Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
Volume 8 (2004), Issue 1, Pages 43-65
doi:10.1155/S1173912604000045
Cross-national stability of a quality management model: a
comparative study of the United States and Turkey
1California State University, Dominguez Hills, USA
2Kansas State University, USA
3California State University, Fullerton, USA
Copyright © 2004 Burhan F. Yavas et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
This study explores the perceptions of American and Turkish managers with
respect to different dimensions of product quality. Survey data on perceptions of product quality were obtained from managers in both countries. Analyses using structural equation modeling and mean comparison tests were performed to evaluate five research hypotheses. Results provided partial support for the hypothesized differences in quality
perceptions. The data indicated that although the conceptualization of quality did not differ across the two samples, there were some differences in terms of importance assigned to various aspects of quality. In particular, Turkish managers rated aspects pertaining to communication and shared definition, quality execution, and quality control higher
than American managers. Implications for the rationalist and culturalist approaches to international management are discussed.