Showing papers on "Quality (business) published in 1979"
Abstract: Develops a theoretically based system guided by principles of social exchange and administration that ensure high quality surveys at low cost. Presents step-by-step procedures and shows why each step is important. Contains many examples and, where appropriate, contrasts acceptable and unacceptable procedures.
8,640 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1979
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose the Quality Is Free (QF) principle: do things right in the first place, and you won't have to pay to fix them or do them over.
Abstract: Do things right in the first place, and you won't have to pay to fix them or do them over. Whether you manage a large plant or run your own small business, applying this simple principle of quality control will boost your profits and your career. "Quality Is Free" sets forth easy-to-implement programs, using actual case histories to demonstrate just how well quality control works, and providing important tools for success.
2,571 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider markets with asymmetric information and show that quality deterioration in such markets may take place, and they show that this is a general phenomenon in markets with minimum quality constraints.
Abstract: I consider markets with asymmetric information. As suggested by Akerlof, quality deterioration in such markets may take place. I show that this is a general phenomenon. Minimum quality constraints ...
791 citations
266 citations
TL;DR: It is generally accepted that price may enter into the determination of consumers' choice in two ways: as an indicator of cost and as an indicators of quality as discussed by the authors, and it is of considerable analytical convenience to ignore price as a quality indicator.
Abstract: I. Introduction It is generally accepted that price may enter into the determination of consumers' choice in two ways: as an indicator of cost and as an indicator of quality. Contemporary demand theory rests heavily on the first of these two functions while the second tends to be treated as if it were an exceptional and anomalous phenomenon, to be mentioned only in order to be dismissed as unimportant. Indeed, it is of considerable analytical convenience to ignore price as a quality indicator, because if this is not done, the utility function of the individual must be formulated so as to incorporate an additional set of independent variables, namely the prices of all the commodities in the market. The problem is not intrinsically insoluble but it leads to difficulties which can be avoided simply by denying the relevance of this aspect of price.
204 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the quality of strategic planning will be greatly impacted by the quality information in the information in order to improve the quality and efficiency of the information used in the planning process.
Abstract: There has been a dramatic increase in the use of strategic planning tools in the past decade. Since the quality of strategic planning will be greatly impacted by the quality of the information inpu...
176 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that skills in conveying genuine respect and understanding to people in crisis appear to be lacking among professional care givers and inadequate in many individual's social networks.
Abstract: It is suggested that individual differences in reactions to crises depend in part on the variations in social support available to the individual in crisis. A model of the quality of support is derived from research on the effectiveness of interpersonal helping processes. It is predicted that the availability of sources of potential help will be unrelated to crisis outcome, but that the quality of support received will be a determinant of outcome. Different methods of combining measures of the quality of support given by different sources are considered. Data from a controlled trial of crisis interventior, with males hospitalised for treatment of road injuries are used to test the predictions and compare the different scoring methods. The results confirm the predictions that source availability is unrelated to outcome, that source quality is related to outcome, and that crisis intervention has a highly significant effect on the reported quality of support received. Problems in determining the causal direction of the relationships found are discussed, and it is concluded that most probably coping behaviour and support influence each other and jointly determine outcome. It is argued that skills in conveying genuine respect and understanding to people in crisis appear to be lacking among professional care givers and inadequate in many individual's social networks. Action to change this situation is recommended, and the measurement methods reported in the paper offered as a basis for further research, as no other simple generally applicable method has been published with data to substantiate its validity.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that the conditions necessary for effective signalling to emerge may not always be satisfied, and that it is possible to make every agent in the market better off simply by raising the price.
