Effect of Quality Management Systems and Total Quality Management on Productivity Before and After: Empirical Evidence from the Indian Auto Component Industry

We study the linkages between firm‐level quality initiatives such as quality management systems (QMS) and total quality management (TQM) and output productivity in the Indian auto component industry. We use externally validated quality certification and quality awards as proxies for QMS and TQM, respectively, as it is difficult to directly measure the QMS and TQM efforts of firms. We use an unbalanced panel of 220 firms and a balanced panel of 73 firms from the Indian auto component industry over the period 1993–2006 to study these links. Both parametric as well as non‐parametric approaches are used, as appropriate, to measure the rate of change in productivity and the impact of quality initiatives on productivity change during this period. We determine the proportion of productivity resulting from technical change and relative efficiency change, thus providing insights into the structure of productivity improvements. We find that TQM efforts resulted in a high rate of productivity change (11%) in the award‐winning firms after the award. On the other hand, pre‐certification productivity change due to QMS was 5% and post‐certification change was 3.6%. In the periods prior to certification, productivity change was driven mainly by technical change; whereas the source of productivity change after certification is mixed. However, prior to awards, productivity change was driven mainly by relative efficiency change, whereas post‐award productivity change was due to technical change. The results suggest that management focus on attaining certification did generate conceptual learning (linked to technical change) during the period leading to certification, but these effects were not significant after certification. The results also suggest that the TQM programs generated significant productivity gains in the long run, although setting the associated systems in place did not result in significant productivity change prior to winning awards. Thus, the study provides direct but nuanced evidence linking quality certification as well as the adoption of TQM programs to the associated conceptual and operational learning processes and their impact on the change in productivity.     

Malmquist productivity index based on common-weights DEA: The case of Taiwan forests after reorganization

The performance of a decision making unit (DMU) can be evaluated in either a cross-sectional or a time-series manner, and data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a useful method for both types of evaluation. In order to eliminate the inconsistency caused by using different frontier facets to calculate efficiency, common-weights DEA models have been developed, under which a group of DMUs can be ranked for a specific period. This study proposes a common-weights DEA model for time-series evaluations to calculate the global Malmquist productivity index (MPI) so that the productivity changes of all DMUs have a common basis for comparison. The common-weights global MPI not only has sound properties, but also produces reliable results. The case of Taiwan forests after reorganization shows that the MPIs calculated from the conventional DEA model produce misleading results. The common-weights global MPI approach, on the other hand, correctly identifies districts with unsatisfactory performance before the reorganization and those with unsatisfactory productivity improvement after the reorganization.     

Measuring departmental and overall regional performance: applying the multi-activity DEA model to Taiwan׳s cities/counties

This study measures the departmental and overall efficiency in Taiwan׳s counties/cities by applying a multi-activity data envelopment analysis (MADEA) model. The model overcomes the problems of panel data, undesirable outputs, shared inputs, and environmental variables and intertemporal efficiency changes (productivity) by applying the Malmquist–Luenberger (ML) index. We include data on the economic development, social welfare, police and security, and education departments for 20 counties/cities in Taiwan for the period 1999–2013. We find that the police security department is the most efficient in most counties/cities in the period 1999–2013, and the economic development department is the second efficient one in 2002–2005 and after 2009. Furthermore, there exist urban–rural gaps in the efficiency scores between counties and cities, between service-type and non-service-type counties/cities, and among different regions. With regard to the efficiencies over time (ML indices and their decompositions), we find that the production frontiers of the social welfare and education departments in Taiwan׳s counties/cities expanded continuously during this period. Finally, we also find that urban–rural gaps and gaps between service-type and non-service-type counties/cities exist in terms of technological changes and ML productivity indices in the social welfare and education departments. The area differences of technological changes exist in 4 departments and in overall. Our results will help the mayors of counties/cities understand the strengths and weaknesses of the regions they govern.     

Non-radial profit performance: An application to Taiwanese banks

This research modifies the directional Russell measure (DRM) of Fukuyama and Weber (2009) [1] to decompose the Nerlovian profit efficiency in Chambers et al. (1998) [2] so as to obtain a generalized measure that completely excludes technical inefficiency from allocative inefficiency. Based on such a decomposition, we further develop a new slack-based and profit-oriented productivity indicator, combining the Nerlovian profit measure with the conventional Luenberger productivity indicator (LPI), in order to provide a full picture of the sources of productivity change. Productivity change, based on the profit boundary, is decomposed into four components: the change in technical efficiency; the change in allocative efficiency; the shift of technology; and the price effect from outputs and inputs. This decomposition provides a more complete picture of the sources of productivity change. The above indicator is used herein to measure the productivity change of Taiwanese banks in terms of profit.     

