Untangling the cumulative impact of big data analytics, green lean six sigma and sustainable supply chain management on the economic performance of manufacturing organisations

Abstract

Big data analytics provides up-to-date information to facilitate organisational decision-making and boost economic performance. However, an organisation’s big data analytical capability must be investigated to determine its importance in driving economic performance through continuous improvement and sustainability-related tools such as green lean six sigma and sustainable supply chain management. We conducted an empirical study and obtained 443 effective responses from managerial staff working in small and medium-sized organisations in Pakistan. Using structural equation modelling and artificial neural networks, we investigate the effects of big data analytics, green lean six sigma and sustainable supply chain management on economic performance. Our result shows that green lean six sigma and sustainable supply chain management partially mediate the relationship between big data analytics and economic performance. Although the implementation of sustainable supply chain management is identified, it is supported by technological but not cultural compatibility in the current operating environments of the organisations. As a theoretical contribution, this study enriches the literature on digitisation by relating it to the dynamic capability theory. As per practical contribution, this study reveals that the amalgamation of big data analytics, green lean six sigma, and sustainable supply chain management strengthen the organisation’s economic performance.

Keywords:

• Big data analytics
• economic performance
• green lean six sigma
• sustainable supply chain management

Acknowledgments

We want to acknowledge Awbir Services, Industrial Engineering Consultancy, Karachi, Pakistan and Syed Saad Ahmed [email protected] for helping to gather the dataset and interviews. Ammara Farooq, research assistant at NWPU University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China, for helping in editing [email protected]. We are grateful to the Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant [number 71671139] and the [Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China] under Grant [number 22YJC630179].

Notes on contributors

Arsalan Fayyaz

Arsalan Fayyaz is a research scholar at the School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and manufacturing engineering and a master’s in Quality Management from NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan. His research areas include lean manufacturing, kaizen, big data, and layout design. He has seven years of professional experience in the industry.

ChenGuang Liu

ChenGuang Liu is a Professor at the School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. He received the Ph.D. degree from Tohoku University, Japan. He is the director of the International Research Institute for Sustainable Operations. His research focuses on sustainable operations management, decision science. He has published research articles in many academic journals.

Yan Xu

Yan Xu holds a Bachelor of Economics from the Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, a Master and a Ph.D. in Business Systems from Monash University, Australia. She is currently an associate professor at the School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China. She has published over 40 refereed papers in international journals and conferences in the areas of intelligent decision analysis, waste management, low carbon and sustainable development.

Fahad Khan

Fahad Khan is currently pursuing his PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China. He has done Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Pakistan and then Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Curtin University, Australia. He has a professional experience of 15 years in a Public Sector Organisation in Pakistan in the field of Mechanical structure design & fabrication, Product life cycle management, R & M of heavy equipment/machinery, and Quality Management Systems. His current research areas include big data in DFS, Virtualisation, and Containerisation.

Selim Ahmed

Selim Ahmed is a Professor and Head of the Business School, at the World University of Bangladesh. He obtained his PhD in Quality Management from the International Islamic University Malaysia (2016). His PhD research title was “Lean Six Sigma and Its Effect on Quality Performance in Malaysian Hospitals”. He has published several books, chapters and many articles in the top peer-reviewed journals. He is the Section Editor, Consulting Editor, Associate Editor, Guest Editor, Editorial Advisory Board Member and reviewer for many peer-reviewed journals. His research areas include Lean Six Sigma, Service Management, Healthcare Management, Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management & etc.