Lean implementation failures: the role of organizational ambidexterity

Using a quasi-experimental research design and an abductive approach, we explore the determinants of lean implementation failure in a financial service provider. Based on quantitative and qualitative data analysis, we show that the analyzed lean implementation was unsuccessful even if undertaken in the absence of the obstacles and barriers suggested by extant lean literature. We also show that lean practices were adopted as a result of the implementation, but such adoption did not translate into operational change and performance improvements. We investigate why this happened conducting thematic analysis of 23 interviews with office managers and lean specialists and abduct that how lean implementation tasks are allocated between lean specialists and office managers (the degree of structural versus contextual ambidexterity built in the implementation process) led to failure. More generally, we discover that how the lean implementation process is organized can generate variation in lean implementation outcomes, and that the conditions for lean implementation failure might be built in the lean implementation process. We develop a testable research proposition that contributes to lean implementation literature, draw some theoretical and managerial implications and suggest directions for future research.