جایزه کیفیت ملی تایوان و ارزش بازار شرکت ها: یک مطالعه تجربی

The effect of national quality awards on the market value of the award-winning companies is an ongoing study in many countries, but relevant studies are difficult to find in Taiwan. This study empirically examines the market valuation of firms that undergo effective quality improvement programs (sometimes referred to as Total Quality Management or TQM). We use the Taiwan National Quality Award as the indicator that an effective quality improvement program has been implemented. We use event study methodology to measure the stock price effects of quality award announcements. The component attributed to firm-specific events is typically referred to as the abnormal return. Our results show that the abnormal return reacted positively to quality award announcements, but this positive reaction did not occur on the announcement day. We then increased the number of event days and micro-analyzed the individual award winners. These additional days enabled us to examine whether or not the risk of the firm changed after winning a quality award. Our micro-analysis revealed that 75% of the award winners experienced positive average abnormal returns, indicating that the implementation of an effective quality improvement program could provide a long-term return to the market value of firms.

In the last decade, many firms have been challenged by products of superior quality produced by their competitors. All of these companies have responded to the challenge by embracing a broader view of quality. Marketers have renewed their interest in the customer's perceptions of quality, and so quality issues have become a top priority in many companies (Thoumy and Vachon, 2012). Practitioners and academics have proposed many new quality management systems and have demonstrated a variety of technical and organizational approaches, including the use of statistical techniques, changes in organizational culture, and employee education (Parast and Adams, 2012). In many companies, total quality management (TQM) is the approach used to meet the quality needs and expectations of its financial stakeholders, its customers, and the community in which it operates. Companies and governments have recognized the emergence of quality consciousness worldwide, and that quality is crucial in gaining a competitive advantage internationally. This has led many companies to seek guidance in implementing their quality programs. National quality awards (NQAs) are a means by which countries can promote quality awareness at a national level (Tan, 2002).

In this study, we used event study methodology to measure the stock price effects of quality award announcements. Our results show that the abnormal return reacted positively to quality award announcements, but did not react on the announcement day. This is different from the results of Hendricks and Singhal (1996) for Baldrige award companies, which showed a positive impact of abnormal return on Day 0. However, the positive impact on the abnormal return of TNQA winners is evident on Day+1 and Day+2, and thus shows a delayed impact in Taiwan's stock market. The possible reason for the delayed impact might be a lack of clear information on the award announcement in Taiwan. With this, we note that by examining the stock price reaction to announcement of winning TNQA and the stock price behavior in periods surrounding the announcement of winning TNQA, these results provide evidence as to the impact of implementing an effective quality improvement program (TNQA) on the market value of the company, a widely accepted measure of company performance. An important implication of the results is to recognize the companies that have done an outstanding job in implementing effective quality improvement programs. This issue may have been ignored in the past because quality improvements are deemed necessary to compete in today's global markets and therefore indicated to increase the market value of the firm (Hendricks and Singhal, 1996).