The Effects of Total Quality Management on Corporate Performance: An Empirical Investigation

This article examines the impact of total quality management (TQM) on the performance of 108 firms that began TQM implementation between 1981 and 1991. The impact of TQM is measured by comparing each firm's performance to a control benchmark designed to capture what the performance would have been without TQM. The findings indicate that performance, measured by both accounting variables and stock returns, is improved for the firms adopting TQM. The improvement is consistently stronger for firms with more advanced TQM systems. The possibility that downsizing could explain the improvement is also examined. The data do not support this hypothesis. Copyright 1998 by University of Chicago Press.