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The purpose of this paper is to identify and classify potential and verified benefits of implementing quality management systems (QMSs) according to ISO 9000 standards.

The research is based on a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, mostly articles relating to implementation of the ISO 9000 QMS and its impact on customer satisfaction and business performance.

The literature adduces possible benefits of the effective implementation of the ISO 9000 QMS and searches for related support in published empirical research. The paper classifies the major identified and empirically verified benefits into four groups in relation to the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach to categorising company objectives. It also relates the potential benefits to specific standard requirements and the pre‐conditions that must be met in the implementation stage of the ISO 9001 in order to attain these benefits.

This study of the benefits has not focused on the standard releases, so the benefits are not shown separately for each release. Besides, there is less research on the latest releases (from 2000 and 2008) and thus perhaps none of their benefits has been recognised.

By discussing the standards' requirements and the implementation approaches and circumstances that may impact on the effectiveness of the introduced QMS, such as motives for introducing the QMS and the strategic approach to its implementation, it tries to help management build their QMS so that potential benefits are realised.

By aggregating the outcome of several research papers the paper paints a “big picture” of the business benefits of effectively implementing the ISO 9000 QMS, which could be a step towards further research and help management and practitioners in companies to develop their QMS.

The purpose of this paper is to present the key findings of a colloquium on ISO 14001. The colloquium focused on three key areas: critical loops and synergies among management system elements, the full spectrum of management system auditing, and integrating management systems.

A total of 40 Canadian experts on environmental management systems from a wide variety of sectors participated in the colloquium.

The colloquium provided insights into implementation issues around the three key areas noted above. The colloquium focused on discussing issues associated with corrective and preventive action, objectives and targets, internal and external auditing, and integrating change into management systems. The issues are presented in detail in the paper.

The participants in the colloquium believed that the findings will be of interest to both practitioners and academics in environmental management systems. The findings will also be of interest to practitioners and academics in quality and other standardized management systems.

The integration of management systems has become a popular subject for research and practice. However, there is a considerable lack of literature on integrated management systems (IMS) in developing countries. This study aims to examine the current status, motivation and perceived benefits of IMS in manufacturing organizations in India.

To examine the status of IMS in the Indian manufacturing sector, a survey was sent to 270 manufacturing organizations in India using a questionnaire as the survey instrument. Only 60 organizations participated in the survey. Subsequently, one case study was undertaken.

The research reflects the status of IMS in India. The majority of the responding organizations are implementing IMS. The findings suggest that the most important motivating factors are to promote synergies among different management systems (MS), to combine objectives of different MS, and to avoid duplication of procedures. The perceived benefits of IMS are reduction in the duplication of policies, procedures and work instructions, reduced costs, higher transparency, time saving, and synergy between MS.

One of the major limitations of this study is the small sample size, which precludes generalization of the findings. This study provides a starting point for further research in developing countries.

This research makes a contribution to the existing body of knowledge on IMS and provides results of value to IMS researchers and practitioners.

This paper offers key insights into IMS implementation in India. This will encourage manufacturing organizations in India and other developing countries to adopt IMS.

In recent years, the number of management systems (MSs) has sharply increased. These MSs can be certified with, for example, the quality standard ISO 9001 or the environmental standard ISO 14001 and they can subsequently be integrated into one single, jointly managed system. The main purpose of this research is to study the relationships between the level of system integration, on one hand, and the difficulties encountered in the integration process, as well as the related benefits, on the other.

Data for this study derive from a survey carried out in 76 organizations registered to, at a minimum, both ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 9001:2008 standards for quality and environmental MSs. A descriptive and an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) are provided. Additionally, structural equation modelling (SEM) is applied to the responses of these organizations to a mailed survey.

From the results, the paper proposes a model of the difficulties related to systems integration that have an effect on the level of integration of several specific items of the MSs involved. A model related to the effect of the integration level on the benefits is also provided.

The study provides an original contribution to the understanding of how difficulties and benefits of MSs integration relate to the level of integration achieved in the participating companies.

The need to create integrated management systems (IMS) in order to handle the proliferation of management system standards is undeniable. There is also evidence in literature and practice that organizations are slowly starting to tackle the IMS issue, mainly by putting an integrated quality and environmental management system in place. Due to the existence of internationally accepted standards covering these two fields, namely ISO 9000 and 14000 series, such a scope of integration comes as no surprise. However, can and should other systems, for example, the ones for occupational health and safety, dependability, social accountability or complaints handling, be included? What would such an integration mean for the existing organizational structures and how could be it be accomplished? When we attempt to address IMS issues, do we really talk about the integration of standards, systems, both or neither? These and other important questions regarding IMS are addressed here. By means of an example from the nuclear industry, this paper focuses in particular on the integration of a safety management system within an IMS framework. Since safety is of such a paramount importance in nuclear plants, it makes sense to integrate safety requirements within a quality management system, as a possible first step in the integration efforts. Subsequently, other function‐specific requirements may be included to form a “real” IMS.

