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The ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Standard:
Companies’ Drivers, Benefits and Barriers
to Its Implementation
DOI: 10.12776/QIP.V23I2.1277
Laura Bravi, Federica Murmura, Gilberto Santos
Received: 30 June 2019 Accepted: 13 July 2019 Published: 31 July 2019
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate companies’ perception of the latest
version (2015) of ISO 9001 in terms of motivations that pushed companies to the
implementation of a Quality Management System.
Methodology: The research was conducted through a questionnaire proposed to
3,975 ISO 9001 certified companies, making a simple random sampling among
the 150,143 Italian companies certified in 2018. Among the companies
contacted, 493 participated in the survey and gave shape to the reference sample.
Findings: The results of the study show that the “culture of quality” is rooted in
Italy and mainly in the North, which represents the most economically advanced
area. With regard to the evolution of the standard from ISO 9001:2008 to 2015,
companies seem to have perceived the main changes introduced with the latest
revision, that helps to easily adopt its principles in companies.
Research Limitation: The main limitation of the study lies in the fact that the
focus of the research was based on Italian companies. It would be important for
future research to consider also other European countries, and make a
comparison between them, in order to consider if companies of different markets
have different motivations for implementing the standard and perceive different
benefits and barriers to its implementation.
Value of paper: Few researches have focused on the latest version of the ISO
9001 standard; therefore this study gives a broad vision of how companies that
have had to deal with the new standard consider it in relation to the previous
version, highlighting the main strengths and weaknesses.
Category: Research paper
Keywords: Quality Management System; ISO 9001; Total Quality Management
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1 INTRODUCTION
Quality from a fundamental philosophical perspective can be defined as the
summary of entity property manifestation in surrounding and time their
characteristic functions (Zgodavová et al., 2002). Therefore the implementation
of a Quality Management System (QMS), and its subsequent certification, is a
voluntary process, supported by the motivations, objectives and policies of the
organisation. Jones, Arndt and Kustin (1997), identified two types of
organizations, based on the main purpose for which they decide to certify
themselves, that is, the “non-developmental companies”, which tend to
implement a quality system only to obtain a certificate and the “developmental
companies”, which adopt the standard, because they believe they can get internal
benefits from its implementation.
Based on a survey conducted in 2016 by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) it emerges that, with 150,143 certified companies, Italy is
at the top of the European classification of Quality Management System (QMS)
certifications according to the ISO 9001 standard, and it is second in the world
after China, which, for the year under review, presents 350,631 certified
companies (www.accredia.it).
This research reported a total of 1,105,356 certificates valid for the ISO 9001
standard worldwide (including 80,596 issued for the 2015 version), with an
increase of 7% compared to the previous year (2015). The first four industrial
sectors by number of ISO 9001 certifications in 2016, based on the data, are the
metal and metal products sector, with 116,457 valid certificates, followed by
Electrical and optical equipment (88,482), construction (87,605) and wholesale
& retail trade, repairs of motor vehicles (79,492) (www.iso.org).
Currently, the globalisation has changed the way of doing business; customer’s
expectations have increased and are more articulated, and the ease of access to
information by all stakeholders has lead companies to operate in a supply chain
that is more complex than it was in the past. Therefore the ISO 9001 standard, in
order to keep up with market changes began a review process in 2012 to make it
compatible with the ongoing evolution of the market and with the standards
related to other management systems. The path that led to the publication of the
UNI EN ISO 9001:2015 standard began with a preliminary phase through the
creation of a web survey aimed at identifying the weak points of the standard and
then improving them within the process of reviewing.
The revision of the ISO 9001:2015 standard has introduced significant
differences compared to the 2008 edition, which can be summarised in 9 points
(Gigante and Ziantoni, 2015):
• the adoption of the High-Level Structure (HLS), a structure that is
common to The ISO standards related to management systems and defined
in Annex SL of the ISO Directives – Part I.
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• An explicit requirement that requires the adoption of Risk-Based Thinking
to support and improve the understanding and application of the process
approach.
• Less prescriptive requirements.
• Greater flexibility in relation to documentation.
• Better applicability to services.
• The requirement to define the boundaries of the QMS.
