Business excellence measurement: a literature analysis (1990–2016)

Abstract

This paper offers a descriptive analysis of TQM and business excellence measurement (BEM) by synthesising the relevant literature. There is need for a sound theoretical framework classifying past efforts and guiding future research. To fill the gap, a research of the published BEM literature is undertaken. Specifically, the target is to advance a concrete understanding of relevant literature and to assess whether the temporal trends in BEM literature will help position firms for the emerging business excellence context. An updated review, classification and analysis of the research in business excellence literature spanning the last two and a half decades is presented. A total of 139 papers are identified from 39 refereed management journals published from 1990 to 2016. These articles are then classified and analysed according to the following axes: business sector, framework used and methodology applied. The analysis presents the trends in each of the three axes and key research areas are proposed to guide future BEM research agenda.

Keywords:

• business excellence
• measurement
• quality management
• TQM
• literature review