Accounting and non‐accounting measures of quality‐basedperformances in small firms

In recent years it has been often claimed that quality is one of most critical success factors for organizations. Managers introduced quality‐based programmes – such as total quality management – assuming that performances would improve. However, many quality‐based initiatives failed. There are several reasons that could explain the failure of quality‐based strategies in a number of firms; suggests two causes: the lack of effective decisional tools for evaluating the most effective investment(s) among a set of potential programmes; and the lack of specific goals to be assigned to each investment in order to monitor the actual results of the programmes on time. In small firms these problems are greater because of the limited availability of financial and managerial resources which make more difficult the identification of the most effective decisional solutions. Identifies a conceptual framework aimed at supporting the choice of most effective models for evaluating quality‐related investments in small firms, particularly an approach which balances different decisional needs such as completeness, urgency of evaluation, measurability of output and structural characteristics.