Relationship between continuous improvement and innovation performance: an empirical study in Brazilian manufacturing companies

The continuous improvement programs and innovation have been stimulated and widely deployed due to the importance to the competitiveness of the organisations, being subjects of interest in several studies. However, there are few researches on the relationship between continuous improvement programs, such as Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma, and the innovation performance. The objective of the paper is to analyse the relationship between continuous improvement on the performance of product and process innovation, both incremental and radical, aiming at comparing the results of these relationships considering the use of the different continuous improvement programs mentioned above. To improve the analysis, the continuous improvement practices were divided into four subconstructs - culture, people, strategy and top management. A web survey was applied in Brazilian manufacturing companies that carry out product or process innovations and have continuous improvement initiatives implemented. The results demonstrate that continuous improvement has positive and statistically significant relationships with the four types of innovation performance and the results remain independent of the continuous improvement program that the company applies. Besides, the use of continuous improvement practices is more relevant to innovation performance than specific programs of improvement such as Lean, Six Sigma or lean Six Sigma.