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The purpose of this paper is to explore the most common themes within Lean Six Sigma (LSS) relating to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within manufacturing organisations and to identify the research gaps in the existing literature.

Tranfield et al.’s (2003) systematic review methodology was utilised encompassing three stages: planning, conducting and reporting/dissemination.

The literature revealed that there are many areas in which LSS has been utilised with varying successes. In total, 52 journals have been reviewed and it has been concluded that although LSS is a powerful methodology, there are many gaps that exist in the literature and further research is needed to address these in the field of LSS.

The papers included in the systematic review were peer-reviewed papers available in English. Due to these limitations, relevant papers may have been excluded. Moreover, the authors have excluded all conference and white papers for their inclusion in this study.

It is vital that LSS practitioners are fully aware of the benefits, limitations and impeding factors when implementing a LSS initiative. Therefore, this paper could provide valuable insights to ensuring maximum value, is obtained from LSS implementation in SMEs.

This systematic review identifies research gaps in the current literature and highlighting areas of future research which will be beneficial to many SMEs in their pursuit of value optimisation.

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a continuous improvement methodology that has been adopted by several companies as a strategy to increase their competitive advantage. However, due to the misuse of LSS theory in practice, a high rate of implementation failure results. There is a need for a structured and standardised framework to describe how the LSS initiative should be implemented and sustained over time. As a result, this study aims to develop a practical, user-friendly and accurate LSS road map for a Scottish manufacturing small and medium enterprise.

The approach was to analyse existing literature on lean and Six Sigma that included road maps and critical success factors (CSFs) in order to design an in-company, quantitative survey instrument. The aim of the survey was to evaluate employees' perceptions on the importance of LSS CSFs for the successful implementation and sustainability of a continuous improvement initiative. Based on the literature and results from the data collected, an LSS reference guide - in the form of a road map - was designed to support LSS implementation and sustainability.

A customised LSS reference guide in a road map format for the Scottish SME was proposed. This road map was developed by adopting existing successful road maps from the literature into consideration and then adapting them to fulfil the company's particular perspective on CI. This study complements current literature on LSS road maps and corroborates LSS CSFs as crucial for successful LSS implementation and sustainability, regardless of the type of company and/or culture. However, a degree of importance is ascribed to the organisation's culture.

Whilst a survey was used as the data collection instrument future interviews with employees would enhance the understanding of the organisational culture and hence further improve the road map.

The authors developed a practical and strategic roadmap for a Scottish packaging small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) which can be used by other similar SMEs. The proposed LSS road map can be replicated and/or adapted for companies in their application of LSS. The methodology by which this study's road map was designed can be used as a guide in the development of further CI road maps.

This study aims to provide insights into the conceptualization of social entrepreneurship and the extent to which culture affects it.

First, social entrepreneurship is conceptualized and then the research integrates Hofstede’s framework, with some consideration for Inglehart’s and Schwartz’s framework in exploring the effects of cultural values.

Seminal studies on social entrepreneurship delineated acting entrepreneurially and having a social mission but failed to consider cultural contextualization. After illustrating Hofstede’s, Inglehart’s and Schwartz’s frameworks for cultural dimensions, the research shows that different cultural dimensions can provide a better understanding of social entrepreneurship.

This study has a limited scope as it relies on narrow conceptualizations of social entrepreneurship and culture.

Future national agendas should embrace varying notions of shared obligation across support institutions and enterprises as they attempt to address social problems across differing cultures.

This research contributes to the literature by providing an insightful understanding of the influence of culture on social entrepreneurship through integrating widely used cultural dimensions.

Viewing consumer confidence as a set of static factors has informed previous research and underpinned strategies used in recovering from food safety quality failures, but this approach has not delivered reliable and quick recovery from large-scale food safety scandals. The purpose of this paper is to examine extant models and the factors they are composed of, and suggest an extended model that has a better potential for consumer confidence. The paper focuses on food products where supply chains are visible, and use these features to group the findings.

In this study principal components and logit analyses are used to assess the role of 30 variables operating in a consumer confidence model constructed from several existing in the literature. This combined model considers emotional, cognitive, trust and sociodemographic factors. In total, 14 independent factors are identified. The authors examine the factors, and from these, the decision-making mechanisms before and after the Sanlu Infant Milk Formula (IMF) scandal of 2008.