• Increased emphasis on the organizational context.
• Increased leadership requirements.
• Increased emphasis on achieving process results to increase customer
satisfaction.
Considered the above, the study aims to evaluate companies’ perception of the
latest version (2015) of ISO 9001 in terms of motivations that led companies to
the implementation of a Quality Management System, and the subsequent
benefits and barriers obtained from the adoption of the standard.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Main Drivers to ISO 9001:2015 Adoption and Benefits
and Barriers to Its Implementation
Making a historical overview of the reasons cited in the literature, regarding the
implementation of ISO 9001, the motivations can be classified according to two
main categories: internal and external (Santos et al., 1996; Murmura and Bravi,
2017). With regard to internal motivations, these are linked to the objective of
achieving an internal management improvement; while external motivations are
mainly related to promotional and marketing issues, customer pressures and the
improvement of market share (Santos and Barbosa, 2006; Prates and Caraschi,
2014; Santos and Milan, 2013).
Regarding the factors that influence the decision to adopt ISO 9001, various
studies have shown the importance of the size of the company (Psomas and
Pantouvakis, 2015; Feng, Terziovski and Samson, 2008). Larger companies are
associated with more market shares and are more likely to operate in different
markets or across different segments of the same market. For large companies,
the ability to tackle tackle ISO 9001 is higher, leads to greater customer
satisfaction, reduces information asymmetries between customers and other
interested parties, is a allows further market penetration and increases barriers for
competitors of smaller size (Boiral, 2011; Ilkay and Aslan, 2012).
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As for the benefits that a company can receive developing a QMS, according to
Douglas, Coleman and Oddy (2003) and Van der Wiele et al. (2005), these can
also be classified into two categories: internal and external. As stated by Santos,
Mendes and Barbosa (2011), there is a consensual opinion that the benefits of
ISO 9001 are linked to the reasons why the organization achieves the
certification; when companies are certified on the basis of internal motivations
(productivity improvements, improvements in quality awareness, and internal
organization improvements), the resulting benefits have a more global dimension
(Douglas, Coleman and Oddy, 2003; Van der Wiele et al., 2005; Heras-
Saizarbitoria, 2011; Fonseca and Domingues, 2018; Rosa, Silva and Ferreira,
2017; Caridade et al., 2017). On the contrary, when companies are certified on
the basis of external motivations (access to new markets, customer satisfaction,
and improvement of market share), the improvements obtained are mainly of an
external nature (Tarì, Heras-Saizarbitoria and Pereira, 2013). Concerning the
main barriers associated with the implementation of ISO 9001, these may be
linked with various aspects such as lack of resources, or specific technical
resources and capabilities, changes in corporate culture (Zgodavová, Hudec and
Palfy, 2017), organisational idiosyncrasies, etc. Santos et al. (2016). Other
important barriers identified by organisations are: high implementation and
maintenance costs (Batista and Santos, 2015) and the bureaucratic management
of the standard (Santos and Barbosa, 2006; Rebelo et al., 2016; Boiral, 2011;
Ilkay and Aslan, 2012; Rebelo, Santos and Silva, 2015). The last revision of the
standard ISO 9001 reviewed in 2015 gives greater importance to the concept of
risk management (Rebelo, Santos and Silva, 2017; Ferreira, Santos and Silva,
2019). The implementation of QMS promotes the sustainability (Santos, Mendes
and Barbosa, 2011; Barbosa, Oliveira and Santos, 2018) and Corporate Social
Responsibility (Santos, Bravi and Murmura, 2018) for a better quality of life
(Felix et al., 2018; Bravi, Murmura and Santos, 2018; Santos et al., 2019).
2.2 ISO 9004 Standard: A Guide to Excellence
The ISO 9004 standard provides a guideline for achieving the lasting success of
an organisation in a complex, demanding and constantly evolving context. This
standard is applicable to any organisation, regardless of the size and type of
product or service provided. The ISO 9004 standard has not been designed for
certification purposes but includes a self-assessment tool, which allows assessing
the degree of maturity of an organisation’s Quality Management System, as well
as identifying and prioritising potential areas for improvement. If correctly
implemented, its application should facilitate the transition to a complete Total
Quality Management program, which requires a profound organisational change
and a culture in which strong, committed and supportive leadership is present and
employees are motivated (Boys, Karapetrovic and Wilcock, 2004; Ribière and
Khorramshahgol, 2004).
