Applying the EFQM model to golf course management

The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model provides guidance and support for business organisations to improve their quality management. This goal is attained by examining the relations among the several criteria that are defined and included in the model – the Enablers and the Results – albeit without going deeply into their empirical correlations. Our research focuses on the sport industry and, more particularly, on golf-related services and facilities. We analyse their management and performance. The goal is to conduct an empirical study of golf courses making up the supply in a Spanish inland region. On the basis of data and assessments contributed by the participating sample – and by resorting to multivariate statistical analysis – we pinpoint the influence of all Enablers identified by the EFQM Model, as well as their impact on the Results criteria. Correlations designed and empirically quantified make it possible for us to confirm the theoretical interrelations that the EFQM Model proposes between the defined criteria. The structural model thus obtained allows us to design a map that plots the relationships across the several criteria defined by the EFQM Model, one which portrays present-day approaches to management put into practice by the golf courses under scrutiny.