Economic Optimisation of Quality for Geoinformation Product

There is an important distinction of understanding the quality as seen from the buyer’s or producer’s perspective. Different aspects of (the) quality influence the costs for the producer and benefits to the user. The producer usually establishes the level of the quality. The qualitative product for the user is a product that meets his needs. What is the economically rational level of quality? The economically rational level of quality is the quality that brings the highest benefit to the user and maximizes the profit for the producer. The optimal point for the producer to make maximum profit is where the difference between the benefit of the quality produced and the cost of production is the highest. Measuring the quality enables to establish the level of the value the product has to the buyer. Costs of measuring the quality are discussed in this paper. Warranties, standards and brand names reduce the costs of measuring. The discussion is in terms of a single quality dimension, but it must be expanded for two quality aspects (e.g., precision and completeness of a dataset).