Meta-analysis of the relationship between quality management practices and firm performance—implications for quality management theory development

Quality management (QM) has received a high degree of attention in extant literature. Several research papers attribute superior firm performance to adoption of QM practices. The availability of a large number of research papers that investigate the impact of QM practices on performance provide an ideal setting for theory extension and refinement using meta-analysis techniques. In this paper a meta-analytic study is presented that fulfills two objectives. First, the paper formalizes performance implications of adopting QM practices and present hypothesized relationship between QM practices and performance. Second, a meta-analysis of correlation (Hunter and Schmidt, 1990) approach is used to examine the empirical research in QM to determine which QM practices are positively related to improved performance. The study also examines the presence of moderating factors in the association between QM practices and performance. The results support many hypothesized relationships and also point towards the presence of moderating factors in almost all QM practice–performance relationships. A discussion of the findings is presented and directions for further development of QM theory are proposed.     

High Capital Mobility and Precautionary Demand for International Reserves

The volatility of reserve increment and the opportunity cost of holding reserves play prime role in models of optimal demand for foreign reserves. Most empirical studies find significant rise in the response of reserve demand to volatility during the era of high capital mobility. In contrast, we find that volatility measured as rolling standard deviation of reserve increment provides upwardly biased estimates whereas conditional volatility derived from GARCH models eliminates such bias and provides elasticity estimate closer to the prediction of buffer stock model (0.5). Though the time varying elasticity estimates derived from Kaiman filter exhibit a sharp rise during crises period, it does not exceed theoretical prediction. The RBI’s intervention policy seems to be asymmetric; leaning with wind when rupee depreciates and leaning against wind when rupee appreciates. This evidence seems to indicate that the policy of exchange rate stability had an in-built objective of providing a competitive edge to exporters.

     

Spillover Effects of Real and Nominal Uncertainties in India

This paper examines the spillover effects and the causality between inflation, output growth and its uncertainties for India. Using monthly data for the period from April 1980 to April 2011, we estimated a bi-variate GARCH in mean with BEKK representations. This study differs from the earlier works where the parameters in the BEKK representations are estimated individually and the inferences are drawn on the basis of the individual lagged variance, covariance, and error terms from the respective equations. The empirical evidence suggests that inflation uncertainty seems to have significant negative impact on output growth and positive impact on output uncertainty and there is a positive influence of output uncertainty on the inflation. More importantly, there are spillovers and volatility transmission effects between the macroeconomic uncertainties where the volatility in output growth is significantly influenced by the shocks and volatility in inflation.

     

Open Innovation in Emerging Markets: A Business Model Perspective

There has been significant contribution to the management literature on open innovation and partnership strategy, detailing their nature and impact in a wide range of business environments. However, “strategic positioning” of the business model based on their interactions with other business entities has not received enough academic attention despite its implications for the new generation of start-ups in emerging markets who do not have any prior business models to emulate. This research conceptualizes a framework that would help strategists position their firm in the market by carefully analyzing its interactions with other business and social entities in the business eco-system.     

Building the BoP Producer Ecosystem: The Evolving Engagement of Fabindia with Indian Handloom Artisans

Recent research on the base of the pyramid (BoP) has called on firms to initiate market‐driven interventions directed at the BoP population with the objective of identifying and pursuing mutually profitable means of attaining meaningful poverty alleviation outcomes. In response, firms as well as scholars have engaged at length with the creation of new products and services for the BoP consumer but paid far less attention to the BoP producer—a member of the BoP population who creates value by producing goods and services for sale in nonlocal markets. Additionally, extant studies have largely focused on snapshot views of BoP interventions by firms, thereby limiting our understanding of the emergence of meaningful poverty‐alleviating outcomes over time from these interventions. This paper seeks to redirect attention toward the dynamic of the long‐term engagement between the firm and the BoP producer. Using rich qualitative data from Fabindia—an Indian handloom retailer—this paper examines how the engagement between Fabindia and communities of handloom artisans in India has persisted over a period of five decades. We found that, even as it encountered changes in the external environment and pursued newer organizational goals, Fabindia repeatedly renewed its engagement with handloom artisans and facilitated progression in poverty‐alleviation outcomes. Building on the insights from the case study, this paper presents a process model that highlights the role of innovative management practices in sustaining engagements between firms and BoP producers over time. Additionally, this paper proposes the concept of the “bridging enterprise”—a business enterprise that originates at the intersection of specific BoP communities and the corresponding nonlocal markets—as an interpreter and innovator reconciling the interests of stakeholders across the pyramid.     

Localized advantage in a global economy: The case of Bangalore

This article examines how and why firms in Bangalore, a city in southern India, have achieved success in the global software industry. We use Porter's “diamond framework” to analyze information obtained from secondary sources and interviews with engineers, managers, and top executives from software firms and officials involved in Bangalore's development. While we found some aspects of the case conform to Porter's framework, many other elements tend to diverge from the model. Thus, the article contributes to the Porter's diamond model literature by extending its application to assessing the development of successful regions in knowledge‐based industries in developing economies. The discussion in the article would be of value to officials interested in creating such successful regions, as well as international business executives interested in the opportunities afforded by locating in these regions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.