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The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of process quality management (PQM) activities on firm's operational performance (OP) through the mediation of firm's absorptive capacity (AC).

This research builds on the theory of knowledge-based view to conduct a survey of 294 manufacturing companies in India. With the use of Hayes' PROCESS Macro in SPSS, the collected data were used to analyze the proposed mediating effect of firm's AC and moderating effects of leadership commitment (LC).

Study results suggest that both PQM and firm's AC contribute to improved OP and should be promoted. The firm's AC was found to partially mediate the impact of PQM on the firm's OP. Results also show that improved firm's AC can have a substantial effect on improvement in OP by stronger support of LC.

The results may lack generalizability due to the selected cross-sectional nature of the current study. Researchers are also encouraged to further test the proposed ideas using a longitudinal design approach.

To translate PQM initiatives into core strategic competencies, manufacturing firms need to develop their AC. Senior managers in the manufacturing sector should concentrate strongly on developing a knowledge-driven working culture to enhance operational efficiency and manufacturing productivity.

Current research study can be considered as one of the very few empirical analyses that investigated the mediating impact of the firm's AC on the PQM-firm's OP relationship. In the operations management (OM) literature, the investigation of the moderating effect of LC on the mediation of the firm's AC between the PQM and OP metrics can be considered to be a noteworthy theoretical addition.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of human-related support practices, total productive maintenance (TPM) practices, and total quality management (TQM) practices on manufacturing performance parameters and their inter-relationship.

A research project was carried out in 94 Indian manufacturing companies, using the questionnaire method. The survey data was drawn from 169 respondents working in these companies. In this paper, the impact of TPM and TQM practices on manufacturing performance parameters and especially the role of support practices is investigated empirically using various structural equation models.

Two factors namely top management and leadership and human resource development categorized as support practices were found to positively influence the adoption of technical practices, i.e., TPM and TQM practices. Hence support practices were found to indirectly affect the manufacturing performance parameters via the technical factors. Also analyzing various structural equation models (SEM), shop floor implementation of TPM practices were found to be influenced (or guided) by the philosophy of TQM practices. In other words, through the proper adoption of TQM practices, the effectiveness of TPM practices gets increased.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further using a case study approach.

The present study provides useful insights to practicing managers. The result of the study explaining the interrelationship between support practices (behavioral aspect) and technical practices can be used by practicing managers to develop a better understanding of the contribution of support and technical practices towards the realization of organizational objectives of growth and sustainability. In practice, TQM plays a great role in the adoption of TPM practices, which in turn helps to achieve quality in processes and therefore in products.

Previous research has often either concentrated on technical practices as one dimension without studying the effects of support practices on improving the adoption of technical practices. The results of the study take one step further by investigating the relationship between multiple aspects (support and technical aspects) of manufacturing practices and their impact on manufacturing performance.

The main purpose of this study is to understand how collective operational practices are adapted or stimulated by a firm's competitive strategy.

This study employed a data set drawn from 124 plant managers and directors of Indian manufacturing firms. Multiple regression was used to examine the impact of operational practices of lean, total quality management (TQM) and supply chain management (SCM) within competitive clusters of cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategy.

Results of the study show that the pattern of impact of operational practices on firm's performance varies according to type of the competitive strategy employed. All the three competitive strategy clusters have reported that TQM is the most important trigger for Indian manufacturing firms with relative effect of TQM practices on firm's performance being higher than that of lean and SCM practices.

Cross-sectional data from Indian manufacturing firms were used, and it would be interesting to test the analytical framework of the study for more sectors and countries. Future studies can take a longitudinal research approach to strengthen the findings of the study.

The findings explain how operational practices are aligned with competitive strategies for practitioners so that they can assign limited resources to build diverse operational capabilities based on their strategic choices.

Although very few classical studies are reported in various contexts involving competitive strategy, operational practices and firm's performance, no existing study focuses on how these three domains are linked together in the context of Indian manufacturing sector.

The Journal of Product and Brand Management (JPBM) has a 30-year long history. To commemorate the journal’s 30th anniversary, this research paper aims to present a retrospective overview of JPBM.

This research examines the performance of the research constituents, social structure and intellectual structure of scholarly publications produced by JPBM between 1992 and 2021 using bibliometric analysis.

This research sheds light on the growing influence of JPBM through four major knowledge clusters (themes): strategic brand management; consumer behavior; product development and innovation management; and brand engagement. A temporal analysis of decade-by-decade cataloguing of the JPBM corpus revealed another set of three distinct knowledge clusters (themes): retailing and pricing strategies; marketing communications; and relationship marketing.

Though the state-of-the-art overview herein offers seminal and useful insights about product and brand management research curated by JPBM, which can be used by the editorial board and prospective authors to curate and position the novelty of future contributions, it remains limited to the accuracy and availability of bibliographic records acquired from Scopus.