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The standard suggests to implement a process of measurement of the
organisation as a tool to assess, in relation to all levels of the organisation, the
degree of achievement of planned results and performance.
Once the factors that are critical to pursuing the lasting success of the
organisation have been identified, they must be subjected to measurement using
the most suitable indicators, defined by the same standard as Key Performance
Indicators (KPI). These should be quantifiable and should depend on objectives,
to identify and predict trends and take corrective and improvement actions.
The tools suggested by ISO 9004:2009 to fully implement the measurement
process are represented by internal audits, benchmarking and self-assessment (to
which the standard dedicates an entire appendix), which results must be analysed
and become an important input of senior management review (Wilcock et al.,
2006).
3 METHODOLOGY
The research was conducted through a questionnaire proposed to 3,975 ISO 9001
certified companies, making a simple random sampling among the 150,143
Italian companies certified in 2018. All the information necessary to contact the
companies was obtained from the Italian Accreditation Body (ACCREDIA)
database through its website (www.accredia.it). Among the companies contacted,
493 participated in the survey and gave shape to the reference sample. The
questionnaire, sent using Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI), began
on September, 5th 2018 and the replies were accepted until October, 27th 2018.
The questionnaire was administered via e-mail, and exactly 3,834 e-mails were
sent, as 141 e-mail addresses were not valid. A second submission was made 15
days after the first submission, as a reminder for those companies that had not
previously considered the e-mail. The questionnaire was administered
anonymously to encourage the sincerity of the answers.
The questionnaire was divided into two sections: in the first section, interviewees
were asked the general questions, in order to obtain basic information necessary
to define companies profile, while the second section considered the perception
of companies about the ISO 9001 standard, investigating the evolution over time,
the reasons that lead companies to obtain certification, the advantages and the
barriers to its implementation.
Descriptive analysis was performed to describe the sample profile of respondent
ISO 9001 certified companies. A five-point Likert scale (where 1 – “not at all
important” and 5 – “A lot important was used to evaluate companies’
motivations that led them to the certification and the main advantages and
barriers to its implementation perceived. The coefficient of variation, that allows
evaluating the dispersion of values around the average, calculated as the ratio
between mean and standard deviation has been performed. It represents good
results when it is equal or less than 0.5. The non-response bias was assessed by
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verifying that early and late respondents were not significantly different,
considering therefore late respondents, who answered the questionnaire only after
a reminder as those that refused to participate the first time (Armstrong and
Overtyon, 1977). A set of tests compared respondents who answered the
questionnaire during the first administration and those who answered when the
survey was submitted for the second time. T-test comparisons performed
between the means of the two groups showed insignificant differences
(p-value <0.1).
4 RESULTS
Tab. 1 shows the profile of the 493 ISO 9001 certified companies. Considering
the size of the companies in relation to the markets in which they operate, it can
be noted that no large enterprises of the sample operate simultaneously both in
Italy and in Europe, most operate only in Italy (15), even if a relevant number
also works abroad; the Medium-sized companies operate mostly on the
international markets (43); instead the Small and the Microenterprises work
mainly on the Italian market only (200), although there are a few that operate on
international markets (110).
Concerning the specific location of companies in Italy, most of them, that is
44.6% are located in the northern regions (220). Furthermore, from a further
analysis of the data it emerged, that the Large companies are located mostly in
the North, and so are the Medium-sized companies, while as regards the Small
ones and the Microenterprises these are located almost equally between North
and Center, although a relevant number is also concentrated in the South.
