Quality Management Practices of SME in Developing Countries: A Survey of Manufacturing SME in Pakistan

SME present unique challenges to canonical Quality Management practices since they have distinct characteristics which distinguish them from large businesses. Being resource constrained by nature, they usually can not invest in formal certifications and establishment of Quality Management systems. Particularly, the performance and business practices of SME in developing economies remain much lower than those of SME from developed economies.This paper presents a survey of 107 SME businesses in northern Pakistan, aimed at developing an understanding of the quality management related awareness among SME managers. The knowledge of Quality Management techniques that SME entrepreneurs possess is empirically reported besides presenting the extent to which these techniques are used in SME businesses in Pakistan. The effectiveness of using these techniques is also presented along with the current and intended future usage of these techniques. The paper also discusses why certain techniques are adopted and others are not. The results are the first insight of Quality Management practices in Pakistani SME. Besides being of use for public policy making, the results will be of interest to firms in developed economies that outsource their business activities to South Asia.