A Content Analysis of Research in Quality Management and a Proposed Agenda for Future Research

Abstract

This paper adds to the ongoing development of the field of quality management. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the status of quality management research, to categorize the recent literature in quality management, and to better position the field for growth and maturity. The authors performed a rather extensive overview, review, and discussion of quality-related literature since 1995. They used centering resonance analysis (CRA), which has not been previously utilized in the quality management literature, to analyze 1978 research articles to identify influential word pairings in the literature overall, and in 251 articles appearing in recognized “A” journals. These provide a framework for reviewing the literature to categorize and summarize articles and key research contributions, identify trends, and recommend areas for future research in the field of quality management.

• centering resonance analysis
• literature analysis
• quality management research
• research agenda

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James R. Evans

James R. Evans is a professor in the Department of Operations, Business Analytics, and Information Systems in the College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in industrial engineering from Purdue, and a doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech. Evans is the author or co-author of Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence, 9^th Edition and Quality & Performance Excellence: Management, Organization, and Strategy, 7^th Edition, as well as An Introduction to Six Sigma and Process Improvement, all published by Cengage Learning. In 2003, Evans and his co-author received the ASQ Philip Crosby Medal for The Management and Control of Quality, 5^th Edition. He has published close to 100 papers in the fields of operations research, operations management, and quality. Evans is a Fellow and past-president of the Decision Sciences Institute, and served as an examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from 1994 to 1996, senior examiner from 1997 to 1999, alumni examiner from 2000 to 2001, and judge from 2004 to 2007. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

S. Thomas Foster

S. Thomas Foster is area leader and the Donald Staheli professor of quality and global supply chain management at Brigham Young University and recently served on the board of overseers for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Foster has consulted for a number of companies including Hewlett-Packard, Trus Joist Macmillan, Cutler-Hammer/Eaton Corp., Heinz Frozen Foods, US West Corporation, Healthwise Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Foster is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Operations Management, Quality Management Journal, and Decision Sciences. He has published more than 60 quality-related articles in journals such as the Decision Sciences, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Production Research, the Journal of Quality Management, the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, the Quality Management Journal, and Quality Progress. He authored Managing Quality: Integrating the Supply Chain (Prentice Hall) and Supply Chain and Operations Management (Pearson). Foster is founder of www.freequality.org, was awarded the ASBSU 2000 Outstanding Faculty Award, the 2013 Marriott School of Management Outstanding Scholar Award, and received the prestigious 2002 Decision Sciences Institute Instructional Innovation Award.

Kevin Linderman

Kevin Linderman is a professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He has a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy from Minnesota State University, a master's degree in mathematics from Miami University, and a master's degree and a doctorate in operations research and operations management from Case Western Reserve University. His publications have appeared in Decision Science, Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, European Journal of Operations Research, IIE Transactions, and Journal of Quality Technology. His research interests include process management and improvement, quality management, Six Sigma, knowledge management, innovation, and operations management theory.