Table 1 – Profile of Respondent Companies
Respondents’ Profile N %
Type of Companies - -
Manufacturing 493 44.8
Services 493 55.2
Dimension - -
Micro Companies (<10 employees) 493 29.2
Small Companies (10-49 employees) 493 48.1
Medium Companies (50-249 employees) 493 18.3
Large Companies (>250 employees) 493 4.5
Reference Market - -
Italy 493 51.3
Italy and Europe 493 16.2
International Markets 493 32.5
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After outlining a general picture of the companies that make up the reference
sample, the time in which companies adopted ISO 9001 certification was
considered, in order to have an opinion from companies certified for many years,
on the evolution of the standard from ISO 9001:2008 to the latest version ISO
9001:2015, to which companies, by September 15, 2018, have had to
adapt.{avantgarde syntax}
It was found that most companies (355, or 72%) have been certified for over
7 years, (having been certified both with the version of the ISO 9001 standard of
2000 and 2008), thus showing the presence of a quality culture, especially among
Medium-sized companies (87.7%), but also in Large companies (77.2%) and
Small ones (74.6%). Finally, 56.9% of Micro companies have been certified
according to the ISO 9001 standard for a long time. The 23.32%
(or 115 companies) has been certified for a period ranging from 2 to 7 years;
these companies have therefore been certified only with the ISO 9001:2008
revision of the standard, while 4.66% (23 companies) have been certified for a
year or less, and therefore, they have not made any change from previous
revisions of the standard, having certified directly according to the latest version
of 2015.
Furthermore, it has been established that the companies certified for more than
seven years are located mainly between North (144) and Center (126) of Italy.
Later, companies that had experimented or were experimenting with the
transition from ISO 9001:2008 to ISO 9001:2015 were asked, what was their
opinion on the evolution of the Standard.
Most respondents noted that the new revision of the standard gives greater
importance to the concept of “Risk management” (value 3, 4 and 5 of the Likert
scale) (67.1%; mean value: 3.85), makes it easier to integrate with standards
related to other issues (environment , health and safety, ethics...) (60.9%; mean
value: 3.63), presents a greater propensity to the aspect of “continuous
improvement” (57.4%; mean value: 3.54), allows the implementation of a more
quality-oriented system (49.6%; mean value: 3.38) and it adapts more easily to
the organizational structure (47.4%; mean value: 3.32). That is in line with what
has been found in the literature (Gigante and Ziantoni, 2015).
According to the interviewees the transition to the new version of the Standard
does not allow the achievement of a higher profit (56.4%), especially for
Medium (53.3%) Small (49%) and Micro enterprises (45.8%), and at the same
time the 42.1% says they are indifferent to the increase in the financial cost of
implementing the standard (Tab. 2).
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Table 2 – Changes Perceived by Companies in the Transition between
ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 9001:2015
N Mean (µ) St. Deviation (σ)
It requires less bureaucratization 470 3.13 1.11
It has become easier to understand 470 3.05 1.03
It adapts more easily to the organisational
structure 470 3.32 1.06
It allows implementing a more quality-oriented
system 470 3.38 0.99
It makes it easier to integrate with standards
related to other issues 470 3.63 1.02
It has made conformation to the standard of easier
implementation 470 3.22 1.01
The financial cost of implementing the standard
has increased 470 2.75 1.03
It allowed the achievement of a greater profit 470 2.25 0.99
It provides guidance to project the company into
the future 470 3.12 1.13
It presents a greater propensity to the aspect of
“continuous improvement” 470 3.54 1.02
It leads to greater centrality of the leadership 470 3.26 1.11
It gives greater importance to the concept
of “Risk management” 470 3.85 1.11
Initially, the survey focused on the reasons that led Italian companies to obtain
ISO 9001 certification. Based on what can be observed in Tab. 3, the reasons that
led companies to get the certification are mainly: the possibility of improving
their own corporate image (89%; mean value: 4.36), obtaining internal
organizational improvements (75.2%; mean value: 4.04) and the opportunity to
use the standard as a marketing tool (51.3%; mean value: 3.30). The first two
reasons are the most important for all companies in the sample, in fact for these
items there is an average value higher than 4. Two out of three of the main
reasons are linked to external factors and are in line with what was stated in
previous research (Prates and Caraschi, 2014; Santos and Milán, 2013; Santos
and Barbosa, 2006). Overall, the less important reasons seem to be: the reduction
of costs (18.2%; mean value: 2.23), the benefits experienced by other companies
(19.5%; mean value: 2.47), the improvement of relations with the communities
(26.1%; mean value: 2.82) and, as previously stated, the possibility of avoiding
potential obstacles to exports (23%; mean value: 2.23).
