Digitalisation and quality management: problems and prospects

Digitalisation provides both challenges and opportunities for Quality Management (QM). The purpose of this study is to identify various roles QM practitioners play in digitalisation initiatives to uncover the challenges and potential of QM's digitalisation journey. This issue is addressed through an analytical framework that stresses two dimensions: the exploration and exploitation of digitalised QM processes and value creation, which is performed by the customer or in interactions facilitated by the provider. Through a multiple-case study of four large Swedish organisations, we propose six different challenges and corresponding roles for QM. Further, the study identifies challenges of digitalisation affecting both exploitative and explorative practices throughout an organisation's value creation process. This research contributes to the existing literature with empirical evidence on the challenges induced by digitalisation, an area often discussed but not as often studied empirically.

Automated summary

This study identifies six different challenges and roles for QM practitioners in digitalisation initiatives, while also determining the impact of digitalisation challenges on exploitative and explorative practices throughout an organization's value creation process. It contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the challenges induced by digitalisation, an area that is often discussed but not as frequently studied empirically.