Quality Consciousness in Japanese and U.S. electronics manufacturers: an examination of the impact of quality strategy and management control systems on perceptions of the importance of quality to expected management rewards

Abstract This study examines the implementation of quality strategies through management control and reward systems in Japan and the U.S. It focuses on electronics manufacturing, an industry in which the Japanese have successfully gained global competitive dominance. The study applies causal modelling methodology and incorporates the effects of company size and management level on quality strategies and the related management control systems for quality. In turn, the impact of these quality strategies and control systems on managers' perceptions of the importance of quality to promotion is explored. Data were gathered from 698 Japanese manufacturing managers in 50 Japanese electronics firms and 789 manufacturing managers in 64 U.S. electronics firms. The results evidence a consistency between quality strategy, management controls and reward systems, especially in the U.S., that support the normative model for strategic control systems.