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ISO Management Systems January-February 2003 31

Global perspectives onglobal standards

a 15-economy survey ofISO 9000 and ISO 14000

This article summarizes findings obtained from a survey of 5 398 ISO 9000 and ISO 14000certified firms in 15 economies in North America, Europe and Asia. It compares motivationsand benefits, and how these differ across countries and business sectors.

S P E C I A L R E P O R T

BY CHARLES J. CORBETT,ANASTASIA M. LUCA , AND JEH -NAN PAN

hat does it mean to be a

global standard? Of course,the requirements of the standardshould be the same in whatever

country it is applied which isthe case for I SO 9000 and ISO14000. But most people, inreferring to standards being

global, would also expect themto be adopted for similar rea-sons and in similar ways acrosscountries, hence leading to sim-

ilar benefits. A re ISO 9000 andISO 14000 global in that sense of

the word?To investigate that question, we

conducted a survey among certifiedfirms in 15 economies, asking themabout their motivations for seeking

certification, and about implemen-tation issues and benefits experi-enced.The survey was administeredduring 1999-2001.This article sum-

marizes the principal findings. Thefull survey is available from theauthors.

In particular, we examinewhether motivations and benefitsdiffer across countries and/oracross business sectors. I f we would

find that firms in France soughtISO 9000 certification for substan-tially different reasons than firmsin Taiwan, regardless of their sec-

tor of activity, and experiencedsubstantially different benefits,we might infer that ISO 9000 inFrance does not mean the

same as ISO 9000 in Taiwan.Conversely, if we would

find that chemical firms acrossdifferent countries report simi-

lar motivations for certificationand comparable benefits, though

perhaps different from thosereported by firms in the electronicsindustry,we would have more faithin the view of ISO 9000 as beingtruly global. Below, we present a

summary of the survey sample, fol-lowed by an analysis of motiva-tions, implementation,and benefits,both by country and by sector.

Profile of survey sample

The survey was administered in15 economies by a network of localpartners who were responsible fortranslating the survey, obtaining

We examine whether

motivations and benefits

differ across countriesand/or across

business sectors

W


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32 ISO Management Systems January-February 2003


address lists of certified companies,administering the survey, and enter-ing the responses.

A total of 5 398 firms responded

to the survey. Responses for somecountries were grouped together forthe rest of the analysis presented

here, as their samplesize was too small tobe treated separate-ly:Australia and New

Zealand were com-bined and attributedthe abbreviation ofA NZ; and Indonesia,

Malaysia, the Philip-

pines, Singapore, and Thailand werecombined into South-East A sia(SEA).

A part from these two groupings,to which we have assigned unoffi-cial abbreviations of their names for

the purposes of this article, the othereconomies are identified in the graphcharts by the codes assigned in theInternational Standard for country

codes, ISO 31661).

The economies surveyed were:Australia (A NZ),Canada (CA ),France

(FR), Hong Kong (HK ), Indonesia(SEA ), Japan (J P), Republic of Korea

(KR), Malaysia (SEA ), New Zealand(A NZ), Philippines (SEA ), Singapore(SEA ), Sweden (SE), Taiwan (TW),

Thailand (SEA),Unit-ed States (U S).

The breakdown ofresponses by econo-my isshowninTable1.

The breakdown of

responses by industrysector is displayedin Figure 1.

Motivations for seeking ISO 9000 orISO 14000 certification

Let us turn to the motivations forseeking ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 cer-tification. Respondents were asked to

rate, on a five-point scale,how impor-tant each of a set of 11 possible moti-vations was in their decision to seekcertification.

The food industry

reports the highest scores

for seeking

quality improvements

Table 1: Response ratesby economy

Total 21 427 5 398 25,19 % 5 264 1 400

US (US) 5 000 939 18,78% 906 178

Thailand (SEA) 200 15 7,50% 15 4

Taiwan (TW) 2142 456 21,29% 446 223

Sweden (SE) 268 135 50,37% 135 51

Singapore (SEA) 200 15 7,50% 13 10

Philippines (SEA) 200 53 26,50% 51 16

New Zealand (ANZ) 288 61 21,18% 57 13

Malaysia (SEA) 200 10 5,00% 10 4

Korea (KR) 1 361 120 8,82% 2 221 575

Japan (JP) 5 000 2 261 45,22% 114 72

Indonesia (SEA) 200 9 4,50% 7 3

Hong Kong (HK) 1 200 131 10,92% 124 20

France (FR) 2 000 445 22,25% 440 29

Canada (CA) 561 198 35,29% 185 110

Australia (ANZ) 2 607 550 21,10% 540 92

Country Numberof formsmailed

Number ofusable

responsesreceived

Responserate

ISO 9000 ISO 14000

1) For more information on

ISO 3166, see the followinglocation on the ISO Web site:http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.html


