Quality management and collective mind: investigating university R&D from a group focus

ABSTRACT

This article analyses how Quality Management (QM) practices moderate the relationship between collective mind (CM), and knowledge transfer (KT) and absorption in university research and development (R&D) groups. The data are taken from 257 R&D groups in different Spanish universities. The findings show that the relationship between CM and KT is significant when QM is included as a moderating variable because QM permits better communication and fosters stronger ties between group members. In the case of knowledge absorption (KA), however, QM does not have a significant effect. The final section presents the study's conclusions and implications. As no studies have tested these effects empirically, our conclusions are highly relevant for academics and researchers.

KEYWORDS:

• QM
• collective mind
• knowledge
• R&D groups

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Dainelis Cabeza-Pullés is Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Granada. She has completed her Ph.D., which analysed university R&D, quality environments, dynamic capacities for knowledge, and innovative performance in R&D. From 2008 to 2011, she held a research fellowship from the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation to perform research on quality management in non-profit organisations. Her research has been published in journals such as Industrial Management & Data Systems, Journal of the Young Iberoamerican Association of Accounting and Business Administration, and Journal of Chemical Technology.

Dr Leopoldo J. Gutierrez-Gutierrez is Full Professor of Operations Management at the University of Granada. From 2003 to 2005, he held a research grant in the Department of Business Administration (University of Granada) to develop the line of research based on quality management. In 2008, he finished his Ph.D., which analyses quality management initiatives and their influence through dynamic capabilities. His research has been published in journals such as the International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, and Industrial Management & Data Systems.

Dr Javier Lloréns-Montes is Full Professor of Quality Management in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Granada. His current research focus is on quality management, flexibility management, and strategic change. He has published over a hundred articles in academic journals and books. His work appears in the Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Production Economics, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Omega-International Journal of Management Science, Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, and Technovation.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed by projects from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ECO2013-47027-P) and from the Ministry of Science and Innovation (ECO2010-15885). It was also funded by a project for Excellence from the Council for Economics, Innovation, and Science of the Andalusian Regional Government (P11-SEJ-7294) and by the European Regional Development Fund.