Title: The development of an e-commerce failure mode and effects analysis

Authors: Alec Waterworth, Steve Eldridge

Addresses: Formerly of Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK. ' Manchester Business School, MBS East, The University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK

Abstract: In the last 50 years, the nature of business has changed, with a shift firstly from manufacturing towards service sector industries, and again more recently towards e-commerce. Traditional quality management techniques, such as failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), although developed in manufacturing, have since proved effective and popular in measuring quality in the physical delivery of a service. There is, however, little research into the application of such techniques in e-commerce. Parasuraman et al. (2005) highlighted the differences between physical service delivery and online service delivery, resulting in the e-SERVQUAL scale of customer requirements. This study has developed this research further into a practical tool for organisations to measure quality and guide improvement efforts in an e-commerce environment.

Keywords: FMEA; failure mode and effects analysis; e-commerce; e-quality; e-services; e-SQ; customer satisfaction; e-SERVQUAL; electronic commerce; online service delivery.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2011.042508

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2011 Vol.8 No.3, pp.247 - 264

Published online: 14 Sep 2011 *

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