Quality Uncertainty and Quality Perception

This chapter links quality perception to quality uncertainty. The extent of information asymmetry or symmetry has been used as the basis for this linkage. Quality uncertainty or perception is viewed from both endogenous and exogenous perspectives. Total Quality Management makes the endogenous side with TQM constructs as endogenous variables, whereas marketing science framework exhibits the exogenous side. Principles of economics of information are implemented to correlate marketing parameters with the TQM practices in industry so that quality is perceived by customers. Quality perception is an outcome of combined probability of information symmetry and TQM. Theories of probability and reliability engineering are used for mathematical modeling and analysis. Fault tree and success tree method is specifically applied to analyze quality uncertainty and quality perception at the market end. Quality uncertainty and perception behaviors are also related to product life cycle. Thus, a new direction has been given to the perceived quality that traversed thus far in different streams.