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The purpose of this paper is to determine whether passing ISO accreditation can effectively enhance business performance, and further to explore the major contributions of ISO accreditation for companies. Although there are some current debates on the effectiveness of ISO9000, for many companies having ISO9000 accreditation is mainly for marketing purposes. However, no company really knows the detailed performance effects of ISO accreditation. In this study, both the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Activity Based Costing (ABC) methods are used to compare the direction and strength of each performance indicator for companies that have passed, or not passed, ISO accreditation.

Companies in the manufacturing industry and service industry, with stocks listed in Taiwan's regular stock market and over‐the‐counter stock market, are selected as the research targets. A total of 212 valid questionnaires from the manufacturing industry and 120 from service industries are collected for further analysis of business performance using the BSC method. In addition, ABC measures are used to compare the performance difference through objective financial data.

Through qualitative and quantitative methods, this study develops key measurement indicators along four performance constructs based on the Balanced Scorecard. These include 38 indicators for the manufacturing industry and 32 indicators for the service industry. Through evaluation and comparison, the study shows that the pass of ISO accreditation by an enterprise can enhance its business performance and financial benefits. Higher effects are especially apparent in the manufacturing industry.

This study uses the concept of the BSC to construct performance measurement indicators and to evaluate the business performance of enterprises. In addition, the differences in business performance attributed to the pass or fail of ISO accreditation have been compared through BSC and ABC methods. From the performance analysis, it can clearly analyze the difference displayed by enterprises that have passed or not passed ISO accreditation. These results can be referenced by different industries when performing performance evaluation and strategy making.

This study aims to dissect the multifaceted impact of ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, specifically within civil engineering testing and calibration laboratories. To achieve this, it intends to explore several key objectives: identifying the prominent benefits of accreditation to laboratory performance, understanding the advantages conferred through participation in proficiency testing schemes, assessing the role of accreditation in enhancing laboratory competitiveness, examining the primary challenges encountered during the accreditation process, investigating any discernible adverse effects of accreditation on laboratory performance and evaluating whether the financial cost of accreditation justifies the resultant profitability.

This study employs a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with 23 industry professionals—including technical managers, quality managers, external auditors and clients. Thematic analysis, guided by Braun and Clarke’s six-stage paradigm, was utilized to interpret the data, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the accreditation’s impact.

Findings reveal that accreditation significantly enhances operational processes, fosters quality awareness and facilitates continuous improvement, contributing to greater client satisfaction. In addition, standardized operations and rigorous quality controls further result in enhanced performance metrics, such as staff capability and measurement accuracy. However, the study also uncovers the challenges of accreditation, including high resource costs and bureaucratic hurdles that can inhibit innovation and slow routine operations. Importantly, the research underscores that the impact of accreditation on profitability is not universal, but contingent upon various factors like sector-specific regulations and market demand. The study also highlights sector-specific variations in the role of accreditation as a marketing tool and differing perceptions of its value among clients. It further emphasizes the psychological stress of high-stakes evaluations during audits.

This study represents the first in-depth investigation into the impact of ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation on civil engineering testing and calibration laboratories, directly contributing to the enhancement of their quality and operational standards. Providing actionable insights for laboratories, it underscores the importance of weighing accreditation costs and benefits and the necessity for a tailored approach to the unique market and regulatory landscapes they operate in.

The article examines the usage and relative importance of quality measurements in the UK’s largest service companies. The authors analyse the relationship of both internal and customer‐based quality measurements to the importance placed on accreditation to an ISO 9000 standard. The effect of process structure is explored by categorising the service firms as being in front‐room or back‐room dominant service sectors. The authors find that the service firms, which consider accreditation to be important, have a different emphasis on quality than other service firms do. Significantly, their emphasis shifts from one that is in line with their process structure to a more balanced one, where both internal and customer‐based quality measurements receive similar attention. This leads them to conclude that accreditation to an ISO 9000 standard can make a profound difference to the way quality is perceived and measured in large service firms.

According to the ISO 9001 standard, all the certified companies should calibrate their measuring equipment. By doing so, companies can guarantee, with rigor and quality, its measurement and use reliable data for monitoring the quality of their products. However, a metrology laboratory is not required to have an ISO 9001 certification or ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. At this moment, there are companies with their quality management systems certified according to the ISO 9001 standard which have metrology laboratories to make internal checks of their measuring equipment. On the other hand, there are companies with ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratories. Finally, there are companies that have their QMS certified according to ISO 9001 and also their metrology laboratory accredited by ISO/IEC 17025. In this case the metrology laboratory must comply with the requirements of both standards. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the level of importance of the ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 17025 standards from the perspective of a metrology laboratory.

The research methodology used to conduct this research was supported in case studies that had been carried out in nine metrology laboratories. The information was gathered based on semi-structured interviews.

After an analysis and discussion over the data obtained, the authors verified that the impact on customer perception is significantly positive, if the metrology laboratory is simultaneous certified and accredited.

From the laboratories perspective, the issue analyzed in this paper is of the utmost importance and the aim is to give the contribution in order to clarify this kind of organizations of which could be the best option for their context.

