Organizations have increasingly recognized that expanding their markets into international soil would significantly contribute to financial success. With greater numbers of contemporary organizations exhibiting higher performance and productivity on a global sphere, all the more that other organizations follow suit. The global market could be characterized as exemplifying stiffer competition due to the sheer volume of competitors wanting to get a share of the same pie. Different strategies are therefore being designed, developed, implemented, and monitored to cater to the global market. According to Domingo (2003), “the only winning global strategy is one based on Quality The survivors who will withstand any global force now and in the future will be companies whose focus or obsession is one and only one: Quality” .
The “ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as ‘the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs’” (WebFinance, Inc., 2013, p. 1). According to Irechukwu (2010), “in today’s global competitive marketplace, the demands of customers are increasing as they require improved quality products and services” (p. 211). One could therefore infer that as competition increases, it could be presumed that the quality of products are also expected to increase or to adhere to the highest quality standards to be able to meet the sophisticated needs of the global clientele.
A study which aimed to determine the relationship between quality and competition was delved into by Banker, Khosla, and Sinha (1998) and the findings revealed that the extent of the relationship between quality and intensity of competition actually depends on some factors including the definition of increased competition, the cost, and the demand structure of the industry. Concurrently, quality was singled out as the predominant factor which affects competitive advantage in the global market . Likewise, as asserted by Domingo, “global competitiveness starts with quality competitiveness and ends with quality competitiveness” (2003, p. 1). These studies confirmed that there is a direct relationship between quality and competitiveness in a global sphere. The higher the quality of the products or services offered, the greater the perceived core competitiveness in the global market. Therefore, even when there is stiffer competition with greater number of competitive organizations, products with high quality have greater chances to survive and prevail.
The cost of poor quality is failure. Organizations that fail to adhere to the highest quality standards would not last long in the global market. As aptly emphasized, “to survive, organizations must device new management systems based on the tenets of Total Quality, and by offering quality products and services. This will not only lower costs but also outperform the products and services of competitors spread across the world” . Thus, the studies and researches have confirmed that quality is a crucial factor that provides competitive advantage in the global market. Due to the number of different competitors and the diversity of clients who look for the best quality of products that they could purchase and satisfy their needs, only those organizations which could pass the highest standards of quality could effectively compete. Without quality, there really is no use to compete in the world market – for sure, failure is imminent and would prove to be the ultimate cost of poor quality.
References
WebFinance, Inc. (2013). Quality. Retrieved from businessdictionary.com: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/quality.html
Banker, R., Khosla, I., & Sinha, K. (1998). Quality and Competition. Retrieved from dl.acm.org: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=300277
Domingo, R. (2003). GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH TOTAL QUALITY. Retrieved from RTDOnline: http://www.rtdonline.com/BMA/QM/9.html
Irechukwu, N. (2010). Quality Improvement in a Global Competitive Marketplace- Success Story from Nigeria. International Journal of Business Management, 211-218.
Ponnudurai, M. (2013, July 8). Quality: Blueprint to Globalization and Market Competition. Retrieved from IDG Connect: http://www.idgconnect.com/blog-abstract/2350/quality-blueprint-globalization-market-competition
