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The purpose of this paper is to explore the adoption of quality management practices in engineering educational institutions (EEIs) in India from management's perspective.

A questionnaire was developed based on a literature review of research in quality management and based on the responses of the pilot survey among the senior faculty/management. The psychometric properties of this instrument were examined using tests of reliability and validity. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the impact of the total quality management (TQM) dimensions on institutional performance (effectiveness).

Findings highlight 27 critical factors/dimensions of quality management, which analyzed the relationship between TQM dimensions and institutional performance, which has been formulated using five dimensions. Positive and significant relationships among the TQM dimensions and institutional performance have been observed.

Results of the study are dependent on the profile and number of the respondents, i.e. on the perceptions of the management.

The paper proposes a model for achieving institutional excellence from the macro perspective of the management. Two critical factors, i.e. healthy innovative practices and feeder institution partnership have been identified as key enablers in the paper. Institutional performance (effectiveness), as a holistic construct, has been measured by five measures of performance, institution reputation and image, infrastructure quality, faculty excellence, research and industry exposure and stakeholders' satisfaction. The instrument developed can be used as a self‐assessment tool in continuously measuring the overall performance of the institution's processes and systems.

The paper focuses on EEIs. It evolved a holistic framework for institutional effectiveness and formulated a comprehensive instrument with respect to management's perceptions on quality management issues. The paper also identified five critical factors to measure institutional performance and 27 dimensions of TQM in the context of EEIs.

Although insurance companies contribute to about $600 billion of the US gross domestic product and employ 2.7 million people, the overall perception of clients and workers employed in this domain is poor. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to propose recommendations to improve the service quality of insurance companies using the voice of customers and employees that are available online.

The proposed methodology consists of four stages: extracting text reviews posted by employees and customers, reviewing feedback using bigrams and trigrams, determining topics and identifying quality-associated managerial recommendations using the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) and root cause analysis techniques.

Our results indicate that primary causes for client dissatisfaction are improper client assistance services, inefficient claims processing, issues related to payments/fees and unresponsive ancillary services. Offering different types of payment methods, immediate car replacement policy and features such as smartphone applications are commended very well. The major reasons for workforce frustrations include long and overly complex training, lack of social events and incentive programs. Coworkers, workplace facilities, clean work environment and other amenities are shown to have a positive impact on employees' satisfaction level.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to propose recommendations to improve the service quality of insurance companies using the voice of customers and employees that are available online. The proposed quality-related insights can assist insurance companies in improving the outlook of their workers as well as customers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between total quality management (TQM), market orientation and service quality in the Malaysian service industry.

Data from 150 service firms were collected. Structural equation modeling was employed in this study to examine the associations between TQM, market orientation and service quality.

This study provides empirical evidence and confirms findings obtained from previous studies that TQM has a positive and significant relationship with both market orientation and service quality. Moreover, it was discovered that market orientation is also significantly related to service quality.

This research study implies that if firms are not able to comprehend the importance of TQM dimensions, by which the different dimensions of it can influence a firm's performance, they may not succeed in harvesting the full value of market orientation and service quality. Meanwhile, the findings may guide the service practitioners to understand the importance of TQM in their managerial actions in enhancing market orientation and service quality, which serves as a sound foundation for building a distinguished point of differentiation in their services.

Past researchers have not looked into the tri‐dimensional relationship between TQM, market orientation and service quality and hence research is to be called for in this area. The paper provides practitioners with useful guidelines on the appropriate TQM practices to be implemented so that market orientation and the quality of service can be enhanced, creating superior value to the customers in a unique way, which subsequently improves a firm's competitiveness.

Literature refers to the key factors of total quality management (TQM) based on studies carried out in individual countries. However, few studies focus on studying the TQM factors in service companies based on multinational data. The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the key TQM factors and their impact on internal and external customer performance measures across different countries.

The research questions regarding the TQM factors and their effects were examined using a sample of service organisations from three countries (131 from Greece, 70 from Mexico and 151 from Spain). TQM factors and their impact on employee and customer satisfaction were analysed separately for each country. Exploratory factor analyses, coupled with multiple linear regression analyses, were conducted.

