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ISO 9001 is applied by hundreds of thousands of companies throughout the world. For this reason, its effect on company results has been extensively studied. However, the results of those studies are inconclusive and sometimes contradictory. More in-depth research, with a new approach, is therefore necessary. The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether ISO 9001-certified companies suffered the effects of the financial and economic crisis of 2007–2008 to a lesser degree than non-certified ones.

A set of 179 companies certified by ISO 9001:2008 and 154 non-certified ones were analysed, as well as the accounting figures for net sales and operating income (EBIT: earnings before interest and taxes) from 2004 to 2012.

Companies from the industry and services sectors showed different results. Certified industrial companies achieved better outcomes than their non-certified counterparts. However, the deviations in outcomes were not significant for services companies.

One limitation of this study is that companies’ official results are not always their true results. Another limitation is that having to do with the criteria followed to suppress extreme cases, which is always subjective. Furthermore, the implications of the results could be of use for those managers who are responsible for implementing ISO 9001 and for deciding whether obtaining the ISO 9001 certification would be beneficial to their companies.

This study constitutes a new approach for the assessment of the benefits of the ISO 9001 certification.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how quality culture influences the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and secondary school students’ perceived service quality (PSQ).

The authors underpin research to analyse the effect of quality culture and TQM practices on PSQ. The sample included questionnaires completed by 268 teachers and 559 students from 56 secondary schools in the Murcia Region (Spain). The proposed model comprises an exogenous construct (quality culture) and three endogenous ones (two constructs represent the TQM model’s infrastructure practices and core practices, whereas one represents PSQ), and specifies the relations among them. The authors used the variance-based structural equation modeling technique and the partial least squares estimation method to test the hypotheses.

Its empirical analysis reveals that the quality culture influences the effectiveness of QM practices by suggesting a significant strong effect on infrastructure and core quality practices. In turn, the analysis reveals that these two QM aspects differently have an impact on PSQ. Finally, the mediation analysis results reveal the indirect significant impact of the quality culture on PSQ through the mediator effect of QM practices.

The main contribution of this work is to theoretically explain and empirically prove some mechanisms by which education centers can develop and implement a total quality initiative. The findings provide ideas for management teams about how to personalize TQM practices to achieve optimum performance outcomes.

Despite the widespread use of excellence models as a self-assessment tool in the past two decades, little is known about the underlying logic behind the way that promoting organizations give weight to their criteria, and whether these scores align with business reality. This paper aims to analyze whether these scores coincide with the vision of managers and the real situation of business today.

This paper uses three different methods and two kinds of data to review the evolution of scores on criteria in excellence models since their creation and empirically analyses and compares the results with the vision of the managers.

The results show that the estimated weight of criteria in the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model (both directly perceived by managers and obtained with the statistical analysis) do not coincide with the value that the promoting organization has given to them, in its current version or in the previous versions.

This paper is focused exclusively on industrial companies so one discussion point that can serve as a basis for future research is to study whether there is any difference in the distribution of points between industrial organizations and services, or between private and public organizations.

The results show that, depending of the methodology used to evaluate the weight of each element of the excellence model, these weights could be different and are different from those proposed by EFQM. Therefore, if managers want to use the EFQM model of excellence for self-evaluation purposes, they should define their own weights for each element, in accordance with their own company characteristics. Leadership, strategy, people, partnership & resources and processes could have more or less importance in promoting the success of a business, according to the specific situation of each company.

This study has been made using three different methods and two kinds of data.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze e-procurement in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its relationship with top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing and the effect of e-procurement on performance (procurement performance and business performance).

The hypotheses were tested using a sample of 199 managers from SMEs in manufacturing.

The results indicated a significant relationship between e-procurement in SMEs and top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing. Similarly, the authors found a positive relationship between e-procurement and procurement process performance and business performance.

The findings stress to SME managers, the need to pay attention to top management support, IT obstacles and strategic purchasing when implementing e-procurement. Similarly, it provides evidence of the benefits of e-procurement on procurement process performance and business performance.

This study fills a gap in the literature regarding e-procurement in SMEs and its impact on performance. SMEs constitute a significant part of today’s economies and e-procurement can significantly impact the performance of these organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to study the possible mediating mechanisms (human resource management (HRM), learning and innovation) that could exist in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational performance. This topic has been studied only by a few groups of researchers and these researchers have not analyzed all these concepts jointly.

