Editor's overview

Abstract

Greetings from the spring issue of the Quality Management Journal. The number of submissions to the QMJ took a 22 percent leap last year. I think the increase in submissions is evident in the improving quality of articles we are publishing. Our conclusion is that researchers and firms are re-emphasizing the importance of quality management. Following is a synopsis of the articles in this issue. The first article is “The mediating role of quality management capability on the dynamic capability new product development performance relationship: An empirical study among new product development units in the electronics sector” by Pratap Kumar, Thiyagarajan Radha Ramanan, and Muhammed Shafi Keelath. In this article, the authors found that their analysis supports the hypothesis that dynamic capabilities affect new product development performance “along all the dimensions except development cost, and QM capabilities mediate on these relationships.” The second article is “Toward cost-effective service excellence: Exploring the relationship between managers’ perceptions of quality and the operational efficiency and profitability of restaurants” by Marko Kukanja and Tanja Planinc. In this study, the DINESERV tool was applied to assess managers’ perceptions of service quality, operational efficiency and profitability. They used data envelopment analysis and structured equation modeling to evaluate the data. The next article is “A total quality service framework for private higher education in South Africa” by Riaan Dirkse van Schalkwyk and Rigard Johan Steenkamp. In this article, the researchers studied six private universities in South Africa to identify relevant service quality dimensions. The researchers used factor analysis in their study. Finally, we present the article, “The impact of grocery retail superstores location on the customer’s perceived quality of servicescape in Jordan” by Yazan Khalid AbedAllah Migdadi and Enas Hasan Ali Abdel-Rahman. In this study, the researchers examined to what extent the customers’ shopping at more convenient, accessible, visible, and attractive locations impacts customer olfactory and auditory cues. Enjoy!