Showing papers on "Quality (business) published in 1998"

Are nonfinancial measures leading indicators of financial performance? An analysis of customer satisfaction

Abstract: This paper examines three questions on the value relevance of customer satisfaction measures: (1) Are customer satisfaction measures leading indicators of accounting performance? (2) Is the economic value of customer satisfaction (fully) reflected in contemporaneous accounting book values? And (3) Does the release of customer satisfaction measures provide new or incremental information to the stock market? Many argue that improvements in areas such as quality, customer or employee satisfaction, and innovation represent investments in firm-specific assets that are not fully captured in current accounting measures. According to these authors, nonfinancial indicators of investments in "intangible" assets may be better predictors of future financial (i.e., accounting or stock price) performance than historical accounting measures, and should supplement financial measures in internal accounting systems (e.g., Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International [1994] and Kaplan and Norton [1996]).

Quality and quality changes in fresh fish

Abstract: Aquatic resources and their utilization biological aspects chemical composition post-mortem changes in fish quality and shelf life of chilled fish improved fish handling methods assessment of fish quality assurance of fresh fish quality.

Investigating drivers of bank loyalty: the complex relationship between image, service quality and satisfaction

Abstract: This article investigates how image, perceived service quality and satisfaction determine loyalty in a retail bank setting at the global construct level, as well as the level of construct dimensions. At the global level the results of a large‐scale empirical study reveal that image is indirectly related to bank loyalty via perceived quality. In turn, service quality is both directly and indirectly related to bank loyalty via satisfaction. The latter has a direct effect on bank loyalty. At the level of the dimensions underlying aforementioned constructs, it becomes clear that reliability (a quality dimension) and position in the market (an image dimension) are relatively important drivers of retail bank loyalty.

Multidimensional Uncertainty and Herd Behavior in Financial Markets

Abstract: The authors study the relationship between asset prices and herd behavior, which occurs when traders follow the trend in past trades. When traders have private information on only a single dimension of uncertainty (the effect of a shock to the asset value), price adjustments prevent herd behavior. Herding arises when there are two dimensions of uncertainty (the existence and effect of a shock), but it need not distort prices because the market discounts the informativeness of trades during herding. With a third dimension of uncertainty (the quality of traders' information), herd behavior can lead to a significant, short-run mispricing. Copyright 1998 by American Economic Association.

The Role of Relationship Quality in the Stratification of Vendors as Perceived by Customers

Abstract: Companies implement preferred supplier programs to reduce their vendor relationships to a reasonable few. Consequently, vendors who do not effectively manage their customer-based relationships are strong candidates for deletion from a customer’s list of long-term suppliers. The emergence of preferred supplier programs suggests that businesses are beginning to formally recognize and reward differences between their qualified vendors. Vendor stratification is proposed as a framework for understanding the evolution of preferred vendor programs. With the growing interest in relationship marketing, a study was conducted to empirically examine the extent to which businesses use relationship quality perceptions to differentiate their qualified vendors. The findings support the notion that relationship quality is a higher-order construct that can be used as a basis for developing vendor stratification systems. The article concludes with a discussion of the managerial and research implications of the study findings.

Quality and Competition

Abstract: In recent years, the practitioner literature in operations management has seen a dramatic surge in articles on quality management. It reflects the increased emphasis on quality by U.S. firms, which has been attributed largely to increased competition faced by them. The question of how quality is influenced by competitive intensity, however, has not received much attention, either in the practitioner or the academic research literatures. The notion of competitive intensity itself has not been defined precisely. In this paper, we develop formal models of oligopolistic competition to investigate whether equilibrium levels of quality increase as competition intensifies. We consider three different competitive settings: (i) asymmetric duopolistic competition where the dominant firm's intrinsic demand potential decreases; (ii) a symmetric duopoly where the firms are precluded from cooperating in setting quality levels; and (iii) symmetric oligopolistic competition where the number of firms increases. We find that the relation between equilibrium quality and competitive intensity depends on what is understood by increased competition and, in addition, the relation is contingent on the values of parameters describing the cost and demand structure for the industry.

