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Multinational corporations face a more intense competence and a higher number of changes in the different countries they operate. In this regard, organizational learning and quality management are key elements that could help them to survive in the market. Convinced by the numerous benefits and competitive potential of total quality management (TQM) programmes, corporations have promoted its implementation. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the interaction between these programmes and organizational learning, more precisely with exploitation and exploration capabilities, in order to understand the way in which quality management programmes could help to develop learning in the companies.

Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model. The sample comprised 111 medium-sized Spanish companies, with four different responses each. Constructs are measured with Likert scales previously tested in the literature.

The results show that TQM is positively and strongly related to both exploitation and exploration and that the relationship between TQM and exploitation is higher. Concerning the effects of exploitation and exploration on firm performance; results of the analysis show that only exploration capability positively affects organizational performance. It is also confirmed a positive effect of a TQM system in performance.

This research covers a gap in the literature regarding the relationship between organizational learning and TQM, particularly with the concepts of exploitation and exploration in the context of multinational companies.

The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model is widely used as a management tool in companies. Consequently, it is of great importance to understand the relationships within it, and inform managers about appropriate ways to manage events in order to get the desired results in general, and for specific interest groups (stakeholders). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper analyzes the internal relationships of the EFQM model using empirical data from a sample of 199 Spanish companies. Four managers in each company were interviewed, to eliminate single respondent bias. Structural equation modeling is used for the analysis.

The results obtained from the empirical analysis provide evidence of an underlying logic in the EFQM model that does not match the official model. New significant relationships between the enablers and results not considered in the official model have been found.

The study focusses on Spanish industrial companies with 50-500 workers and uses a cross-sectional design.

Managers should look at the EFQM model as a tool for finding their own way to excellence, but it is not a precise map, because the model may have some problems of definition. Managers should introduce its elements only after deep reflection on its benefit for their company.

Despite the previous research on this issue, there is still no clear consensus. Relationships that are not reflected in the theoretical model have been identified.

As with the ISO 9000 standard, some doubts arise from the scientific literature about the impact of the EFQM model in companies' success. This paper aims to present an analysis of the relationships in the 2003 version of the EFQM model using data from the actual self‐evaluations of 68 organizations. It also analyzes if there are possible differences in the EFQM implementation between public and private organizations.

The Partial Least Squares (PLS) method is used to test hypotheses.

Results show that the model does not behave in the way that the designers of the EFQM expected. Two of the results variables are not sufficiently correlated with the others to be part of the complete model. When the model is tested without these two variables, the connection between enablers fails, since policy and strategy, people, and partnership and resources do not have statistically significant effects on the process. There is a slightly higher achievement in the group of manufacturing/private companies compared with the group of public/educational institutions.

This paper is an exploratory study. A deeper analysis of the agency criteria might produce improved results. It would also be possible to examine sub‐criterion levels. Each enabler in the model is composed of different sub‐criteria and the relationships among them have not been explored in the literature. The question that needs to be addressed is whether the inclusion of enablers in the EFQM Excellence Model can be justified on empirical grounds.

Previous research has been conducted using secondary data. The study has been made using the real self‐evaluations of organizations, evaluations that have been validated by official staff of the EFQM organization. In addition, whereas much of the previous research analysed the 1999 version of the model, this paper focuses on the latest version of 2003.

After analysing a sample of 442 of the Spanish biggest manufacturing companies, some evidence about the influence of total quality management (TQM) on the companies’ operating performance has been obtained. However, companies applying TQM together with the ISO 9000 standards did not show positive results. This fact leads to the consideration that, despite the beliefs about ISO 9000 as a good first step in the way of implementing TQM, once implemented, some of the ISO 9000 principles are contradictory with TQM philosophy. These not congruent systems applied together would drive the company to obtain less benefits than the use of only one of them. The study concludes that when ISO 9000 and TQM are applied simultaneously, the resultant benefits to the company are not better than those experienced if either system were applied in isolation.

This paper aims to assess the importance of different knowledge management practices to promote organizational innovation in multinational companies. The links among internationalization, reverse knowledge transfer and social capital and organizational innovation are analyzed.

Structural equation modeling was used to check the research hypotheses with a sample of 104 multinational companies.

The results show that internalization has no direct effect on organizational innovation but a indirect effect trhrough the transfer of knowledge from external subsidiaries to the headquarter. Furthermore, this knowledge and other that comes from internal and external social capital is essential for the development of innovations.

