Product quality, environmental accounting and quality performance

Quality has typically been regarded as a key strategic component of competitive advantage and, therefore, the enhancement of product quality has been a matter of prime interest to firms. Quality provides a basis for strategic advantage, and thus improvement in product quality may lead to enhanced performance. However, a frequent concern is that product quality no longer provides enduring competitive advantage; instead, it has become essentially a competitive prerequisite. Hence, an assessment of whether improvements in product quality are reflected in greater quality performance is likely to be of considerable interest to organizations. Suggestions have been made that the implementation of environmental accounting also contributes to the enhancement of quality performance. Argues that the greater the integration of environmental issues into financial decision processes, the better the performance of the firm. Investigates the extent to which product quality and the implementation of environmental accounting positively influence quality performance.