Agile manufacturing: enablers and an implementation framework

Abstract: Tougher competitive situations have led to increasing attention being paid to customer satisfaction, of which timely and customized services are the key concepts. As the product life cycle becomes shortened, high product quality becomes necessary for survival. Markets become highly diversified and global, and continuous and unexpected change become the key factors for success. The need for a method of rapidly and cost-effectively developing products, production facilities and supporting software, including design, process planning and shop floor control system has led to the concept of agile manufacturing. Agile manufacturing can be defined as the capability to survive and prosper in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets, driven by customer-designed products and services. This article details the key concepts and enablers of agile manufacturing. The key enablers of agile manufacturing include: (i) virtual enterprise formati...

An analysis of the supplier selection process

Abstract: Customers select suppliers based on the relative importance of different attributes such as quality, price, flexibility, and delivery performance. This study examines the difference between managers' rating of the perceived importance of different supplier attributes and their actual choice of suppliers in an experimental setting. We use two methods: a Likert scale set of questions, to determine the importance of supplier attributes; and a discrete choice analysis (DCA) experiment, to examine the choice of suppliers. The results indicate that although managers say that quality is the most important attribute for a supplier, they actually choose suppliers based largely on cost and delivery performance.

Causal Linkages in Supply Chain Management: An Exploratory Study of North American Manufacturing Firms

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the key causal linkages in supply chain management. We propose a conceptual framework and test this framework on data from 215 North American manufacturing firms using structural equation modeling techniques. Three major research issues are addressed in this study: Do sourcing decisions affect the degree to which firms achieve manufacturing goals of cost, flexibility, dependability, and quality? Does the degree of manufacturing goal achievement lead to higher customer responsiveness? Does the degree of manufacturing goal achievement lead to higher internal manufacturing performance? The study examines the relationship among sourcing decisions, manufacturing goals, customer responsiveness, and manufacturing performance. The results support the notion that an integrated supply chain involves aligning sourcing decisions to achieve manufacturing goals that are set to respond favorably to the needs of customers.

Competitive Priorities in Operations Management

Abstract: Identifying manufacturers' competitive priorities has long been considered a key element in manufacturing strategy research However, relatively little effort has been devoted to measurement of these constructs in published research In this study we develop scales for commonly accepted competitive priorities, cost importance, quality importance, delivery-time importance, and flexibility importance We assess how well the scales capture the constructs that they represent using data collected from 114 manufacturing plants in the United States The findings suggest that the instrument developed can provide reliable data and that the constructs measured are valid In addition, comparisons between pairs of informants representing the same business indicate that the perceptual measures of competitive priorities are as reliable as point estimates of routine, seemingly objective information

What are quality of life measurements measuring

Abstract: It is now widely acknowledged that the personal burden of illness cannot be described fully by measures of disease status such as size of infarction, tumour load, and forced expiratory volume. Psychosocial factors such as pain, apprehension, restricted mobility and other functional impairments, difficulty fulfilling personal and family responsibilities, financial burden, and diminished cognition must also be encompassed. The area of research that has resulted from this recognition is termed “health related quality of life.” It moves beyond direct manifestations of illness to study the patient9s personal morbidity—that is, the various effects that illnesses and treatments have on daily life and life satisfaction. Although quality of life assessment was almost unknown 15 years ago, it has rapidly become an integral variable of outcome in clinical research; over 1000 new articles each year are indexed under “quality of life.” Although the importance of quality of life is broadly acknowledged, scepticism and confusion remain about how quality of life should be measured and its usefulness in medical research. These responses may reflect important conceptual and methodological limitations of the current concept of quality of life. We offer a simple framework that describes the core elements of quality of life related to health and use this to evaluate quality of life measurement as it is currently conducted. Summary points Measures of disease status alone are insufficient to describe the burden of illness; quality of life factors such as pain, apprehension, depressed mood, and functional impairment must also be considered Two operational definitions of quality of life are identified—objective functioning and subjective wellbeing Assessments of objective functioning and subjective wellbeing convey different information, they also present different problems in relation to validation Assessment of functioning derived from questionnaires must be validated against measures of directly observed behavioural performance Subjective appraisal of wellbeing may be influenced substantially by psychological factors unrelated to health or to changes over time in patients9 criteria for appraising wellbeing Whether and how quality of life researchers respond to these obstacles and deficiencies will probably determine the quality of their work in the future