Abstract: A common characteristic of a large class of markets is that one side of the market is more informed than the other about the properties of one of the goods being traded. In some instances, this presents no serious problem. If the informed agents deal on a regular basis with the less-informed agents (for example, local grocers, barbers), there may be little incentive for the informed agents to take advantage of their superior information. In other cases, the problem may be avoided if it is profitable for specialists (or some government agency) to provide the information at a relatively low cost (for example, credit agencies, Consumer Reports). Frequently, however, these kinds of market responses provide at best a partial reduction in the informational asymmetry. There may still be substantial benefits to the less-informed agents from acquiring more information. How the market will respond under these circumstances has been the focus of much recent research. Most of the attention, however, has been directed at examining the possibility that a signalling convention will emerge. The essential idea is that sellers of high quality products may choose contracts or invest in observable characteristics which distinguish their products from those of lower quality. Although I believe that signalling is an important and pervasive phenomenon, the conditions necessary for effective signalling to emerge may not always be satisfied. It is important, therefore, that we understand how the allocation of goods is affected in the absence of signalling, when the only variable that agents may use to distinguish quality is the price. This paper provides an overview of some of my recent research on this question. My investigation begins with a welfare analysis of the Walrasian equilibrium. Specifically, the question is whether or not it is necessarily desirable for trade to take place at a price which clears the market. My analysis indicates that it is not. Under some conditions, it may be possible to make every agent in the market better off simply by raising the price. Besides generating some obvious policy implications, this result also suggests that the Walrasian equilibrium may not always be the appropriate equilibrium concept for this model. In a market with homogeneous goods, it is generally argued that independently of how the prices are set, as long as there is a large number of buyers and sellers, competitive pressures will force the price toward a stable Walrasian equilibrium. When an adverse selection problem appears, however, the possibility that some buyers may prefer a price higher than the one which clears the market casts some doubt as to whether such pressures will still be present. It is no longer obvious that the market will clear or even that all trade will take place at a single price. These points can be conveniently illustrated using George Akerlof's model of the used car market. There is a set of cars of varying quality q distributed over an interval [ql, q2] with densityf (q). Each agent in the economy has an identical utility function u(c, q; t) = c + tq where c is consumption of other goods, q is the quality of car he consumes, and t is a parameter equal to his marginal rate of substitution of car quality for consumption. (If an agent does not consume a car, q may be set equal to zero.) The set of agents can be divided into two subsets, those that initially own exactly one car and those that own none. Each owner has the same utility parameter, t = 1; for the nonowners, however, t is distributed continuously over some interval [tl, t2] with density h(t). As long as each owner can directly identify the quality of his own car, the supply curve will have the usual positive slope. A utility maximizing owner with a car of quality q will sell at price p if and only if q _ p. As the price rises, therefore, more cars will be supplied. If *Department of economics, University of Wisconsin. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant SOC-77-08568.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The authors analyzes a monopolist's quality and advertising policies and evaluates their social optimality, and finds that advertising may profitably mislead consumers, at least in the short run, even when information is untrue.
Abstract: This article analyzes a monopolist's quality and advertising policies and evaluates their social optimality. Our model considers a rational, though not fully informed, consumer who holds prior perceptions about aspects of quality, which determine his purchase pattern. These quality perceptions constitute the product's goodwill. Differences between expected and experienced quality lead to reevaluation of expectations. Monopolists affect these perceptions, and hence build up goodwill, by advertising and quality attribute variations. These affect consumer welfare directly and indirectly by their informational content. We find that advertising may profitably mislead, at least in the short run. Although the welfare effects of a monopolist's quality and advertising policies are not generally determinate, even when information is untrue, we are able to evaluate the welfare determinants of advertising policy from an objective standard and to specify some of the conditions under which advertising is socially excessive.
TL;DR: A critical review of empiric studies that investigated associations between characteristics of physicians and medical care institutions and some measure of the quality of medical care given by them and derives a list of 14 which appear to be the best choice of indicators on which further research might focus.
Abstract: This article is a critical review of empiric studies, in the medical care literature of the past two decades, that investigated associations between characteristics of physicians and medical care institutions and some measure of the quality of medical care given by them. The intention is to identify those characteristics of physicians and medical care institutions which can be considered the best indicators of the quality of performance to be expected, given the present state of knowledge. The analysis discusses 18 such characteristics but derives a list of 14 which appear to be the best choice of indicators on which further research might focus. It would be possible to design a survey instrument based on these characteristics, which, if upheld by empiric testing, could serve as a crude assessment tool for third parties needing to make quality comparisons between medical care institutions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the relationship between price and a measure of product quality for 679 brands in forty packaged food product classes over a fifteen year period and found that the correlation between quality and price for packaged food products is near zero.
Abstract: Prior investigations have indicated that relationships between price and product quality are considerably weaker for non-durables than for durables. Among non-durables, packaged food products frequently have exhibited the poorest correspondence between price and quality. This study, utilizing data from Consumers Union, analyzes the relationships between price and a measure of product quality for 679 brands in forty packaged food product classes over a fifteen year period. The study generally confirms earlier preliminary conclusions that the correlation between quality and price for packaged food products is near zero. In addition, the findings indicate that convenience foods, particularly frozen foods, display the poorest correspondence between price and product quality with more than 43 percent of all frozen food product classes exhibiting negative relationships between price and product quality. Some possible explanations for these findings and their implications for public policy are advanced.
TL;DR: In this paper, a decision model was used to investigate the ways in which shoppers process information about grocery stores and found that respondents are primarily concerned with quality and price of merchandise and that behavior is directly linked to derived utility measures.
