Editor’s overview

Abstract

Greetings from the editorial office of the Quality Management Journal. In this issue, we have four articles that focus on services. These articles cover healthcare, education, and micro enterprises. The first article is “Managing the waste of over processing in healthcare using accountability through utilization reviews and information technologies” by John Wallace Gardner (Department of Marketing and Global Supply Chain, Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University) and Sarah Childs (School of Medicine, University of Utah). “This paper examines two commonly used mechanisms for addressing over processing in healthcare: accountability (individual and cross-functional) through utilization reviews (critical evaluations of service decisions regarding the appropriate service at the right cost), and their interactions with healthcare information technology infrastructure. Hierarchical regression analyses reveal insights into service flow (patient length of stay) and efficiency (operating cost per bed) using independent primary and secondary data from 250U.S. hospitals.” The second article, “Determinants of customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in fast-food restaurants among undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic,” is written by Khaldoun I. Ababneh (Department of Management, American University of Dubai), Subramaniam Ponnaiyan (Department of Decision Sciences, American University of Dubai), Ahmed R. ElMelegy (College of Business Administration, Gulf University for Science and Technology), and Victor Pybutok (G. Brint Ryan College of Business, University of North Texas). Their study shows that “compliance with COVID-19 safety measures is a key determinant of customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the fastfood industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. More importantly, the results reveal that when simultaneously including service quality, perceived value, COVID-19 safety, and food quality as predictors of customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions, only COVID-19 safety and food quality are significant predictors.” The third article, “Resource capabilities and sustainable export performance: An application of m-TISM for Indian manufacturing MSMEs” by Kashika Arora (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, India) and Areej Aftab Siddiqui (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, India) focuses on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). According to the authors, “MSMEs are the backbone of India’s current and future economic progress. These institutions are geared to support and encourage the development of new-generation entrepreneurs in India who have the potential to create global competitive businesses. Their findings confirm the impact of these 14 essential components on resourcebased view (RBV) modeling adoption on MSMEs’ export success. Strategic direction, upper echelon orientation, financial capacity, and the external environment all have a significant impact on MSMEs’ export performance.” The fourth article is “Applying statistical process control to teaching quality assurance at higher education institutions” by Henry H. Bi (Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University). In this article, he develops a novel method of using average and standard deviation charts (X-bar S charts) to assess every course’s teaching evaluation rating. Thank you for returning to the Quality Management Journal and remember to cite articles from the journal in your own research to help boost the impact of our journal.