Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Department of Management & Marketing, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
Department of Decision Sciences, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 13 January 2009
Received in revised form 31 March 2010
Accepted 13 April 2010
Available online 21 April 2010
Keywords:
ISO 9000 standard
Quality management
Organizational environment
Resource dependence theory
a b s t r a c t
More than 900,000 organizations worldwide have registered to the ISO 9000 quality management
standard. Despite its growing popularity, few studies have offered a coherent theoretical basis for the standards appeal. A theory-based explanation enhances understanding and appreciation for the standard,
and provides clarity on how the standard benets organizations. In this paper, we invoke the resource
dependence theory (RDT) to purport that the standard is used by organizations as a tool to manage their
organizational environment. It does this by specifying procedures that organizations need to manage their
organizationenvironment boundary spanning processes. Using the RDT perspective, a model with three
key constructs embodying ISO 9000 was developed: internal processes, relationships with customers
and relationships with suppliers. The latter two were treated as being part of the task environment. We
predicted that the external aspects of the standard affect operating performance (a measure of effectiveness), both directly and through internal processes. Empirical data from 416 ISO 9000 registered
Australian manufacturing plants validated the RDT perspective, and suggest that the three constructs,
individually and in isolation, are not as effective as when they are considered together. By invoking RDT,
a new theoretical viewpoint to ISO 9000 has been developed that adds to other theoretical perspectives,
and goes some way to explaining the growing popularity of this standard with organizations.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Since its inception, there has been a remarkable growth in organizations registering to the ISO 9000 quality management standard,
with close to 900,000 registered organizations in existence in 170
countries (International Organization for Standardization, 2008).
Many researchers have sought to understand why organizations
choose to register. Much of this research is focused on internal justications, with the spotlight on how the standard assists
organizations to intrinsically improve their internal organizational
processes and performance (Adams, 1999; Benner and Tushman,
2002, 2003; Boiral, 2003; Tzelepis et al., 2006; Benner and Veloso,
2008). Others have explained the organizations decisions to register from an external perspective (Anderson et al., 1999; Guler
et al., 2002; Terlaak and King, 2006; Clougherty and Grajek, 2008).
This research stream has shown that some organizations register
to comply with market expectations and regulatory requirements,
and to improve their locational advantage.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 8344 4713; fax: +61 3 9349 4293.
E-mail address: pjsingh@unimelb.edu.au (P.J. Singh).
0272-6963/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jom.2010.04.002
50
2. Literature review
2.1. Why organizations register to ISO 9000
Despite widespread popularity of the standard, there is still considerable debate regarding the primary driving forces of ongoing
adoption. Research that has addressed this issue can be grouped
into two categories: those that focus on internal justications,
and others that focus on external factors. Studies that are focused
internally are premised on the notion that the standard assists
organizations to improve their internal organizational processes
and performance (Adams, 1999; Benner and Tushman, 2002, 2003;
Boiral, 2003; Tzelepis et al., 2006; Benner and Veloso, 2008).
However, empirical evidence for this perspective is not all that compelling, with many studies showing that ISO 9000 based internal
management practices account for only modest levels of variance
in operating and other measures of performance (Terziovski et al.,
1997; Simmons and White, 1999; Lima et al., 2000; Rahman, 2001).
Further, questions have been raised as to why an organization
would go through the effort and expense of formal registration if
the motivation is limited only to internal process improvements
(Terlaak and King, 2006).
51
52
(clause 4.1, Note 3); top management team being responsible for
improvement of internal processes and the provision of resources
(clause 5.1(e)), commitment to improve quality processes through
planning (clause 5.4), review (clause 5.6), policy (clause 5.3) and
internal communications (clause 5.5.3); resources to be provided to
enhance the competence and skills of employees through training
and education (clauses 6.2.1 and 6.2.2), and improve the infrastructure and work environment (clauses 6.3 and 6.4); and, proper
measurement, analysis and audit procedures to be established to
improve processes (clause 8.2.3).
Fifth, RDT suggests that there are some sociallegal apparatus
(Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978, p. 2) that dene and control the nature
and limits of the relationship between an organization and players
in its environment. The ISO 9000 standard could be viewed as one
such apparatus, given the prescriptive nature of some of its clauses.
Such an apparatus has the function of providing boundaries within
which trading partners can operate. These boundaries are informally dened by the nature of the resources being exchanged, but
even long-term trading partners require some form of contractual
denition of the limits of their relationship. ISO 9000 performs this
role in dening the nature and limits of the interactions that are
appropriate to meet the requirements of the standard (e.g., clauses
7.4 and 8.2.1).
