Abstract

Many companies have been disappointed by a lack of results from their quality efforts. The financial benefits of quality, which had been assumed as a matter of faith in the “religion of quality,” are now being seriously questioned by cost-cutting executives, who cite the highly publicized financial failures of some companies prominent in the quality movement. In this increasingly results-oriented environment, managers must now justify their quality improvement efforts financially. The authors present the “return on quality” approach, which is based on the assumptions that (1) quality is an investment, (2) quality efforts must be financially accountable, (3) it is possible to spend too much on quality, and (4) not all quality expenditures are equally valid. The authors then provide a managerial framework that can be used to guide quality improvement efforts. This framework has several attractive features, including ensured managerial relevance and financial accountability.

Keywords

Quality (philosophy)BusinessAccountabilityQuality policyRelevance (law)Quality managementService qualityFinanceMarketingService (business)Public relationsPolitical science

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Publication Info

Year
1995
Type
article
Volume
59
Issue
2
Pages
58-70
Citations
1502
Access
Closed

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Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

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1502
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Cite This

Roland T. Rust, Anthony J. Zahorik, Timothy L. Keiningham (1995). Return on Quality (ROQ): Making Service Quality Financially Accountable. Journal of Marketing , 59 (2) , 58-70. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299505900205

Identifiers

DOI
10.1177/002224299505900205