The significance of research and development (R&D) and innovation to high-tech industry from the total quality management (TQM) perspective

Despite the national quality awards (NQAs) categories that reflect properly the total quality management (TQM) concept, the relative importance of these evaluation criteria may have different influence on different industries due to various characteristics of industries. Therefore, this research makes an attempt on probing the impact of each Taiwan National Quality Awards (TNQA) evaluation category, particularly, "research and development (R&D) and innovation," for the high-tech industry. Based on TNQA evaluation criteria, the research builds up a hierarchical structure of evaluation standards and designs a questionnaire for soliciting expert opinions from industries, government, and academia. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) is then employed to compute the weights of TNQA categories and criteria in an effort to identify the critical features high-tech firms need to develop and reinforce to excel in a changing industry teeming with intensive competition. Of the eight TNQA evaluation categories, experts consulted by the study demonstrate the consensus that the weighted value of "R&D and innovation" appears to be significantly higher than the weight it receives in the TNQA evaluation standard, suggesting that, in addition to competent leadership and management, research and development capability also plays a crucial role to help high-tech firms promote innovation and enhance core competitiveness.