The key TQM factors identified are common among the three participating countries and can be summarised as follows: quality practices of top management, process management, employee quality management, customer focus, and employee knowledge and education. The adoption level of these five key factors of TQM varies across service organisations in different countries. The results also confirmed that some of the TQM elements are antecedents of customer- and employee-focused performance.

Multinational service organisations may use such an instrument to evaluate TQM implementation among worldwide operations and then benchmark their performance. In addition, an understanding of similarities and differences among countries would help managers around the world to address difficulties of TQM implementation related to the country culture.

Previous studies have compared key TQM factors across different countries in manufacturing, but overall, there has been a little attempt in the literature to analyse the adoption of TQM factors among service firms, as well the relationships between quality improvement and performance across different geographical regions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for designing a multiple performance measurement tool for evaluating, comparing and benchmarking the working of engineering educational institutes in a group based on total quality management (TQM) criteria and performance measurement criterion, respectively.

Proposed framework is based on fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) which takes in to account the fuzziness of human opinion for realistic outcome and generalization of the results. Based on the proposed framework a case study was conducted on engineering institutes of central India for collecting data and analyzing the current practices followed in these institutes. A relationship among TQM implementation criterion was developed, their respective weights derived and then institutes were ranked.

It was found that the rank of institutions based on both the criterion is same, which indicates that the institutes having better TQM implementation have better performance.

The research in this paper is limited to Indian scenario; studies in other countries and sectors may be conducted to compare the results obtained.

The results will help policy makers in identifying institutions having poor performance in the region.

The paper is navel in its attempt to provide a model based on TQM criteria for evaluating the working of engineering educational institutes in a group in terms of their relative weightage and benchmark.

This study aims to assess the relationships among quality dimensions in higher education (HE) and to determine the effect of each quality dimension on students' satisfaction.

A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 270 final year students of an engineering faculty in an Indonesian state university. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the validity of the conceptual model and structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to measure the relationships that lie within the model.

The study reveals the relationships among quality dimensions in HE in the engineering faculty of this Indonesian state university. The results show that students' satisfaction was positively influenced by commitment of faculty management, the quality of course delivery, and the ease of giving feedback for quality improvement.

This study has limited scope because it was only conducted based on students' perceptions of an engineering faculty in one institution in Indonesia. However, the methods, models and instruments applied could serve as a basis for developing a measurement for evaluating quality in higher education more generally.

The instrument in this study will be useful to help policy makers in engineering HE institutions to assess the level of quality dimensions in their institution and the effectiveness of their quality program based on students' satisfaction. Furthermore, the conceptual relationships model can give deeper understanding of the quality dimensions that should be prioritized by top management. Lastly, top management should pay attention to their commitment to quality, course activities, and customer feedback and improvement.

This research promotes a methodology using SEM to assess relationships among quality dimensions in HE that can be helpful for top management when making decisions. The conceptual relationships model can also be easily reproduced to assess other engineering institutions' characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the critical factors of quality and customer results and also investigate the structure of relationships between the critical factors of quality, in the context of the tourist accommodation sector in Spain.

A theoretical model is proposed together with the hypotheses to be tested and the data obtained in 186 tourist accommodation businesses certified under the “Q for Tourism Quality” are analyzed, with the technique of structural equations models.

The results show that the antecedents of customer results are continuous improvement and quality policy/planning.

The practical implications of this paper focus on providing managers of enterprises of tourist accommodation with variables on which to perform in order to improve customer satisfaction; their leadership and commitment to quality are fundamental in the process of implementing the quality management system, which helps ensure that the company provides a quality service that influences customer satisfaction.

The purpose of this research is to determine a comprehensive coursework for teaching quality management in the universities of developing countries i.e. Pakistan pertinent to the construction industry. Additionally, a framework was also developed based on the results.