The authors find that the factors considered by consumers are different for different IMF supply chains, and different again before and after the scandal. The authors develop the argument for an extension to the existing models, incorporating a dynamic consumer confidence system.

The paper uses a single survey after the focus event to establish “before” and “after” decision-making factors. Since the IMF scandal is recent and of very high profile, this is likely valid even if it carries memory bias effects. The study is directly applicable to food safety scandals in a Chinese context. Deductive reasoning extends our assertions to a wider context. They are logically validated but have not been formally tested.

Using this system as a framework a checklist for recovery from a similar food safety scandal is suggested. The authors also suggest more general use for use where supply chains features are visible to consumers.

Models for food safety consumer confidence recovery have previously focused on identifying models and the static factors they consist of. These do represent a reflection of how this phenomenon operates, but using the principals of this model nevertheless does not result in good recovery from extreme food safety failures. This paper contributes by extending these models to one that can be applied for better recovery.

Approaches to the sociology of culture have largely been constituted around the long tradition of functionalism in sociology. This has hampered the field greatly. Among other shortcomings, this intellectual foundation has led to a limited understanding of ideology and civil society, a conservative political orientation and an overdeterministic view of social action and the actor. In this paper, I explore and then apply a new approach to the sociology of culture, one that attempts to conceptualize more robustly the dynamics of ideology, ideological conflict and civil society. As part of this project, I endeavor to map out a critical cultural perspective that establishes a multidimensional understanding of the contingency of social action.

This study seeks to investigate empirically the impact of organizational culture (bureaucratic, innovative, and supportive) and quality improvement practices.

Data used in this study were obtained through a questionnaire by random sampling, which took place in four large public hospitals, located in Irbid Governorate, Jordan, involving 271 managers, physicians, and nurses.

Quality improvement practices were measured by 16 statements on a five‐point rating scale. Each of the three types of organizational culture was measured using five items on a five‐point rating scale.

The three types of culture have a significantly positive influence on quality improvement practices, and account for 62 per cent of the variation of quality improvement practices. Compared with bureaucratic and supportive cultures, innovative culture appears to play a stronger role in quality improvement practices. Contrary to expectations, the analysis shows that bureaucratic actions enhance rather than hinder quality improvement practices. Respondents with a bachelor or a higher degree and participating in a training course related to quality reported higher prevalence of each culture and a higher level of quality improvement practices.

Innovative culture has a crucial role in quality improvement practices compared with bureaucratic and supportive cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the level of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation at National bank Operations Division by utilizing the five stages of progress identified by Gygi et al. (2005), namely, initialize, deploy, implement, expand and sustain. A further aim was to determine the impact of implementation so far on various operations within the division.

The study was conducted within the head office. Data were gathered through a questionnaire distributed to all employees working in the operations division via e-mail. Responses were analyzed using SPSS v20.

The results obtained indicated that 99 percent of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the bank has past stages 1 and 2 and are now implementing stage 3. The finding also showed that there was a significant impact on a number of operations including reductions in average process cycle times, reductions in costs, reductions in turnaround times and reductions in error rates.

The research findings are limited to National Bank of Kenya Ltd and may not be generalized to other organizations. Further research will have to be carried out to cover other types of organizations to establish general impact.

The findings of the study provide evidence of the practical benefits of LSS as well as justification for the adoption and implementation of LSS principles and techniques in the National Bank of Kenya with possible similar benefits for other financial services organizations.

This study is the first to report on the implementation of LSS in a Kenya bank.

This study examines elderly and advanced elderly inpatients' perceptions of acute care service quality, prioritises opportunities for quality improvement, and assesses variation in patients' satisfaction with care. Psychometrically‐validated postal questionnaires were sent to random samplings of patients discharged from the US acute care facilities in 2002 (n=2,057,164). Quality improvement priorities among non‐elderly (< 65 years), elderly (65‐74 years), and advanced elderly (>74 years) were similar but substantial variation was found comparing single items between age groups. Elderly and advanced elderly patients rated the quality of meals and rooms significantly lower than the non‐elderly, and the advanced elderly rated treatment decision making involvement significantly lower than the other two age groups. The data reveals specific, actionable areas for quality improvement and a non‐linear relationship between age and satisfaction. Findings question assumptions regarding older patients' evaluations of care and indicate directions for quality improvement that account for their unique needs.