Traditional Value Stream Mapping (VSM) effectively visualizes operational waste but offers limited support for explaining how interdependent inefficiencies reinforce one another and for sequencing improvement actions when multiple wastes co-occur. To address this diagnostic gap, this study develops a structural diagnostic and prioritization artifact that complements VSM by integrating Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and Fuzzy MICMAC into its workflow, enabling the structural analysis of interdependent wastes and supporting prioritization under uncertainty. The artifact was developed and refined through Design Science Research (DSR), then instantiated and evaluated at a Brazilian pharmaceutical distribution center. ISM produced a hierarchical ordering of ten waste mechanisms identified through VSM, while Fuzzy MICMAC classified them into driving, linkage, and dependent roles. These findings were consolidated into a three-step intervention roadmap that incorporates short-term operational feasibility into the sequencing logic. Theoretically, the study extends VSM with a structural reasoning layer that operationalizes causal prioritization without altering its descriptive premise, advancing Lean diagnosis from performance-based prioritization toward systemically grounded prioritization based on influence-dependence relationships. Practically, the artifact offers managers a structured procedure for distinguishing foundational drivers of inefficiency from linkage and dependent manifestations, supporting more transparent and defensible sequencing of improvement actions.
This paper examines the leadership approach of a Shingo exemplar leader, focusing on principles and practices that address contemporary organizational challenges and the evolving expectations of Generation Z. Using a qualitative multi-method design, the study integrates interviews, surveys, participant observation, and narrative analysis to explore both verbal and nonverbal leadership behaviors. Triangulation strengthens reliability, while non-parametric analysis and descriptive statistics support interpretation. Findings suggest that traditional, tool-focused Lean models are insufficient for long-term organizational sustainability, as they often overlook the human and psychological foundations of performance. The study emphasizes the importance of language, nonverbal communication, and micro-behaviors in shaping leadership effectiveness. It further demonstrates how integrating psychological constructs - such as proactive personality, growth mindset, outward mindset, intrinsic motivation, learned optimism, and meaning - enables a more holistic, human-centered approach to operational excellence. This perspective aligns closely with the Shingo Model and resonates strongly with Generation Z's emphasis on purpose, development, and meaningful work. The originality of the research lies in its interdisciplinary integration of storytelling with insights from psychology, neuroscience, and sociology, contributing to a mid-range theory that explains how leadership behaviors and psychological factors enhance the sustainable impact of Lean in engaging the emerging workforce.
Sustaining a quality advantage while continuously innovating remains a central challenge for organizations operating in turbulent environments. This study advances the literature through a meta-analysis of 82 effect sizes drawn from 47 independent studies (N = 20,589) examining the relationship between leadership for quality (LfQ) and innovation. The findings reveal a strong, positive association between LfQ and all types of innovation, with particularly pronounced associations for administrative and green innovation. Moreover, LfQ is positively associated with both incremental and radical innovation, as well as with innovation capabilities and innovation performance. Meta-regression analysis further demonstrates that national cultural dimensions systematically moderate the LfQ-innovation relationship: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation strengthen this relationship, whereas individualism weakens it. Collectively, the results position LfQ as a critical organizational capability for reconciling exploitation and exploration, highlighting a culturally contingent pathway through which quality management fosters innovation.
The research focuses on the role of perceived organizational support in workers' green innovative behavior in Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and explains the roles of green self-efficacy and green transformational leadership in this behavior. The article contributes to the green innovation literature by focusing on SMEs, an area under-researched despite their growing significance for sustainable development. Data were collected from 394 employees working in Chinese SMEs using a structured survey, with participants selected using purposive sampling. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed relationships, and importance-performance analysis was conducted to provide additional managerial information. The results reveal that perceived organizational support directly facilitates green innovative behavior and enhances the self-efficacy of employees to be green. Green self-efficacy, in turn, significantly promotes green innovative behavior and partially mediates the influence of perceived organizational support. Besides, green transformational leadership supports the beneficial impact of green self-efficacy on green innovative behavior. These findings demonstrate that green innovation in the workplace is fostered when supportive organizations, confident employees, and environmentally oriented leaders collaborate to advance it. The research expands knowledge of employee-based green innovation among SMEs and provides managerial advice on enhancing sustainable innovation through supportive practices and leadership development.
