Amalan pengurusan kualiti sebagai perantara ke atas sumber penyelidikan dan pembangunan dengan prestasi syarikat berteknologi tinggi

Abstract

The business environment has changed significantly over the past few decades. Efforts toward innovation and globalization have increased due to the enhancement in the relationship and interdependence between markets and different business segments worldwide. In order to follow the changers, companies need to transform the conventional operations management. Quality management practices (QMP) is a modern operational management practice that have been found to promote effectiveness of company performance by many researchers. The literature review found that the QMP implementation can provide a competitive advantage to the company to be globally competitive and sustainable. However, there are gaps that exist in the implementation of QMP in research and development (R&D) area. Literature review also showed inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between R&D resources and company performance. There is a study which highlighted that the results of R&D failed due to poor quality products but failed to be proven empirically. Furthermore, there are very few studies that examined the relationship between R&D resources, QMP and company performance. Thus, this research is conducted to provide empirical evidence. The objectives of this research are to: (1) identify critical dimension of R&D resources, QMP and company performance; (2) evaluate the dimension of R&D resources, QMP and company performance; (3) analyze the different levels of R&D resources, QMP and company performance based on company profile; and (4) identify QMP as a mediator between R&D resources and company performance. The development of the conceptual framework is based on resource-based view theory. The mailed survey was carried out on 100 randomly selected, high technology companies in Malaysia. 58 respondents were used for subsequent analyses. T-test analysis showed that the company management should focus more on R&D resources especially on financial and infrastructure resources. In addition, the companies also need to increase efforts in the QMP especially in human resource management. In addition, the commitment to quality and customer focus are important elements in the implementation of QMP. Company performances for high technology companies in Malaysia are found to be in satisfactory level. One way analysis of variance analysis shows that R&D resources, QMP and company performance did not differ according to size, cluster and duration of the operation. This shows that there is insufficient evidence to support the existence of differences based on statistical evidence. Partial least square analysis supports QMP as a mediator between R&D resources and company performance. Besides contributing to increasing knowledge and understanding of the relationship between QMP, R&D resources and company performance in the high technology firms, this research finding also allows the practitioner to obtain a deeper knowledge concerning the effects of QMP in research and development.