Quality, export and domestic market performance: the case of pharmaceutical firms in Iran

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between export involvement/performance and domestic market performance of pharmaceutical enterprises in Iran, an area which has remained largely unresearched. The study seeks to address the following three research objectives: first, to assess the export performance of Iranian pharmaceutical companies; second, to assess the performance of Iranian pharmaceutical companies in the domestic market; and third, to examine the relationship between export involvement/performance and domestic market performance. Although existing literature claims that local performance (rivalry) leads to export performance, this study reveals that in the Iranian pharmaceutical industry, export involvement and performance enhance local market performance. The study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between export performance and domestic market performance, and adds depth to the understanding of the reasons why the traditional views did not explain the situation. A comprehensive literature review was used to build our conceptual and analytical framework upon the Export Performance (EXPERF) model for export performance evaluation. The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model and assessment indicators of Innovativeness, Learning and Lean indices were used for measuring domestic performance. By using clustering, six clusters of similar companies were identified and the centroids of the six clusters chosen to verify the relationship between export performance and domestic performance. Correlation analyses confirmed that there was a significant positive relation between export performance and domestic performance. This means that export performance results in better domestic performance, and vice versa.

A proposed model for sustainable business excellence

“…Many studies have indicated a positive relationship between the implementation of these model and performance. Dadfar et al (2015) found EFQM based performance to correlate positively with profits derived from the increase of exports. Sadeh (2017) found that the implementation of the five EFQM enablers improves the level of medical and treatment services in hospitals.…”

A Single Measure of Overall Export Performance

“…The Export Performance Index as an indicator comprises four sub-indicators: export growth, export diversification changes, export competitiveness and the gap pertaining to export sophistication. Dadfar et al (2015) Export performance indicators at the firm level: export intensity, export sales and export growth (the average of the last three years). The organisation-level indicators can be extended to the country level by appropriately defining export intensity.…”

A Fuzzy Logic Model to Enhance Quality Management on R&D Units

“…Although the existence of several related works found on literature, most of them are mainly focused on the employment and analysis of EFQM model in several organizations, regarding to different sectors of the economy. One example of EFQM model's employment, is the work from [1], regarding the overall performance in the pharmaceutical firms, where it was identified the strengths, jointly with the areas to improve.…”