An Empirical Analysis of Umbrella Branding

Abstract: In this article, the author studies the processes by which consumers’ quality perceptions of a brand in a product category are affected by their experience with the same brand in a different catego...

Towards quality management of medical information on the internet: evaluation, labelling, and filtering of information.

Abstract: # Towards quality management of medical information on the internet: evaluation, labelling, and filtering of information {#article-title-2} The principal dilemma of the internet is that, while its anarchic nature is desirable for fostering open debate without censorship, this raises questions about the quality of information available, which could inhibit its usefulness. While the internet allows “medical minority interest groups to access information of critical interest to them so that morbidity in these rare conditions can be lessened,”1 it also gives quacks such as the “cancer healer” Ryke Geerd Hamer a platform (http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/3374/index.htm).2–4 Quality is defined as “the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs.”5 For quality to be evaluated, these needs have to be defined and translated into a set of quantitatively or qualitatively stated requirements for the characteristics of an entity that reflect the stated and implied needs. So how can we define consumers' “needs” in the case of medical information on the internet? The quality of medical information is particularly important because misinformation could be a matter of life or death.6 Thus, studies investigating the “quality of medical information” on the various internet venues—websites,7 mailing lists and newsgroups, 8 9 and in email communication between patients and doctors10—are mostly driven by the concern of possible endangerment for patients by low quality medical information. Thus, quality control measures should aim for the Hippocratic injunction “first, do no harm.” Most papers published so far about the problem of quality of medical internet information focus on assessing reliability, but, as box 1 shows, this should be only one aspect of quality measures aiming for “first, do no harm.” Another should be to provide context. Although these two problems are different in nature and different measures may be proposed to solve them, we discuss a common measure that could … Correspondence to: Dr Bonati

Optimal Histograms with Quality Guarantees

Abstract: 1 Introduction Histograms are commonly used to capture attribute value distribution statistics for query optimizers. More recently, histograms have also been considered as a way to produce quick approximate answers to decision support queries. This widespread interest in histograms motivates the problem of computing his-tograms that are good under a given error metric. In particular, we are interested in an efficient algorithm for choosing the bucket boundaries in a way that either minimizes the estimation error for a given amount of space (number of buckets) or, conversely, minimizes the space needed for a given upper bound on the error. Under the assumption that finding optimal bucket boundaries is computationally inefficient, previous research has focused on heuristics with no provable bounds on the quality of the solutions. In this paper, we present algorithms for computing optimal bucket boundaries in time proportional to the square of the number of distinct data values, for a broad class of optimality metrics. This class includes the V-Optimality constraint, which has been shown to result in the most accurate histograms for several selectivity estimation problems. Through experiments , we show that optimal histograms can achieve substantially lower estimation errors than histograms produced by popular heuristics. We also present new heuristics with provably good space-accuracy trade-offs that are significantly faster than the optimal algorithm. Finally, we present an enhancement to traditional histograms that allows us to provide quality guarantees on individual selectivity estimates. In our experiments, these quality guarantees were highly effective in isolating outliers in selectivity estimates. It is often the case that a data set cannot be stored or processed in its entirety; only a summarized form is stored. A typical way in which data is summarized is by means of a histogram. The summarized data can be used to answer various kinds of queries, in the same way the original data would have been used. The answer obtained is not exact but approximate, and contains an error due to the information lost when the data was summarized. This error can be measured according to some appropriate metric such as the maximum , average, or mean squared error of the estimate. This basic idea has long been used in a database context to estimate the result sizes of relational operators for the purpose of cost-based query optimization. The objective is to approximate the data distribution of the values in a column, and to use that …

