engleski

The Influence of Continuous Improvement System on Company’s Business Performance in Croatian Companies with Certified Management System

Today’s business strategies have never been more transparent and available to companies. At the same time many companies struggle, more than ever before, to implement and sustain strategy that best suits company’s possibilities and their management. Continuous improvement (CI) or kaizen is a concept that has been present for decades and represents a very important aspect of quality management. Nowadays, the disciplines of strategic management and change management also recognize it as an important tool. Kaizen's philosophy includes behaviours of all employees to think about small, but continuous improvements at their workplace in order to achieve improvements in all parts of the organization. Implementing a continuous improvement system is considered a seemingly simple process, but numerous studies have shown exactly the opposite. Companies have been introducing a continuous improvement system as part of a quality management system with the goal to raise quality and operational performance. Nowadays, the disciplines of strategic management and change management also recognize it as an important tool and has become a significant driver of business success. From the aspect of a resource based theory, CI behaviour represents dynamic capability, therefore literature emphasizes its role in achieving company’s competitiveness. This PhD thesis focuses on determining the relation between continuous improvement system and its impact on company’s business performance in Croatian companies with certified Management System. Business performance construct will be measured by the use of Balance Scorecard (BSC) framework which includes not only financial aspect of the company but also non- financial indicators in measuring business performance. BSC was chosen as the appropriate tool for determining the relations between CI and business performance since CI involves more human aspect in its essence. CI system development in companies will be measured with the use of a generic behaviour model that was already tested and applied in researches conducted in developed countries. Based on the evidence from the existing literature about the barriers that limit continuous improvement possibilities or enablers that can encourage its development, the analysis was directed toward investigating the moderating roles of absorptive capacity, innovation management, competitive intensity and top management team characteristics on the relation between continuous improvement and business performance as important factors that can strengthen the relation between continuous improvement and business performance The methodology was divided into analysis of literature and empirical research was done with the use of survey method. The results of the thesis indicate that there is statistically significant relation between developed continuous improvement system and companies’ business performance. Also, results show that a specific Groups of CI behaviours, impacts stronger a certain business perspective measured with BSC framework, in contrary to other Groups of CI behaviours. Further, the research confirmed statistically significant role of innovation management in the relation between CI and business performance. Moderating role of absorptive capacity did not represent a statistically significant influence on the studied relation. Also, the role of competitive intensity as an external factor did not have a significant influence on the relation between CI and business performance. Finally, the role of top management team characteristics did not show a significant influence on the mentioned relation. Therefore, considering research results, future recommendation for adopting continuous improvement in company’s business strategy, can be directed toward managers and its support in addressing certain groups of CI behaviours that impact significantly business performance. As well to academics in adding new knowledge in the field of continuous improvement in analysing influencing factors on the relation between CI system development and business performance.

Continuous improvement ; kaizen ; business performance ; BSC ; absorptive capacity ; innovation management ; competitive intensity ; top management team characteristics ; Croatian companies with certified Management System

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