The Impact Of Quality Management Practices On The Performance Of Manufacturing Servitization

With the rapid changes in customer demands and business environment,the traditional manufacturing business model cannot gain advantages in the fierce market competitions anymore.In seeking more market opportunities,servitization comes into the sight of manufacturers since it increases the chance of enhancing their competitiveness and creating more profits.However,in the process of manufacturing servitization,if servitized manufacturers cannot meet customers' expectation with highquality services,customer loss will occur,which has negative impact on firm performance.Aiming at improving customer perception and enhancing customer satisfaction,quality management can help manufacturers to accurately understand customer needs and keep the reliability of their service delivery process.Therefore,with the trend of servitization,this dissertation focuses on relationships between quality management practices and performance of manufacturing servitization.The main studies and innovations are shown as follows:First,based on the keywords representing servitization practices,automated content analysis is adopted to analyze enterprises' servitization practices longitudinally using their press release data.The development characteristics of servitization business model and the evolvement pattern are explored in this study.The analysis result shows that,the product-oriented service will be gradually replaced by the use-and resultoriented services,and each of these categories has its own most popular business model.Furthermore,with servitization deepening,there also arise various operational challenges.From the perspective of practices in industries,this study will provide practical data support for the development of servitization theories.Second,facing the growing servitization trends and challenges,this dissertation focuses on the guaranteed effect of quality management on servitization outcomes.With the background of the transforming trend from product-oriented service to useoriented service,an empirical study is conducted based on theories on servitization and quality management using survey data from equipment manufacturers.By testing the hypotheses between different quality management practices(QMP)and servitization factors,it can be concluded that the overall service orientation of manufacturers will promote their service innovation ability,and then improve their customer-related performance.Furthermore,the QMPs have positive impacts on these relationships.Among them,the quality management infrastructure practices play mediating roles in promoting service innovation,and the core quality management practices play moderating roles in raising the performance.This study reveals the specific impacts of QMPs on different phases of achieving servitization performance from the perspective of the organization.At last,due to the increasing importance of service business,a study focusing on service quality provided by manufacturers is conducted to understand the meaning of service quality and its measurement in manufacturers,as well as its performance influences.From the perspective of customer perception,a service quality measurement scale on a kind of IT-related service provided by automobile manufacturers is built up.Six dimensions are identified in this measurement scale with the standard steps of measurement scale development,refinement and verification.In addition,the structural equation model is used to verify the impact of service quality on both service satisfaction and brand satisfaction,which in turn affects customer loyalty.This study develops a multi-dimensional scale for manufacturer's service quality different from traditional services and helps to form the service quality concept of servitized manufacturers.It also confirms the relationship between such service quality and the firm performance.