Industrial awards as manifests of business performance: An empirical assessment

Although suppliers receive awards for various reasons, research on awards has mainly focused on those related to quality. We focus on other types of awards and enquire as to whether they relate to the supplier's financial performance. We investigate the relationship of operational awards by industrial customers and new product awards by industry forums on financial performance. We use long-term financial data for a large sample of suppliers to assess the relationships across product life cycle stages. Results indicate that during the growth stage, operational awards are associated with return on equity, whereas new product awards are associated with growth. As products mature, supplier and product awards both show an association with return on equity. A series of managerial implications are set forth and discussed.