Sixth, Pfeffer and Salancik (1978, p. 193) state that: . . .because
organizations are only components of a larger social system and
depend upon that systems support for continuing existence, organizations goals and activities must be legitimate or of worth to
that larger social system. ISO 9000 could be used as a source of
legitimacy by organizations in a form suggested by Sherer and
Lee (2002), that is, an accepted way of doing things with a technical rationale. Evidence of this legitimacy to society is provided by
the rapid uptake of the standard since its inception, and by the fact
that in economies where it has been established for long periods, it
has assumed the status of an order qualier, or a basic condition
that must be met in order to do business.
Seventh, RDT propounds that organizations engage with their
environment by adapting to it, changing the environment to suit
their circumstances (the enacted environment), or doing both.
ISO 9000 could assist organizations in achieving these outcomes
either as a result of the value that trading partners (both current and potential) place on achieving certication (adaptation), or
through developing closer collaborations with other organizations
(changing the environment). The speed with which the standard
has been adopted and recognized provides evidence of ISO 9000
facilitating adaptation. Further, the incorporation of collaborative
frameworks into the standard has been the result of an acknowledgement that processes are not just cross-functional, but also
cross-organizational. The formal recognition of this in the standard is evidence of a perceived need to better manage (at least)
the task environment through initiating change. As such, ISO 9000
is pro-active in providing frameworks for adaptation and change
consistent with the principles of RDT.
From the examples above, we believe that there is a good t
between the phenomenon under study (ISO 9000) and the theory
chosen for analysis (RDT).
2.3. Effectiveness of ISO 9000
RDT denes effectiveness as how well an organization is able
to manage the demands placed on it by interest groups who
provide resources and support to it (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978).
As such, effectiveness is externally assessed. In the case of ISO
9000, its externally based effectiveness could be assessed through
the signaling effect generated by registration, i.e., an organization achieving registration status would be an indication of the
standards effectiveness for that organization. However, organiza-
53
standard has declared customer focus as one of its key principles, stating that organizations depend on their customers and
therefore should understand current and future customer needs,
should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer
expectations (clause 4.3(a), Customer focus, ISO 9004:2000). An
important objective of the standard is to give customers an assurance about the quality of products or services supplied (Carr
et al., 1997). In pursuit of this, organizations need processes
to produce products/services speedily and consistently to meet
customer expectations (Naveh et al., 2004). A well-designed, wellimplemented and carefully managed ISO 9000 quality management
system provides condence to implementing organizations that
the output of its processes meets customer expectations and
requirements (Johnson, 1997). In practice, this requires organizations to carefully and systematically determine customer
requirements (Karapetrovic and Willborn, 2001; Terziovski et al.,
2003) so that mistakes are not made in interpreting them (clause
7.2, contract review process, ISO 9000:2000). Should mistakes
occur, organizations must have appropriate processes for resolution. A continuous review and re-design of processes to meet the
changing requirements of customers can therefore be facilitated by
implementation of the ISO 9000 standard. The standard therefore
can serve as a formal mechanism for dependencies to be formed
between an organization and its customers through creating legitimacy, promoting stability of demand, and creation of resource
based linkages (i.e., the supplying organization becomes a resource
of choice).
Further, there is evidence that integrating internal processes and
customer interfacing activities can have a positive impact on operating performance (Frohlich and Westbrook, 2001; Vickery et al.,
2003). The explanation can be found in examples such as: access
to point of sale (POS) and other relevant customer data facilitating better capacity planning and scheduling (Cagliano et al., 2003);
delivery performance being facilitated by systems enabling customers to congure and specify product features (Stewart and
OBrien, 2005); and the relationship between lead time reduction
and the availability of unambiguous demand data (De Treville et al.,
2004). At a practical level, clearly specied contracts allow the
operations function to develop more efcient and effective produc-
54
55
Table 1
Assessment of extent of bias of sample based on industry sub-categories of the manufacturing organizations.
Manufacturing sector
Proportion of manufacturing
organizations in the country in
20042005 (Australian Bureau
of Statistics, 2006), N = 131,183
(%)
Proportion of
plants listed in the
JAS-ANZ Register
(2004), N = 7418 (%)
Proportion of
plants in samplea ,
N = 1053 (%)
Actual responding
plants N = 416 (%)
6.5
11.5
7.5
11.9
5.9
4.3
16.9
20.2
15.2
100
9
3
5
6
15
10
19
30
2
100
10
3
8
8
13
9
17
26
6
100
8
4
2
5
6
2
26
9
30
6
3
101b
a
Some plants provided a number of ANZSIC codes, indicating that they were engaged in several types of activities. The descriptions of these plants were reviewed and
they were categorized based on their main manufacturing activity.
b
Total exceeds 100 due to rounding errors.
