Purpose This research paper analyses the link between manufacturing proactivity, understood as the tendency of a company to implement the most modern and advanced production management practices and business performance. Design/methodology/approach Over a sample of 186 industrial companies, two dimensions of proactivity were identified; one reflecting a cultural orientation and the other denoting a technical approach to progress. Findings Both dimensions, especially the cultural one turned out to have a positive effect on financial and operational performance. Among other things, these results point out the potential of the production and operations function as a source of competitive advantage for the company. Originality/value The aggregated analysis of several advanced production management practices, the proposal of different causal explanation of the relationship between manufacturing proactivity and business performance, and the combination of primary (postal questionnaires) and secondary (financial databases) data sources can be considered distinguishing features of this research.
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Javier González Benito (2005) studied this question.
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