ACCOUNTING AND NON-ACCOUNTING MEASURES OF QUALITY-BASED PERFORMANCES IN SMALL FIRMS

In recent years it has been often claimed that quality is one of most critical success factors for organizations. Managers introduced qualit y-based programmes - such as total quality management - assuming that performances would improve. However, many quality-based initiatives fa iled. There are several reasons that could explain the failure of qual ity-based strategies in a number of firms; suggests two causes: the la ck of effective decisional tools for evaluating the most effective inv estment(s) among a set of potential programmes; and the lack of specif ic goals to be assigned to each investment in order to monitor the act ual results of the programmes on time. In small firms these problems a re greater because of the limited availability of financial and manage rial resources which make more difficult the identification of the mos t effective decisional solutions. Identifies a conceptual framework ai med at supporting the choice of most effective models for evaluating q uality-related investments in small firms, particularly an approach wh ich balances different decisional needs such as completeness, urgency of evaluation, measurability of output and structural characteristics.