Table 2
Demographic characteristics of plants participating in the study.
Characteristic
Plant size
Micro to small (less than 100 employees or less than
$Aus10m in revenue p.a.)
Medium to large (greater than 100 employees or greater
than $ Aus10m in revenue p.a.)
Time since registration to standard
Less than 3 years
Greater than 3 years
Number
224
192
239
177
56
Table 3
ISO 9000 key management practice and performance constructs.
Constructs
Description of constructs
Supporting literature
Internal processes
Operating performance
57
Table 4
Summary of reliability and convergent validity tests.
Construct
Number of items
Cronbachs alpha
reliability
coefcient
Construct
reliability
coefcient
Normed t index
(NFI)
Non-normed t
index (NNFI)
1. Internal processes
2. Relationships with customers
3. Relationships with suppliers
4. Operating performance
8
4
4
6
0.829
0.679
0.655
0.767
0.835
0.694
0.668
0.774
0.894
0.954
0.917
0.870
0.911
0.961
0.923
0.882
measuring the same entity) exists is high (Hair et al., 2006). As none
of the correlation coefcients is greater than 0.9, multicollinearity
does not appear to be present.
3.4.5. Reliability
Two estimates of reliability were obtained alpha reliability
coefcients (Cronbach, 1951) and construct reliability coefcients
(Hair et al., 2006, p. 777) for all four constructs. Table 4 shows that
the coefcients range from 0.655 to 0.835. These exceed the minimum threshold level of 0.6 for acceptable reliability for newly
developed constructs (Nunnally, 1978). Therefore, the selected
items reliably estimated the constructs.
3.4.6. Convergent and discriminant validity
Convergent validity (i.e., items assigned to a construct contribute roughly equally to the constructs measurement) and
discriminant validity (i.e., items only estimate the construct to
which they are assigned and not any others) were both primarily
assessed using the CFA model testing approach. Having concluded
earlier that the revised CFA model generally had adequate empirical support, we then carried out an assessment of the convergent
and discriminant validities.
The convergent validity of the constructs was generally supported by the estimated factor loadings of items on constructs. All of
the standardized loadings were greater than 0.5, statistically significant (at p-values <0.001) and positive in sign. Another assessment
of convergent validity was obtained through SEM goodness-of-t
measures called the normed t index (NFI) and non-normed t
index (NNFI) (Ahire et al., 1996) obtained from testing each construct as a one-factor congeneric model (Joreskog, 1971). These
t indices measure the proportion of improvement of the overall t of the theoretical model relative to a null model. Table 4
shows that the NFI ranged from 0.870 to 0.954 and for NNFI, from
0.882 to 0.961. These values suggest that the one-factor congeneric
models were signicantly better than their respective null models,
thereby suggesting adequate levels of convergent validity for all of
the constructs.
Discriminant validity was tested in three separate ways. The
rst method involved inspection of correlations between the constructs. From the CFA model results shown in Table 5, it can be seen
that these correlations were mostly moderate, ranging from +0.629
to +0.790. According to Kline (2005, p. 60), if correlations between
factors in a CFA model are not excessively high (e.g., >0.90), then it
is unlikely that items assigned to one construct are loading signi-
cantly highly on others. In our case, all the factor correlations were
well below 0.90, suggesting that all items were unidimensional
(i.e., items collectively estimated one single construct) and that
there was unlikely to be a problem associated with discriminant
validity. The second method for assessing discriminant validity
involved the examination of chi-square difference between all pairs
of constructs. Anderson and Gerbing (1988) suggest testing two CFA
models for each pair of constructs. The rst model is where the correlation coefcient is constrained to 1.0, and the second is free to
estimate. If the difference in chi-square values between these models is signicant, then both constructs possess discriminant validity.
As can be seen from Table 5, all chi-square differences were significant at p-value of 0.000. Therefore all constructs were distinct and
possessed discriminant validity. The third way in which discriminant validity was assessed was by comparing the average variance
extracted (AVE) with the shared variance (i.e., square of the correlation) between each pair of constructs. According to Fornell and
Larcker (1981), if the AVE values for both constructs that make up
the pair are higher than the shared variance, then this indicates that
these constructs account for a greater proportion of the variances of
the items that are assigned to them. The variances accounted by the
construct to which the items are not assigned are proportionately
less. Table 5 shows that most of the constructs have AVE values that
are lower than the square of the correlation coefcients. It would
appear that according to this measure, the items do not provide
all the constructs with strong levels of discriminant validity. To
improve this measure of discriminant validity, we followed some
of the procedures suggested by Farrell (2009). This involved examining the modication indices to see if there were any suggested
relationships for improving model-data t. However, as none of
the suggested modications for improved model-data t could be
explained theoretically, no modication was implemented.
