This paper aims to explore the role of process improvement (PI) within the context of inflation to better understand the relevance of inflation within research on PI and operations management more broadly.
The work systematically surveys literature that draws upon inflation and PI individually, before identifying work that draws from both, specifically by referring to them in either their titles, abstract or keywords. Economics literature is drawn from to explore the concept of inflation before applying this within the context of literature related to PI. Real-world examples are presented, which illustrate the mechanisms that contribute to and result in price inflation as seen by consumers, moving away from more broadly held views of what inflation is.
The results from the literature provide limited evidence on the role of inflation within operations management literature. However, by applying the insight developed from the review of economics literature to PI, the research provides useful insight into theory and understanding of key concepts related to organisations’ ability and need to engage in improvement.
The work presents a new, previously unresearched seam of exploration that provides operations management research a means of engaging with, and contributing to broader academic discussions, related to productivity and economic development.
Given the very limited volume of studies exploring the overlap between inflation and PI, the work opens a fertile new seam of research, connecting operations and economics research. The work also suggests a need for operations management researchers to question established views of inflation within their work.