What Caused the Asian Currency and Financial Crisis? Part I: A Macroeconomic Overview

Abstract: The paper explores the view that the Asian currency and financial crises in 1997 and 1998 reflected structural and policy distortions in the countries of the region, even if market overreaction and herding caused the plunge of exchange rates, asset prices, and economic activity to be more severe than warranted by the initial weak economic conditions. The first part of the paper provides an overview of economic fundamentals in Asia on the eve of the crisis, with emphasis on current account imbalances, quantity and quality of financial overlending,' banking problems, and composition, maturity and size of capital inflows.

Marketing service relationships: the role of commitment

Abstract: As with all relationships, it is commonly agreed on that partners in business must have a high degree of commitment towards their relationship. If commitment is lacking, the relationship will soon come to an end. Affective commitment, that is commitment based on attraction between partners, is to be preferred over calculative commitment. The latter form of commitment is based on constant weighing of the benefits of a relationship with a partner against the costs of that relationship. Relationships based solely on calculative commitment are also most likely not to last for an extended time. This paper identifies theoretical antecedents and consequences of commitment in relationships in a services context. The results of an empirical study reveal that affective commitment is related to trust in the partner’s honesty and benevolence, quality of the outcome of the service process, and customer satisfaction with the service being delivered. The quality of the service process has an indirect effect on affective commitment, as it is related to satisfaction. Furthermore, it is shown that affectively committed customers have a much stronger intention to stay in a relationship with a service provider than calculatively committed customers.

Quality Health Outcomes Model

Abstract: Purpose: Donabedian's 1966 framework of structure, process, and outcome has guided three decades of study in the United States of the elements needed to evaluate and compare medical care quality. Donabedian's perspective was essentially linear, assuming that structures affect processes, which in turn affect outcomes. Patient characteristics are sometimes considered as mediating outcomes and clinical interventions are considered to be processes. A model is presented in the following article that relates multiple factors affecting quality of care to desired outcomes. It extends previous models by positing dynamic relationships with indicators that not only act upon, but reciprocally affect the various components. Scope and Sources: The proposed model was derived from a synthesis of the authors' experience in quality of care practice and research, as well as selected previous theories. Conclusions: The quality health outcomes model is sufficiently broad (a) to guide development of databases for quality improvement and outcomes management, (b) to suggest key variables in clinical intervention research, and (c) to provide a framework for outcomes research and outcomes management that compares not only treatment options, but organizational or system level interventions. The model also has several policy implications.

The Development and Testing of a Measure of Skepticism Toward Environmental Claims in Marketers' Communications

