Abstract
In today’s global competition and economic liberalization, quality has become one of the important factors in achieving competitive advantages. Hence, the quality and its continuous advancement has developed a significant meaning for todays' business. Developed countries often resist exports from developing countries if the exports do not meet their country quality standards. Sri Lanka like other developing economies is also trying hard to exploit business opportunities in international markets and has succeeded as far as textiles and apparel industry. Purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Total Quality Management Practices (TQMP) on Export Performance (EP) of apparel exporters of Sri Lanka. A five point Likert scale questionnaire was used as the key instrument of data collection and data were obtained from 65 apparel exporters in Sri Lanka. Eight dimensions were used to measure TQMP including Leadership, Training, Employee Management, Information and Analysis, Supplier Management, Process Management, Customer Focus and Continuous Improvement. The regression and correlation analysis were used to examine the impact of TQMP on EP and the relationship between TQMP and EP. Results of the study clearly indicated that all dimensions except Information and Analysis were significantly correlated with EP. In addition, Customer Focus, Continuous Improvement and Supplier Management were found as the most significant dimensions that impact on EP.
Highlights
In today’s global competition and economic liberalization, quality has become one of the important factors for achieving competitive advantage
Top management support is significantly associated with export performance and this finding is consistent with previous studies of Arumugam et al, (2008), they find positive relationship between top management support and quality performance
Findings of Information and Analysis (IA) on Export Performance (EP) is not consistent with the previous study of Miyagawa & Yoshida (2010) which they made a conclusion that the extent of implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) factors including leadership, quality of information, implementation of the strategies, human resource management & meeting expectation of the customers has a significant effect on the performance
Summary
In today’s global competition and economic liberalization, quality has become one of the important factors for achieving competitive advantage. The present day international market environment is characterized by increased number of competitors and intensified efforts at all levels and each domain. Under these circumstances quality development and its continuous advancement has developed a significant meaning. Linder (1961) first noted the role of product quality on trade. He argued that richer countries have a comparative advantage in the production of high-quality goods. In order to increase exports to developed countries, more and more enterprises choose to adopt international standards to reduce consumers’ uncertainty about the quality of products and increase selling in the market (Uzumeri, 1997). Even though traditional determinants of comparative advantage are still the main driving force of trade, quality differences between countries have a significant effect on the pattern of international trade flows (Hallak, 2003)
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