Notes a broad agreement that small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) fulfil a critical role in modern economies, and therefore their ability to survive, remain competitive and produce high quality outputs is of utmost importance at both micro and macro levels. Focuses on total quality management (TQM), a new management paradigm, which is successfully competing with the well‐established paradigms such as scientific management. Argues that implementation of TQM principles can potentially help SMEs to enhance their robustness, as well as improve the quality of their final output. However, observes that, by comparison with the large organizations, SMEs have been slow in implementing TQM. Examines the differences between the characteristics of SMEs and large organizations; the relationship between the size of organization and inherent characteristics of TQM; and the effect of organization size on the implementation of TQM using deductive research. Using the case data, develops a ten‐step methodology for the implementation of TQM in SMEs.

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This paper examines the relationships between environmental regulations, firms' innovation and private sustainability benefits using nine case studies of UK and Chinese firms. It aims to unravel the mechanisms by which a firm's environmental behaviour in improving its private benefits of sustainability is influenced by its relationship with the government, which primarily enacts regulations to maximise public sustainability benefits in the interests of society as a whole. The paper takes its cue from the Porter hypothesis to make some broad preliminary assumptions to inform the research design. A conceptual framework was developed through inductive case studies using template analysis. The results show that depending on firms' resources and capabilities, those that adopt a more dynamic approach to respond to environmental regulations innovatively and take a proactive approach to manage their environmental performance are generally better able to reap the private benefits of sustainability.

Purpose -This research contributes to the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of lean practices in the service sector. Design/methodology/approach -This paper examines the impact of lean service on firm operational and financial performance. Exploratory factor analysis is used to reduce the data and identify the underlying dimensions of lean service, and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the developed model. Findings -The results indicate that the social bundles of lean service had an independent positive impact on firm operational and financial performance. Furthermore, while the technical bundles had an independent positive effect on only the operational performance, they interacted with the social bundles to improve both the operational and financial performance. The findings suggest that service managers must follow a systematic approach when implementing lean service practices without focusing on one side of the system at the expense of the other. Practical implications -The paper highlights the importance of implementing lean service as a socio-technical system if service firms are to achieve the best possible benefits from their implementation. The motivation factor (social side) and the customer value factor (technical side) are capable of improving all operational performance dimensions and profit margin even if implemented alone. Therefore, service managers with limited resources are encouraged to start lean service implementation with practices within these factors. However, they can also expect improved operational and financial performance from implementing other factors as they positively interact to further improve performance. Originality/value -Viewing lean service as a socio-technical system, this paper incorporates a larger set of lean practices than previous studies and demonstrates empirically their capability of improving service firms' operational and financial performance. It contributes significantly to the emerging literature on lean service by empirically testing the mechanism through which lean service affects firm performance.

This paper analyses sustainable performance differences within the Greek food supply chain and provides numerous statistical comparisons of its key members (growers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers) with respect to firm size. In an attempt to fill a gap in the relevant literature, we examined micro, small and medium-sized firms against a set of sustainable performance measures and we employed survey research using a sample of 997 firms operating in the Greek food supply chain. Key informants evaluated their firms based on sustainable performance measures (consumption, flexibility, responsiveness, product quality and total supply chain performance). The results were analysed using ANOVA. The findings identify the Greek food supply chain members who over-perform or underperform in relation to size. These include small growers, wholesalers, retailers, medium-sized manufacturers and wholesalers, micro manufacturers and retailers. Specific reasons are provided for these sustainability performance differentials including the role of locality as well as the asset and resource intensity of some operations (e.g. manufacturing). Another key finding relates to small firms which are the top performers in terms of sustainability performance measures especially in the areas of flexibility and responsiveness. Members of this chain also underperform in the product conservation time measure, irrespective of size, and we highlight the urgent need for this to be addressed. Findings of this paper will prove useful for food SMEs and policymakers planning to introduce specific sustainability incentives related to firm size and to the food chain