An analysis of the relationship between quality and perceived innovation: “the case of financial firms”

Abstract

Many organizations are adopting quality and innovation as practices that allow them to achieve competitive advantage owing to an increase in competitiveness. The goal of this paper is to examine whether quality can be regarded as a resource that sets up the necessary bases for implementing innovations in organizations. First, the concepts of quality and innovation are determined, so that we can analyse how they relate to each other. Later on, the different contributions existing that deal with the relationship between quality and innovation are revised. In the second part of the research, we formulate and verify some hypotheses, which are empirically tested using a sample of bank employees in several financial entities. Results allow us to establish that quality relates to innovation both directly and indirectly, in the latter case through employees’ satisfaction.