Paper info

The importance of relational tightness in network for lean implementation and firm competitiveness

Daria Kovalevskaya, Elsebeth Holmen , Aristidis Kaloudis and Ann-Charlott Pedersen

The paper was published at the 35th IMP-conference in Paris, France in 2019.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how firms can enhance their leanness by building close network relationships in all layers of substance in business relationships: actors, resources and activities. Our aim is to understand and highlight the network effects on lean firm performance. In the lean management literature, we find evidence and provide examples how activity patterns, resource constellations and web of actors’ dimensions effect lean firm performance. Based on a literature review of lean supply networks we propose that relational tightness in network - “tight” or “thick” business relationships (in the three layers of actors, resources and activities) reinforce the positive relationship between lean practices and firm’s performance