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Top1. Introduction
Many researchers have shown that the strategy of TQM is an extremely powerful tool for the development of organizational learning and it increases the competitive profit (Hendricks & Singhal, 2001; Martinez-Costa & Jimenez-Jimenez, 2008). Today’s competitive market needs innovative technological improvements and the short life cycle of products constantly challenges the competitive profit (Prajogo & Sohal, 2003). According to researchers, learning ability can stimulate organizational innovation and preserve the competitive profit in today’s turbulent environment. Learning reinforces innovative activities and quality is one of the main characteristics of success in today’s competitive environment. As a result, organizations can sustain in today’s competitive environment by the continuous production of goods and the continuous management of their quality (Martinez-Costa & Jimenez-Jimenez, 2009). Therefore, quality and learning are effective factors that guarantee the success and improvement of each and every industrial and service system. Also the comprehensive nature of both factors shows the necessity to manage them properly (Nadi & Damady, 2009). In the current era, massive changes are forming that direct service systems toward further engineering (Wong & Chin, 2006). According to Salaman & Bulter, for an appropriate change, organizations should be capable of analyzing themselves and their processes, structure, and environment. They should also be able to recognize practical and effective solutions and to represent them, which mean organizations should be capable of learning. Without such an analytical capability, organizations cannot make a right choice regarding the structure, process, culture, and product and they will fail (Nadi & Damady, 2009). Therefore, effective and proper management can provoke an organization to be more flexible, innovative, and intelligent. By considering the aforementioned matters, the main questions of the current study are: whether total quality can affect innovation performance and whether organizational learning plays a mediatory role regarding the TQM and innovation performance. In order to answer these questions, ABBAND Mazandaran manufacturing and industrial company was chosen and investigated since no study has been carried out so far.