A multi-group analysis of the impact of lean manufacturing practices on operational performance: Does the national culture matter?

Abstract

Purpose- Although there are abundant studies addressing the technical aspects of lean manufacturing, few have been done to examine the influence of national culture on its effectiveness. Moreover, the “true” relationship between national culture and operational performance from practising lean manufacturing is probably non-linear, thus leading to an inconsistent role of national culture in previous research. By employing multi-group invariance analyses that do not face the strict assumption of linearity relationships, this study aims to investigate how the impact of lean manufacturing practices on operational performance differs across groups with different national cultural dimensions.Design/methodology/approach- Seven models associated with five cultural dimensions and two control variables (i.e. type of ownership, size of enterprise) are developed and tested based on 271 global manufacturing plants located in Vietnam. Findings- The results indicated that lean manufacturing is more effective in plants with a small size that value a low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, and feminine culture. These results partially support the practice-culture congruence perspective. Originality/value- This study provides an alternative analytical approach to study the role of natural culture and shows what specific cultural dimensions are congruent with lean manufacturing practices. These empirical results contribute to a deeper understanding of the reasons why certain companies find lean manufacturing practices difficult and/or fail to achieve their target performance.