Factors and course contents of quality management are extracted through a content analysis of the published literature. Further, a questionnaire survey is conducted involving 150 professionals to assess the requirements of the industry and academic professionals of the construction industry for effective quality management. Finally, for getting a more objective perspective, using quality function deployment (QFD) matrix a framework is developed.

The results show the level of importance of each design requirement. We can identify the design requirements through which we can fulfill the needs and demands of the stakeholders. Contents like benchmarking, supply chain management, six sigma and other data analysis methods, costing and auditing of quality, customer satisfaction analysis, TQM: theory and practices and ISO certification processes and procedures should be included in any course program related to quality management pertinent to the construction industry. Along with these contents, workshops and seminars must be arranged to address the user requirement for increased leadership and communication skills.

There is a lack of literature available on course content for quality management in the universities for the construction sector, therefore, a huge scope of future research in the field of quality management in the construction industry needs to be investigated. This research highlights the most significant quality management factors and course contents as per the requirement of industry professionals. Therefore, this study adds to the existing body of knowledge by developing a robust framework that will help decision-makers and top management to develop constructive quality management course work at university level that will help in producing qualified and trained quality professionals to the construction industry.

The purpose of this article is to investigate whether involved consumers utilize the same set of reference prices to evaluate an offer as compared to those who are less involved. Additionally, this study aims to investigate whether the processes employed in the two groups are different.

A total of 200 students were enrolled to participate in a realistic shopping experience over a two‐week period. In the course of the study, subjects were asked to provide information on their reference prices. They were also asked to evaluate an advertised offer for a pair of jeans. The data were analyzed using a structural equations methodology.

Under high involvement, consumers utilize perceived normal price, an external market‐based reference price, to adjust their internal standards, which in turn is used to evaluate retail price. In contrast, low‐involvement consumers do not use their internal standards. Rather, they evaluate retail prices directly against external market‐based references.

Despite decades of research on the role of reference prices, the moderating role of involvement on reference price utilization has not been researched adequately. The findings reported here add to existing knowledge in the field and shed additional light on the process by which consumers evaluate posted prices. The findings also emphasize the need to segment the market on the basis of reference price utilization and to design appropriate communication strategies for each.

Educational institutes must embrace the principles of total quality management (TQM) if they seek to remain competitive, and survive and succeed in the long run. An educational institution must embrace the principles of quality management and incorporate them into all of their activities. Starting with a theoretical background, the paper outlines the results of a study conducted on both internal and external customers of the educational system, with select engineering and management institutes as foci of study. The study is an attempt toward developing an integrated customer-centric model of quality management in education, through the use of multiple methodologies so as to be able to evaluate service quality; prioritize improvement of service; and guide and develop educational services by incorporating the voice of the customer (VOC). The purpose of this paper is to establish the prioritization for improvement of service design of an educational system through incorporation of the VOC, be it internal or external customers, through the use of multiple methodologies, leading to generalization of results.

The study uses multiple methodologies with various techniques for analysis through the application of the SERVQUAL; quality function deployment (QFD); interpretive structural modeling (ISM); and path analysis. The SERVQUAL was applied to identify the gap and determine the level of service quality. Following this, QFD, ISM and path analysis were used to identify the set of minimum design characteristics/quality components that would meet the requirements the various internal and external customers of the educational system. The QFD was used to identify the set of minimum design characteristics/quality components that meet the requirements of the various internal and external customers of the educational system. The ISM and path analysis were used to identify and prioritize the design characteristics/quality components that would meet the requirements the various internal and external customers of the educational system.

The findings from the various techniques were amalgamated, and proposed as an integrated model of TQM in higher education. The study helped identify with a customer perspective, the quality components which would help design TQM for higher education institutions in India.

The paper could be useful to government bodies, funding agencies, policy makers and administrators in developing a system that could lead to satisfaction of both internal and external customers of the educational system.

The study includes within its scope the varied customers of the educational system, namely, internal and external customers of the educational system; the internal customers being the faculty and the administrative staff, and the external customers being the students and the industry (as the employer). This is yet to be seen in other research studies. Also, the integration of the multiple tools and their application to the field of higher education in India, has not yet been made available in the literature.