This research explores the relationships using partial least squares with data from 200 Spanish industrial companies. Analyzing the mentioned relationships in the Spanish context has been done by few researchers before.

The study reveals that the adoption of transformational leadership styles improves performance when specific systems of HRM practices, learning and innovation are developed in an organization.

This study, therefore, contributes to the understanding of the link between transformational leaders and performance by proposing a model in which it is evinced that this leadership style produces synergies between HRM, learning and innovation, which in the end, affect performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of affective commitment and empowerment as mediators in the relationship among high-performance work systems (HPWS) and organizational performance. Different inconsistencies found in the literature review shows the need to take into account certain mediating variables, such as employees’ behaviors and attitudes, to understand how human resource management (HRM) facilitates the achievement of organizational results.

A sample of 200 medium-sized Spanish organizations was examined through partial least squares modeling methodology.

As hypothesized, a proactive strategic HRM approach in an organization can be translated in a series of human resources practices systems of high-performance, which stimulate directly employees’ affective commitment and promote empowerment among them, getting to better results in employees’ performance and in organizational performance.

This research shows that affective commitment and empowerment play a determinant role as mediators in HPWS and performance relationship, providing a deeper understanding of the alignment of strategy and HRM practices for organizational success.

To provide insights into current IT and total quality management (TQM) theory and practice on operational and quality performance, in particular the use of IT in supporting TQM policies and practices.

Hypotheses derived from the key features of TQM and IT presented by previous authors are tested using structural equation modelling through field research on a sample of 234 manufacturing companies in Spain.

The results indicate that the sampled firms make considerable use of IT to support their TQM initiatives and that overall such efforts generate significant positive gains on operational and quality performance. The few exceptions to this are noted and discussed.

The implications and limitations of the survey together with suggestions for further research are fully discussed.

A survey of IT in support of TQM initiatives on operational and quality performance in manufacturing suggests how firms and other organisations should focus their IT investments to improve performance.

Both information technology and TQM have had, and continue to have, a significant impact on most organizations. Although each paradigm has been widely researched there is little empirical research on the relationship between the two and how they both relate to business performance.

The present study aims to draw on operations management and information technology literature to examine the effect of three information technology resources (electronic data interchange (EDI), computer‐aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems) and three related quality management capabilities (customer and supplier relations, product and process management, and quality data and workforce management) and their effect on a firm's quality performance.

Hypotheses derived from the key features of quality management and information technology presented by previous authors are tested using structural equation modeling through field research on a sample of 229 manufacturing companies in Spain.

Findings from this study indicate that there is significant evidence to support the hypothesized model in which information technology resources (EDI, ERP systems, and CAD/CAM systems) have a direct impact on related quality management capabilities (customer and supplier relations, product and process management, and quality data and workforce management) as well as an indirect impact on quality performance mediated through quality management capabilities.

The discrepant findings in the literature suggest the need to identify contingencies that may govern the IT‐performance relationship. This study focuses on the interplay between information technology, quality management, and quality performance.

Information technology (IT) and total quality management (TQM) have significantly impacted on most organizations and each has been widely researched. However, there is little well‐founded empirical research on the relationship between the two, particularly on the way in which TQM is influenced by IT. This paper presents an initial investigation of such relationships through an interview survey of 14 companies based in Spain. The cases indicate that there is a framework underpinning this relationship. The paper concludes with a proposal for this framework and an instrument for testing the conjectured linkages within the framework.

ISO 9000 certification has a growing importance for companies, mainly in Europe but also in other countries. Several papers have analysed the effects of ISO 9000 certification on company results, with contradictory conclusions. The purpose of this work is to clarify these possible effects.

This paper reports new findings on the topic following a study using data from 713 companies and using the two methodologies that have been applied in the scientific literature: the comparison of certified and non‐certified companies and a longitudinal study of the results of certification.

The data suggest that not only is ISO 9000 positive for companies but also it can actually reduce benefits and profitability.

Several reasons for these results can be suggested and constitute a critique of the almost compulsory character of ISO 9000 as a norm for performance in some markets. Companies should be aware that implementing ISO 9000 just for compliance does not constitute a competitive advantage.

This research uses objective measures of performance and combines two methodologies: the comparison between certified and non‐certified companies and a longitudinal analysis.