Business process innovation on quality and supply chains

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of business process innovation on the relationship between social quality management (SQM) and supply chain performance. To address this issue, this paper distinguishes SQM from soft quality management. This paper further refines the impact of two levels of business process innovation (radical vs incremental) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected through a survey of manufacturing firms throughout the USA. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses were performed in order to examine the hypotheses. Findings -This study confirmed the positive association between SQM and supply chain performance. While the results confirm a positive moderating relationship with incremental business process innovation between SQM and supply chain performance, radical process innovation was found to have a negative moderating role on this relationship. Originality/value - This paper distinguishes SQM from soft quality management thus making it easier to determine which aspects of soft quality management enhance supply chain performance. This study also provides evidence of the differing ways in which business process innovation moderates the relationship between SQM and supply chain performance specifically identifying the positive and negative moderating role of incremental and radical business process innovations.