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Table 3 – Motivations that Pushed Companies to ISO 9001 Standard
N Mean
(µ)
St. Deviation
(σ)
Coefficient of
variation (σ/µ)
Reduction of costs 493 2.23 1.24 0.5
Pressures from customers 493 3.03 1.44 0.4
Use of the Standard as a marketing tool 493 3.30 1.19 0.4
Get internal organizational improvements 493 4.04 1.09 0.3
Keep up with its own certified competitors 493 3.17 1.32 0.4
By word of mouth from benefits experienced
by other companies
493 2.47 1.17 0.5
Avoid potential export barriers 493 2.23 1.39 0.6
Improve relations with communities 493 2.51 1.33 0.5
Improve relations with government authorities 493 2.82 1.45 0.5
Improve the corporate image 493 4.36 0.86 0.2
Subsequently, the main advantages of implementing an ISO 9001 QMS were
considered (Tab. 4). The main benefits perceived include an improvement in
corporate image and reputation (77.7%; mean value: 3.98), a greater awareness
of corporate opportunities (in terms of continuous improvement) (71.6%; mean
value: 3.91) and the reduction of non-conformities (62.5%; mean value: 3.55).
Further perceived benefits are the greater customer satisfaction (58.6%; mean
value: 3.52), an increase in corporate efficiency (56.4%; mean value: 3.43),
followed by an improvement in customer relations (55.6%; mean value: 3.49), an
improvement in internal communication (55.4%; mean value: 3.43), and a
reduction in complaints (53.3%; mean value: 3.40).
However, there are also benefits that are not perceived by the companies in the
sample, i.e. the 71% do not believe that certification leads to an improvement in
delivery times (mean value: 2.78), and 72.6% believe that there is an increase in
sales (mean value: 32.79).
Only a small percentage (27.3%) believes that the certification has contributed to
the increase in sales, and these are mostly medium and small companies.
Therefore this confirms various studies (Bravi, Murmura and Santos, 2018;
Caridade et al., 2017) highlighting that for large companies, the possibility of
tackling ISO 9001 is higher, thank their dimension.
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Table 4 – Benefits Perceived from the Implementation of ISO 9001 Standard
N Mean
(µ)
St. Deviation
(σ)
Coefficient of
variation (σ/µ)
Greater customer satisfaction 493 3.52 1.12 0.3
Improved image and reputation 493 3.98 0.89 0.2
Greater awareness of company possibilities 493 3.91 0.97 0.2
Improved relationship with customers 493 3.49 1.08 0.3
Improved delivery times 493 2.78 1.16 0.4
Increase of corporate efficiency 493 3.43 1.08 0.3
Reduction of non-conformities 493 3.55 1.09 0.3
Reduction of complaints 493 3.40 1.17 0.3
Improvement of internal communication 493 3.43 1.09 0.3
Increase in sales 493 2.79 1.12 0.4
Improvement of competitive advantage 493 3.17 1.15 0.4
Greater staff motivation 493 3.03 1.18 0.4
After analyzing the positive aspects related to the certification, the research
focused on the analysis of the perceived barriers. The survey highlighted three
main disadvantages (Tab. 5): the increase in the bureaucratisation of company
activities (3.29); an increase in the complexity of procedures in the company
(3.04), and an increase in business costs (2.92). These results are in line with
extant literature underlining an increase in maintenance costs and in the
bureaucratic management of the standard (Santos and Barbosa, 2006; Boiral,
2011; Ilkay and Aslan, 2012).
Only a small number of Small and Micro companies have found, after the
certification process, a reduction in profits.
