Abstract:    The promoting effects of quality management innovation on enterprise product quality improvement and business performance optimization have been widely valued. However, there is little literature to study the influence mechanism of quality management innovation on enterprise product innovation. By opening the process of enterprise product innovation, this paper tries to analyze the relationships between quality management innovation and the following three major aspects of enterprise product innovation input as the explicit carrier of knowledge, indirect tacit knowledge transfer, and product innovation input conversion efficiency, and further to study the influence mechanism of quality management innovation on enterprise product innovation. Then, by using the micro-data from World Bank survey of Chinese enterprises in 2012, this paper empirically studies the direction and mechanism of the influence of quality management innovation on enterprise product innovation. The results show that overall quality management innovation has a significant promoting effect on enterprise product innovation. In terms of influence mechanism, quality management innovation promotes product innovation through the pulling effect of enterprise product innovation investment and the spillover effect based on tacit knowledge, but it also hinders product innovation through the inhibitory effect on product innovation efficiency. To confirm the reliability of empirical results, this paper adopts the Tobit model to conduct several robustness tests. The results are still valid after the robustness tests. Thus, we can conclude that the impact of quality management innovation on enterprise product innovation has both positive and negative sides, and how to effectively seek advantages and avoid disadvantages to maximize enterprise benefits is a huge challenge for managers. According to the above findings, the policy recommendation of this paper is as follows: First, speed up the improvement of product market economy system with fair competition, and force enterprise product innovation and improve quality management through competition; second, accelerate the realization of market-oriented allocation of high-skilled quality management talents, and realize the optimization and upgrading of quality management talent team by releasing the potential of human capital; third, build the incentive-compatible internal quality management mechanism to promote the overall improvement of the capabilities of entrepreneurs and middle & high-level quality managers; fourth, build the quality management system and internal knowledge sharing platform for employees to participate in the innovation and development of enterprise, and stimulate the knowledge potential of all employees of enterprise; fifth, improve the management training and "learning by doing" mechanism that promotes the improvement of quality management, promote the overall upgrade of human capital, and effectively enhance the level of innovation and development. The study in this paper not only helps enrich the literature on the process mechanism of enterprise product innovation and the economic consequences of quality management innovation, but also helps guide enterprises to accurately grasp the pros and cons of quality management innovation and provides references for the effective realization of enterprise product innovation.

Key words: quality management innovation, product innovation, innovation input, tacit knowledge, innovation efficiency