The continuous improvement programs and innovation have been stimulated and widely
deployed due to the importance to the competitiveness of the organisations, being
subjects of interest in several studies. However, there are few researches on the
relationship between continuous improvement programs, such as Lean, Six Sigma
and Lean Six Sigma, and the innovation performance. The objective of the paper is to
analyse the relationship between continuous improvement on the performance of
product and process innovation, both incremental and radical, aiming at comparing
the results of these relationships considering the use of the different continuous
improvement programs mentioned above. To improve the analysis, the continuous
improvement practices were divided into four subconstructs – culture, people,
strategy and top management. A web survey was applied in Brazilian manufacturing
companies that carry out product or process innovations and have continuous
improvement initiatives implemented. The results demonstrate that continuous
improvement has positive and statistically significant relationships with the four types
of innovation performance and the results remain independent of the continuous
improvement program that the company applies. Besides, the use of continuous
improvement practices is more relevant to innovation performance than specific
programs of improvement such as Lean, Six Sigma or lean Six Sigma.
