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This paper aims to identify the main dimensions that determine the ability of cities to compete as locations for business and hubs for investment which can help policymakers to manage and prioritize urban development strategies.

A composite indicator is proposed as a weighted aggregate of sub-indicators for the identified component dimensions (basic, efficiency-related and innovation-related competitiveness). The indicator is used to draw up a ranking of 159 European Large Urban Zones (LUZs) located in 26 EU countries based on 31 indicators, broken down into the three core dimensions of urban competitiveness identified.

The dimensions underlying urban competitiveness in relation to the location of firms and attracting investment determine the level of economic development of the LUZs. The most competitive cities in the sample have a high level of economic development, and the innovation dimension is the most significant one for the three groups of cities considered, followed by the efficiency dimension and, to a lesser extent, the basic dimension.

The findings provide guidance to policymakers on the most relevant dimensions for urban competitiveness.

This paper contributes to the literature shedding light on the complex relationships between efficiency-related and innovation-related factors with regard to urban competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to operationalize the concepts of total quality management (TQM) and market orientation (MO) and to analyze the relationship between them in a major economic sector of activity, namely, the social services sector.

The paper analyzes the aforementioned relationships by means of a quantitative study carried out with information from managers of 137 Spanish organizations in the field of social service provision and, more specifically, in nursing homes for the elderly. Structural equation models were used to contrast the relationships.

Evidence is provided for the multi-dimensional structure of TQM and MO. The results confirm that TQM contributes to a greater degree of MO in the organizations analyzed, since a significant positive relationship between a set of components of the first concept (namely, processes, leadership and people) and the second is found.

Managers need to take into account the fact that the application of a management system in nursing homes that is based on TQM dimensions favors the development of an MO culture. The staff are the key factor in orientating the residential home toward the market.

The research covers a gap in the literature since these relationships have not been studied empirically in depth in service sectors such as social services and nursing homes, despite great and growing economic importance of this sector.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practices, challenges and ethical issues underlying the fabric and dissemination of corporate sustainability ratings.

Based on 36 semi-structured interviews with sustainability rating practitioners, the study shows the trade-offs, ethical judgments and customizable aspects involved in rating practices, which cannot rely only on formal and predefined methods.

In contrast with the official optimistic rhetoric about the rationality and rigor of sustainability rating methods, agencies face serious challenges in the measurement and comparison of performance in this area, particularly in terms of the aggregation of scattered and fuzzy indicators, commercial pressures and the availability, materiality and reliability of the information collected. Despite these concerns, sustainability ratings do appear to be useful in improving corporate responsiveness and increasing investor awareness of the complex and difficult-to-measure aspects of nonfinancial reports.

Rating agencies should collaborate to set up common indicators that would be easier for firms to produce and should better separate their sustainability rating production activities from other services they offer to companies (e.g. consultancy).

This study contributes to the literature on the measurement and promotion of corporate sustainability by analyzing rating practices through the lens of moral fictionalism, which here refers to the human tendency to build ethical judgments on fictional but convenient and useful representations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the professionalism and professionalization of sustainability assurance providers based on the experiences and perceptions of auditors involved in this activity.

The empirical study was based on 38 semi-directed interviews conducted with assurance providers from accounting and consulting firms.

The findings highlight the division of this professional activity between accounting and consulting firms, each of which question the professionalism of the other. The main standards in this area tend to be used as legitimizing tools to enhance the credibility of the assurance process rather than effective guidelines to improve the quality of the verification process. Finally, the complex and multifaceted skills required to conduct sound sustainability assurance and the virtual absence of recognized and substantial training programs in this area undermine the professionalization of assurance providers.

This work has important practical implications for standardization bodies, assurance providers and stakeholders concerned by the quality and the reliability of sustainability disclosure.

This study shows how practitioners in this area construct and legitimize their professional activity in terms of identity, standardization and competences. The work contributes to the literatures on the assurance of sustainability reports, self-regulation through standardization and professionalization.

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which health and safety action controls, results controls and informal controls affect the integration of health and safety issues into management actions, which in turn leads to improve health and safety performance. It also investigates the extent to which those health and safety control mechanisms contribute complementarily to the integration of health and safety issues.

A survey of 108 Italian non-listed firms tests a set of hypotheses based on complementarity theory and object of control framework.

Not all the health and safety control mechanisms positively influence the integration of health and safety issues into business practices and external stakeholder relations. Complementarity between health and safety control mechanisms is significant only for higher health and safety performance companies, indicating that the health and safety control mechanisms operate as a package.

