Quality in the marketplace:: A theoretical and empirical investigation

Quality is an ambiguous concept. Though a number of authors have contributed with both classifications and definitions of the quality concept there is still considerable confusion about the application of quality. In this article, quality is seen in the context of the essential transformation problem which may exist between the supplier and the customer. On this basis, a common frame of reference for dealing with the concept of quality is proposed. It is further underlined that it is vital for a succesful implementation of TQM for there to be a correspondence between the suppliers' and their customers' interpretations of quality. The performance of a quantitative study indicates, however, that suppliers may use the concept of quality in an inconsistent way when dealing with the concept in the marketplace.

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