Abstract: With the growth of public concern about the environment and business response to this concern, the 1990s has been declared the decade of environmentalism (Drumwright 1994; Kangun, Carlson, and Grove 1991). Roper's national opinion poll on attitudes toward the environment shows that the majority of Americans regard a number of issues as "very serious," including industrial water and air pollution, destruction of ozone and rain forests, industrial accidents, oil spills, and hazardous waste (Roper Starch Worldwide 1996). Many people believe that businesses should play a major role in confronting these issues, as evidenced by a national Cone/Roper survey on cause-related marketing (Cone Communications Press Release 1994) where they found that quality of the environment ranked second only to crime among issues businesses should work hardest on solving. Response to this public concern is indicated by the dramatic increase in the number of "green" product introductions between 1985 and 1990 (Drumwright 1994). Furthermore, there is evidence that more marketers are making environmental claims about their products. For example, Mayer, Gray-Lee, Scammon, and Cude's (1996) audit of grocery store products across the United States uncovered environmental product or package claims, either explicit or implied, for 66 percent of the 397 brands they audited. In spite of the apparent proliferation of green marketing, however, actual consumer purchasing has lagged behind verbally-expressed concern for the environment (Mayer, Scammon, and Gray-Lee 1993; Shrum, McCarty, and Lowrey 1995). One reason for this lack of consumer responsiveness may be the confusion about and skepticism toward green marketing communications (Gray-Lee, Scammon, and Mayer 1994), possibly spawned by distrust for advertising in general. For instance, 72 percent of the respondents in a consumer panel study of attitudes toward television advertising indicated that less than one-quarter of TV ads are honest and credible (Mittal 1994). Gray-Lee, Scammon, and Mayer (1993) argue that the nature of environmental claims makes these communications especially likely to mislead consumers. In support of this argument, Moore's (1993) in-depth interviews with consumers found pervasive distrust of marketing "hype," leading respondents to perceive little association between "green" products and helping the environment. To the extent that consumers do not believe the environmental benefits touted in ads and on product labels, the costs of both developing and communicating the benefits of these new or improved "green" products are wasted. Furthermore, consumers who are skeptical of such marketing claims may inadvertently forego the chance to help the environment by purchasing genuinely beneficial or less harmful products. These arguments have lead some to assert that consumer distrust of advertising and other forms of marketing communications reduces marketplace efficiencies (c.f. Pollay and Mittal 1993). On the other hand, the Federal Trade Commission and other public policy and consumer groups, who are concerned with the potential to mislead consumers, argue that skepticism provides consumers with a "healthy" viewpoint from which to make product evaluations. They also suggest that skepticism should be enhanced through education and training. From a public policy standpoint, a desired state for consumers is that they are skeptical in those areas where there is greater potential to mislead and less skeptical in areas where there is less potential to mislead. When this is not the situation, then public policy action in the form of additional regulation or consumer education may be called for. In 1992 the Federal Trade Commission issued guidelines for the use of environmental marketing claims (FTC News 1992; Federal Trade Commission 1992). The guides were intended to reduce confusion by helping consumers understand the basis for environmental claims, to increase consumer confidence in such claims so they would be more likely to make product comparisons and choices using environmental criteria, and to enable consumers to use the power of the marketplace to achieve environmental goals. …

Principles for Constructing Web Surveys

Abstract: Summary and Conclusions Use of the World Wide Web to conduct surveys provides enormous opportunities as well aschallenges. The cost advantages of collecting large amounts of data at very little cost means thatits use will escalate rapidly. At the same time, maintaining quality, whereby the results ofsurveys can be generalized to a large population is far from automatic.Respondent-friendly questionnaire design, found important to improving response to self-administered mail questionnaires, is also important for the development of web questionnaires.However, in a web context the term takes on a broader meaning. A respondent-friendly webquestionnaire is one that interfaces effectively with the wide variety of computers and browserspossessed by respondents. It also makes other aspects of the response task easy and interestingfor the respondent to complete. Respondent-friendly designed is aimed explicitly at reducingthree of the four types of error that typically prevent accurate surveys from being done, i.e.,nonresponse, measurement, and coverage of the survey population.Three important criteria for achieving respondent-friendly design have been stated. Theyinclude, first, compliancy with technology available to the respondent. If a browser cannotrecognize the programmed information being sent to it, the respondent cannot receive it.Questionnaires that use advanced programming that takes longer transmission times and requiresmore advanced browsers may result in unintended coverage and nonresponse error. A secondcriterion is the necessity of bridging between the logic by which respondents expect a question-naire to operate and the logic associated with operating a computer. It’s this connection thatprovides a questionnaire design challenge not previously faced by survey methodologists. Inaddition to these criteria, web designers must also consider the high likelihood that coverageproblems will require that most quality web surveys, for the foreseeable future, will require themixing of survey modes, whereby some respondents are surveyed by mail or telephone whileothers are surveyed via the web.