This research advances the internal review and subjective evaluation of the evolution of brand management thinking in JPBM by Veloutsou and Guzmán (2017) with an objective retrospection on the performance and scientific evolution of product and brand management research in JPBM.

The paper aims to assess the influence of process quality management (PQM) practices on a firm's operational performance (OP) and investigate the mediating role of a firm's learning and development orientation (LDO) in the PQM–OP relationship. The paper also assesses the extent to which the proposed mediation is moderated by senior management support (SMS).

This paper draws on the sociotechnical system theory to carry out a survey study of 278 functional managers from various manufacturing firms in India through a postal mail survey approach. The response rate has been improved by frequent telephone follow-ups. The collected data was analyzed for mediation of LDO and moderated mediation of SMS in the proposed framework using Hayes's PROCESS Macro in statistical package for social sciences.

The research findings show that both PQM and LDO lead to better performance and should be encouraged. LDO was found to partially mediate the effect of PQM on the firm's OP. The results also show that an enhanced learning capability of an organization can significantly influence improvement in OP through a stronger support of senior management.

The current study explored the mediating role of LDO in the relationship between PQM and OP, while providing a future research opportunity for an empirical review of the mediating effect of LDO between the effects of just-in-time, maintenance and process benchmarking activities on OP.

To transform PQM activities into a competitive advantage, firms need to develop learning capabilities. Senior managers in the manufacturing industry should strongly focus upon creating a learning-centered work culture to improve performance and productivity.

The study provides insights into the type of people-related activities that manufacturing firms should undertake to enhance their OP. Few studies in the extant literature have used SMS as a moderator to improve LDO's impact on business operations. The study aims at bridging this gap.

There is a scarcity of research about cultural aspects of organization related to lean implementation. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of lean practices and organizational culture on the operational performance of small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.

The study is based on a survey conducted and data collected from 215 manufacturing SMEs in India. The hypothesized relationships are then analyzed with structural equation modeling.

The results showed that the constructs of lean practices and organizational culture have significant and direct effects on the operational performance of Indian manufacturing SMEs. Further, this research shows the mediating effect of organizational culture on sustaining lean processes within small-medium manufacturing business setups.

Future research is required in a more diverse context to confirm the generalization of the results. Future research may be extended to investigate the effects of lean and organization cultural aspects on measures of financial, social and environmental performance.

The results obtained would help managers of manufacturing SMEs to better understand the linkage between lean and operational performance, considering the aspect of cultural change management in an organization. The outcome of this research provides useful indications of how organizations can work to sustain the philosophy of lean manufacturing within their workplace.

There is a lack of research at the critical intersection of organizational culture and sustainability of lean implementation. Culture is key to making changes required for lean implementation and in sustaining the drive toward lean production and management. This research is an attempt to fill that gap.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of five dimensions of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices (i.e. internal environmental management, green purchasing, cooperation with customers, eco-design, and investment recovery) on three dimensions of organizational performance (i.e. environmental, economic and operational performance).

Data were collected based on a cross-sectional survey of managers of 160 manufacturing firms in India. Structural equation modelling was used to test the influence of GSCM practices on each of the organizational performance outcomes.

Except for internal environmental management and green purchasing, all other GSCM dimensions are found to significantly impact at least one of the performance dimensions, either directly or indirectly. The results highlight that investment recovery practice is a key predictor of environmental performance, whereas eco-design is a key predictor of operational performance. The structural equation modeling result also suggests that GSCM do not directly affect economic performance, but can improve it indirectly.

Since data was collected from managers of manufacturing firms on the basis of their subjective evaluations, future research studies should employ objective performance indicators for analysis. Also, the study did not consider some dimensions of GSCM practices, which can be included in future studies.

Manufacturing firms should implement GSCM practices not just because of the pressure from regulatory bodies but also to elevate their environmental, operational and economic performance. The proposed model in this paper suggests practitioners which GSCM factors are driving these performance changes and supports the building of a roadmap for GSCM implementation in their organization.

Manufacturing firms from four different operating sectors, namely automotive, electrical and electronics, process and machinery sectors are the respondents. The originality of the paper lies in testing the influence of GSCM practices on organizational performance in a novel context, where most GSCM initiatives fail for one reason or another. Furthermore, the assessment of the interaction between five constructs of GSCM practices and three constructs of organizational performance in the Indian manufacturing context offers unique conceptual contribution to the researches in the GSCM field.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which lean management practices are adopted by small- and medium-sized manufacturing organizations in India and their impact on firm’s operational performance (OP). Also, the paper makes an attempt to identify the barriers and challenges faced by Indian SMEs that are striving to succeed with improvement efforts based on lean manufacturing.

