Title: Adoption of lean practices as management innovation. A review and conceptualisation

Authors: Nicole Belfanti

Addresses: Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Udine, Via Tomadini 30, I-33100 Udine, Italy

Abstract: An increasing number of manufacturing and service firms considers lean management as a strategy to improve organisational performance. However, lean management adoption is prone to high failure rate. This study develops a conceptual framework examining the adoption of lean management practices, which builds on the review and systematisation of 66 scientific articles on the topic. The definition of the theoretical categories is guided by an analysis of the antecedents of management innovation, of which lean management is a part. The drivers of lean management adoption resemble those of management innovation and refer to five areas: organisation, management, individuals, environment and the attributes of the innovation itself. This study finds that the scholarship has not considered the attributes of innovation as a driver of lean management adoption. The analysis of lean management from this perspective represents an opportunity for future research. Finally, this study offers practitioners a reference model to assess the preconditions of the adoption of a lean transformation.

Keywords: lean management; lean production; management innovation; organisational innovation; lean adoption; lean implementation; literature review; antecedents.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2019.097254

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2019 Vol.18 No.2, pp.242 - 277

Received: 18 Nov 2016
Accepted: 05 Nov 2017

Published online: 07 Jan 2019 *

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