INTERACTIONS BETWEEN MARKETING AND QUALITY AT THE SBU LEVEL - INFLUENCES AND OUTCOMES

The management of quality and development of effective cross-functiona l cooperation have assumed a new strategic importance over the past de cade. However many companies have reported that quality strategies hav e failed to deliver anticipated performance benefits and that ineffect ive interfunctional relationships may be to blame. This study explores marketing-quality interfunctional relationships as a potential source of quality strategy implementation failure at the strategic business unit (SBU) level. This study focuses on interdepartmental connectednes s, communication and conflict between marketing and quality, and the a ntecedents and consequences of these dimensions of interfunctional int eraction. Using data from a pooled response mail survey, the results s uggest that marketing-quality interactions are associated with senior management quality leadership, strategic quality planning process, and control system characteristics. Interfunctional interactions between marketing and quality are found to be only weakly related to relative quality, market performance, and financial performance outcomes.