Over the last few years, governments, the public and private sectors, and international trading partners, have and are enforcing “ISO certification” and other similar quality standards as a requirement for doing business and often demand ISO 9000 accreditation as a prerequisite in their requests for tenders. There have been related criticisms that businesses are thus sometimes seen to be opportunistic in pursuing certification merely to retain and hopefully increase sales rather than improve quality. This research aims to explore whether certification itself provides some guarantee of performance outcomes, or whether such outcomes are dependent on the way in which the accreditation process is introduced into organizations. The results indicate that certification itself seems to provide little guarantee of effective performance outcomes. Rather, performance outcomes are highly dependent on the strategy for implementation, with high performance outcomes being associated with changes to both transformational and transactional organizational variables.

Although there is a plethora of research articles that study ISO 9000 quality management systems and their association with business success, there is little empirical research that can attribute causality to certification. Contributes to the question of causality, through a comparison against a control group of the actual sales and profitability of 400 certified companies pre and post registration. Using a longitudinal methodology finds that, although the performance of certified companies is superior to that of 400 non‐certified firms, there is no evidence of improved performance after registration in the 400 certified firms studied. Concludes, from these findings, that the superior performance of certified firms is due to firms with superior performance having a greater propensity to pursue ISO 9000 registration. Illustrates the potential dangers in inferring that ISO 9000 certification leads to superior business performance. Additionally the findings should give pause for thought for decision‐makers. Certification is a major investment yet the findings show that inflated expectations of performance improvement after ISO 9000 accreditation may be unfounded.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical factors (CRFs) of IS/ISO/IEC 17025:2005 laboratory accreditation and indicators of the performance (IOPs) in the testing/calibration laboratories. The impact of accreditation on the performance is analyzed using the level of presence of critical factors that can be used to benchmark the best practices in the accredited testing and calibration laboratories.

A questionnaire is designed on the basis of an extensive literature review on laboratory accreditation and performance. Based on the responses from pilot study, the developed instrument is tested for its unidimensionality, reliability and validity. Multiple regression analysis is carried out to analyze the impact of critical factors on the IOPs.

The findings reveal that the six distinct critical dimensions of laboratory accreditation (which are the independent variables) have a significant impact on the performance of the accredited testing/calibration laboratories. The performance is measured by the dependent variables which are the IOPs. The customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, laboratory performance, image of the laboratory, the number of increased customers and loyalty of the existing customers are highly influenced by the accreditation which in turn improves the performance to gain the competitive advantage.

Contribution to research is in the area of laboratory accreditation and the performance measurement by the development of a comprehensive instrument to analyze the Laboratory Quality Management System. The results are dependent on the number of respondents who are the quality/technical managers.

This instrument would enable the accredited laboratories to analyze their performance through the feedback from the quality/technical managers to gain credibility and to continually improve and benchmark the quality management system in alignment with the quality policies.

This paper proposes an instrument to measure and benchmark the performance of the accredited testing and calibration laboratories.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of Total Quality Management (TQM) in terms of barriers, customers and accreditation in higher education (HE) over the last three decades (1991–2020) using literature review to establish the current state.

A total of 137 articles across 55 journals were consolidated for this review specifically focused on TQM (barriers, customers and accreditation) in HE. The investigations were carried out to identify the chronological growth of articles, research streams and methodologies. The articles were classified based on four research approaches and three research streams which have been reviewed in detail.

Considering the rapid growth in the HE sector and the concerns over reduction in quality of education especially in developing countries, the importance of TQM in HE is immense. The findings include identification of the barriers to successful TQM implementation, the need for alignment of TQM objectives of higher educational institutions (HEIs) and identified target customer(s) with the selected model/framework and the impact of accreditation/certification in the attainment of TQM.

This study which tries to bring a perspective to the main trends in TQM application to HE with respect to barriers, customers and accreditation over the last three decades is expected to add to the body of knowledge in this area and help future researchers to focus on the relevant areas identified in this paper.

The academic library is an important component of any university and is responsible for providing academic and research support to all members of the university community. At present, higher education institutions in Thailand are trying to evaluate and improve their quality by implementing quality assurance models/mechanisms. Libraries, as critical supporting organizations in these institutions, also need to improve their quality. As a service organization, academic libraries are faced with the need to satisfy their clientele and to measure and evaluate their services. There is a need, therefore, for librarians to take positive steps to insure that their clients receive quality services.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the activities needed to meet specified requirements to assist laboratory staff running tests and calibrations and to obtain ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.

The relevant literature that contributes to establishing activities that help laboratory staff to obtain ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation was studied. Laboratory researchers specializing in electro-medical equipment quality control were questioned about the criteria to be observed when selecting, developing and validating analytical steps.

Results revealed the analytical method criteria to be observed, which demonstrated their essentially quantitative nature.

This study presents a model that improves selecting, developing and validating analytical steps and contributes to producing reliable test and calibration results. These improvements can help laboratory testing and calibration to meet clients’ needs, satisfy specified requirements and provide reliable results.