THE IMPACT OF TQM PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING CAPABILITIES ON INNOVATION PERFORMANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Nowadays, innovation performance has become the source of organizations to gain competitive advantage and sustain their position in the market. The higher education institutions are facing challenges in implementing quality management to improve innovation performance and gain a competitive advantage. The primary aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual model for higher educationto improve innovation performance by improving their quality management practices as well as improving their organizational learning capabilities. The model developed in this study is supported by the previous literature. This paper emphasizes thattotal quality management (TQM) practices (top management support, customer (student) focus, continuous improvement, employee involvement) as one set of practice and organizational learning capabilities affect the innovation performance. The support of literature was added by consulting the databases such as JSTOR, ScienceDirect, Emerald,Tylor and Francis. The keywords used to find the related literature are Innovation in the education sector, Innovation performance, TQM and innovation, Organizational learning and innovation etc. The recommendations and conclusion of the paper are presented at the end.

Although the application of TQM practices is a critical component of improving organisational performance, theoretical arguments on the establishment of a link among TQM and innovation are still inconclusive.Some argue that the relationship between TQM and innovation are incompatible ( However, the inconsistencies between the relationship of TQM practices and innovation performance raise a question about the compatibility among them. In addition to that, organizational learning capabilities is also found an important factor in improving the innovation performance of the organization. Several studies in the past asserted that the improvement in the learning process of an organization will help the organization to gain a competitive advantage (Honarpour et al., 2018;Martin-de Castro, 2015;Obeidat et al., 2016).Organizational learning capability (OLC) can be defined as "a company's ability to function, i.e., the ability to create, acquire, transmit, and execute information, as well as the ability to alter behaviour to replicate a new cognitive state in order to improve overall performance" (Jerez-Gomez, CespedesLorente, & Valle-Cabrera, 2005).
From the above explanation, this paper concludes that several factors contribute to improving innovation performance. This paper will propose a framework for higher education to improve quality management and organizational learning capabilities in order to improve innovation performance to gain a competitive advantage.  Crossan and Apaydin (2010). "Innovation is production or adoption, assimilation, and exploitation of a value-added novelty in economic and social spheres; renewal and enlargement of products, services, and markets; development of new methods of production; and establishment of new management systems, It's both a technique and an outcome." The previous literature on innovation performance shows that quality management and organizational learning capabilities are the most important factors that affect innovation performance. The goal of TQM and innovation performance is to gain a competitive edge and increase customer satisfaction.Without innovation, firms will not be able to perform well (Durrah,Allil&Alkhalaf, 2018, Durrah, Allil, Gharib &Alhamoud, 2018). To improve the innovation performance, some other factors also need to be considered that affect the innovation performance in order to gain a competitive advantage.

Total Quality Management (TQM) practices
Quality management is referred to as "a complete management concept that increases all activities of an organisation via continuous improvement and organisational change" (Arrfou, 2019).According to Kim et al. (2012). "The management of all activities involved in the process of creating ideas, developing technology, manufacturing, and marketing a new (or improved) product, manufacturing method, or equipment," El Manzani et al. (2019) and López-Mielgo et al. (2019) defines quality management as "capturing aspects from diverse organisational models and extending them by introducing principles, procedures, and techniques." TQM has become a focus of many researchers recently (Alshourah, 2020).
The concept of TQM has piqued the interest of academics due to its growing popularity and acceptability in the business world. Bon and Mustafa (2013) have argued that the implementation of TQM is not given much importance.in the service sector generally and in the education sector particularly. The current study is an attempt to conceptualize a model to improve the quality management practices in the education sector in order to gain a 387 competitive advantage. It is also found that TQM practices are a set of many different practices. In the current research, only four practices are found suitable in the context of the education sector. These practices are top management support, customer (student) focus. continuous improvement, employee involvement (Bon & Mustafa, 2013). Additionally, the study conducted by Yusr et al. (2017) asserts that TQM practices should be utilized as one set of practices in order to understand the relationship in a better way.Therefore, the current study will implement TQM practices (top management support, customer (student) focus. continuous improvement, employee involvement) as one set of practices.

Organizational Learning Capabilities
Organizational learning as defined by Bates and Khasawneh (2005), "is a phenomenon that supports knowledge acquisition, distribution, and sharing of learning, as well as reinforces and supports continual learning and its application to organisational improvement". Managers view organisational learning as a technique for gaining a competitive advantage by putting learning at the center of organisational activity (Garvin, 1995).Since many researchers have used organisational learning or organisational capabilities as a predictor of several organisational outcomes such as organisational performance

Hypothesis Development The relationship between TQM practices and innovation
The relationship between TQM practices and innovation performance has been studied by many researchers. . Although, TQM and innovation have been studied by many researchers the inconsistent results became one of the reasons to conduct the study in higher education institutions to test the relationship between TQM practices and innovation performance. From the discussion above, the following hypothesis is deduced: H1: TQM practices have a significant relationship with innovation performance.

The relationship between organizational learning capabilities and innovation performance.
According to Ferreira et al. (2021), organizational learning capabilities has a significant impact on innovation performance. Several other studies also found organizational learning capabilities as a significant factor in improving organizational innovation performance (Alegre &Chiva, 2008; Fang et al; 2011; Hsu &Fang 2009). According to these studies, the organization can be innovative if they have the ability to improve the learning culture and strategies in the organization. Based on the above discussion the study deduced the following hypothesis: H2: Organizational learning capabilities have a significant relationship with innovation performance.

Proposed research framework
On the basis ofthe above discussion, the current study proposes a framework that will be beneficial for the higher education institutions to improve their innovation performance by considering the factors that affect the innovation performance and to gain competitive advantage as well as to sustain their position in the market.

TQM practices
Top management support

Recommendations:-
In the context of higher education, the studies on innovation performances are scarce, which shows that there is a need for further studies. Also, it is also found from the previous literature that there are several factors that affect innovation performance. The current study is an attempt to propose a framework that might be beneficial for higher education. The current study found TQM practices and organizational learning capabilities affects innovation performance. As this study only proposed a model, future studies can test this model empirically in order tounderstand the factors that affect innovation performance in higher education. Future studies can add other factors such as entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge management as mediators or moderators in the proposed model for a better understanding of the relationships between different variables.

Conclusion:-
The current study was an attempt to develop a conceptual model for higher education institutions to improve innovation performance. The study also found the factors such as TQM practices (top management support, customer (focus), continuous improvement, employee involvement) and organizational learning capabilities that can affect innovation performance. It is found in the previous literature that TQM practices and innovation performance relationship is inconsistent, this study is an attempt to investigate this relationship in order to better understand the effect of TQM practices and innovation performance. Bon and Mustafa (2013) argued that the studies on quality management and innovation performance are scarce. The current study is an attempt to fill the gap in the literature. Also,the current study only proposed a model for higher education institutions. The subject of future study is to test the hypotheses as well as validation of the proposed model.