The link between quality management and innovation performance: a content analysis of survey-based research

Previous contributions have reported contradictory findings about the effects of quality management (QM) on innovation performance. The purpose of this paper is to critically appraise methodological issues in the literature concerning the link between QM and innovation performance, in order to reveal possible differences in the research design which may explain the heterogeneity of the findings. Through a content analysis of peer-reviewed journal articles on this topic from 1994 to 2016, the authors compare the research designs used, and identify the most prevalent practices in conducting survey-based research. In addition, cross-tabulations are used to analyse the relationships between methodological issues and type of findings. The main findings can be summarised as follows: some papers report incomplete information about methodological issues; they focus on the organisational level of analysis and see higher managers as common informants; there is a lack of research which combines surveys with other methods, as well as of longitudinal designs; and the findings obtained may be conditioned by the way QM and innovation performance were measured. The characteristics revealed in this analysis provide a platform to assist scholars in developing future stances in this and similar fields of research.