Quality Management Processes and Product Innovation Productivity in Malaysia’s Semiconductor Industry: The Moderating Roles of Market Unfairness, Policy Support and Competitive Intensity
Keywords:
product innovation productivity, quality management processesAbstract
ABSTRACT This study examines how quality management processes (QMP) drive product innovation productivity (PIP) among semiconductor manufacturing firms in Malaysia, and whether this relationship is contingent on the transitional conditions of market unfairness, policy support and competitive intensity. Grounded in the quality management and contingency literatures, a structural model was developed and tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling on survey data from 222 firms analysed in AMOS 29.0. The results show that QMP has a strong, positive and significant effect on PIP, confirming that systematic quality practices function as an antecedent of innovation rather than merely a control mechanism. The relationship is largely robust to the external environment, with one important exception: market unfairness significantly weakens the QMP–PIP link, whereas policy support and competitive intensity exert no significant moderating effect. The findings suggest that quality-driven innovation in Malaysia depends chiefly on firms’ internal, explorative implementation of QMP rather than on institutional support, and that protecting innovation returns from imitation and infringement is essential. Implications for managers and industry policy are discussed.References
AlQershi, N. A., Ali, G. A., Al-Rejal, H. A., Al-Ganad, A., Farhan Busenan, E., & Ahmed, A. (2023). The power of strategic knowledge management in the relationship between innovation and the performance of large manufacturing firms in Malaysia. International Journal of Innovation Science, 15(1), 19–41.
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423.
Deming, W. E. (1986). Out of the crisis. MIT Press.
El Manzani, Y., Sidmou, M. L., & Cegarra, J. J. (2023). Does total quality management enhance innovation? Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 34(1–2), 1–32.
Moreno-Luzón, M. D., Gil-Marques, M., & Valls-Pasola, J. (2013). TQM, innovation and the role of cultural change. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 113(8), 1149–1168.
Montgomery, D. C. (2020). Introduction to statistical quality control (8th ed.). Wiley.
Mukhtar, S., et al. (2024). Quality management and innovation performance in emerging economies. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 41(3), 789–810.
Prajogo, D. I., & Hong, S. W. (2008). The effect of TQM on performance in R&D environments. Technovation, 28(12), 855–863.
Ramayah, T., Yusr, M. M., Othman, A. R., & Abdul-Halim, H. (2020). Quality management practices and product innovation. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 27(4), 1305–1328.
Saraph, J. V., Benson, P. G., & Schroeder, R. G. (1989). An instrument for measuring the critical factors of quality management. Decision Sciences, 20(4), 810–829.
Yusr, M. M., Salimon, M. G., Mokhtar, S. S. M., et al. (2022). Green innovation performance and quality management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 330, 129909.
Zhang, D., Linderman, K., & Schroeder, R. G. (2012). The moderating role of contextual factors on quality management practices. Journal of Operations Management, 30(1–2), 12–23.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sir Xavier, Poornisha
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Published by University Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK)
