What Does “Product Quality” Really Mean?

In this article, the author reviews and synthesizes the varying definitions of product quality arising from philosophy, economics, marketing, and operations management. He then goes on to build an eight­-dimensional framework to elaborate on these definitions. Using this framework, he addresses the empirical relationships between quality and variables such as price, advertising, market share, cost, and profitability.

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Product quality is rapidly becoming an important competitive issue. The superior reliability of many Japanese products has sparked considerable soul-searching among American managers.1 In addition, several surveys have voiced consumers’ dissatisfaction with the existing levels of quality and service of the products they buy.2 In a recent study of the business units of major North American companies, managers ranked “producing to high quality standards” as their chief current concern.3

Despite the interest of managers, the academic literature on quality has not been reviewed extensively. The problem is one of coverage: scholars in four disciplines — philosophy, economics, marketing, and operations management — have considered the subject, but each group has viewed it from a different vantage point. Philosophy has focused on definitional issues; economics, on profit maximization and market equilibrium; marketing, on the determinants of buying behavior and customer satisfaction; and operations management, on engineering practices and manufacturing control. The result has been a host of competing perspectives, each based on a different analytical framework and each employing its own terminology.

At the same time, a number of common themes are apparent. All of them have important management implications. On the conceptual front, each discipline has wrestled with the following questions: Is quality objective or subjective? Is it timeless or socially determined? Empirically, interest has focused on the correlates of quality. What, for example, is the connection between quality and price? Between quality and advertising? Between quality and cost? Between quality and market share? More generally, do quality improvements lead to higher or lower profits?

Five Approaches to Defining Quality

Five major approaches to the definition of quality can be identified: (1) the transcendent approach of philosophy; (2) the product-based approach of economics; (3) the user-based approach of economics, marketing, and operations management; and (4) the manufacturing-based and (5) value-based approaches of operations management. Table 1 presents representative examples of each approach.

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References (76)

1. See: W. J. Abernathy, K. B. Clark, and A. M. Kantrow, Industrial Renaissance (New York: Basic Books, 1983); D. A. Garvin, “Quality on the Line,” Harvard Business Review, September–October 1983, pp. 64–75; D. A. Garvin, “Japanese Quality Management,” Columbia Journal of World Business, in press. J. M. Juran, “Japanese and Western Quality: A Contrast,” Quality Progress, December 1978, pp. 10–18; A. L. Robinson, “Perilous Times for U.S. Microcircuit Makers,” Science, 9 May 1980, pp. 582–586.

2. See: Barksdale et al., “A Cross-National Survey of Consumer Attitudes Towards Marketing Practices, Consumerism, and Government Relations,” Columbia Journal of World Business, Summer 1982, pp. 71–86; Center for Policy Alternatives, Consumer Durables: Warranties, Service Contracts, and Alternatives (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978), pp. 3-127–3-146; “Rising Concern on Consumer Issues Is Found in Harris Poll,” New York Times, 17 February 1983.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ken Goodpaster, Ted Levitt, John Quelch, members of the Production and Operations Management area at the Harvard Business School, and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. I would also like to thank the Division of Research at the Harvard Business School for its financial support.

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Comments (4)
Mike Cunningham
Brilliant article Mr. Garvin and extremely helpful for my challenge of improving 'product quality' at a low volume high diversity electronics CM, here in the Netherlands. Having worked as a quality engineer in China for more than 10 years, I have experienced all 8 dimensions of quality, but until now, never properly appreciated how important it was that the strategy that reflects its most important quality targets, as catagorised in your article. I will ask my customers, what is important to them, and act accordingly.
Kasawuli John
This is surely a fine piece of work and quite relevant in respect of understanding the quality concept in spite of being published many years ago.
max dullo
great summary, really appreciated this "quality" portfolio!
Dileep Dandge
Although so much has been studied, researched, and reported on Quality over the past 30 years, Mr. David Garvin's articled published in 1984 is still refreshing! Amazing!
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