IT Governance Characteristics,Electronic Medical Records Sophistication,and Financial Performance in U.S. Hospitals: An Empirical Investigation

As a result of a recent federal government mandate, an increasing number of hospitals have decided to adopt electronic medical record (EMR) systems. This initiative is expected to lead toward more efficient and higher quality health care; however, little is known about governance characteristics and organizational performance for EMR adopters. Our goal is to inform theory and practice by examining hospitals with a sophisticated EMR and comparing those hospitals to similar hospitals (with a less sophisticated EMR) to understand the association between information technology (IT) governance characteristics and the implications on financial performance. Leveraging elements of the upper echelon theory, we posit that hospitals in which the chief information officer (CIO) reports to the chief executive officer, CIO turnover is low, and an IT steering committee is present are more likely to have a sophisticated EMR. We argue that EMR sophistication leads to improved financial performance. Our results underscore the importance of continuity in the CIO position on successful EMR implementations. Results also show that hospital size and financial performance are strongly associated with EMR sophistication. In addition, we find that a sophisticated EMR appears to be a fundamental element in improving hospitals’ revenue cycle management. Moreover, we find that hospitals with a sophisticated EMR appear to be more profitable. Finally, we observe that total payroll expense adjusted by total discharges drops among the sophisticated hospitals, potentially due to an increase in employee productivity. These insights can serve as a basis for tempering expectations relative to the financial impact of EMR adoption.     

Profit-oriented productivity change

This study develops an applicable profit-oriented productivity indicator when producers pursue profit maximization and can recognize input and output prices. We define the indicator, inspired by the Luenberger indicator and the Nerlovian efficiency measurement, in terms of both quantity distance functions and profit. Hence, the study׳s first stage decomposes the profit-oriented productivity change into two terms: profit efficiency change and profit technology change. Second, we decompose profit efficiency change into the changes in technical efficiency and allocative efficiency. Finally, profit technology change is separated into two components for capturing the shifts of technology and relative output/input prices. These decompositions provide a more complete picture of the sources of productivity change. We illustrate them with a sample of Taiwanese banks and compute the results using the models of directional distance functions.     

Measuring the Contribution of Workers' Health and Psychosocial Work‐Environment on Production Efficiency

Increasingly many firms have started to implement programs intended to improve the workers' health and the psychosocial work‐environment, as well as other attributes of labor quality. Motivated by the need for evaluating to what extent the programs affect a firm's productivity performance, this study discusses a model for analyzing the contribution of labor quality attributes toward firm productivity. To assess the contribution from the labor quality attributes, we model firm productivity as the outcome of two separate processes within a firm: the physical production process and the labor quality process. Firm productivity is measured by a Malmquist‐like productivity index and is computed by Data Envelopment Analysis. Based on bootstrap methods we analyze potential statistical bias and provide bias‐corrected productivity estimates. The labor quality attributes are first modeled at an individual worker level as latent variables using Item Response Theory, and then aggregated to a firm‐level. The model is empirically validated using data from three manufacturing plants that participated in a coordinated worksite health promotion program. Over a 4‐year period (2000–2003), we observed a general improvement in efficiency of 2–5%, half of which could be attributed to an improvement in workers' health and psychosocial work‐environment. A key benefit with the model is that it is practical, easy to implement, and very fast to compute. The model also constructively contributes to the discourse on sustainability by providing a framework for deriving meaningful metrics and providing tangible measurements on the effect of sustainability‐related issues.     

Graph productivity change measure using the least distance to the pareto-efficient frontier in data envelopment analysis

This paper proposes a new method to measure productivity change of decision making units in the full input-output space. The new approach is based on the calculation of the least distance to the Pareto-efficient frontier and hence provides the closest targets for evaluated decision making units to reach the strongly efficient frontier with least effort. Another advantage of the new methodology is that it always leads to feasible solutions. The productivity change in the new approach is operationalized as a Luenberger-type indicator in the Data Envelopment Analysis framework and it is decomposed into efficiency change and technical change. The paper empirically illustrates the new method using recent data on the Spanish quality wine sector.     

Total factor productivity and shareholder returns in banking

This paper examines shareholder value drivers in European banking focusing on the efficiency and productivity features of individual banks. In particular, we analyse the value relevance of bank cost efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) (in all its components, including technological change, pure technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change) to see how these influence shareholder value creation in European banking. The paper focuses on the French, German, Italian and U.K. banking systems over the period 1995–2002 and includes both listed and non-listed banks. We find that TFP changes best explain variations in shareholder value (measured by market-adjusted returns, MAR, for listed banks and by the ratio of EVA_bkg to invested capital at time t−1 for non-listed banks). In both samples, we also find that technological change seems to be the most important component of TFP influencing shareholder value creation in European banking.     

