consistently identified in prior studies as critical aspects of quality initiatives (e.g., Ittner
and Larcker 1995). Empirically, all seven items load on one factor (Table 2). Accordingly,
we create a composite variable (QUALSTRAT) by averaging the seven item scores. QUALSTRAT
ranges from 1.86 to 4.86 ( 3.55, 0.63), with an acceptable Cronbach of
0.77.