Separate groups of people enjoying picnics in a city park

Understanding Quality 5.0: new theoretical perspectives and managerial approaches

Closes:

Introduction

In the realm of the fifth industrial revolution, a transformative wave of change has begun to significantly reshape the landscape of quality management (Maljugić et al., 2024). In times of high uncertainty, social disruptions and environmental concerns, quality management cannot only rely on advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics to optimize quality processes, as proposed by Quality 4.0 (Maganga and Taifa, 2022). Instead, it also needs to include and integrate human-centered approaches to bring back human intelligence to face uncertainties, emphasize sustainability and valorize people. In this direction, Quality 5.0 can be seen as a shift that integrates advanced technologies with humans, thereby embracing Industry 5.0 principles (Navahandi, 2019). Indeed, scholars started to contend that Quality 5.0 encourages the use of digital tools and automation for better quality control while embracing human intuition, creativity, and decision-making skills in the process (Frick and Grudowski 2023).

Conversely to traditional quality management which focuses on improving products or services to satisfy customer expectations and meet regulatory policies (Chiarini and Kumar, 2022), Quality 5.0 introduces an attention to sustainability, environmental impact, employee engagement, and corporate social responsibility (Ciasullo et al., 2021; Ali and Johl, 2024; Kafel et al., 2024) in a proactive and collaborative intra and inter-organizational ecosystem.

Despite the increasing interest towards Quality 5.0, it is a nascent concept which needs to be further and deeply explored. Indeed, it requires a holistic approach that encompasses the integration and synergy between several aspects of the organization, from employee’s skills to leadership, from real-time data management to decision-making process, from organizational culture to strategic vision. Until now, literature focused on introducing the essence of Quality 5.0, by neglecting a dialogue about theoretical frameworks that can explain it and about strategies and practices that can effectively allow to implement it.

Considering these gaps, this special issue aims at detecting how Quality 5.0 can redefine the concept of quality management in a rapidly evolving industrial landscape. Thus, it encourages scholars to reflect about theoretical perspectives and managerial practices to realize Quality 5.0 towards a comprehensive understanding of how quality management is changing and how organizations and society can benefit from it. Moreover, it seeks to address the challenges and barriers that organizations might encounter as they move toward adopting Quality 5.0. Particularly, this special issue encourages interdisciplinary collaborations from research fields such as business management, organizational behaviour, and technology management to create a robust and holistic multifaceted understanding of Quality 5.0. For practitioners, this special issue has the objective to provide practical insights on implementing Quality 5.0 in real-world settings, thereby equipping managers with actionable recommendations to guide the transition towards Quality 5.0.

Therefore, theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions that integrate process management approaches exploring quality management measures and continuous improvement are welcomed.


List of topic areas

• Theoretical Foundations and New Perspectives in Quality 5.0: Proposing novel theoretical perspectives to deepen Quality 5.0, exploring value creation processes in Quality 5.0, investigating the relation between new business models and Quality 5.0, deepening Quality 5.0 and servitization.

• Standards, Methodologies, and Metrics: Identifying new quality standards and methodologies to measure Quality 5.0, understanding the evolution of traditional quality methodologies continuous improvement monitoring, such as TQM, Lean Management, and Six Sigma in light of Quality 5.0.

• Human-Centric and Strategic Approaches: Providing human-centric strategies to advance Quality 4.0, investigating employees' skills and competencies to embrace Quality 5.0, exploring the role of leadership and organizational culture, and the role of human-technology integration for Quality 5.0.

• Quality 5.0 for Competitive Advantage and Business excellence: deepening the potential of Quality 5.0 to foster competitive advantage, aligning quality management processes with broader societal goals, including sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

• Global and Industry-Specific Applications of Quality 5.0: understanding Quality 5.0 in cross-country and cross-industry contexts, exploring communalities and differences of Quality 5.0 in public and private organizations.


Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tqm

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/tqm

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.


Key deadlines

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31/08/2025