Six Sigma, organizational learning and innovation: An integration and empirical examination

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Six Sigma, organizational learning and innovation performance. Also, whether organizational learning advance innovation performance by playing a mediating role between Six Sigma and innovation performance, probing the moderating effects of organizational types between six sigma and organizational learning, and also testing a proposed model to explain the relationships among Six Sigma, organizational type organizational learning, and innovation performance through an empirical examination in the Indian industry context.

Design/methodology/approach

Correlations are used to analyze the degree of relationship between constructs and to further understand the direct and indirect effects, as well as the moderating and mediating effects among the constructs in model, structural equation modeling is conducted using AMOS 6.0 on data collected from Indian industries.

Findings

This study proves the positive relationship between Six Sigma and organizational learning. It also confirms that Six Sigma role structure and Six Sigma focus on metrics contributes positively to organizational innovation, however, Six Sigma structured improvement procedure was found to be negatively related to organizational innovation, thus contributing to Six Sigma‐Innovation Paradox. This study also rejects moderating effects of organizational type between Six Sigma and organizational learning.

Research limitations/implications

Cultural context is a critical factor not only on Six Sigma, but also organizational learning, and organization innovation for investigating hence future study should consider this aspect. This research suggests the need for more intensive research to explore in more depth the relationship between Six Sigma structured improvement procedure, and the administrative and the technical innovation to identify the existence of potentially mediating variables in order to understand what is named the Six Sigma‐Innovation Paradox.

Practical implications

The findings are useful for business managers in developing countries such as India, who want to enhance business performance through implementing Six Sigma practices that support their firm's product and services innovation efforts.

Originality/value

The study has contributed to establishing an empirical research between Six Sigma, organizational learning and organizational innovations that facilitates more quality management research in developing countries. It has contributed to clarifying the disputed relationship between Six Sigma practices and the firm's learning and innovativeness, and shows empirical evidence in India to confirm that the Six Sigma practices deployed by a firm has a positive impact on its organizational learning. Six Sigma focuses on role structure and metrics contributed positively to innovation, however the Six Sigma effect of procedure on organizational innovation is negatively related, thus opening new areas of Six Sigma‐Innovation Paradox.

Citation

Sony, M. and Naik, S. (2012), "Six Sigma, organizational learning and innovation: An integration and empirical examination", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 29 No. 8, pp. 915-936. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656711211258535