Mediating effect of organisational learning and moderating role of organisational culture on the relationship between total quality management and innovation among manufacturing companies in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the impact of total quality management (TQM) practices on innovation, with a mediating effect of the moderating role of organisational learning and organisational culture among Nigeria's manufacturing companies. Similarly, the study applied a survey instrument tof 459 manufacturing companies in Lagos, Ogun, and Osun states, Nigeria. The Partial Least Squares (PLS3) path modelling approach was applied to test the conceptual model. The result shows that soft and hard TQM practices are positively and significantly associated with innovation among Nigeria's manufacturing companies. Similarly, organisational learning mediated the relationship between soft and hard TQM practices and organisational innovation. Finally, the results indicate that organisational culture has a negative and insignificant moderating effect on the relationship between soft quality management practices and innovation. However, the findings reported a positive and significant moderating relationship between hard TQM practices and manufacturing companies innovation in Nigeria. The study concludes that soft and hard TQM practices are essential determinants of innovation based on the findings. The study's major contribution is to understand better the mediating effect of organisational learning and the moderating role of organisational culture in the relationship between TQM practices and innovation, which have not been jointly investigated before.