Stakeholder dynamics and the implementation of process innovations: the case of Lean thinking in a UK NHS Hospital Trust

This paper addresses the dynamics and mechanisms underpinning the trajectories and outcomes of process innovation. It deploys actor-network theory to explore the role of emergent stakeholder dynamics and networks in shaping the trajectory and outcomes of a project to implement Lean thinking (Lean) in a theatres unit of a UK National Health Service hospital. It traces the process of network formation, stabilisation and maintenance over time, and shows that different meanings for Lean become manifest during the implementation process, manifested through the emergence and mobilisation of a global and a local network that interact with each other using the project as a negotiation space in order to achieve their diverse interests.