Studying the green performance under the lens of total quality management in Chinese SMEs

This study aims to determine the fundamental link between total quality management (TQM) and corporate green performance (CGP). It also looks at how TQM affects CGP because manufacturing industries are the leading cause of environmental damage. Additionally, this study focuses on the significance of CSR in the relationship between TQM and CGP and examines how CSR mediates the interaction between these two. This study also focused on environmental strategy, which moderates the relationship between CSR and CGP. Data were collected using a questionnaire from Chinese SMEs working in Jiangsu province and were analyzed through structural equation modeling. Results show that TQM has a significant and positive impact on CGP. Results further indicate that CSR significantly mediates the relationship between TQM and CGP. Surprisingly moderating effect of environmental strategy between CSR and CGP has not been proven in this study. These results have important implications for enhancing the CGP of SMEs through TQM and CSR.