Two Views for Understanding How TQM Fosters Learning and Value Innovation: Absorptive Capabilities and Action-Based Management

Abstract

In the last decade some frameworks have tried to explain how to devise strategies for innovation in value by determining the needs of customers and non-customers, also creating new industries in which competition becomes irrelevant (Hax, The delta model. Reinventing your business strategy. New York: Springer, 2010; Kim and Mauborgne, Blue ocean strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2005; Madhok and Marques 2013). These reference frameworks are based on a common set of principles: Value is created through the relationship with the customer (Priem, Acad Manag Rev 23; 219–235, 2007; Vargo and Lusch 2008); Strategy is considered to be a continuous process of exploring new opportunities, through observation of customer behaviour, intuition of opportunities (as a result of inductive reasoning) and the definition of value proposals characterized by being focused, clear, and original (Hax, The delta model. Reinventing your business strategy. New York: Springer, 2010; Kim and Mauborgne, Blue ocean strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2005); agility and speed to intuit and capture new opportunities, as well as flexibility to operationalize them through experimentation and subsequent trial and error actions (Madhok and Marques 2013).