Statistical precision of DEA and Malmquist indices: A bootstrap application to Norwegian grain producers

Previous applications of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and its subsequent Malmquist indices to efficiency and productivity measurements have been criticised for not providing statistical inferences regarding the significance of observed results. In this paper, DEA and a Malmquist index are combined with a bootstrap method in order to provide succinct statistical inferences that determine the performance of grain producers in Eastern Norway. The data cover the period between 1987 and 1997. Results reveal: (i) a significant degree of inefficiency (approximately 11%) and an average productivity progress of 38% over the period considered; (ii) the formidable productivity progress observed is primarily explained by technical efficiency changes that enabled producers to catch up with front runners; and (iii) environmental factors, such as weather conditions, impact both efficiency and productivity. Finally, the analysis reveals that using bootstrapping to make statistical inferences suggests that researchers should be careful in making performance comparisons based on conventional DEA methods, as any discovered differences may not be significant.     

Efficiency and productivity of the cement industry: Pakistani experience of deregulation and privatisation

This study evaluates the impact of privatisation on efficiency and productivity of the Pakistani cement industry. To address some of the serious concerns about the problem of dimension and outlier, we use a newly developed unconditional hyperbolic α-quantile estimator of Wheelock and Wilson to estimate efficiency (Wheelock DC, Wilson PW. Non-parametric, unconditional quantile estimation for efficiency analysis with an application to Federal Reserve check processing operations. Journal of Econometrics; 2008: 209–25). Subsequently, we use these efficiency estimates to calculate the Malmquist productivity growth and its components. The results show that deregulation and privatisation had the desired positive effect on productivity growth due to technological progress. We conclude that this improvement in the post reform period could be linked to political stability, improved economic conditions and a competitive industry.     

Productivity Growth in the Lisbon Police Force

This paper estimates total productivity change with regard to the Lisbon Police Force and decomposes it into technically efficient change and technological change with data envelopment analysis (DEA). The benchmarking procedure implemented is an internal benchmarking, in which police precincts are compared against each other. The aim of this procedure is to seek out those best practices that will lead to improved performance throughout the whole force. We rank the precincts according to their total productivity change for the period 2000–2001, concluding that some precincts experienced productivity growth while a small number experienced productivity decrease. Economic implications arising from the study are considered.     

The contribution of outward direct investment to productivity changes within China, 1991–2007

There has been a marked growth in recent years in outward direct investment (ODI) by developing countries, and in particular, by China. Previous studies have examined the impact on developing countries productivity of foreign direct investment (FDI) from developed countries. This paper looks at the effects of China's outward direct investment on growth in its own productivity, and at two specific reasons for this growth: technology sourcing and improvements in efficiency. These are examined using data from China's ODI in eight developed countries during the period 1991 to 2007. It appears that Chinese outward direct investment has had beneficial spill-over effects in improving total factor productivity growth over the period of the study, and that gains in efficiency have been the chief reason for this. Our vector auto regression (VAR) decomposition analysis also suggests that domestic R&D capital stocks are the most important source of productivity growth with greater contribution to technological progress. China is likely to continue to expand its ODI and it will be interesting to see whether the productivity gains continue at the same rate, and whether other developing countries also increase their ODI and reap the same benefits.     

Non-oriented slack-based decompositions of profit change with an application to Taiwanese banking

A change in profit can originate from the output side and the input side. In the spirit of work by Tone [1] and follows Grifell-Tatjé and Lovell's [2], we propose a non-oriented slacks-based measure (SBM) model to decompose the change in the operating profit into various meaningful components: quantity effect and a price effect. The quantity effect can be decomposed into a productivity effect and an activity effect. The productivity effect is further decomposed into a technical effect and an operating efficiency effect. Both of them include an output side, which will result in a change in revenue and an input side which will result in a change in cost. The activity effect can be decomposed into a product mix effect, a resource mix effect and a scale effect. We illustrate our decompositions to the Taiwanese banking sector during the period 1994-2002 using the average of the base and current prices to evaluate these contributions. We find ignoring input side effects on the decomposition of profit changes would cause misleading results in managerial issues.     

Improving supplier performance using a comprehensive scheme

Improving and coordinating buyer and supplier efforts to increase productivity and competitive advantage in a supply chain is an important issue. Numerous studies have proposed models, principles and criteria for supplier evaluation and selection. Hence, evaluating and improving supplier performance are important when building long-term supply chain competitiveness. This study presents a novel and comprehensive framework that illustrates the linkages between evaluating supplier performance and planning improvements. The proposed framework comprises four parts: building an evaluation model, evaluating supplier performance based on the buyer perspective, evaluating supplier performance based on the supplier perspective and scheduling improvement tasks. This study applies a hybrid genetic algorithm to help suppliers schedule improvement tasks based on the evaluation findings. Finally, evaluation data of a light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturer in Taiwan is used to interpret the procedure and verify model effectiveness.     

