Operational Practices and Financial Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Brazilian Manufacturing Companies (Report‪)‬

Introduction The search for a recipe for superior performance using operational practices has been a frequent concern in management literature since the early days of the scientific management by Taylor (1911). Several managerial publications claim to have found the formula for business success like the book by Joyce, Nohria and Roberson (2003) that states it in the title What really works: the 4+2 formula for sustained business success. Operations management has extensively explored the potential of the then successful Japanese management techniques when applied to western companies. This resulted in the Quality Management movement (Cole, 1998) and the Lean Manufacturing approach (Womack & Jones, 1996).