The health and safety performance measure could be replaced in future research by improved inter-subjectively testable information, although collecting health and safety quantitative data is difficult. An additional limitation is the response rate.

The findings encourage companies to design and use a comprehensive set of health and safety control mechanisms to promote a healthy workplace.

The paper contributes to the management control, sustainability management control and health and safety accounting literature. The paper provides an in-depth interdisciplinary analysis of the effectiveness of different control mechanisms in the context of health and safety that hitherto has rarely been investigated despite the multiple importance of the topic.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the motivation to adopt International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001 on both the internalization of the standard, namely the active day-to-day use of its main underlying practices, and the benefits obtained from its adoption. Similarly, the influence of the internalization on the benefits derived from ISO 9001 is analyzed.

A longitudinal survey was carried out on a sample of 110 Spanish organizations that adopted the standard in its early phase of dissemination. These organizations were surveyed in 1999 and, 12 years later, in 2011.

The results show that, contrary to the results of previous research work, early adopters driven by internal motives experience neither higher levels of internalization of ISO 9001 nor higher benefits from adoption of the standard. Nevertheless, there is clear evidence that in the long run a higher level of internalization leads to greater benefits from the adoption of ISO 9001.

The adoption of ISO 9001 is a dynamic process in which certificating organizations play an important role.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the internalization of quality management (QM) on the basis of quality certifiable standards – also referred to as meta-standards – in service organizations. More specifically, the paper analyzes the case of the internalization of a quality standard in the Spanish hotel industry.

The paper examines the relationships between the measures of internalization, benefit, QM tools and motivation, using partial least squares in the framework of the structural equation modeling technique.

The results show that the hotels that have internalized the standard to a greater extent are more likely to be driven by internal motivation, develop more QM tools and achieve greater benefits than the hotels with a lower degree of internalization.

As previous studies have examined these issues in relation to the internalization of ISO standards, the present study adds to this important stream of research and contributes by advancing the understanding of these issues through the case of a specific standard for the hotel industry.

This paper aims to analyse and show the influence on European companies' performance of the two most important models for quality management (QM) practice popularised in recent years: the ISO 9000 and the European Foundation for Quality Management models.

The methodology is a qualitative survey carried out in Spain using the Delphi method, based on previous research work. The results of this research were analysed and triangulated with the results of other surveys carried out previously, as well as with information gathered during several in‐depth interviews of the experts that participated in the Delphi panel.

In the opinion of the panel of experts, the implementation of QM models in the studied region has had a positive influence on company results, mainly through the improvement of operations, efficiency and the costs of companies' internal activities.

This is one of the first papers that show us the different impact of this kind of QM model in Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the operational definition of the concept of internalization of ISO 9001, a theoretical construct which until recently had not received the attention it deserves in research on quality management.

Extensive exploratory fieldwork based on both in‐depth interviews of general managers, middle managers and employees – 65 in total – as well as on intensive participant observation – e.g. 139 direct field‐consults and 240 documents analyzed – was carried out in eight Spanish organizations that adopted the standard a long time ago.

A set of specific factors and subfactors aimed at operationalizing the ISO 9001 internalization construct are proposed. Moreover, it has been ascertained that the concept of internalization is a clearly relevant one, as in previous works found in the literature in other countries, the conclusion is drawn that organizations do not adopt ISO 9001 homogeneously.

The conclusions may be of interest both for academic and professional spheres of activity. For managers, the key aspects of a substantive adoption of ISO 9001 are highlighted. For academics, certain specific categorization elements are proposed for a relevant construct so that these may be used in subsequent works.

This is a new exploratory work for its field of research. On the one hand, most works to date have tended to assume the principle of homogeneous adoption of ISO 9001. On the other, they tend to be based solely on managers' opinions without giving voice to employees or using participative observation.

The ISO 14001 is already a global meta‐standard for implementing Environmental Management Systems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the sources of motivation that lead companies to adopt this global standard for its perceived benefits.

An extensive review of the academic literature published on ISO 14001, motivations, and benefits has been carried out in order to establish the working hypotheses that are analyzed based on the information obtained from 214 Spanish companies that participated in a survey.

The internal drivers to implement and certify the ISO 14001 standard have a degree of influence on the benefits that is significantly higher than external ones, irrespective of the size of the company and the sector of activity.

The findings help to characterize ISO 14001 certified firms and anticipate benefits of the implementation and certification of the standard.

The article sheds light on the relationship among the motivational factors and the benefits of the process of implementing and certifying ISO 14001 in the country in the world that has experienced the greatest intensity of certification. A typology of integration level from Boiral and Boiral and Roy is empirically analyzed for ISO 14001 for the first time in the literature.