The economic impact of quality management systems in Portuguese certified companies: Empirical evidence
International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management
ISSN: 0265-671X
Article publication date: 11 October 2011
Abstract
Purpose
Despite all the studies carried out in order to analyze the impact of quality management systems implementation and certification over companies' financial performance, conclusions reached so far have been of a contradictory nature. Some authors conclude that there is a positive relationship between ISO 9001 certification and companies' financial improvement, while others do not find evidence to support such a relationship. Overall, no consistent evidence could therefore be found in the literature concerning the ISO 9001 impact over companies' business financial performance. This work aims to provide a contribution in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a public database of Portuguese companies' financial information, this paper describes the results obtained from studying the economic impact of quality management systems, based on a statistical analysis.
Findings
The results suggest that companies with higher financial performance do present a greater propensity to implement and certify their quality management systems. The ISO 9000 implementation motivation is a critical success factor in the impact of the quality management system over the company economic performance and, for some financial indicators, non‐certified companies do present, on average, higher performance than those that are certified.
Originality/value
This paper aims to provide an important contribution to the worldwide research related to the quality management systems impact over companies' financial performance.
Keywords
Citation
Sampaio, P., Saraiva, P. and Guimarães Rodrigues, A. (2011), "The economic impact of quality management systems in Portuguese certified companies: Empirical evidence", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 28 No. 9, pp. 929-950. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656711111172522
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited