Management of change in product quality

The dynamic of the competitive environment, rapid changes in consumer necessities and sometimes, even legal constraints, lead firms to continually try to improve the quality of their existing products. As a result, the ability to constantly keep products up to date, in the face of the requirements of economic and technological environments, has been an important source of competitive advantage. Performance in this area depends on firms’ ability to manage the process of development and improvement of products and also on their ability to interact with the market and with the technological innovation sources. This paper presents the concept of change in product quality, related to the concept of technological innovation. This change occurs according to dimensions that embrace the total product quality, often adding value to it. It proposes a model that can be used as a guideline to structure and plan the necessary activities in the process of changing the product quality in a firm. It also provides a set of propositions that can contribute to both an efficacious and efficient management of this changing process.