Table 5 – Barriers Perceived from the Implementation of ISO 9001 Standard
N Mean
(µ)
St. Deviation
(σ)
Coefficient of
variation (σ/µ)
Increase in business costs 493 2.92 1.13 0.4
Increase in the complexity of procedures 493 3.04 1.12 0.4
Increase in bureaucratization 493 3.29 1.14 0.3
Reduction in profits 493 1.87 0.97 0.5
Reduction in customer satisfaction 493 1.47 0.78 0.5
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Subsequently, considering the perception of the cost of the certification (Tab. 6)
in relation to the financial indicators of the company, such as the Return on
Investment (ROI), return on Net Capital (CN) and turnover, a relevant number of
respondents (161, or 32.7%) considered the costs for the implementation of a
Quality Management System acceptable, only a small percentage considered
them to be high (15.8%), and unacceptable (5.7%). Investigating the size of
companies, it emerged that among those companies that believe that the cost for
the certification is high there is the 18% of Large companies, 14.4% of Medium-
sized companies, 15.2% of Small businesses and 17.4% of Micro companies. On
the contrary, no company considers the costs unacceptable; in fact, the value
found for this item, on average, is below 2.
Table 6 – Perceived Costs for the Implementation of ISO 9001 Standard
N Mean
(µ)
St. Deviation
(σ)
Coefficient of
variation (σ/µ)
Irrelevant 493 2.46 1.26 0.5
Moderate 493 2.58 1.10 0.4
Acceptable 493 3.00 1.18 0.4
High 493 2.33 1.11 0.5
Unacceptable 493 1.77 1.05 0.6
Later, companies were asked whether they had other certifications, in addition to
the ISO 9001, and 45.8% answered positively. Considering the size of the
companies, it is mainly the Large (81.8%) and Medium-sized ones (63.3%) that
adopt further standards. Among the other certifications held, it appears that
52.2% also has the ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System) standard,
35.3% also has the OHSAS 18001 (Management Systems for Safety and Health
of workers) standard, 7.1% has the SA 8000 (Management Systems for Social
Responsibility) standard and finally only 3.1% has also EMAS III (European
Environmental Management System) standard. Furthermore, it appears that 16%
of companies are certified to both ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 and they
manage this standard in an integrated manner, just like in other countries (Ribeiro
et al., 2017; Santos, Rebelo and Santos, 2017; Carvalho, Santos and Gonçalves,
2018). The purpose of integration and implementation of management systems
by integrating standards and documents is in the achievement of their synergistic
action in the Organization. This can promote the appearance of new businesses
(Doiro et al., 2017; Bravi, Santos and Murmura, 2018; Santos et al., 2018) even
when consumers are more demanding (Bravi, Murmura and Santos, 2017;
Santos, Murmura and Bravi, 2019).
In continuing the investigation, it has been verified how many companies were
aware of the ISO 9004:2009 standard, that is the ISO 9001 guidelines which help
companies to implement a QMS oriented to excellence. Only 11.2% said they
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were aware of the ISO 9004:2009 standard, while 17.2% said they knew it only
partially and 71.6% did not know it at all. More than half of large companies do
not know it or know it only in part, however considering the total number of
Large, Medium, Small and Microenterprises that make up the sample, the
percentage of large companies (59%) is the more significant percentage than
claims to know it more. Once the companies that were aware of the ISO 9004
guidelines had been identified, it has been tried to understand whether these were
based on its principles in business management.
It appears that only 11.8% follow its principles, while 37.7% follow them, but in
part, and 50.4% do not refer to its principles at all. Subsequently, respondents
who are aware of the ISO 9004 standard, but do not refer to its principles, were
taken into consideration their motivations.
A relevant number (68) claims that it already requires much commitment to be
ISO 9001 certified, others (51) believe that referring to the principles of ISO
9004 requires excessive time and that excessive training of personnel is
necessary (51). These three main obstacles are perceived to a greater extent by
Small and Microenterprises. No large company believes that the procedures are
too complex and only a small number (3) find that also following the guidelines
provided by ISO 9004 requires an excessive commitment.
5 CONCLUSION
The respondent companies that participated in this study are mostly Small and
Micro-sized ones, and this reflects the Italian entrepreneurial reality. The
majority of them work in the service sector, and mainly in Italy, although a
relevant percentage also operates in European markets, and it is the Medium-
sized companies, more than the Large ones, that operate internationally.
In Italy, most companies are concentrated in the northern regions, and these seem
to be also the most economically developed, and among them, it seems that the
Large and Medium-sized ones are mainly located in the North.
A large number of companies, located between North and Center, have been
certified for over seven years, overcoming the various revisions of ISO 9001 that
have occurred over time. Among these, there are mostly Medium-sized
companies.