The rst two methods provide evidence for discriminant validity whilst the third does not suggest strong support. This is not
uncommon, as studies have shown that it is possible to obtain
inconsistent outcomes depending on how discriminant validity
is measured (Farrell, 2009; Schriesheim and Cogliser, 2009; Shi
et al., 2009). For example, Shi et al. (2009) found in their study
that one of the four methods for testing discriminant validity did
not provide positive support. Similar to Shi et al. (2009), on balance, since two of the three tests were positive, we conclude
that the constructs have reasonable levels of discriminant validities. Furthermore, we have interpreted the results of our study
cautiously.
Table 5
Results for discriminant validity tests.
Construct
Percentage
variance
extracted
Correlation
coefcient
Construct
Construct
1
1. Internal processes
2. Relationships with customers
3. Relationships with suppliers
4. Operating performance
38.9
36.7
33.7
36.6
1
0.703
0.788
0.616
2
1
0.790
0.629
1
0.696
71.1 (p = 0)
33.7 (p = 0)
214.7 (p = 0)
23.7 (p = 0)
105.5 (p = 0)
65.3 (p = 0)
58
would have answered the questionnaire differently from responding organizations. The two approaches independently suggested
that non-response bias was low.
This section has shown that the constructs had been well
measured. Generally, the constructs and their items had sound psychometric properties, i.e., errors were within tolerable range and
levels of reliability and validity were higher than conventionally
acceptable in most cases.
4. Results
1
To further conrm this result, a 2 difference test can be used whereby the 2
value for the hypothesized model is compared to CFA model (Anderson and Gerbing,
1988). However, in our case, the CFA and the hypothesized model had the same
numbers of parameters. Hence, this 2 difference test could not be meaningfully
performed.
59
Fig. 2. Theoretical model, showing maximum likelihood estimates of standardized regression coefcients (on straight lines single-arrowheads), squared multiple correlation
coefcients (on constructs) and correlation coefcients (on curved lines with double-arrowheads).
0.05 < p-value 0.1; **0.01 < p-value 0.05; ***p-value 0.01.
Table 6
Effects decomposition of paths in the hypothesized model.
Exogenous construct:
Direct effect
Indirect effect
Total effect
0.212
0.620
0.490
0.167
0.702
0.787
0.182
0.443
0.139
0.447
0.253
0.629
0.696
0.139
60
resolution of the theorys application. RDT is generally silent on specic tools and methods that organizations can use for their resource
acquisitions purposes, with previous empirical studies focusing on
macro-level actions such as mergers and acquisitions (Finkelstein,
1997) and strategic alliances (Gulati and Gargiulo, 1999). This has
been a source of frustration for some (Barringer and Harrison, 2000;
Pfeffer, 2005). In this study, we have shown that RDT can be applied
to explain a management tool that operates at a micro-level. In
doing so, we have shown that RDT can be invoked at a fairly base
operational level. We have shown that RDT can be used to analyze
reasonably ne-grained phenomena.
5.3. Implications for practice
Our results suggest that managers must be careful when evaluating the utility value of the standard. If managers evaluate ISO 9000
on its direct and immediate impact on bottom line performance,
then the standard could be considered as being ineffectual. Our
results show that the impact of internal organizational processes
that are based on ISO 9000 principles on operating performance is
not signicant. Likewise, the customer and, to some extent, supplier
relationship aspects of the standard do not signicantly impact
operating performance. If managers view these in isolation, they
could conclude that the standard is not all that useful, and decide
to discontinue their registration status. In plants where registration is being considered, they may even decide to stop the process.
We recommend that managers adopt a more holistic, integrated
perspective of the standard. The effects analysis (Table 6) indicates
that different elements of the standard work through indirect pathways. Thus, managers should view the standard as a total package,
with some parts that are strong and others that play supporting
roles. When a holistic and integrated view is taken, the consequent
benets in improvements to operating performance will become
more apparent.
At the detailed level of application, our results show that the
standard can enable organizations to develop procedures for stable
internal processes as well as better coordination with customers
and suppliers. As such, the standard can be regarded as robust and
proven pre-packaged tool that relieves managers from creating and
implementing these processes and systems from scratch.