To explore the current status, prowess, and future of quality audits, which would help both researchers and practitioners to adopt quality‐auditing practice for achieving the objectives of continuous quality improvement (CQI) models like total quality management (TQM).

The literature on quality audits was collected from the Emerald‐insight library. The most appropriate papers dealing with quality‐auditing practice and its closely related topics were excavated. These papers were classified into six categories and their contributions with inferences drawn have been presented.

Quality audits are not only meant for checking the systems for their compliance with quality system (QS) standards, they can also be used for exercising CQI and reaching the benchmarks of TQM. The conclusive finding is that identification of a legitimate quality audit standard and its financial accounting system shall be the future focus of research in this arena.

In comparison to the volume of QS certifications that have taken place throughout the world, the number of papers on quality audits and its closely related topics excavated through literature mining exercises was less. This may aberrate the findings and inferences of literature mining on quality audits.

The findings and inferences drawn by conducting the literature mining on quality‐auditing will be useful to the practitioners for orienting quality audits toward achieving the goals of models like TQM. This will ensure the cost effectiveness of quality audits and reaping larger benefits out of them.

This paper shows a future focus of research which would help the researchers working in TQM arena to work in this direction in consultation with practitioners. This would witness the development of performance measurement metrics and financial accounting systems pertaining to the conduct of quality audits.

Integration of function‐specific management systems in organizations is rapidly becoming a topic of interest for managers and auditors alike. This is mainly due to the proliferation of management system standards that foster compliance with the stated criteria for quality, environmental, occupational health and safety, social responsibility and other different aspects of performance. While most of the available literature on this topic focuses on the integration of standards, there is comparatively little information on how to actually build an integrated system internally. This paper hypothesizes that audits can provide an excellent basis for these integration efforts, discussing the prerequisites, strategies and resources necessary for an effective audit in support of integrated management systems. The paper also describes how audits are used to improve a combined quality and safety management system in a German nuclear facility.

This study attempts to examine the performance differences between firms with and without integrated management systems (IMSs), and the impact of three integration strategies (i.e. implementing quality management system (QMS) first, then environmental management system (EMS) (QMS + EMS); implementing EMS first, then QMS (EMS + QMS); implementing QMS and EMS simultaneously (QMS − EMS)) on firm performance to reveal the IMS–performance relationship and provide empirical evidence.

Two panel datasets were collected during 2009–2019. This study used the Mann–Whitney non-parametric test and a sample of 33,155 observations from 4,316 Chinese listed firms to compare the performance differences between the IMS and non-IMS groups through performance indicators. This study also examined the effects of three integration strategies on firm performance using a cross-sectional time-series feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regression model and a sample of 11,289 observations from 2,037 firms.

The results show that significant performance differences exist between IMS and non-IMS firms; however, the performance of firms with an IMS is not always better than that of firms without IMS. Furthermore, the simultaneous integration strategy has a positive impact, whereas sequential integration strategies (QMS + EMS and EMS + QMS) negatively affect firm performance. Compared with the EMS + QMS strategies, the QMS + EMS strategies have a more prominent effect on firm performance. Simultaneous strategies are more effective than sequential strategies.

Firms should fully consider the potential benefits and costs associated with the difficulties of IMS implementation and the implementation order of different management systems and the potential effects of the management systems in different conditions. Firms also should try to develop internal capabilities through implementing different integration strategies.

By comparing performance differences between firms with and without IMS, this study enriches the understanding of the performance benefits of IMS implementation in the Chinese context. By examining the impact of integration strategies that follow different sequences on firm performance, this study promotes an in-depth understanding of the integration strategies and their performance implications beyond simple descriptions and also provides new insights into operations strategy models.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the expression “integrated management systems” is interpreted in literature, what it means to have an integrated management system (IMS) and what the results of this are.

A literature review was conducted based on Scopus using the search term “Integrated Management Systems.” In the chosen articles, effects of integration, scope, level and extent of integration and if the approach is inside-out or outside-in, have been analyzed.

Most articles on IMS conclude that integration is beneficial regarding cost saving, operational benefits and improved customer satisfaction. The general approach in the articles, describes an inside-out approach with focus on integrating existing management standards. The scope of integration covers typically management systems for quality, environment and occupational health and safety.

An IMS is found to be a system that integrates existing management standards based on an inside-out approach. This indicates possibilities for both practical improvement and research in exploring how integrated stakeholder needs could be managed, possibly as process-based IMSs.

This paper sheds light on the ambiguous interpretation of the IMS concept.

An “effective audit” cannot be taken for granted, even though it is performed by trained professionals using proven techniques and in accordance with internationally accepted standards. Recent highly publicized cases in both financial and quality auditing point to the need to further examine the meaning of audit effectiveness, as well as the methods to improve it. Specifically, audit reliability and risk as two related components of audit effectiveness are focused on. The term and concept of QMS audit effectiveness are analyzed first, followed by a list of the relevant principles and criteria for measuring and improving this effectiveness. Finally, two cases from the nuclear industry are used to illustrate the importance of measuring and improving QMS audit effectiveness.