Recognizing knowledge management (KM) culture as a critical enabler of competitive sustainability, this study examines how different dimensions of KM culture shape an organization's competence in using standards, and how this competence, in turn, drives the organization's experience with standards and ultimately its intensity of using standards. To assess these relationships, we proposed and validated the conceptual model on a sample of 845 European owners, managers, and employees involved in or responsible for standardization in their organizations using structural equation modelling (SEM). Drawing upon the resource-based view and the dynamic capability view theories, our study suggests that using standards might be seen as an organizational capability. Our study contributes to the KM theory by showing that the KM culture shapes how organizations move beyond viewing standards as externally embedded technical tools towards internally embedded organizational capabilities. These findings suggest that owners and managers of European companies fostering a collaborative KM culture are more likely to develop both competence and experience in using standards. Accordingly, policymakers should consider raising awareness among beneficiaries of support programs about the strategic importance of cultivating a collaborative organizational KM culture.
This study explores the role of Entrepreneurial Leadership (EL) in driving Project Success (PS), with a focus on the mediating effects of Intellectual Capital (IC), Knowledge Sharing (KS), Big Data Analytics (BDA), and Innovation Performance (IPF). The study integrates the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) to explain the relationships among these factors. Using RBV, the paper demonstrates that EL enhances PS by fostering the development of valuable internal resources, such as human, relational, and structural capital. DCT is applied to explain how EL drives dynamic capabilities, enabling organizations to adapt to changing environments and innovate. The research further examines how IC, KS, BDA, and IPF mediate the relationship between EL and PS, highlighting their critical roles in improving decision-making, collaboration, and performance. A combination of Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA), Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), and Bottleneck Analysis is used to evaluate the relative importance of these constructs and identify thresholds for achieving optimal project outcomes. The findings suggest that improving EL and IC, with support from BDA and IPF, provides a strategic framework for organizations seeking to enhance project success. The study contributes to the literature by offering empirical insights into how dynamic capabilities and intellectual resources contribute to PS and provides actionable implications for leadership development in organizations. Future research could further explore the interaction effects of these constructs and their application across different industries and geographical contexts.
This study examines the causal mechanisms of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) to address a key gap in public sector quality management research. Unlike previous CAF-based studies that mainly describe associations among criteria, this research empirically tests the relationships among its core enabler criteria, the causal links between enablers and results, and the mediating role of process management. Using a standardised cross-national questionnaire design and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the findings show that leadership significantly drives strategy and planning (beta = .91, p < .001) and people (beta = .51, p < .01) but not partnership and resources. However, process management does not mediate the relationship between enablers and results. Instead, people (beta = .27, p < .001), citizens/customers (beta = .44, p < .001), and social responsibility (beta = .22, p < .05) contribute significantly to overall organisational performance. These insights offer practical guidance for managers and policymakers by showing that performance improves most when leadership is strengthened, strategies are aligned with people and resource management, and improvement actions are explicitly linked to their intended people, citizen, and societal results.
The relationship between executive characteristics and corporate green transformation has received much attention, but few studies explore it from the perspective of executive postgraduate education. Based on the research perspective of postgraduate education in colleges and universities, this paper takes Chinese manufacturing listed companies from 2007 to 2022 as a research sample, and explores the impact of executive postgraduate academic qualifications on the green transformation and upgrading of enterprises by analysing the big data on the resumes of top executives, and further analyses the difference in this impact. The study shows that the level of executive education has a significant positive impact on the green transformation and upgrading of enterprises. Green technological innovation plays a mediating role in the relationship between executive postgraduate education and green transformation and upgrading. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of executive postgraduate qualifications on corporate green transformation and upgrading is more substantial in the state-owned enterprise and female executives. The above conclusion still holds after considering the robustness test and endogeneity treatment. This paper reveals the significance of highly educated talent in promoting the green development of enterprises from the perspective of postgraduate education in higher education institutions. It provides theoretical support and practical guidance for cultivating high-end managerial talent with an awareness of sustainable development and innovation ability.
