Can continuous improvement lead to satisfied customers? Evidence from the services industry

Koval, Oksana Petrivna; Nabareseh, Stephan; Chromjaková, Felicita; Marciniak, Robert

dc.title	Can continuous improvement lead to satisfied customers? Evidence from the services industry	en
dc.contributor.author	Koval, Oksana Petrivna
dc.contributor.author	Nabareseh, Stephan
dc.contributor.author	Chromjaková, Felicita
dc.contributor.author	Marciniak, Robert
dc.relation.ispartof	TQM Journal
dc.identifier.issn	1754-2731 Scopus Sources, Sherpa/RoMEO, JCR
dc.date.issued	2018
utb.relation.volume	30
utb.relation.issue	6
dc.citation.spage	679
dc.citation.epage	700
dc.type	article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	Emerald
dc.identifier.doi	10.1108/TQM-02-2018-0021
dc.relation.uri	https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/TQM-02-2018-0021
dc.subject	Continuous improvement	en
dc.subject	Customer satisfaction	en
dc.subject	Practices	en
dc.subject	Service industries	en
dc.subject	Structural equation modeling	en
dc.description.abstract	Purpose: To achieve higher customer satisfaction (CS), companies implement continuous improvement (CI) programs, regardless of the growing evidence of their failure to achieve declared goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify whether companies are able to improve CS through the application of CI; and, second, to identify what organizational practices are able to facilitate the impact of CI on CS. Design/methodology/approach: To test the developed assumptions, the study uses the structural equation modeling technique. The data for analysis were collected from 304 service companies via a custom web-survey. Findings: The research confirms the direct positive impact of CI on CS. Further, the study demonstrates that management commitment and rewards system that encourages employees to participate in CI play the major facilitating role in improving CS through CI. These practices accompanied by quality-oriented culture and employee training in the improvement tools provide necessary infrastructure to sustain CI in the companies over time. Additionally, regardless of the vital role of goal setting for CI established in previous research, the proposed study finds a limited ability of goal setting, as compared to other organizational practices, to facilitate CI–CS relationship. Originality/value: The study contributes to the scarce field of research on CI implementation in the services environment. Further, the research assesses CS as a variable of interest, as opposite to the previous studies, considering CS as a part of the composite variable. The research assesses the impact of the training in CI methodology on the CI–CS relationship, while previous research focuses on the general, work-related training. The findings provide an important basis for further academic work in the area of quality management. The identified practices can serve as guidance for managers, implementing CI in their companies due to the high fit of the proposed model. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.	en
utb.faculty	Faculty of Management and Economics
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10563/1008219
utb.identifier.obdid	43879329
utb.identifier.scopus	2-s2.0-85049552386
utb.source	j-scopus
dc.date.accessioned	2018-10-18T10:31:39Z
dc.date.available	2018-10-18T10:31:39Z
utb.contributor.internalauthor	Koval, Oksana Petrivna
utb.contributor.internalauthor	Nabareseh, Stephan
utb.contributor.internalauthor	Chromjaková, Felicita
utb.fulltext.affiliation	Oksana Koval Industrial Engineering and Information Systems, Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline, Zlin, Czech Republic Stephen Nabareseh Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline Fakulta managementu a ekonomiky, Zlin, Czech Republic Felicita Chromjakova Industrial Engineering and Information Systems, Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline Fakulta managementu a ekonomiky, Zlin, Czech Republic, and Robert Marciniak Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest, Hungary Corresponding author Oksana Koval can be contacted at: koval@utb.cz
utb.fulltext.dates	Received 14 February 2018 Revised 27 February 2018 19 April 2018 Accepted 18 May 2018
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utb.fulltext.sponsorship	The authors would like to thank the Internal Grant Agency of Tomas Bata University in Zlin (Grant No. IGA/FAME/2017/008 and IGA/FAME/2018/005) as well as the Visegrad Fund (Grant No. 51700045) for financial support. A special thanks goes to Nikita Nikitin from WebKr Gmbh. for the technical support of data collection.
utb.scopus.affiliation	Industrial Engineering and Information Systems, Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline, Zlin, Czech Republic; Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline Fakulta managementu a ekonomiky, Zlin, Czech Republic; Industrial Engineering and Information Systems, Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline Fakulta managementu a ekonomiky, Zlin, Czech Republic; Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest, Hungary
utb.fulltext.projects	IGA/FAME/2017/008
utb.fulltext.projects	IGA/FAME/2018/005
utb.fulltext.projects	51700045