and customer focus, and developed a functional instrument to measure quality management in the shipping industry. This paper contributes to research by identifying the success factors of quality management, and provides managerial insights on the successful management of quality, in the shipping industry. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2007) 9, 234–253. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100179