A replication study of a theory of quality management underlying the deming management method: insights from an Italian context

We present research that contributes to the debate on the universal applicability of quality management, and in doing so, subject the `one size fits all' assumption underlying quality management to an empirical examination. Specifically, with the exception of enhancements in instrumentation, we attempted to replicate, as closely as possible, Anderson et al.'s (1995) empirical evaluation of a Deming-based theory of quality management. In our replication, we applied path analysis to secondary, plant-level data provided by a stratified sample of plants in three different industries in Italy. The path analytical results from the current replication study were compared against those reported in Anderson et al. (1995), which used data from U.S.-based plants. These results were then discussed in the context of conducting and interpreting cross-cultural quality management research. We concluded with the need for more replication studies in the quality management discipline and with implications for research and practice.