Abstract

Academics in the disci-lines of marketing, organizational psychology, and management have recently called for more research on the impact of total quality management (TQM) in their fields. According to Japanese industrial standards, TQM is a system of management that advocates certain principles and prescribes certain methods for producing products and services that meet customer needs. In this sense, TQM is marketing if, as Kotler and Armstrong (1987) and others have suggested, marketing has to do with creating satisfying exchanges with customers. Yet, in practice and in research, marketing has been surprisingly absent from the TQM movement.Data were collected from seven leading TQM companies concerning the nature of the transformation of the marketing function under TQM. Eight findings are presented from this research, and the implications for marketing practice and research are discussed.