Total Quality Management Approach for Malaysian SMEs: Conceptual Framework
Muhammad Naqib Mat Yunoh, Khairul Anuar Mohd Ali

Abstract
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia contribute to economic development by virtue of their sheer numbers and increasing share in employment and Gross Domestic Product. Their role in the Malaysian economy will strengthen the resilience of the country to face a competitive and challenging global environment. However, due to limitations, liberalization and competitive in the global market, transformation of the business paradigms is needed. Consequently, the re-evaluation and the improvement of the business process performance as well as the products quality are crucial. The literatures have demonstrated a significant research gap in term of the quality management practice between the organizational performances of Small and Medium Enterprises. Therefore, the model constructs has been developed based on the total quality management philosophy and approaches. This paper presents a theoretical framework developed that empirically examine the critical success of the quality management practices implementation as well as their relationship to the organization performance, within Malaysian SMEs. In addition, the business innovation is of the element that has a significant influence to the quality management and the organization performance.

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