Tools and abilities for continuous improvement: what are the drivers of performance?

This article reports findings of the Italian part of the 2nd International Continuous Improvement (CI) survey, where 440 firms were randomly contacted and 60 responses received (response rate of 13.6%). Three research questions are investigated in this article: the CI tools and enablers adopted in Italy (RQ1); the state of the improvement activities and their evolution (RQ2); and finally, the relations between CI tools, ability development and performance (RQ3).