Total quality management and environmental performance: The mediating role of innovation

Abstract

The study overall looked at the effect of total quality management on environmental performance with the mediating role of innovation. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the effect of total quality management on environmental performance. To examine the effect of innovation on environmental performance and the effect of the mediating role of innovation in the relationship between total quality management and environmental performance. Being a quantitative study, the positivism philosophy was adopted together with an explanatory research design. A self-administered survey questionnaire was used as the research instrument for data collection. In all, 400 respondents in food and beverage manufacturing firms were included in the study. The study employed the partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS- SEM) as the statistical tool for data analysis. The findings of the study indicated that total quality management has a positive and significant effect on environmental performance. Innovation has a positive and significant effect on environmental performance. Also, innovation has a positive and significant mediating role in the relationship between total quality management and environmental performance. The study recommended that total quality management does not work in a vacuum. Therefore, managers need to incorporate innovation into their strategic decisions when considering how to improve upon their environmental performance through total quality management.