Chief operating officers’ long-term orientation and corporate lean production

Abstract

Although Chief Operating Officers (COOs) are pivotal to corporate operations management (OM), their impact on lean production remains underexplored. Drawing on upper echelons theory, this study investigates COOs’ role in lean production implementation. Analyzing a comprehensive sample of 5,582 firm-year observations spanning 1993 to 2020 derived from archival empirical data, our findings suggest that COOs with a higher long-term orientation are associated with a higher degree of lean production implementation. Furthermore, our analyses indicate that this positive relationship is stronger under conditions of lower environmental uncertainty, within larger firms, and in firms with more structured management practices. Overall, our findings support the recent emphasis on COOs’ importance and provide theoretical and managerial implications from an OM perspective.