Considering these first results, it is possible to affirm that the “culture of quality”
is by now rooted in Italy for years and mainly in the North, which represents the
most economically advanced area.
With regard to the evolution of the standard from ISO 9001:2008 to 2015,
companies seem to have perceived the main changes introduced with the latest
revision, in fact they believe that ISO 9001:2015 gives greater importance to the
concept of Risk management; favours integration with standards related to other
issues such as environmental, ethical and health and safety issues (Ribeiro et al.,
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2017; Santos, Rebelo and Santos, 2017; Carvalho, Santos and Gonçalves, 2018);
presents a greater propensity to the aspect of “continuous improvement”; enables
the implementation of a quality-oriented management system; and it adapts more
easily to the organizational structure (Marques et al., 2018; Araújo et al., 2019).
This is in line with what is highlighted in the literature (Tsiouras, 2015; Gigante
and Ziantoni, 2015).
As far as the motivations that led Italian companies to get certified are concerned,
these are in line with what was mentioned in the literature (Torre, Adenso-Diaz
and González, 2001; Douglas, Coleman and Oddy, 2003; Magd and Curry, 2003;
Poksinska, Eklund and Dahlgaard, 2006; Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2011; Prates and
Caraschi, 2014), in fact among the internal motivations there is the interest in
achieving an internal organizational improvement, and to improve corporate
image, while among the external ones there is, mainly, the opportunity to use the
standard as a marketing tool. In contrast with the results of different studies,
pressures from customers, the possibility of improving relations with the
communities and the possibility of avoiding obstacles to export do not seem to be
such important reasons as to encourage companies to adopt certification.
Paying attention to the benefits obtained by the companies after having gained
the certification, a correspondence can be noticed between the perceived
motivations and benefits.
Therefore there is a link between the benefits of ISO 9001 and the reasons why
the organisation achieves the standard, confirming the results found by Santos
and Milán (2013).
Finally, it was noted that, for the companies in the sample, the improvement in
delivery times and the increase in sales and profits are not among the major
benefits. This fact may be because, as stated by Psomas, Pantouvakis and
Kafetzopoulos (2013), the impact of the efficiency and quality of the
product/service on financial performance is indirect.
Certification, however, also involves disadvantages, including: greater
bureaucratisation of company activities, an increase in the complexity of
procedures in the company and an increase in costs, perceived above all by Small
and Micro Businesses. These are easily conceivable disadvantages, given the
Small and Micro dimensions of Italian companies, and in line with the literature
considered (Torre, Adenso-Diaz and González, 2001; Magd, 2008; Santos and
Milán, 2013).
A positive aspect to highlight is that only a small number of Small and
Microenterprises have found, following the certification, a reduction in profits
and customer satisfaction, something which, on the contrary, has not been
manifested at all in larger companies.
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ABOUT AUTHORS
Laura Bravi – has a Ph.D. degree in “Economics and Business Management”
(Summa cum Laude) at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy, where she is
now Teaching Assistant in Total Quality Management. She also collaborates with
an Italian Accredited Laboratory for quality tests for the wood furniture sector.
E-mail: laura.bravi@uniurb.it, Author’s ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-
1733-7043.
Federica Murmura – is Professor in Total Quality Management at the
University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy. She participates as a speaker in national
and international conferences and is currently the author of several publications
and reviewer for International Journals. E-mail:
federica.murmura@uniurb.it,
Author’s ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8443-8680.
Gilberto Santos – is Professor at the Polytechnic Institute Cávado Ave (IPCA),
Barcelos, Portugal, where he founded a master’s course on “Integrated
Management Systems QES (Quality, Environment and Safety) andnwas the
director of it for 7th editions. He holds an Aggregation (D.Sc.) title in Industrial
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Engineering from de New University of Lisbon and a PhD degree in Mechanical
Engineering from the Minho University, Portugal. He participates as a Speaker in
several national and international conferences and is the author of several
publications, reviewer for International Journals. E-mail: gsantos@ipca.pt,
Author’s ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9268-3272.
© 2019 by the authors. Submitted for possible open access publication under the
terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