This study aims to examine whether firms must implement business excellence management practices in an integrated and systemic approach to attain competitive advantage. For this purpose, it investigates whether excellence management capability - rooted in Business Excellence Models (BEM) - is essential for firms seeking to achieve and sustain competitive advantage in global markets, particularly when formal BEM-recognition is not pursued. Based on a systematic literature analysis and grounded in Resource-Based Theory (RBT), the study conceptualises excellence management capability as a process-based resource. Using Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), this study assesses whether the absence of this capability constrains firm performance, based on data collected from firms implementing BEM-aligned practices without recognition. The results reveal that excellence management capability is necessary for high firm performance. Its absence critically limits the ability of firms to achieve superior outcomes, confirming its role as a non-substitutable internal resource. This study contributes to the management literature by positioning excellence management capability as a vital enabler of business performance, independent of formal BEM recognition. It expands the current understanding of how firms can operationalise excellence management practices as internal capabilities, aligning strategic intent with process execution. Managers can leverage the findings to strengthen internal excellence management capabilities without incurring the costs or risks of formal certification. This approach enables firms to embed BEM principles into core business processes for sustained competitive advantage.
This study examines the impact of board structure on the innovation investment intensity of Vietnamese commercial banks over the period 2010-2023 using the generalized method of moments (GMM). The results show that board size, board independence, gender diversity, and foreign board representation are positively and significantly associated with innovation investment intensity. In addition, the negative coefficient on CEO gender indicates that banks led by female CEOs tend to exhibit relatively higher innovation investment intensity than those led by male CEOs. Although prior studies have examined the governance-innovation nexus, evidence on how specific board characteristics shape innovation investment intensity in the banking sector remains limited. This study contributes to the literature by providing some of the first evidence on the association between board structure and innovation investment intensity in Vietnamese commercial banks. The findings highlight the importance of board structure as a governance mechanism in promoting banks' innovation-oriented investment decisions and offer practical implications for bank managers seeking to enhance business excellence through the implementation of Total Quality Management.
Leadership has long been considered a catalyst for the successful implementation of various quality management practices, ultimately contributing to positive organisational performance. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the specific influence path of senior leaders' commitment to quality improvement on financial performance, especially when considering key internal and external stakeholders. From the perspective of stakeholders, this study developed a multiple mediation model to explore the influence of senior leaders' commitment to quality improvement on financial performance. Data were collected through questionnaires from 411 Chinese enterprises that have implemented the performance excellence model, and structural equation modelling was employed to test the model. The findings of this study reveal that senior leaders' commitment to quality improvement positively affects financial performance through the two paths of engaging internal employees and external customers. Notably, the positive impact of both stakeholders on financial performance is mediated by process management. Thus, this study emphasises that senior leaders should pay close attention to both employees and customers throughout the quality improvement process, and effectively manage the associated processes to improve financial performance.
The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore important emerging organizational challenges from a quality management (QM) perspective and investigate how current excellence models incorporate these challenges. The paper is based on a Delphi study of Swedish organizations. 54 challenges were generated and ranked according to importance and the ten top-ranked challenges were compared to four excellence models. Both public and private organizations face growing demands for competence development, digital transformation, innovation, and adaptability, requiring a shift beyond traditional excellence models. The public sector prioritizes governance and learning culture, while the private sector focuses on agility and technology integration. To remain relevant, excellence models must evolve to further incorporate AI, digitalization, sustainability, and employee engagement, ensuring resilience and strategic adaptability in a rapidly changing environment. The findings point to several specific avenues for future research in Quality Management (QM). As organizations face growing demands for digitalization, AI integration, and workforce reskilling, future studies should explore how QM models can more effectively support technological adaptation and continuous competence development. Research is also needed on how QM can facilitate cross-organizational collaboration and enable more agile, innovation-driven cultures.
This study examined the impact of digital-real integration (DRI) on corporate green governance performance (GGP) and its underlying mechanisms using a panel of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2023. The findings reveal that (1) DRI significantly improves corporate GGP, verifying the effectiveness of the 'digital green transformation' path; (2) The promoting effect of DRI on corporate GGP is mainly realized through the dual mediating mechanisms of 'total factor productivity' and 'green innovation'; (3) Executives' green cognition, employee green digital literacy and environmental regulation each exert significant positive moderating effects on the nexus between firms' DRI and their GGP. Our findings provide micro-level evidence for the green dividends of digital transformation and offer actionable insights for policymakers and firms pursuing sustainable development.
