The data used in this study was obtained using a survey questionnaire filled by
Tunisian managers from the plastic transforming sector. This sector was chosen
because it reflects that of the Tunisian manufacturing sector, mainly by its wide
variability of quality management implementation levels. Also, it is a manageable
sector in terms of size of the study. First, a list of 133 Tunisian companies was defined
on the basis of the industrial and commercial guide of Tunisia, which includes all the
manufacturing industries. Then, these 133 companies were classified into three
categories (strong, medium and weak performance) based on ROI, ROA and growth of
sales indicators, and following the methodology proposed by Kotter (1992). The final
sample includes 92 companies with high and medium financial performance. Table III
presents the classification of studied companies into three categories.