The purpose of this research study was to examine the international transfer of kaizen. The central research question was formulated as what national level factors influence the transfer of kaizen? In the study, an inductive case study approach was followed with semi-structured interviews. The study focused on Japanese subsidiaries in the Netherlands. A total of 15 companies participated in the research. Two main factors, not previously identified in the literature, were found: the level of eagerness of employees and the level of discipline of employees. Based on these two factors, transferring kaizen to the Netherlands was found challenging.

PurposeThis study examines the role of anxiety in kaizen behaviour and performance by empirically testing the influence of personal anxiety (state and trait) on individual kaizen behaviours (rule adherence, initiative and perseverance of effort), which, in turn, affect individual kaizen performance.Design/methodology/approachThe data were obtained from a survey of 552 employees of four companies in Japan and analysed using structural equation modelling.FindingsThe results show that state anxiety has a significantly positive effect on rule adherence and kaizen performance. Trait anxiety positively influences employees' initiative and perseverance but has a significant negative effect on kaizen performance.Originality/valueThis study contributes to kaizen and continuous improvement theory by focussing on individual kaizen, which is considered to be as important as organisation-level kaizen and investigating the relevance of personal anxiety in individual kaizen behaviours and kaizen performance.

So far, the literature on the international transfer of kaizen is inconclusive with regard to what influences successful transfer. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature by studying the influence of organization structure and culture. Furthermore, since kaizen is ambiguously used, another purpose it to determine whether personal initiative is related to kaizen. The study was interview oriented and conducted at Japanese subsidiaries in the Netherlands. The results indicate that organic structures and clan-oriented cultures are the best for kaizen transfer whereas hierarchical cultures are not conducive to successful kaizen transfer. Furthermore, it was found that personal initiative is positively correlated with kaizen.

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