Abstract: Empirical testing of a decision model yields insights concerning the ways in which shoppers process information about grocery stores. Confirming hypotheses from the literature on consumer preferences, the results show that respondents are primarily concerned with quality and price of merchandise and that behavior is directly linked to derived utility measures. Clustering of the subjects discloses subtle differences among consumer groups in their approaches to evaluating the attributes of grocery stores.
TL;DR: Results of experiments reported here suggest that radio advertisers might achieve a heightened impact, and require less time for their messages, if they use electronic speech compression.
Abstract: It is now possible, using electronic techniques, to speed up a radio commercial without a perceptible change in general voice quality. Results of experiments reported here suggest that radio advert...
TL;DR: The group decision making approaches investigated utilized a problem requiring high technical quality and high participant acceptance for the successful solution, with a leader skill oriented approach.
Abstract: The group decision making approaches investigated utilized a problem requiring high technical quality and high participant acceptance for the successful solution. A leader skill oriented approach (...
TL;DR: In this paper, an economic analysis of the effect of market structure on the supply of reliability and warranty is examined; it is found that a monopolist will not alter the levels of these variables compared to the competitive market solution.
Abstract: Modern society offers consumers a wide variety of durable goods which possess complex characteristics. These characteristics are imbedded in the products and affect the flow of services provided. Safety, durability, and reliability are important examples of such characteristics. Because of the technical complexity of many modern consumer goods, these quality features display differences. Also, because of the inherent complexity of the service provided by some consumer goods, the performance of any product is difficult to assess and is partly the consequence of individual actions. As a result, evaluation of these characteristics is a costly process and in a given market situation information will be "imperfect." There have been three types of responses to this problem. The first is to legislate minimum quality features, as the FDA has done. This paper presents an economic analysis of warranties when consumer information regarding product liability is imperfect. It deals specifically with the supply of reliability and its relationship with voluntary liability (warranty). The market system generally provides a more appropriate solution than is usually thought of. Even though some difficulties are still present, their nature is such that regulation may not be necessary and the supply of additional information may produce adverse effects. The effect of market structure on the supply of reliability and warranty is examined; it is found that a monopolist will not alter the levels of these variables compared to the competitive market solution. Finally, while a market solution does not produce unambiguous results, the preliminary empirical evidence presented suggests that market forces alone may bring optimality. * This paper is based on research conducted in association with the Center for Policy Alternatives, Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a grant from the National Science Foundation's Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) program. Additional support was provided by the Consumers and Corporate Affairs Department of the government of Canada. The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for Policy Alternatives, the National Science Foundation, or the Canadian government. We are indebted to Keith Bryant, Stewart Butler, Marshall Freimer, Jennifer Gerner, Walter Oi, John Pettengill, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
TL;DR: In this article, the applicability of the Nominal Grouping Technique (NGT) to a structured problem was investigated, and the NGT and interacting consensus groups were compared on the criteria of decision quality, utilization of best resource, and improvement in quality over average-member decision quality.
Abstract: The applicability of the Nominal Grouping Technique (NGT) to a structured problem was investigated. NGT and interacting consensus groups were compared on the criteria of decision quality, utilization of best resource, and improvement in quality over average-member decision quality. Nominal groups' decisions were significantly (p = .005) better than those of interacting groups on all three criteria. Problems with criteria assessment in unstructured tasks were discussed, as were the implications of the present study for prescriptions for NGT use.
01 Jan 1979
TL;DR: A comparison of the quality of decision making and the power of search on game trees shows that the former is significantly more important than the latter.
Abstract: Computer Science) QUALITY OF DECISION VERSUS DEPTH OF SEARCH ON GAME TREES by Dana S. Nau Department of Computer Science Duke University
Posted Content•
TL;DR: A broad range of social assessments, emerging under a variety of labels including: evaluation research, social impact analysis, and quality of life accounts, have been proposed in recent years as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In recent years there has been a growing awareness that administrative policy formulations and subsequent performance evaluations cannot rely solely upon economic analysis (e.g., cost-benefit assessments). This realization has produced a broad range of social assessments, emerging under a variety of labels including: evaluation research, social impact analysis, and qualityof-life accounts. Within the context of these social assessments, there is an increased emphasis on subjective indices (e.g., citizen preferences) as well as objective indices (e.g., physical characteristics). As Mark Schneider suggests, subjective measures may be more important than objective measures when assessing the general quality of life.1 While the physical dimensions of a given policy or service industry can be measured through a variety of empirical devices, subjective measurement normally entails some sort of direct contact with the public at large. This contact might involve public hearings, workshops, and/or policy delphi techniques; however, the most direct and potentially the most representative device for subjective assessment is survey research. Thomas Heberlein explains: