Inventory management and TQM practices for better firm performance: a systematic and bibliometric review

PurposeThis paper aims to quantify the trend of variables used for building a theoretical model with the help of analysing bibliometrics data of inventory management (IM) and Total Quality Management (TQM) practices and their effects on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachScopus' research database and the Web of Science (WoS) (including Elsevier, Emerald Group Publishing, Taylor and Francis, Wiley, IEEE, Informs and SAGE) were used to find relevant articles. The articles, review papers and conference proceedings were screened from 1993 to 2021. The articles were analysed to explain the different types of IM practices, TQM practices and their effect on the firm's performance. Thematic analysis was done using a bibliometric package of “R” (Biblioshiny) and VOSviewer to identify the key trends, approaches and research agenda.FindingsThe research covered 28 years of publications and summarised 497 articles, review papers and conference papers. Researchers concluded that IM highly correlates with the inventory turnover ratio and has no relation to firm performance. Further, TQM positively affects firm performance, but integrating IM and TQM will be a research scope for future study as none of the researchers previously covered this.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the systematic literature review (SLR) and Bibliometric review, the study is limited to the Scopus and WoS (including Elsevier, Emerald Group Publishing, Taylor and Francis, Wiley, IEEE, Informs and SAGE) databases.Originality/valueBeing the research on a bibliometric and systematic review, relating IM practices with TQM practices would be the novelty of this paper.