ISO 9000:2000 certification and business results

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between ISO 9000:2000 certification and business results. It aims to provide reliable and valid constructs for measuring quality results and operative results in a specific sector: the furniture industry in Spain and to test the effects of certification on the aforementioned results.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was conducted in 130 Spanish companies. Confirmatory factor analysis tests were used to verify scales validity and reliability. The analysis of the variance (ANOVA) was utilised to investigate the statistical effects of ISO certification.FindingsThe results revealed two reliable and valid constructs: quality results and operative results. These measurement scales differentiated all the certified companies in the sample from the non‐certified enterprises due to the better results obtained by the former.Originality/valueAlthough some studies have concentrated on analysing different quality results deriving from certification and the results of different operations, there is still a clear need for research using previously validated tools to measure results. This research aims to fill this gap by validating two scales to measure both types of results: quality results and operative results.