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The aim of this study is to determine the most critical success factors (CSFs) of lean adoption in a specific Greek public services subsector namely citizen's service centers (CSCs) and to define their underlying structure (latent constructs).

In this study an online structured questionnaire survey was distributed to all the Greek CSCs and six hundred and seventy-two employees responded and fully completed the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were applied to assess the reliability and validity of the latent constructs of the Lean CSFs.

Data analysis revealed that the latent constructs of the lean CSFs, namely communication, top management commitment and leadership, organizational culture, training and education, change and project management, availability of resources, teamwork, and employee involvement and empowerment are of major importance for the adoption of lean in the CSCs.

The small percentage of the responding employees of the Greek CSCs, given their large population and the subjective nature of the data collected constitute the main limitations of the present study.

The findings of this research can guide managers and decision makers of CSCs in recognizing the key factors that potentially will influence the successful adoption of lean, and the enhancement of the quality management initiatives of these services organizations. Moreover, the formulated model can also serve as a reference for academics and researchers to generate new research ideas. Finally, the results may offer guidelines to managers of public services organizations of other countries with a similar structure of the public sector.

The present study is stimulated by the existing gap identified in the literature in the field of the public sector. Building on the public sector literature, this is the first study that evaluates the importance of the CSFs of lean in the Greek CSCs and defines their underlying structure.

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between Lean adoption and organizational performance in a specific Greek public services subsector, namely, citizen’s service centers (CSCs).

An online structured questionnaire survey was distributed to all the Greek CSCs, and 672 employees responded and fully completed the questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to assess the measurement model’s reliability and validity. The relationships between the latent constructs were examined through structural equation modeling.

The study revealed that Greek CSCs adopt at a medium to high extent the following principles: understanding customer needs, establishment of value streams, creating flows within the value streams and value perfection. The data also revealed a valid latent factor reflecting the Lean application, namely, “Lean adoption,” which, according to the findings, contributes to the organizational performance of Greek CSCs.

The small percentage of the responding employees of the Greek CSCs, given their large population and the subjective nature of the data collected, constitute the main limitations of the present study.

The findings of this research will serve as a reference source for managers and decision-makers of CSCs in order for them to set the foundations for successfully adopting the Lean principles and therefore improve their organizational performance in terms of operational performance and satisfaction with employees and citizens.

Building on the public sector literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates the adoption of Lean principles in the Greek CSCs and defines the relationships between Lean adoption and organizational performance.

In times of strong global competition and worldwide economic downturn, there is an imperative need for public services organizations to reform and improve their quality. These organizations can base their improvement efforts on Lean philosophy. The purpose of this study is to assess the employees’ perceived degree of adoption of Lean principles by public services organizations in Greece. Determining the differences in the perceptions of groups of employees with regard to the adoption of Lean principles by public organizations is also an aim of the study.

A questionnaire survey was published online, inviting employees of Greek public services organizations to assess the degree of Lean adoption by their organizations, specified on the basis of general principles. A total of 1,022 employees completed the structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were applied to assess the degree of adoption of Lean principles by public organizations. The nonparametric Mann–Whitney U Test and Kruskal–Wallis Test were also applied to determine whether there are statistically significant differences in the perceptions of groups of employees with regard to the adoption of Lean principles by public organizations.

According to the perceptions of employees, Greek public organizations adopt Lean principles to a high extent. However, there is room for further improvement in the degree to which Lean is adopted. Statistically significant differences are observed in the perceptions of groups of employees from different sized organizations, hierarchical levels, skill sets and service subsectors, with regard to the degree of adoption of Lean principles by their organizations.

The employees of the public sector who were invited to respond to the survey through social media, the subjective nature of the data collected and the fact that this is a country-specific study constitute the main limitations of the present study, based on which future studies can be designed.

By determining the strong and weak points of the adoption of Lean principles by Greek public services organizations, suitable managerial initiatives can be undertaken by these organizations to fully adopt Lean, eliminate waste and enhance quality management.

Understanding and improving the current status of the adoption of Lean principles by Greek public organizations will influence the services provided to the citizens in terms of time, quality and delivery.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which provides insights, based on employees’ perceptions, into the adoption of Lean by the public services sector.

There is a growing trend in online shopping in developing and underdeveloped economies. Measuring web retail service quality is vital to enhance and retain online customers for higher profits. As a result, it is essential to understand e-service quality and its relationship with other e-commerce-related variables identified as customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth (WOM), loyalty and repurchase intention. The main objective of this research is to validate the psychometric properties of E-TailQ and ES-Qual scales to measure e-service quality in the context of an emerging economy.

The study was administered by surveying online customers through a convenience sampling approach. The sample data consisted of 329 valid responses. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results suggest that both the scales are valid, reliable and adequate and confirm the psychometric properties of E-TailQ and ES-Qual scales in an emerging economy context. There is a positive and significant relationship between latent variables (E-TailQ and ES-Qual) and customer outcome variables like satisfaction, loyalty, WOM and repurchase intention. Additionally, the coefficients of the E-TailQ scale have higher values than ES-Qual scales in all dimensions. The perceived quality proved to be a precedent of satisfaction to a lesser extent than other scales' constructs, and it proved to be a superior predictor of WOM for the E-TailQ scale and loyalty for the ES-Qual scale. Overall, when measured by the ES-Qual scale, perceived quality could explain much of the sample's satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intention compared to E-TailQ.

One of the significant limitations of this study is related to the data collection, as individual responses were collected at one particular point in time. Thus, it is impossible to verify the development of perceived service quality outcomes over a specific time. Another possible limitation is the selection of only two widely used scales, although other options are available in the literature. Finally, developing a new scale to address future challenges might be another alternative.

The results obtained in the study will help managers assess customer satisfaction, the reputation of the business through WOM, and customer intentions for the repurchase that will lead to loyalty by emphasizing e-service quality. It will enable them to design strategies for improving business performance. The developed instrument will assist in identifying the gaps and describing how service quality can achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Several studies in the literature have used E-TailQ and ES-Qual scales to measure e-service quality in developed countries. Only a few studies addressed the validity of these widely used competing scales in an emerging economy like Pakistan. This study addresses the literature gap by addressing the reliability and validity of these scales and assesses the impact of e-commerce-related variables. Besides, the study reveals insights into the literature by addressing multiple dimensions of e-service quality and summarizes a deep understanding of each scale item that affects the perceived quality in a developing economy like Pakistan.