Resumen de Economic analysis of TQM adoption in the construction sector
Javier García-Bernal, Nieves García-Casarejosa
Researchers have dedicated considerable efforts to examining and explaining the capacity of total quality management (TQM) to generate wealth, from the conceptual framework of the resource-based view. From this approach, TQM is basically an inimitable resource that generates competitive advantages. This analytical perspective can help justify and explain the behaviour of the firms that have adopted TQM, but not that of the firms that do not intend to adopt this management approach in the future. In the current work, we aim to make progress in this direction. We offer arguments, from an economic and organisational perspective, that help explain how TQM's capacity to generate wealth is not uniform in all firms but is contingent on variables such as the firm's size and subsector. The results of the empirical analysis, involving a sample of Spanish construction firms, provide support for two hypotheses postulating relations between the firm's optimum level of TQM adoption and its size and subsector.
