Quality management contribution to innovation.

Abstract

Innovation is widely accepted as a key factor for improving the firm performance and competitive advantage. Effective quality management practices are vital for the organizational performance and the innovation process as well. Human resources management, leadership, customer focus, organizational learning and process management influence and facilitate the innovation process. The current financial crisis has turned the innovation and quality management embracement into a necessity in order to survive. This research is based on reliable papers that focus on the innovation process and how quality management influences it, in samples from markets from the whole world. Each paper had a different approach in examining these factors and found different results in how they can affect the organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to spot the important information from these articles and create an integrated framework that describes the relationship between the forenamed quality management practices and innovation (both product and process); and how this relationship can affect the firm’s performance. Finally, all this information was brought together into a questionnaire that is proposed for future empirical research.