Innovation is transforming the global business landscape, with the banking sector playing a pivotal role in this evolution. This study explores the dynamic interplay between financial technology (Fintech), the digital economy, and economic governance and their collective impact on bank performance across 33 Asian countries from 2011 to 2023. Employing Generalised Structural Equation Modelling (GSEM) and leveraging extensive datasets from BankFocus (BvD), GFDD, WDI, and IMF (FDI, FAS), the analysis reveals that Fintech adoption significantly enhances bank performance, with the digital economy serving as a crucial mediating factor. Moreover, economic governance emerges as a vital moderating influence, shaping the effectiveness of Fintech in driving banking outcomes. These findings underscore the importance of robust digital infrastructures and effective governance frameworks in harnessing Fintech's potential, particularly in emerging markets. These findings also contribute to the literature on organisational excellence by illustrating how digital transformation supports continuous performance improvement, a key tenet of quality management in financial institutions.
This paper explores the effect of Lean Production and Industry 4.0 technologies on the operational performance improvement. While there is a widespread consensus on the positive effect that both paradigms can produce on the operational performance improvement, it is still questionable whether their joint interaction can enhance the effectiveness of Industry 4.0 due to the human-centricity of lean organizations, which seems to be in contrast with the strong focus on the technology-centricity peculiar to Industry 4.0. Based on the analysis of survey data coming from 189 factories located in Italy, the paper reveals a positive association between Lean Production practices and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. However, it also shows that their interaction weakens the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on productivity and product quality in factories with a longer and more intense Lean Production adoption. Interviews conducted among seven plants help in identifying the main reasons for such phenomenon.
This study examines how occupational calling influences frontline service employees' intent to stay by integrating Work as Calling Theory (WCT) and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. Using a three-wave, time-lagged survey of 319 service employees across Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, this study examined person-organization fit (P-O fit) as a mediator and tested the moderating roles of subjective norms and fear of COVID-19 (FoC). The results support the proposed mediation model, showing that occupational calling is positively associated with intent to stay through P-O fit. Subjective norms strengthened the positive association between calling and P-O fit, confirming a first-stage moderated mediation effect. However, contrary to expectations, FoC did not significantly moderate the relationship between P-O fit and intent to stay. These findings contribute to the occupational calling literature by clarifying how cognitive (P-O fit) and social (subjective norms) mechanisms influence employees' intent to stay. The study refines COR theory by clarifying its boundary conditions in a resource-constrained post-pandemic context. Implications for employee retention and organizational support strategies are discussed.
Digital transformation revolutionizes manufacturing by boosting efficiency, streamlining operations, reducing costs, and fostering innovations beyond traditional methods. This study examines how Explorative IT capability enhances organizational performance through Green Supply Chain Integration in the manufacturing sector under the lens of natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory and the Theory of Ambidexterity. In terms of statistical techniques, Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), fuzzy set qualitative analysis (fsQCA), and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) were used to analyze the study's Linear and Non-linear relationships among hypothetical relationships of the data collected from 620 respondents of the Pakistani manufacturing industry. The findings revealed that Exploitative IT Capability positively contributes to enhancing organizational performance by targeting both operational and environmental factors, as well as the mediating role of green supply chain integration, including (green internal integration, green customer integration, and green supplier integration), with a potential moderator named Top Management Support. Active support for sustainability initiatives and IT resource allocation by managers enables firms to create innovative operational improvements. This research provides guidelines to help organizations improve performance, strengthen their brand, and comply with environmental regulations for sustainable practices over time.
Human-AI collaborative mentoring holds great potential to enhance interns' cyclical experiential learning in dynamic workplace environments. This study extends experiential learning theory by integrating key mentoring strategies, thereby establishing Mentoring-Enabled Experiential Learning Theory (MEELT). Building on MEELT, a theoretical framework is proposed to support interns' nuanced five-stage learning process and to foster effective workplace learning outcomes. Furthermore, the framework incorporates the moderating roles of cognitive resources and openness to experience. The study concludes by outlining key theoretical and practical implications and proposing an important agenda for future research.
