The impact of total quality management and business networks on company export performance in emerging vs. developed economies: evidence from furniture enterprises in Pakistan and the UK

This comparative research, drawing on complementary theoretical perspective, examines the moderating role of Business Networks (BN) in relation to Total Quality Management (TQM) and Company Export Performance (CEP) in the furniture business of the UK (developed economy) and Pakistan (emerging economy). By employing the PLS-SEM technique, we gathered data from a total of 230 export managers (115 each from economies) using network, connection, referral and purposive sampling. The findings revealed that there is a significant, positive relationship between TQM and CEP. Results also confirmed that BN statistically significantly moderates the relationship between TQM and CEP. We theorised BN is an influential variable in enhancing the effectiveness of TQM that leads to an increase in the company's export performance. The present research contributes to the literature by providing an insight into the effectiveness of TQM and BN in the process of improving export performances in both emerging and developed economies.