The joint impact of process ownership and continuous process improvement on financial performance and customer satisfaction

There is a remarkable lack of empirical studies investigating the importance of process ownership and continuous process improvement, two dimensions of business process orientation. This study addresses this issue and examines the joint effect of these two concepts on organizational performance. Based on a literature review possible questionnaire items for process ownership, continuous process improvement, financial performance, and customer satisfaction are identified. Data from 840 Austrian manufacturing and service companies are gathered and analyzed. The present empirical results show that firms applying continuous process improvement methods and having process owners in place gain the highest financial performance in relation to the industry average and the highest customer satisfaction compared to competitors.