Title: The advantage of the EFQM excellence model in business management and leadership

Authors: Zlatka Mesko Stok, Maja Mesko, Mirko Markic

Addresses: Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Cankarjeva 5, SI-6000 Koper, Slovenia. ' Ljubljanska cesta 27, 3000 Celje, Slovenia. ' Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, SI-6000 Koper, Slovenia

Abstract: Recently, more and more enterprises recognise the importance of the quality of products and services and business excellence. By gaining new markets and new customers in the world market, the enterprises meet numerous challenges, confrontations, new legislation and technology. Taking into account the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model, our research defines the endeavours of the enterprises that strive for better structure, behaviour and communication paths to reach the final customers, with emphasis on improved quality, higher competitiveness and customer satisfaction. In our research, we compare the enterprises holding a business excellence certificate with those that do not hold it. We establish that they differ in some characteristics of their management, which are defined by nine criteria. For years, several Slovene enterprises have been successfully selling their products to the industrially developed countries in Europe and to the USA. They are the first to develop and achieve high growth in their enterprises and, in turn, their own business excellence.

Keywords: European Foundation for Quality Management; EFQM; business excellence model; business excellence certificate; leadership; management; quality; Slovenia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2009.025088

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2009 Vol.8 No.3, pp.399 - 410

Published online: 12 May 2009 *

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