3.1. Sample
According to data supplied by the Centros de Excelencia
(an association that represents the bodies which manage the
Excellence Awards of the different Autonomous Communities
of Spain), the total number of organisations that submitted
complete evaluations during the period 2003–2010 rose to 355.
After contacting the different territorial associations, a total of
225 (63.4%) complete evaluations were received.
The sample includes large, as well as small and medium
size companies (SMEs). According to the definition by the
European Commission 96/280/EC, SME's will be considered
to be those companies which employ less than 250 people,
whose annual business volume does not exceed 50 million
euros or whose annual general balance sheet figures do not
exceed 43 million euros.
In addition, the sample also includes companies from the
main sectors of activity (primary, secondary and tertiary), as
well as publically and privately owned companies (Table 1).
3.2. Measures
The variables and their respective measurement indicators
were obtained from the transverse axes of the EFQM Excellence
Model (EFQM, 2003). In this study, and according to the
objectives considered, three transverse axes were selected
(knowledge, process methodology and suppliers and partners),
as well as the key results of the business (Table 2; Fig. 5).
The data were collected from the assessment processes
according to the RADAR (Results–Approach–Deployment–
Assessment and Review) logic which the EFQM Excellence
Model uses to score the level of excellence of organisations.
The Approach, Deployment, Assessment and Review elements
were applied for the Enablers, and must analyse the evidence of
what the organisation is doing. The Results element was used to
assess criteria related to the results, and analyse what the
organisation obtained as a result of its efforts.
The points scale of the RADAR matrices for the Enablers is
divided into 5 intervals which range from value 0 (without
evidence or anecdotal) to value 100 (total evidence). The
Results scale also varies between 0 and 100, but the meaning of
the extreme values changes according to the type of result that