Is Health Care Ready for Six Sigma Quality

Abstract: Serious, widespread problems exist in the quality of U.S. health care: too many patients are exposed to the risks of unnecessary services; opportunities to use effective care are missed; and preventable errors lead to injuries. Advanced practitioners of industrial quality management, like Motorola and General Electric, have committed themselves to reducing the frequency of defects in their business processes to fewer than 3.4 per million, a strategy known as Six Sigma Quality. In health care, quality problems frequently occur at rates of 20 to 50 percent, or 200,000 to 500,000 per million. In order to approach Six Sigma levels of quality, the health care sector must address the underlying causes of error and make important changes: adopting new educational models; devising strategies to increase consumer awareness; and encouraging public and private investment in quality improvement.

Measuring customer satisfaction in higher education

Abstract: Evaluates a methodology which was developed to measure student satisfaction with significant components of the service experience delivered to students at Edge Hill University College. Uses a questionnaire‐based survey to collect information on student satisfaction. The methodology has two unique features: the Student Charter informed the survey design; and student responses were collected electronically through on‐screen questionnaires accessible over an intranet. Outcomes suggest that there remains some resistance to the completion of an electronic questionnaire and both paper and electronic versions are likely to continue to be necessary in order to achieve optimum response rates. The methodology has identified specific aspects of the service experience where there was either an absence of student satisfaction or the level of student satisfaction was variable. These aspects have been further explored with focus groups and fed into the quality plan for the college. A “negative quality” model is proposed which may offer a framework for response to different types of feedback from students.

Quality of care from the patients' perspective: from theoretical concept to a new measuring instrument

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Patient views on quality of care are of paramount importance with respect to the implementation of quality assurance (QA) and improvement (QI) programmes. However, the relevance of patient satisfaction studies is often questioned because of conceptual and methodological problems. Here, it is our belief that a different strategy is necessary. OBJECTIVE: To develop a conceptual framework for measuring quality of care seen through the patients' eyes, based on the existing literature on consumer satisfaction in health care and business research. RESULTS: Patient or consumer satisfaction is regarded as a multidimensional concept, based on a relationship between experiences and expectations. However, where most health care researchers tend to concentrate on the result, patient (dis)satisfaction, a more fruitful approach is to look at the basic components of the concept: expectations (or 'needs') and experiences. A conceptual framework - based on the sequence performance, importance, impact - and quality judgements of different categories of patients derived from importance and performance scores of different health care aspects, is elaborated upon and illustrated with empirical evidence. CONCLUSIONS: The new conceptual model, with quality of care indices derived from importance and performance scores, can serve as a framework for QA and QI programmes from the patients' perspective. For selecting quality of care aspects, a category-specific approach is recommended including the use of focus group discussions.

Improving the Quality of Private Sector Delivery of Public Health Services: Challenges and Strategies

Abstract: Despite significant successes in controlling a number of communicable diseases in low and middle income countries, important challenges remain, one being that a large proportion of patients with conditions of public health significance, such as tuberculosis, malaria, or sexually transmitted diseases, seek care in the largely unregulated 'for profit' private sector. Private providers (PPs) often offer services which are perceived by users to be more attractive. However, the available evidence suggests that serious deficiencies in technical quality are often present. Evaluations of interventions to promote evidence-based care in high income countries have shown that multi-faceted strategies which increase provider knowledge have had some success in improving service quality. A wider range of factors needs to be considered in low and middle income countries (LMICs), especially factors which contribute to discrepancies between provider knowledge and practice. Studies have shown that PPs, especially, perceive or experience patient and community pressures to provide inappropriate treatments. LMIC governments also lack the capacity to enforce regulatory controls. Context-specific multi-faceted strategies are needed, including the local adaptation and dissemination to providers of relevant evidence, the education of patients and communities to adopt effective treatment-seeking and treatment-taking behaviour, and feasible mechanisms for ensuring and monitoring service quality, which may include a role for self-regulation by provider organizations or provider accreditation. Developing, implementing and evaluating strategies to improve the quality of service provision will depend on the involvement of the key stakeholders, including policy makers and PPs. Focusing on studies from Asia, Africa and Latin America, this paper develops a model for identifying the influences on PPs, mainly private medical practitioners, in their management of conditions of public health significance. Based on this, multi-faceted strategies for improving the quality of treatment provision are suggested. Interventions need to be inexpensive, practical, efficient, effective and sustainable over the medium to long term. Achieving this is a significant challenge.

