Quality management practices and firm performance in the industrial sector: Evidence from a PRISMA guided systematic review

Abstract

Given the wide disparity among studies on the quality management practices and performance relationship in terms of context, conceptual framing, quality factors, and performance dimensions, no coherent or integrated understanding of the phenomenon has yet been established. This review addresses that gap through a systematic synthesis that consolidates the empirical evidence and appraises its methodological quality using an explicit, reproducible protocol. It seeks to clarify the nature and the consistency of this relationship, and to characterize the mediating mechanisms and contextual conditions documented in the literature.

The PRISMA 2020 protocol guided the identification, selection, and extraction of studies from Scopus and Web of Science. After applying eligibility criteria, a final corpus of 54 articles was retained. The methodological quality of each study was evaluated using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).

The retained studies cover a wide range of international contexts and rely predominantly on correlational designs and structural equation modelling of which 42 out of 54 studies achieved a high MMAT score (≥4/5). Besides, 44 studies report a positive and significant association between quality management practices and performance, particularly on operational and quality related dimensions whereas financial effects tend to be delayed and indirect.

In sum, this review suggests that quality management practices benefit industrial performance, though the predominance of cross-sectional designs and limited control for confounders warrant caution on causality. Stronger designs such as longitudinal, before/after, control-group, and event studies nonetheless confirm the robustness of this link and clarify its temporality.

Classification JEL : L15, M11, L25.

Paper type : Theoretical Research