Total quality management: literature review and an agenda for future research

The past decade has seen many firms focusing on total quality management (TQM) as a means of improving profits, market share, and competitiveness. In this paper, an attempt is made to review the status of literature on TQM. The literature classification is done according to content and process issues of the article. Total of 153 articles from 55 refereed journals and international conferences are classified according to content (instrument, model, literature review, trans‐national comparison, best practices, and economics) and process related issues of the articles. The methodology used in the literature is categorised into conceptual, descriptive, empirical, exploratory cross sectional, and exploratory longitudinal approaches. Considering all these aspects, some possible research issues are also identified.