The effects of ISO 9001 certification on the performance of Greek companies : A multidimensional statistical analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits of ISO 9001 certification and the association between them, the level of implementation of the critical success factors (CSFs) required for the appropriate functioning of the quality management system in ISO 9001:2008 certified companies and between other demographic variables. Design/methodology/approach – A research project was carried out in Greek companies from all business sectors using the questionnaire technique. The selected companies implement a quality management system in accordance with the ISO 9001:2008 standard. Correspondence analysis, a methodology from the field of multidimensional statistics, was used to identify significant differences between the effects on performance and other variables such as the implementation level of CSFs relating to the quality management system and years of certification. Findings – External benefits seem to be more important than internal benefits. The least important benefits were mostly business results, such as profits, costs and market share. Differences were detected between the level of performance and certain demographic variables such as the use of International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) alone, size and years of certification. The certified companies have generally benefited from ISO implementation. Research limitations/implications – The study was based on the perceptions (subjective data) of only one quality manager/representative from each company. The motives for ISO certification, which can seriously affect the benefits derived, were not examined. Practical implications – The measures presented here can be used by certified companies to evaluate performance (financial or not) related to ISO 9001 certification and to discover those factors that contribute to the better exploitation of the ISO 9001:2008 standard. Originality/value – This paper aims to evaluate performance since the implementation of the ISO 9001:2008 standard in Greek companies, which are confronting a tough economic environment and to analyse this data with a methodology from the multidimensional field, with the complementary use of some special tables of coincidence.