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In some countries, respondents

have a tendency to report high scoresacross the board, while others tend tobe more modest. To correct for that,we compute relative motivations,

by dividing each respondents scorefor each motivation by the sum of thescores for all motivations for thatrespondent. That way, for each

respondent, all motivations must addup to 1.

Figures 2 and 3 show how themotivations for ISO 9000 vary across

countries and sectors. A lthough thecharts contain too much informationto be easy to read, some trends areclear.

Overall, the main motivations forseeking ISO 9000 certification arequality improvements and corpo-

rate image, and to a slightly lesserextent, marketing advantage andcustomer pressure. This patternreturns both when looking across

countries or across sectors.The food industry reports the

highest scores for seeking qualityimprovements and for capturing

workers knowledge, suggesting thatfirms in this industry were the mostmotivated by process-related rea-sons.

The textile industry reports thehighest score for seeking cost reduc-tions. Firms in the semiconductorindustry reported the highest scores

for customer pressure and manycompetitors certified,suggesting thatthe external pressure for ISO 9000

certification is most strongly felt in

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40% Figure 1: Breakdown bybusiness sector

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14

Figure 2: Motivations forseeking ISO 9000

certification by economy

Communica

tions

Compute

requip

ment o

r

orperiphe

rals

Electro

nics

Semico

nducto

rs

Mecha

nical

Auto

matio

nFo

od

Plastic

Chem

ical

Textile

Metal

Pharmac

eutic

al

Othe

rs

ANZ

CA

FR

HK

JP

KR

SEA

SE

TW

US

Cost reductions

Qualityimprovements

Marketingadvantage

Customer pressure

Many competitorscertified

Benefits experi-enced by others

Avoid potentialexport barrier

Capturing workersknowledge

Relations withauthorities

Corporate image

Relations withcommunities

ISO 9000

ISO 14000


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that sector. Respondents in the foodsector gave the lowest score for manycompetitors certified. However, oneshould be careful not to read too muchinto these differences between indus-

tries. Perhaps the most striking obser-vation is how similar the relative moti-vations are across such fundamentallydifferent activities.

Figures 4 and 5 show that theanalysis for ISO 14000 is similar tothat for I SO 9000.

The main motivations for seekingISO 14000 certification are environ-mental improvements and corpo-rate image and, to a lesser extent,

marketing advantage and improved

relations with communities.Customer pressure scores lower for

ISO 14000 than for I SO 9000.Firms in the industrial automationsector expect to achieve the highestmarketing advantage, and experi-

ence the most customer pressureto seek certification. The communi-cations and semiconductor sectorsgive the highest scores to many

competitors certified. Respondentsin the pharmaceutical industry wereconsiderably more motivated byimproving relations with authori-

ties for both ISO 9000 and ISO14000; they were also the least moti-vated by achieving cost reduc-tions.The same note applies here as

The categories in which

firms report receiving

the highest benefits from

ISO 9000 certification are

quality improvements,

customer satisfaction,

improved procedures and

corporate image

Costreductions

Qualityimprovements

Marketingadvantage

Customerpressure

Manycompetitors

certified

Benefits

experienced byothers




Corporateimage

Pharmaceutical


Others

Textile

Metal

Plastic

Chemical

Automation

Food

Mechanical

Electronics

Semiconductors

Communications

Computer equipmentor peripherals

Figure 3: Motivations for seekingISO 9000 certification by businesssector



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0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14

Pharmaceutic

al

Othe

rs

Textile

Metal

Plastic

Chem

ical

Auto

mation

Food

Mecha

nical

Electronics

Communicatio

ns

Compute

requipm

ent

orperiphe

rals

Semico

nducto

rs

Figure 4: Motivations for seekingISO 14000 certification by economy

Figure 5: Motivationsfor seeking

ISO 14000 certification by business activity

Costreductions

Environmentalimprovements

Marketingadvantage

Customer

pressure

Manycompetitorscertified

Benefitsexperienced byothers




Corporateimage


Cost reductions

Environmentalimprovements

Marketingadvantage

Customer pressure

Many competitorscertified

Benefits experi-enced by others



Relationswith

authorities

Corporateimage

Relationswith

communities


ANZ CA FR HK JP KR SEA SE TW US


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for I SO 9000: the similarities in rela-tive motivations between sectors areperhaps the most striking observa-tion from Figure 5.