Smaller enterprises’ experiences with ISO 9000

Abstract: Discusses the experience of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with ISO 9000 series certification, based on the results of a Western Australian questionnaire survey. It explores issues ranging from why certification was sought, the benefits derived and disappointments. Also examines the problems encountered by SMEs and how they dealt with them. Comparisons are made between those SMEs perceiving more success with ISO 9000 series certification and those which do not. Findings suggest that SMEs are experiencing mixed results from ISO 9000 series certification. Some are reporting considerable internal benefits while many are not experiencing external benefits. An encouraging outcome is that a number of SMEs see ISO 9000 series certification as a useful first step in the quality journey with a view to moving forward in the direction of a broader quality management approach.

Manage Your Information as a Product

Abstract: While many managers believe that quality information is key to their success, few act on the belief. With the help of four case examples, the authors demonstrate the need for companies to treat information as a product for customers rather than as a by-product of the systems or the events that produce the information. They present four principles that together form the keystone on which the delivery of high-quality information depends: 1. Understand consumers' needs. Consumer needs must be clearly established and understood during every phase of the information product's development and manufacture. 2. Manage the information production process. The process must be well defined and contain adequate controls, including quality assurance, inspection, and production and delivery time management. 3. Manage the life cycle of information products. The degree and frequency of changes to information products depend on the type and nature of the information, the tasks the information supports, and the changing context in which the information is used. 4. Appoint an information product manager. The IPM's key responsibility is to coordinate and manage the suppliers of raw information, the producers of deliverable information, and the information consumers. The IPM must apply an integrated, cross-functional approach. As the four case examples illustrate, failure to abide by these principles can raise costs, lower quality, and jeopardize a company's competitive position. Adopting an information-as-product approach enables companies to discover new opportunities, exploit those opportunities, and deploy the resulting applications for enhanced profitability, competitive advantage, and market dominance.

The European organization for research and treatment of cancer approach to developing questionnaire modules: an update and overview

Abstract: The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Study Group has adopted a modular approach to quality of life (QoL) assessment in cancer clinical trials. The core instrument (the EORTC QLQ-C30) covers a range of QoL issues relevant to a broad spectrum of patients with cancer. The QLQ-C30 is designed to be supplemented by more specific subscales ('modules') to assess aspects of QoL of particular importance to specific subgroups of patients. Since individual members of the study group were to be involved in module development, guidelines were established. The primary aim of these guidelines was to standardize the module development process in order to ensure uniformly high quality across modules. This paper gives an update of the work completed to date. First, while the guidelines proved practical for module development, producing modules that exhibit adequate levels of psychometric and cross-cultural validity, experience pointed to three areas where the guidelines required more precision. These amendments will be provided and include (1) stricter monitoring of the developmental process from within the study group, (2) the explicit requirement of involvement of the study group and (3) a more precise definition of the criteria to be fulfilled before modules are allowed to be called 'EORTC modules'. Second, an overview of the modules currently under development or available for general use is provided. These modules include those for body image, high-dose chemotherapy, leukaemia, myeloma, palliative care and the following cancers: bladder, brain, breast, colorectal, head and neck, lung, oesophageal, ophthalmic, ovarian, pancreas and prostate. Finally, the need for the coordination of efforts in module development, both from within and outside the EORTC, is discussed.