Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) often struggle to sustain social innovation (SI) beyond isolated initiatives and to translate strategic intent into consistent improvements in quality of life (QoL) outcomes. This study aims to examine how Hoshin Kanri (HK), conceptualized as a lean-based strategy deployment architecture, enables the institutionalization of SI in NPOs and how this process contributes to QoL improvements in intellectual disability services.
A longitudinal action research (AR) design was conducted in an NPO operating in the intellectual disability sector. Fourteen AR–HK cycles were analyzed using qualitative process data and survey-based QoL assessments to examine how strategy deployment routines shaped organizational practices and perceived outcomes over time.
HK operated as an organizational architecture embedding strategic priorities into routines of alignment, cross-level dialogue and iterative review. Through these mechanisms, SI evolved from fragmented initiatives into institutionalized and repeatable organizational practice. Organizational capability for SI emerged progressively through routinized coordination, participation and disciplined learning. The translation of institutionalized SI into QoL outcomes was differentiated across dimensions, with stronger effects in empowerment- and participation-related domains and more heterogeneous patterns in material and physical well-being.
The findings demonstrate how HK can be configured to stabilize QoL-oriented priorities and sustain socially driven transformation beyond episodic initiatives.
By institutionalizing SI within governance routines, HK can support sustained social value creation in complex, person-centred service systems.
The study advances lean-as-learning-system theory by identifying HK-supported strategy deployment as a concrete institutionalization mechanism that enables and stabilizes SI within governance routines and builds organizational capability for sustained social value creation in NPOs.
