Blue ocean leadership activities improve firm performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediation effect of Blue Ocean Leadership (BOL) activities between lean manufacturing (LM) practices and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach This study applied sequential mixed method with expert opinion in the first stage and cross-sectional survey from automotive vendor companies in the second stage. The samples were drawn using random sampling procedure from automotive vendor companies in Malaysia with the final number of respondents of 64. Four main hypotheses were developed and tested statistically by applying multivariate data analysis using SmartPLS3.0 SEM software. Findings The results provide evidence that LM practices have positive and significant impact on firm performance. Moreover, activities of Genba-Kaizen significantly improve the firm performance by an amazing 30 per cent. Originality/value Although there are growing numbers of anecdotal and empirical evidences in favour of LM in manufacturing environment, there has been almost no theory-building and methodologically rigorous research examining the link between the leaders' activities with LM practices and firm performance. This study is addressing such gaps.