A study of the use of business improvement initiatives: the association with company size and level of national development

Abstract

This paper investigates the awareness, use and effectiveness of improvement initiatives in organisations of different sizes and in different countries. In particular, comparisons are made between large firms and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), between organisations in the developing and developed worlds and between organisations in China and India and the rest of the developing world. A questionnaire survey of 453 organisations across 44 countries was conducted with the findings indicating that there are significant differences in comparability of tools. For some tools there are no significant differences between developed and developing countries as well as between large organisations and small organisations. For other tools, there are significant differences with organisations in developing countries, in general, more aware and more likely to use business improvement initiatives when compared to organisations in developed countries. Similarly, organisations in China and India have a higher awareness of and are more likely to adopt improvement initiatives when compared to the rest of the developing world. Finally, larger firms are more aware and more likely to use improvement initiatives when compared to SMEs.

Keywords:

• improvement initiatives
• TQM
• SMEs vs large firms
• developed vs developing world
• China/India

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial and research support from the Global Benchmarking Network and its members. This research was also supported by the Higher Education Research Promotion and National Research University Project of Thailand, Office of the Higher Education Commission.