A socio-technical view of performance impact of integrated quality and sustainability strategies

Abstract

This research seeks to examine the direct effects of social and technical integration on deployment of quality and sustainability management programmes and the indirect effect of those on quality and sustainability performance. We also seek to test the spillover effects of quality and sustainability management programmes on sustainability and quality performance, respectively. Socio-technical systems (STSs) theory is used to test the role of social and technical integration on quality and sustainability management programmes. The framework of integrated management system, as supported by both STSs and complementarity theory, is used to test the direct and spillover effects of quality and sustainability management programmes. A large multi-country sample is used to empirically test our theory-induced hypotheses. The findings support that social and technical integration are indeed significant enablers for the positive relationships that quality and sustainability programmes have on quality performance and sustainability performance. Specifically, the results show that while social integration has both direct and indirect effects on quality and sustainability performance, technical integration impacts quality and sustainability performance only through the mediation effect of the respective programmes. The results do not support the spillover effects of quality and sustainability management programmes on sustainability and quality performance. Implications of the findings on academic knowledge and managerial practice are offered.