In this paper, acceptability and implementation of lean manufacturing in Indian Manufacturing SMEs were analyzed using three constructs, namely, process improvement (PI), flow management (FM) and waste minimization (WM). The responding firms were categorized into “lean-Beginners,” “In-transition lean” and “lean” group based on their phases of lean implementation. Using a survey questionnaire, data were collected from 121 manufacturing SMEs in India. Lean tools and barriers, identified from the literature review, were also included in the survey. The reliability and validity of the practice and performance measures were evaluated. Correlation analysis was employed to investigate the effects of three constructs on OP.

The results indicate that all the three lean constructs are significantly related to OP. In the context of Indian manufacturing SMEs, “PI” and “WM” practices have shown a higher level of significance on OP, compared to “FM” practices. “5S -workplace organization” was found to be the most practiced lean tool. “Attitude of workmen” was highlighted as the main obstacle in successfully implementing lean. The findings suggest overall positive effects as a result of applying lean tools and philosophy in Indian SMEs.

The research results may lack qualitative justification because of the chosen research approach. Therefore, the researchers are encouraged to explore the inter-relationship among various lean tools/practices and performance criteria by conducting a qualitative study in the form of a case study or action research.

This paper is a beneficial source of information that highlights the contribution of lean implementation in enhancing manufacturing productivity. The major tools and techniques used by Indian SMEs have been highlighted and discussed; it could be a genuine source of motivation to lean practitioner and entrepreneurs of SMEs to go in for lean implementation. The findings are also expected to benefit the lean practitioners and entrepreneurs of SMEs to focus on vital issues to facilitate successful lean implementation in an organization.

The paper demonstrates that practical implication of lean implementation can bring real breakthroughs in productivity to small- and medium-scale manufacturing firms.

Many organizations are facing competitive challenges due to the rapid pace of technological changes. Both quality management (QM) and innovation are the competitive factors that are intensely embedded into organizational products, services and processes. In order to achieve higher firm performance, manufacturing firms are needed to adopt QM practices as well as develop innovation capability. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among QM, innovation capability (IC) and firm performance under both mediation and moderation models using structural equation modeling.

The approach of this study is quantitative. The data used to test the hypotheses were gathered from Indian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) interviewing senior managers with a structured questionnaire. These hypothesized relationships are tested with data collected from 134 Indian manufacturing firms by using SPSS and AMOS statistical software.

Overall, the findings clearly show that QM through the firm’s IC is indirectly associated with a firm’s business performance. It supported the notion that QM practices encourage the definition of innovation strategies of products and processes within a manufacturing setup, which positively affected different aspects of firm performance. More importantly, this study supports the findings of past studies that questioned the role of QM practices in improving a firm’s IC.

Some limitations of this study include: although a cross-sectional survey has been applied, the research does not permit us to account for the lag between implementation and performance. It also brings the opinion of a limited number of senior managers of Indian manufacturing SMEs, and hence both the sample size could be increased and the nationality of the respondent/responding firms could be expanded for future research.

In light of the obtained results, several recommendations were introduced to assist decision makers in manufacturing companies. The paper contains suggestions for improving manufacturing firm’s performance through developing IC and adopting QM practices.

This paper extends theoretical contribution in production and operations management literature, highlighting how QM practices and firm’s IC have to interact in determining an organization’s success and sustaining its global competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and total quality management (TQM) on the performance of small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.

Frameworks for describing EO and TQM derived from the literature were reviewed and used to develop a questionnaire. The hypothesized relationships of this model are tested with the data collected from 121 manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by using AMOS. The approach has been directed toward justification of EO and TQM strategy for its support to competitive manufacturing in the context of Indian manufacturing industries.

The results indicate that EO plays an influential role on the adoption of TQM strategy, and also has a direct effect on firm performance (FP). The results also indicate that the significance of the direct effect of EO on FP is reduced when the indirect effect of EO through TQM is included in the total effect model. Firms with higher level of EO will be more successful in adopting TQM strategy, which helps them in developing new capabilities that allow them to achieve better performance.

The research is cross-sectional in nature and, therefore, it does not permit us to account for the lag between implementation and performance. Second, the performance measures are subjective and may be subject to response bias.

The study presented in this paper offers entrepreneurs, academics and practitioners a better understanding of the relationship and impact of the EO and TQM on the manufacturing performance. Thus, entrepreneurs and practitioners will be able to make better and more effective decisions about the implementation of TQM practices.

By linking EO strategy and TQM practices to world-class manufacturing practices and performance in Indian manufacturing SMEs, this research adds a new dimension to study of world-class manufacturing and more generally to the best practices and practice-performance debates. This knowledge is important and unique, because it emphasizes that in addition to quality management practices, which are focused on efficient process management aspects of the organization, EO should also be given equal emphasis, in order to improve manufacturing performance of SMEs.