Review article
Application of Continuous Improvement in the Business Activity of Companies with Iso 9001 Certification in the Area of Northwest and Central Region of the Republic of Croatia, with Reference to Koprivnica-Križevci County
Vesna Sesar
orcid.org/0000-0002-4447-9485
; University North, Croatia
Abstract
Globally, competitiveness is essential for organizations to ensure long-term growth. Growth alone is not possible without innovations that form the basis for development, so companies need to constantly improve in order to operate efficiently and effectively. Continuous improvement (CI, Kaizen) has been recognized in practice as a concept that affects the effectiveness of the organization and increases the agility of the organization by improving the process. It involves the behaviour of all employees to think about small but continuous improvements in their workplace in order to achieve improvements in all parts of the organization. The emphasis of the research was placed on the application of the system of continuous improvement in the business activity of companies that have ISO 9001 certification, and the impact of the CI system on the business performance of companies. Also in this model, innovation management is analysed as a moderator variable that significantly affects the relationship between the application of the system of continuous improvement and business performance. In order to examine the relationship, a research model was developed, and a survey was conducted on 114 Croatian companies (micro, small, medium and large) that have ISO 9001 certification in the north-western and central region of the Republic of Croatia. The mentioned area includes the following counties: Krapina-Zagorje, Varaždin, Bjelovar-Bilogora and Međimurje county with special reference to companies with ISO 9001 certificate in the area of Koprivnica-Križevci County. For the analysis of this relationship, a regression analysis and correlation were made in order to examine the set hypotheses. The results of the study showed that the link between continuous improvement and business performance is significant. Also, the results confirm that the practice of innovation management has a significant role of moderator between the application of the system of continuous improvement and business performance of the company.
Keywords
continuous improvement; Kaizen; innovation management; quality; business success
Hrčak ID:
268190
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2021.
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