Proportion of employees trained

We asked the respondents whatpercentage of their employeesreceived training again on a five-

point scale ranging from one, indicat-

ing 0-20% of employees, to five, indi-cating 81-100%.Figures 6and7showthe average responses to this ques-

tion, by country and by sector.The proportion of employees

trained was generally similar for I SO

9000 and ISO 14000;overall, in mostcountries, the proportion trained for

ISO 14000 was slightly higher. Thismay reflect the fact that ISO 14000

more often covers an entire site orcompany, while ISO 9000 certifica-tions could have more limited scope.

More striking is the variationacross countries: firms in Canada,

Sweden, and the US report trainingthe highest proportion of employees,with those in J apan and Koreareporting the lowest proportions. A s

always, one needs to be careful ininterpreting such findings as an indi-cation that implementation has beenmore or less thorough in certain

countries, as there is always a possi-bility of country-level differences insurvey response behaviour. For

instance, respondents in Japan maysimply be more likely to provide acautious estimate of the proportionof employees trained, while those in

Canada might apply a looser defini-tion of training. However, thesedifferences are striking enough to

warrant further investigation.There is more consistency in theproportion of employees trainedacross sectors than there is acrosscountries. A gain, most firms report

slightly higher degrees of training forISO 14000 than for ISO 9000.

Benefits of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000certification

We asked the respondents how

much benefit they had received fromcertification for 13 categories, on afive-point scale, ranging from one for

no benefits to five for very sub-stantial benefits. The results for I SO9000 are shown in Figures 8and 9, bycountry and by sector;Figures 10and

11 (page 38) show the analogousresults for ISO 14000.

Overall, the categories in which

firms report receiving the highestbenefits from ISO 9000 certification

are quality improvements, cus-tomer satisfaction, improved pro-

cedures and corporate image.

ISO 9000

ISO 14000

Figure 6: Proportionof employees trained

by economy

Figure 7: Proportionof employees trained

by business sector

Communic

atio

ns

Compute

requip

ment o

r

orperiph

erals

Electronics

Semicond

ucto

rs

Mechanica

l

Autom

atio

nFo

od

Plastic

Che

mica

l

Textil

e

Metal

Pharmace

utica

l

Othe

rs



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0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14

Figure 8: Benefits from ISO 9000certification by economy

Figure 9: Benefits from ISO 9000certification by business sector

Pharmaceutical

Others

Textile

Metal

Plastic

Chemical

Automation

F

ood

Mechanical

Electronics

Communicatio

ns

Computer

equipment

orperipherals

Semiconductors

ANZ

CA

FR

HK

JP

KR

SEA

SE

TW

US

Cost reductions

Productivity

Quality

Environmental

On-time delivery

Customersatisfaction

Market share

Profit margin

Procedures

Authorities

Morale

Communities

Image

Costreductions

Product-ivity

Quality

Environ-

mental

On-timedelivery


Market share

Profit margin

Procedures

Authorities

Morale

Communities

Image



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0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14

Figure 10: Benefits from ISO 14000certification by economy

Figure 11: Benefits from ISO 14000certification by business sector

Pharmaceutical

Others

Textile

Metal

Plastic

Chemical

Automation

Food

Mechanical

Electronics

Communicatio

ns

Computer

equipment

orperipherals

Semicond

uctors

ANZ

CA

FR

HK

JP

KR

SEA

SE

TW

US

Cost reductions

Productivity

Quality

Environmental

On-time delivery


Market share

Profit margin

Procedures

Authorities

Morale

Communities

Image

Costreductions

Product-ivity

Quality

Environ-

mental

On-timedelivery


Market share

Profit margin

Procedures

Authorities

Morale

Communities

Image



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The pattern is fairly consistentacross countries, with some excep-

tions. Firms in the US report relative-ly high benefits from improved pro-

cedures, followedby firms in Australia,Canada, and France.

