Evidences about ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 9004:2018 implementation in different-size organisations

Abstract

The standard ISO 9001 is widely diffused throughout the world. The aim of the research is: (i) to evaluate companies’ perception of the latest version of the standard (2015) in terms of motivations that led companies to the implementation of a Quality Management System (QMS), and the subsequent benefits and barriers obtained from its adoption and (ii) to consider organisation’s knowledge of ISO 9004:2018 guidelines for obtaining a sustainable success and evaluate the main benefits organisations can obtain from adopting it, considering company dimension as a discriminating variable. The research was conducted through a questionnaire proposed to 3,975 certified companies, using simple random sampling; 493 participated to the survey and gave shape to the reference sample. The results show that larger companies have a more mature QMS, and while Micro companies approach the certification mainly for external reasons, more internal motivations are developed from larger ones. The revision of ISO 9001 requires adaptations in existing QMS and it has been revealed that the intensity with which the benefits are perceived by companies increases as their size increases, most likely because the size of a company influences its level of QMS maturity, and therefore its ability to adapt to the standard.