Self-reporting by the CEOs may be the most significant limitation, as a single key informant provided the data; multiple informants would enhance the validity of the research findings. A second limitation is the cross-sectional design of the research that does not allow observation of the short- and long-term impact of the relationships among the variables.

Organizational innovation is not an easy task. However, those multinational companies which foster knowledge management practices that generate new knowledge from external subsidiaries, internal or external social relationships, will facilitate the generation of innovations. In consequence, these companies should foster the generation of knowledge from different sources.

The focus of the study in this paper is on multinational companies and the possibility to acquire knowledge from different sources (inside organization, external local environment and international context). Specially, focus on the transfer of knowledge from subsidiaries to headquarters (reverse knowledge transfer), as it is insufficiently investigated by current literature.

This paper seeks to assess the importance of absorptive capacity and organizational memory in the process of internal exploitation for a higher organizational performance, and to develop an empirical framework to explain the effect of a firm's memory and its absorptive capacity on exploitation of internal resources and capabilities to generate incremental innovations and thereby improve firm performance.

Structural equation modeling was used to check the research hypotheses with a sample of 249 Spanish industrial companies.

The results show that organizational absorptive capacity and the firm's old knowledge positively affect exploitation of existing opportunities. In relation to the interaction between internal exploitation and firm performance, the results show a positive and significant effect. Finally, support was found for the hypothesis that there is a mediator effect of incremental innovation on the relationship between exploitation and organizational performance.

Self‐reporting by the CEOs may be the most significant limitation since a single key informant provided the data; multiple informants would enhance the validity of the research findings. A second limitation is the cross‐sectional design of the research that does not allow observation of the short‐ and long‐term impact of the relationships among the variables; future research should use longitudinal studies. The study was also conducted in a specific national context with manufacturing firms.

Competence exploitation has been argued to be less costly, highly rewarding and less risky that other orientations such as competence exploration. One of the main implications for managers is to assume that both absorptive capacity and organizational memory should be considered in parallel when conducting competence exploitation. The analysis sheds new light on the importance of incremental innovation in the process of enhancing performance.

This paper studies some insufficiently investigated relationships concerning important managerial factors. It also presents a new model attempting to participate in the scientific debate about crucial issues such as the factors that can affect performance generation within the company.

The purpose of this paper is to look at human resource management (HRM) as a key element in the implementation of total quality management (TQM). This paper empirically tests the HRM practices that best fit this philosophy.

The results of an empirical study of 706 companies are analyzed using structural equation methodology. The practices that are used to construct the framework for analysing approaches to HRM are based on a literature review.

The results show that the alignment of the orientation towards quality and the approach to HRM is statistically significant for the utilization of the HRM system. The results also support the hypothesis that both TQM and HRM practices have a positive effect on performance.

A cross‐sectional analysis is applied, so it is necessary to be cautious in conclusions regarding causality. Single informants are used as the source of information. Although the use of single informants remains the primary research design in most studies, multiple informants would enhance the validity of the research findings.

Practitioners must bear in mind the fundamental role of human resource management in the pursuit of long‐term total quality management. Companies should look for a set of HRM practices congruent with TQM, rather than using individual practices. A strategic perspective to HRM supports these results.

There is little empirical evidence to support the effect that HRM can have on TQM implementation and most papers focus only on distinct HRM practices. This paper provides an insight into the issues involved in the development of HRM practices oriented to TQM. It examines the relationships among HRM practices, TQM and organizational performance.

Although there have been many articles and books on street vendors, ambulant and fixed, around the world, and many works written about them in Mexico, little has been done on the ubiquitous ambulant beach vendors in tourist centers.

This paper offers an analysis of the backgrounds, levels of contentment, and aspirations of 25 women beach vendors interviewed in Acapulco in 2010.

A third of the women beach vendors had fathers who were peasants, and others had grandparents who were. Thus the article shows light on the fate of some of the offspring of a dispossessed peasantry. Far more than half of the women vendors were very content with their self-employment vending wares on the beach, a few because they could set their own hours, and a few because they had no boss. Other’s contentment was linked to the fact that they could help support their children. Part of this help meant keeping them in school. This was true whether the women were married, widowed, or abandoned. Not all were content, however, and this underscores the importance of their income to their households. Most of the women, though not all, had aspirations for more education and better work, whether in the formal or the informal economy.

The women can be seen as marginalized because of their current poverty, and many because of past poverty leading to a lack of educational opportunities when they were young. They value education for their children.