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The aim of this research is to empirically assess the nine dimensions of the Total Quality Management (TQM) model, which have been categorized into four blocks: the top management block, the supplier block, the process management block and the customer block. The nine dimensions represent key strategic activities of company performance. A comparative analysis of companies with ISO 9001 certification and those without certification in a developing country during the COVID-19 pandemic is carried out.

A survey was administered to the management of 259 Peruvian goods companies (in the mining, repair and manufacturing sectors) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey consisted of 35 Likert-scale items, which were grouped into the following nine TQM dimensions: Top management (leadership), quality planning, quality audit and assessment, product design, suppliers' quality management, process control and improvement, education and training, quality circles and focus on customer satisfaction. Then, Cronbach's alpha, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, the Mann–Whitney U test and means were computed for each of the dimensions. This analysis made it possible to estimate significant differences between ISO 9001 certified and non-certified goods companies in terms of the dimensions.

The results showed that, for ISO 9001 certified companies, the averages for all of the dimensions were significantly different from those of non-certified companies, except for the education and training dimension. ISO 9001 certified companies scored higher than non-certified companies in the TQM dimensions. For both certified and non-certified companies, the leadership dimension had the highest average and the quality circles dimension had the lowest average.

This study addresses two main gaps highlighted in the research on quality management: the application of Quality Management Systems (QMS) in developing countries like Peru, and the impact of ISO 9001 on the performance of goods companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Generic quality management system standard ISO 9001 and the automotive quality management system standard IATF 16949 both require organisations to demonstrate continual improvement in their customer satisfaction and the number of non-conformities identified during quality system audits. However, the long-term trends of these two parameters under ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 standards are not researched so far. It is expected that under continual improvement, organisations will achieve a step-function/stair-case shaped pattern. This study evaluates if this expectation is true when long-term performance of certified organisations is assessed.

A longitudinal exploration of three organisations certified to ISO 9001 standard and three certified to IATF 16949 standard is done. The observations are further substantiated using secondary data for the same ten years period about customer satisfaction of the major automobile manufacturers.

It is observed that none of the two indicators, i.e. the customer satisfaction and number of non-conformities, in any of the six organisations show step-wise/stair-case type improvement. All indicators followed random up and down patterns like ocean waves. It is paradoxical that certified organisations are claiming continual improvement and are remaining certified but there is actually no long-term improvement.

Longitudinal studies for the generic quality management standard ISO 9001 and the quality system standard for automotive sector IATF 16949 are rare. The revelation about ocean wave patterns observed in the long-term trends for customer satisfaction and the number of non-conformities in ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certified organisations is a startling finding. It is outlandishly different from the conventional perception of a staircase-styled continual improvement pattern expected a priori in certified organisations.

The authors extend the literature on decoupling by analyzing the microlevel effects of institutionalized practices within the framework of international standards. This study investigates the specific informal management practices that decision-makers embrace in order for organizations to achieve ISO 9001 certification without all regulations being adopted and followed according to the standard's original design and purpose.

As the basis for its research framework, this paper adopts the neo-institutional theory. The research employs the comparative case study method and draws its data from a sample of 21 ISO 9001:2008 certified organizations in Bulgaria.

The results show ambivalent behavior toward the ISO 9001 standard's formal requirements. This behavior is expressed through targeted noncompliance with (certain) regulations and procedures regarding top management commitment, as well as documented information which are formally adopted within the organization and certified as complying with the standard.

The study has implications for future research into decoupling, organizational learning, and standardization. In terms of limitations, the authors examined the process of decoupling from a micro perspective in Bulgaria only. Noncompliance with international standards such as the ISO 9000 may exhibit specific regional or national characteristics.

Findings from this research encourage the International Standards Organization to respond to previous calls for revising the formal structure of ISO 9000 and other international management standards by considering a more flexible and liberal point of view.

As opposed to previous studies which have explored decoupling from a macro perspective, this study focuses on how the internal constraints imposed by the standard's universal requirements are being mitigated at a micro level. That is, the authors provide a detailed account of the specific informal management practices which managers (deliberately) adopt in order to achieve certification without fully integrating the formal criteria imposed by international standards (e.g. ISO 9001).