An expanded decomposition of the Luenberger productivity indicator with an application to the Chinese healthcare sector

The objective of this research is to combine productivity analysis at the “firm-level” and the “industry-level” so that a novel, fuller decomposition of the sources of productivity change can be undertaken. Productivity change is decomposed into technological progress, technical, mix, and scale efficiency effects. Specifically, our decomposition allows us to capture changes in productivity due to the reallocation of inputs or outputs across productive units. In practice, such reallocation might take place across plants operated by the same firm, across regions within a country, or via mergers and acquisitions. The new decomposition of the aggregate Luenberger productivity indicator is illustrated using data at both the provincial and regional levels for China's healthcare sector over the period 2009–2014. Our results indicate that the growth of the aggregate Luenberger productivity indicator varied across both time and regions. We find that China's regional productivity growth in healthcare was primarily driven by technological progress, while the contributions of the other components of productivity change were smaller and more varied across regions.     

Evaluating the Deming Management Model of Total Quality in Services*

This article uses the Deming management model developed by Anderson et al. (1994b) as an initial template to analyze total quality in services. While the literatures addressing quality management have developed separately for products and services, the founders of total quality portrayed this management philosophy as universally oriented. Our study first replicates two earlier studies that tested the Deming management model in manufacturing industries. Using hospitals as our unit of analysis, we realized findings similar to the earlier manufacturing studies. Next, we used contributions from the MBNQA literature to test an enhanced model. Our subsequent findings support the MBNQA concept that “leadership drives the system that creates results” and provides evidence of the ubiquitous importance of leadership for ensuring the success of a quality improvement program. Finally, an anomaly of this study and those published earlier is the inability to find support for the relationship between continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. Integrating the substantial work in the service quality literature focused on customer satisfaction measurement is recommended to future researchers to help resolve this issue and further enhance the model.     

Empowering manufacturing personnel through functional understanding

A growing interest in knowledge management and standardisation, has increasingly led organisations to implement employee training programs. For the manufacturing workforce, however, these remain limited to informal ‘On-the-Job’ approaches, administered by peer colleagues – particularly in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) where economic, educational, cognitive and cultural constraints are often deeply embedded. This paper proposes a methodology for training the manufacturing workforce on the functions of products, and presents a case study conducted in a UK-based manufacturing SME – aiming to verify our two research hypotheses: a) Functional Analysis Diagrams of the company’s products and parts would assist in knowledge assimilation; and, b) knowledge assimilation has a positive effect on work quality and productivity levels. By applying statistical inference methods on long-term quantitative data and survey results, we confirmed substantial improvements in work quality (63%) and increased productivity (67%), supporting our hypotheses and suggesting that the proposed methodology can be a promising solution for the industry.     

A computational approach to the multi-period many-to-one matching with ties

The many-to-one matching problem is commonly referred as the hospitals/residents problem which assigns each resident a hospital in an efficient and fair way. This paper considers a multi-period hospitals/residents problem that consists of assigning positions to overlapping generations of residents. From one period to another, residents can either retain their current positions or can choose a more preferred one. In this situation, a fairness criterion is introduced with the condition of the individual rationality for the matching. Moreover, it has been proven that the matching satisfying such criterion always exists and can be obtained by iteratively eliminating Pareto improvement cycles and unjustified claim cycles from any acceptable matching. This paper presents a novel algorithm to compute a matching with minimal unjustified claims under the premise of satisfying the individual rationality and the Pareto efficiency. The complexity of the proposed algorithm is bounded by \(O(Q^{3}n^{3})\) in each period, where n and Q are the number of the residents and the total number of positions of the hospitals in the corresponding period, respectively.     

Life Is All about Timing: An Examination of Differences in Treatment Quality for Trauma Patients Based on Hospital Arrival Time

In health care, most quality transparency and improvement programs focus on the quality variation across hospitals, while we know much less about within‐hospital quality variation. This study examines one important factor that is associated with the fluctuation of quality of care in the same hospital—the timing of patient arrival. We analyze data from the National Trauma Data Bank and find that patients arriving at the hospital during off‐hours (6 PM–6 AM) receive significantly lower quality care than those who arrive during the daytime, as reflected in higher mortality rates, among other measures. More importantly, we try to uncover the mechanism for the quality variation. Interestingly, we find consistent evidence that the inferior care received during off‐hours is not likely due to unobserved heterogeneity, disruptions in circadian rhythms, or delays in receiving treatment. Instead, it is more likely due to the limited availability of high‐quality resources. This leads to a higher surgical complication rate, a higher likelihood of multiple surgeries, and longer patient length of stay in the intensive care unit. These findings have important implications for optimal resource allocation in hospitals to improve the quality‐of‐care delivery.