Integrating Total Quality Management and Innovation Strategy: An Empirical Study of Business Excellence Performance

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) and innovation strategy and how they influence business excellence performance when they are integrated. Even though studies conducted before analysed quality management and innovation separately, there is not much empirical evidence to articulate how the alignment between them leads to better organisational performance. It is based on the Resource-Based View and the dynamic capabilities perspective, and the research constructs and tests the structural model with the quantitative cross-sectional survey design. The relationship was measured using strict equations of analysis and interpretation of data collected within organisations. These results show that TQM has a positive impact on business excellence performance both directly and indirectly by embracing innovation strategy, and innovation strategy has a good mediating effect. These results indicate that innovation is a dynamic capacity that transforms quality-based practises to sustainable performance benefits. The theoretical contributions of the study are in its combination of TQM and innovation strategy into one unified framework based on the capabilities, which serves as the continuation of the current literature on business excellence. In practise, the findings emphasise the significance of aligning the quality systems with innovation projects in a strategic manner to improve their adaptability and long-term competitiveness.