This study explores the link between ISO 9001 certification, personal data protection and firm performance using financial balance sheet and survey data. The security aspect of data protection is analyzed based on the major requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation and mapped to the relevant controls of the ISO/IEC 27001/27002 standards.

The research analysis is based on 96 ISO 9001–certified and non-certified publicly traded manufacturing and service firms that responded to a structured questionnaire. The authors develop and empirically test their theoretical model using the structural equation modeling technique and follow a difference-in-differences econometric modeling approach to estimate financial performance differences between certified and non-certified firms accounting for the level of data protection.

The estimates indicate three core dimensions in the areas of “policies, procedures and responsibilities,” “access control management” and “risk-reduction techniques” as desirable components in establishing the concept of data security. The estimates also suggest that the data protection level has significantly impacted the performance of certified firms relative to the non-certified. Controlling for the effect of industry-level factors reveals a positive relationship between data security and high-technological intensity.

The results imply that improving the level of compliance to data protection enhances the link between certification and firm performance.

This study fills a gap in the literature by empirically testing the influence of data protection on the relationship between quality certification and firm performance.

This study aims at examining the effect of total quality management (TQM) practices on the financial performance ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturing companies in Ethiopia with a mediating role of operational performance.

A cross-sectional survey research was conducted to meet the purpose. Data used for the study were solely primary data and were collected from the top and middle-level managers of different departments and senior experts working under the production/operation and quality management units of the target organizations. Data were obtained from 302 participants working in 73 companies using a self-administered questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was applied to test the hypotheses positing the structural link between TQM practices, operational performance and financial performance.

The findings show that TQM practices had a significant direct and positive effect on both operational performance and financial performance and that operational performance significantly affects financial performance. The bootstrapping output of the mediation analysis also established that operational performance partially mediates the causal link between TQM practices and financial performance.

The empirical evidence provided by the present study provides helpful insights and guidance to managers to make a good deal of investment in maintaining enhanced performance outcomes under the operations stream that eventually would lead to better financial outcome.

Being one of the first attempts to empirically examine the structural linkages among TQM practices, operational performance and financial performance in Ethiopian manufacturing organizations, this paper provides strategic insights on the importance of implementing TQM practices in a holistic manner for the achievement of better performance outcomes.

This study’s main objective is to explore the ISO 9001 implementation model and identify a future research agenda. This is important because not all organizations find it easy to implement ISO 9001, and not all organizations get positive benefits after implementing it.

The paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature on ISO 9001 implementation models using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews (PRISMA) methodology to systematically review the existing literature on ISO 9001 implementation models. Relevant studies published from 2003 to early 2023 are explored to reveal the research landscape, gaps and trends.

Many ISO 9001 implementation methods have been developed for actual implementation in organizations, including models, frameworks, special variable considerations, application uses and integration. These methods were developed and applied to cover gaps regarding constraints, unbeneficial, special conditions, implementation objectives and organization types in ISO 9001 implementation. Current issues and future research on ISO 9001 implementation models were found, namely ISO 9001 implementation models specific to SMEs, ISO 9001 implementation levels, ISO 9001 implementation models that are agile to change, and affordable certification models.

Only a few researchers have systematically reviewed the literature or taken a bibliometric approach in their analyses to provide an overview of the current trends and links to ISO 9001 implementation models. The ISO 9001 standard is a general standard and can be applied by all organizations with the implementation method left to the implementer. Many implementation methods have been developed, but several implementation obstacles and disadvantages are still found. It is important to know the extent of current research and discover future research gaps regarding methods of implementing the ISO 9001 standard.

Certified and non-certified organisations must make strategic decisions regarding ISO 9001 adoption, maintenance, renewal and abandonment. However, the ISO 9001 literature lacks a typology of the strategic options available to these organisations. The purpose of this conceptual study is to develop a framework of the alternative strategies for the stages of the ISO 9001 life cycle (implementation/certification, certification maintenance and recertification/decertification stages).

The research method is based on literature review, selection of relevant variables and synthesis of coherent alternative strategies.

