Mapping TQM-innovation relationship on learning organization: A strategic management perspective

It is true that the only constant thing in life is continuously changing. Managing change is high priority for continuing education institutes (CEIs), one of knowledge intensive industry (KII) in Taiwan, coping simultaneously with diversified market needs and limited resources. In today’s business environment, ‘quality’ and ‘innovation’ are regarded as key resource of competitiveness. However, past researches related to TQM-innovation relationship largely focused on the manufacturing and the services. Besides, they have oversimplified the contextual effects that might bring biased conclusions. In a word, there probably exists a missing linkage somewhere in the so-called ‘environment-strategy-performance’ (ESP) chain. Therefore, this study proposes a strategic model named ‘ESCAPE’ by modifying the original ESP model to explore the potential gap within the context. After examining the ESCAPE model, this study argues that a learning organization will be the best solution for KII to bridge the gap.