example, scholars have proposed alternative quality frame-
works for goods or services but not an integrated view of
both (Brady and Cronin 2001; Brucks, Zeithaml, and Nay-
lor 2000; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1988). In
another example, quality has been operationalized as or
used interchangeably with customer satisfaction (Fornell
1995; Karmarkar 1996) even though these concepts are dis-
tinct (Oliver 2009).
Given the lack of a common understanding across and
within disciplines, it is not surprising that conceptual ambigu-
ity about quality persists. On the basis of an exhaustive review
of the quality literature, Reeves and Bednar (1994) conclude
that “no universal, parsimonious, or all-encompassing defi-
nition or model of quality exists” (p. 436) and that “differ-
ent definitions of quality are appropriate under different cir-
cumstances” (p. 419). More recently, Karmarkar and Apte
(2007, p. 451) lament that “quality measurement and defini-
tion is a particularly complex issue.... A few specialized
examples do exist. But is there a general template that
would work for quality?” In some respects, these conclu-
sions leave the study of quality at a crossroads not much
different from Pirsig’s (1974, pp. 260–1) observation made
over 30 years ago in the cult novel Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance, “even though Quality cannot be
defined, you know what Quality is!” (italics in original).
This article begins to address these limitations by pro-
viding a framework that integrates the aforementioned
discipline-based perspectives. At the heart of this frame-
work is a three-part process view of quality consisting of the
quality production process, the quality experience process,
and the quality evaluation process. Firms and customers can
participate in each quality process. However, quality pro-
duction is primarily the domain of firms; quality evaluation
is primarily the domain of customers; and quality experi-
ence is the domain in which firms and customers interact.
The framework offers several contributions.
First, our integrative quality framework identifies
important underdeveloped connections among the three
quality processes. For example, the idea of co-production
has become widely accepted as an important aspect of man-
aging customers (Bendapudi and Leone 2003; Meuter et al.
2000). We extend this literature by describing six connections
between the quality production process and other quality
processes that contribute to or result from co-production.
Second, our framework points to critical, yet over-
looked, aspects of quality that can improve our understand-
ing of it. As an example, while the study of emotion is
important in consumer research, critics have argued that its
impact on quality is underspecified (Bolton and Saxena-
Iyer 2009; Price, Arnould, and Tierney 1995). Our frame-
work illuminates important roles for emotion as a filter that
influences customers’ perceptions and quality evaluations.
Third, our framework not only describes three quality
processes but also identifies corresponding quality states
residing within each process. These states are snapshots that
provide researchers and managers the opportunity to mea-
sure and learn from quality as it is produced, experienced,
and evaluated. We describe what generates these quality
states and how they should be measured, which enhances
decision makers’ ability to manage these states.
2 / Journal of Marketing, July 2012
Fourth, our framework generalizes across different
types of firms (for-profit, nonprofit), offerings (products,
services), and customers (businesses, individuals). We chose
this approach because a general framework is necessary to
provide a unifying view of quality, which is increasingly
important in the face of rapid technological advances that
constantly redefine organizations, markets, offerings, and
their interactions.
We begin by describing broadly the three quality pro-
cesses that constitute our framework. We then detail each
process and its interconnections with the other processes.
We close by highlighting the theoretical and managerial
implications of our framework.
An Integrative Quality Framework
Our framework is comprised of three processes—the qual-
ity production process, the quality experience process, and
the quality evaluation process. Two of these processes have
been the subject of previous research. With a focus on the
firm, the quality production process has been the domain of
engineering, operations, and management research, while
the quality evaluation process, with a focus on the customer,
has been at the center of marketing and consumer research.
We identify a critical third process that has been under -
researched in marketing and other disciplines. This quality
experience process contains a set of key intermediate activ-
ities in our integrative quality framework. Our framework
identifies connections among all three processes. Figure 1
provides an overview of our framework.
2
It describes each
quality process, points to a quality state that occurs in each
process, and identifies the key links between the quality
processes. We define all terms used in this framework and
throughout the article in Table 1. We italicize these terms
when introducing their definitions into the text.
We define quality as a set of three distinct states of an
offering’s attributes’ relative performance generated while
producing, experiencing, and evaluating the offering. We do
not combine these states into an overall concept of quality,
because important insights and actionable recommenda-
tions follow from treating each state separately. Each state
of quality is a comparative assessment of an offering’s
attribute’s performance relative to a reference standard
desired by either firms or customers. Here we build on a
key idea in the gaps model of service quality (Parasuraman,
Zeithaml, and Berry 1985)—namely, that quality is not sim-
ply an attribute’s performance but rather an assessment of
performance relative to a reference standard.
Each quality process relates to the other two processes
through contemporaneous links (CL1, CL2, CL3) and
dynamic links (DL1, DL2, DL3) shown in Figure 1 and
2
To focus on our quality framework, Figure 1 omits antecedents
and outcomes of the quality processes. Antecedents include the
firm’s and competitors’ strategy and organizational structure (e.g.,
Barney 1991; Dalton et al. 1980; Porter 1998). Outcomes include
purchase intent, trial, repeat purchase, product usage, firm costs,
sales and share, profits, and stock returns (e.g., Anderson, Fornell,
and Lehmann 1994; Anderson and Sullivan 1993; Bolton and
Lemon 1999; Homburg, Koschate, and Hoyer 2005; Rust, Moor-
man, and Dickson 2002).