Results include the main variables of relevance for the definition of the ISO 9001 strategies (e.g. life cycle stage, organisational motivations, barriers, benefits, internalisation degree and quality of the certification body), the main situations in which organisations can find themselves (in terms of ISO 9001 certification, maintenance and decertification), the strategic options for each situation (e.g.: certify, maintain certification, try harder, change certification body, intensify learning and experimentation with ISO 9001) and the implications and consequences of such options. Research results are integrated into a strategy framework, composed of three strategy matrices, one for each stage of the life cycle. The matrices present the strategic situations, available strategic alternatives and benefits of the strategies.

This study combines the results of previous research to develop an original strategy framework, which constitutes the main research contribution. As far as the author is aware, there is no such strategy framework in the literature. The framework has relevant implications for theory and practice and helps to identify future research directions.

The study seeks to examine the effectiveness of implementing the ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS) on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance in Saudi Arabia. It explores ISO 9001 usefulness through the dimensions of continuous improvement, customer satisfaction focus and prevention of nonconformities. The study investigates two dimensions of firm performance's: operational performance and product/service quality.

The study employs a quantitative method. A simple random sampling technique is used to collect study samples. A self-administered questionnaire is employed as the data collection tool. The study was based on 263 samples from SMEs in Saudi Arabia. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS/AMOS.

Prevention of nonconformities, customer satisfaction focus and continues improvement had a positive significant correlation with operational performance and product/service quality. Moreover, the ISO 9001 QMS effectiveness construct showed a helpful and important correlation with the performance of the company.

The study offers empirical evidence to clarify ambiguous findings from past studies, as well as expounds knowledge on the effect of ISO 9001 on SMEs' performance through the lenses of operational performance and quality/service quality.

This paper aims to analyze the impact of the adoption of ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 on the performance of Portuguese companies. The sample includes the companies listed on Euronext Lisbon, with economic, financial and specific information – the specific being environmental information and quality information – for the period between 2015 and 2019, which corresponds to the post-Troika period when some economic growth started to be witnessed. The specific information of each area is translated into the environmental certification by the ISO 14001 standard, the quality certification by the ISO 9001 standard, and sustainability reports.

To achieve this aim, four variables were used as a measure of the companies' performance, Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE); Tobin's Q and EBITDA Margin. With this data, different panel models were tested to validate if ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications impact Portuguese listed companies performance. Specifically, the authors have used the Generalized Method of Moments, GMM-System, an estimation method proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998).

The results show that, in general, the environment and quality variables fail to explain the dependent variables, that is, ISO certifications do not provide positive or negative variations in the performance of companies, suggesting that they are not yet as much for civil society, as well as for current or potential shareholders. When used as an independent variable, certification according to the ISO 14001 or 9001 standards, negative and significant oscillations were verified in the dependent variable, MgEBITDA, suggesting that only for managers this variable is determinant, but with a negative impact, given the high costs, it entails without pressure from other stakeholders.

This study is the first to analyze the impact of the adoption of ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 on Portuguese companies' performance. This empirical study aims to show all investors, managers, regulators and civil society itself the long path that still needs to be taken toward sustainability.

This study evaluates the implementation of ISO 9001 using total quality management on the engineering, procurement and construction phases in the Jordanian construction sector.

A quantitative design has been employed with a total of 132 project team members selected from 5 construction organizations working in Jordan. A close-ended questionnaire was used to gather data which was later evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results show a significant role in project performance, customer satisfaction, project quality, cost-effectiveness, time effectiveness, shared cooperation and motivation of employees. It emphasizes the role of engineering in achieving the ISO 9001 standard. Quality standards in the construction project were also endorsed by 46.2% of participants, while 33.3% responded neutrally. The time effectiveness aspects of ISO 9001 endorsed by 38.5% participants 33.3% participants disagreed. Majority of the managers (61.5%) agreed that poor planning is a major barrier in the engineering phase (p-value, 0.011), followed by the incomplete design (56.4%) as the prime impeding factors linked to the decline of the quality in the construction sector.

With the integration of the ISO 9001 quality standard, project managers can improve the project quality and make it cost-effective. The successful adaptation of the ISO 9001 certification allows the company to not only market its product/service but also internally audit itself for the possible deficits in its work capacity.