Japanese firms reportconsiderably higher

benefits in employ-ee morale thanfirms in other coun-tries. Respondents in

Hong Kong reporthigher benefits fromimproved relations

with authorities.The pattern is

also quite constantacross sectors,exceptthat pharmaceutical firms report con-

siderably higher benefits fromimproved relations with authorities.

This reflects the fact that the pharma-ceutical industry is subject to far

more stringent quality regulations bygovernment agencies than firms inother business sectors.

Overall, the key benefits obtained

from ISO 14000 certification areimproved environmental perform-

ance and improved corporate image,followed by improved procedures,

relations with authorities, and rela-tions with communities. Firms in

Canada and the US report the highest

benefits from improved procedures.The same pattern arises when bro-

ken down by sector. Textile firms

report the largestcost reductions fromISO 14000 certifi-cation. Pharmaceu-tical respondents

report the highestbenefits from im-proved relations withauthorities, and the

lowest benefits withrespect to employeemorale and corpo-

rate image.

Conclusion

By and large, the patterns we findare consistent across countries, formost of the factors we study. Thoughthere are, inevitably, variations across

countries, these differences are rela-tively small and certainly not largeenough to indicate substantially dif-ferent versions of management sys-

tems built on ISO 9000 or ISO 14000.

The one notable exception is the

proportion of employees trained.Here, we find substantial variation

across countries, which calls for fur-ther examination. I f this reflects dif-

ferences in interpretation of the sur-vey question across countries, there is

The authors

Dr. Jeh-Nan(Jack) Pan isProfessor andChairman ofthe Depart-ment ofStatistics of

the School ofManagement

at National Cheng Kung Universityin Tainan, Taiwan.

E-mail [email protected]

Dr. Charles J.Corbett isAssistantProfessor ofDecisions,Operationsand Techno-

logy Manage-ment at the

Anderson School at UCLA, California,USA.


Dr. AnastasiaM. Luca isPostdoctoralScholar at theAndersonSchool atUCLA.


The key benefits obtained

from ISO 14000 certification

are improved environmental

performance and improved

corporate image, followed

by improved procedures,

relations with authorities,

and relations with

communities



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of course no problem. However, if itreflects true differences in breadth

and depth of implementation of ISO9000 and ISO 14000, that might cast

some doubt on the assertion that thestandards are truly implemented in a

standardized manner worldwide.It is instructive to compare the

motivations for seek-

ing certification withthe benefits achieved.Recall that the mainmotivations for seek-

ing ISO 9000 certifica-tion were qualityimprovements, mar-

keting advantage andcorporate image.Theseexpectations are, byand large, met: themain benefits experi-

enced are qualityimprovements, improv-ed customer satisfaction, and

improved image.The same is true forISO 14000.

However, two points are worth not-ing. Firstly, the improved customer

satisfaction does not appear to lead toequally large benefits in terms of mar-ket share or profit margin. This mayreflect the fact that ISO 9000 certifica-

tion is often considered a require-

ment. Having the certification doesnot actually increase market share orprofits, but not having it will lead to a

decrease in market share or profitabil-

ity.Secondly,perhaps the most impor-

tant ISO 9000 benefit of all is

improved procedures. The survey didnot explicitly askabout improved pro-

cedures as a motiva-tion for seeking certi-fication, but anecdotalevidence from inter-

views with certifiedfirms suggest that, in

many cases, thesebenefits were not

anticipated, but prov-ed very helpful.

This is, in fact,characteristic of any

structured processimprovement effort: one does notknow in advance how the efforts willpay off, but following a structured

and disciplined approach almostinevitably does lead to valuableprocess improvements.

Following

a structured and

disciplined approach

almost inevitably

does lead

to valuable process

improvements

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to ISO Central Secretariat

(www.iso.org), to the University of CaliforniaPacific Rim Research Program, and to the Centerfor International Business Education andResearch at the Anderson School at UCLA fortheir financial support, and to WorldPreferred(www.worldpreferred.com ) for sharing theNorth American certification data with us.

We are also very grateful to our survey partners:Mile Terziovski, Rob Klassen, Olivier Aptel, TY Lee,

Kazuhiro Asakawa, Phares Parayno, Carlos Romero,

Hosun Rhim, and Jens Dahlgaard. We would alsolike to acknowledge the excellent research assis-tance provided by Theresa Jones, Susana Medina,and Mara J. Montes.

Finally, we are of course highly grateful to therespondents for sharing their ISO 9000 and ISO14000 experiences with us.


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