Empirical examination of critical failure factors of continuous improvement deployments: stage-wise results and a contingency theory perspective

By Vijaya Sunder M, Anupama Prashar
International Journal of Production Research | February 2020

DOI

doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1727044

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Citation

Sunder M, Vijaya., Prashar, Anupama. Empirical examination of critical failure factors of continuous improvement deployments: stage-wise results and a contingency theory perspective International Journal of Production Research doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1727044.

International Journal of Production Research, 2020

Abstract

Organisations implement various Continuous Improvement (CI) practices such as Total Quality Management, Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for improving their processes. Drawing from the success and failure stories of these structured CI practices, scholars enumerated Critical Success Factors and Critical Failure Factors (CFFs). This study empirically examines the occurrence of various CFFs across different stages of CI deployment. Further, from a contingency theoretic perspective, this study investigates their associations with contextual variables by collecting survey data from 213 business units from the USA, the UK, China, and India. Principal Component Analysis is used to group CFFs across five CI deployment stages leading to an empirically refined framework for CI. Crosstab analysis using the chi-square likelihood ratio presented associations of CFFs with contextual variables. Findings reveal significant differences in the occurrence of CFFs across countries. There is evidence that LSS is less prone to failures when compared with TQM, Lean and Six Sigma. The occurrence of CFFs has been relatively lower in smaller and medium-sized enterprises operating in the service sector. Findings also reveal that lessons learned from each CI deployment cycle, contribute to organisational learning, and thence, leading to success at the strategic CI level of maturity.

Vijaya Sunder M is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management (Practice) and Programme Director of the Operational Excellence for Leaders Programme at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He also serves on the advisory board of ISB’s Executive Fellow Programme in Management and Executive Education. Previously, he was Chair of the Experiential Learning Programme (2022-2025), Academic Director of the Centre for Business Innovation (2023–2024), and a BAT Research Fellow (2021–2023).

He holds a PhD in Operational Excellence from IIT Madras and brings over 18 years of industry experience from global corporations. He has served as Head of Business Process Excellence at the World Bank Group, Assistant Vice President at Barclays, and Quality Leader at American Express and Citi.

Professor Sunder’s research focuses on operational excellence, project management, behavioural operations, and human-AI collaboration. He has authored three books and published scholarly research in leading journals, including Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Research, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. His articles have also appeared in Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Management and Business Review, and Rotman Management. His teaching case studies, published by Harvard Business Publishing, are among the bestsellers.
Professor Sunder has received several prestigious honours, including ASQ’s Global Crosby Award, IAQ’s

Walter E. Masing Award, and recognition as one of PEX Network’s (IQPC) Top 50 Operational Excellence Thought Leaders worldwide. In 2025, he was featured in Business Mint’s 50 Under 50 Brightest Minds of India for his contributions to the field of Operational Excellence. He is also a recipient of IIT Madras Best Researcher Award in 2018, the Quality Champion Award (Gold category) by the Quality Control of India (QCI), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India in 2022, and the Financial Times Responsible Business Education Award (Runner-up) in 2022.

At ISB, he teaches PGP, Executive MBA, and PhD courses such as Business Process Excellence, Operational Excellence, Digital Transformation in Services, Project Management, and Operations Management. He has won multiple “Professor of the Year” – Best Teacher: Teaching Excellence Awards for the PGP core and elective courses for the Class of 2021 (one award), Class of 2023 (two awards), Class of 2024 (one award), Class of 2025 (three awards), and the AMPH Class of 2024 (one award).

A TEDx speaker and sought-after keynote presenter, Professor Sunder has trained over 10,000 business executives worldwide and is widely known for his innovative and experiential pedagogies.

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