Diffusion of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certification in Italian commodity sectors

Purpose – ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards certification is a phenomenon involving over the years a larger and larger number of companies and organizations. Looking at the empirical data, it is observed that the phenomenon is close to saturation in many countries. In Italy, on the other hand, there is an important increase in the number of certifications. The purpose of this paper is to pick out the different components and aspects which make Italian dynamics so particular. Design/methodology/approach – In order to do that the single commodity sector was analyzed, studying certifications diffusion in terms of certified sites. With the aim of specializing the analysis within commodity sectors, this information has been compared with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) percentage expressed by each sector. Finding – The analysis shows that ISO certifications diffusion followed different dynamics depending on the commodity sectors. These reacted in different ways to the discontinuity of 2003, the year in which ISO 9000 standards changed from the 1994 to the 2000 version. Research limitations/implications – Future research efforts will be directed at an in‐depth analysis of the differences between ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified and analogous non‐certified firms. This analysis will be performed using performance indices such as the number of employees, the profitability, the volume of business, etc. Originality/value – The paper analyzes the dynamic of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certification diffusion in Italy in different commodity sectors. The term of comparison is given by the contribution given by each sector to the GDP.