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Keywords
ISO 9000 series, International standards, Factor analysis, Cluster analysis, Organizational culture
Abstract
The fast evolution of management systems standards ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 worldwide, from unknown entities to well-- established management practices, represents a facet of the global marketplace in which many firms operate. Over 400,000 firms in over 150 countries have adopted ISO 9000 since it was introduced in 1986. Its successor, ISO 14000, was introduced in 1996 and has already been adopted by over 30,000 firms in over 100 countries. Reports on the results of an ISO 9000/14000 mail survey, administered in four Far eastern countries including Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan to explore and compare the similarities and differences of motivations, implementations and certification benefits among these countries. Survey data have been analyzed using the multivariate statistical methods and techniques such as factor analysis, cluster analysis, Kruskal-Wal lis test, etc. Several conclusions and suggestions are made based on the statistical analysis results.
1. Research background and motivation
Recently, the recognition of environmental issues has become more global, rapidly spreading beyond Europe and North America to the Asia-Pacific region. Since their release in 1986, over 400,000 firms worldwide have received certification to the ISO 9000 quality management systems standard, and over 30,000 firms have received certification to the ISO 14000 environmental management systems standard since their release in 1996 (Corbett and Kirsch, 2001). There is also an increasing number of sector-specific standards, including QS 9000, TL 9000, D1 9000, and others. There have been several studies investigating firms' motivations for certification, their implementation experiences, and the benefits received; however, somewhat surprisingly for what is inherently an international standard, no study has yet done this on a global scale.
ISO 9000 was initially adopted by firms in Europe and in countries with close ties to the UK, such as Australia and New Zealand and Hong Kong (as ISO 9000 was partly based on an earlier British standard). Firms in the USA followed suit, starting from the early 1990s, with firms in Japan, Korea and Taiwan adopting later. As a consequence of the ISO 9000 experience, ISO 14000 has followed a different path; in particular, firms in Japan were among the first adopters of ISO 14000. In...