The impact of organization ownership structure on JIT implementation and production operations performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the relationships among organization ownership structure, implementation of just‐in‐time (JIT), and production operations performance. Design/methodology/approach – A theory model for explaining the relationships among ownership, manufacturing strategy and performance was constructed, and then several hypotheses were tested using statistical analysis models based on questionnaire responses from Chinese manufacturing firms. Findings – The results show that organization ownership not only impacts the implementation of JIT and operations performance, but also impacts the relationship between JIT implementation and operations performance. Moreover, the results show that, for firms operated in China, the implementation frequency of JIT practices varies with organization ownerships; the foreign and joint venture firms (JVFs) were found to have a higher level of JIT implementation and can also achieve better performance from JIT implementation than state‐owned and private‐owned firms (POF). Also, JIT implementation was found to have a significantly positive relationship with operations performance in all types of ownership firms, with the exception of private ownership firms. Research limitations/implications – The research only covers manufacturing firms in China. Further research is needed to test the wide implications of this research in other countries or industries. Practical implications – This paper provides insights into how to improve JIT implementation performances, especially in various organization ownership structures. Originality/value – The paper appears to be one of the first studies of relationship between ownership structure and JIT implementation in China manufacturing environment.