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This study examines the relationship between total quality
management（TQM）and improvement in business performance. A mail
survey was conducted on 136 electronics firms and yielded 27
useful responses. Several dimensions of TQM practices and
operational measures of performance were collected from the
survey,and financial measures of performance were obtained from
public data. The results are as follows：1.Corporate culture,
the role of qualitydepartment quality education & training, and
customer relations were pervasively emphasized by the surveyed
firms, whereas quality plans & programs, performance
measurements, product design and manufacturing control were
differentially implemented among the surveyed firms.2.Quality
plans & programs, customer relations and process management were
positively correlated with improvement in quality performance.3.
Quality plans & programs, equipment management and process
management were positively related to improvement in delivery
performance.4.Quality plans & programs and performance
measurements were positively associated with improvement in
flexibility performance.5.The role of quality department,
quality education & training, provision of quality information
and process management were positively related to improvement in
financial performance.6.At the early stage of implementing TQM,
there was a negative relationship between financial performance
improvement and operational performance improvement. As time
elapsed,their relationship became positive. But, these
correlations were not significant at the conventional level.
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