Measuring the relationship between total quality management and sustainable competitive advantage: A resource-based view

Does a total quality management (TOM) initiative have any effect on the firm's performance? What are the variables that exert this influence? Which elements have the greatest effects? All these issues are discussed widely in the literature on strategy and quality. The objective of this paper is to approach the study of these problems from a resource-based perspective. From this viewpoint, the effects of TM on performance are explained through the resources and competencies that the implementation of this strategy generates. The adoption of this perspective implies guiding the research towards the identification of strategic resources and core competencies that are generated by a TQM initiative. This issue has hardly been touched by previous research in the quality literature. We propose an investigation design and methodology based on the elaboration of a structural equation model. This model will allow us to contrast the extent to which these TQM-linked resources and competencies are sources of sustainable competitive advantage and better performance. This paper presents wide empirical research on industrial and service firms, which confirms our causal model. To develop this research, a TQM measurement instrument and a competencies measurement instrument were elaborated.