6. Conclusions and future research
This study attempts to provide a stronger theoretical basis for
the registration and operation of the ISO 900 standard. As the standard focuses on internal processes and coordination with external
stakeholders, we invoked RDT to explain the dual function of the
standard. Our model and results suggest that RDT presents an
appropriate organizationenvironment boundary spanning perspective of how the standard operates. Similar to that in Sroufe
and Curkivoc (2008), our results suggest that ISO 9000 is a tool
that organizations use for managing issues in their organizational
environment.
This study has several limitations that could be opportunities
for future research. First, this study is based on an empirical setting consisting of mostly micro and small Australian manufacturing
plants that are registered to the standard. Whilst it is possible to
generalize the ndings of this study to a greater population of Australian manufacturing companies, we are unable to establish if our
ndings can nd applicability in other countries, industries, and
organization sizes. Future studies could take a wider domain to
improve generalizability of the results. Second, perceptual measures were used for all variables. Whilst strong justications for
this approach was provided, and a common methods test showed
that bias was unlikely to be present, nonetheless, objective perfor-
61
2
For items of constructs 1, 2 and 3, survey respondents were asked to express their
agreement with statements on a ve point scale, with 1 representing strongly agree
and 5 representing strongly disagree. For items of construct 4, survey respondents
were asked to express the satisfaction of the organizations with various measures
of performance using a ve point scale, with 1 representing very satisfactory and
5 representing very dissatisfactory.
62
Operating performance
IOP1
IOP2
IOP3
IOP4
IOP5
IOP6
IOP7
IOP8
IOP9
RC1
RC2
RC3
RC4*
IOP1
IOP2
IOP3
IOP4
IOP5
IOP6
IOP7
IOP8
IOP9
RC1
RC2
RC3
RC4
RC5
RC6
RS1
RS2
RS3
RS4
RS5
OP1
OP2
OP3
OP4
OP5
OP6
OP7
1
0.359**
0.373**
0.267**
0.380**
0.491**
0.454**
0.365**
0.238**
0.242**
0.303**
0.280**
0.460**
0.237**
0.093
0.342**
0.278**
0.304**
0.337**
0.201**
0.237**
0.298**
0.298**
0.265**
0.297**
0.181**
0.246**
1
0.572**
0.412**
0.334**
0.388**
0.425**
0.302**
0.291**
0.291**
0.221**
0.275**
0.326**
0.184**
0.122*
0.239**
0.239**
0.267**
0.239**
0.105*
0.192**
0.179**
0.299**
0.255**
0.232**
0.185**
0.178**
1
0.422**
0.335**
0.428**
0.481**
0.402**
0.274**
0.191**
0.184**
0.161**
0.283**
0.251**
0.09
0.239**
0.234**
0.134**
0.274**
0.168**
0.188**
0.177**
0.297**
0.273**
0.282**
0.130**
0.179**
1
0.486**
0.298**
0.389**
0.351**
0.273**
0.161**
0.222**
0.176**
0.223**
0.282**
0.051
0.288**
0.111*
0.126*
0.263**
0.108*
0.193**
0.075
0.201**
0.130**
0.185**
0.091
0.111*
1
0.306**
0.300**
0.344**
0.200**
0.183**
0.375**
0.282**
0.374**
0.250**
0.123*
0.339**
0.234**
0.242**
0.295**
0.08
0.272**
0.179**
0.198**
0.167**
0.201**
0.094
0.174**
1
0.497**
0.358**
0.248**
0.273**
0.227**
0.235**
0.393**
0.156**
0.125*
0.353**
0.331**
0.263**
0.397**
0.240**
0.278**
0.232**
0.337**
0.223**
0.266**
0.201**
0.247**
1
0.320**
0.263**
0.319**
0.328**
0.330**
0.298**
0.183**
0.120*
0.305**
0.320**
0.326**
0.437**
0.246**
0.229**
0.278**
0.342**
0.280**
0.314**
0.164**
0.274**
1
0.443**
0.200**
0.200**
0.282**
0.265**
0.224**
0.092
0.325**
0.193**
0.231**
0.325**
0.169**
0.201**
0.232**
0.304**
0.172**
0.185**
0.046
0.223**
1
0.150**
0.205**
0.167**
0.166**
0.227**
0.07
0.132**
0.123*
0.181**
0.225**
0.118*
0.140**
0.229**
0.193**
0.179**
0.140**
0.059
0.172**
1
0.500**
0.351**
0.281**
0.235**
0.074
0.174**
0.290**
0.279**
0.288**
0.117*
0.204**
0.179**
0.254**
0.186**
0.233**
0.120*
0.235**
1
0.398**
0.260**
0.302**
0.124*
0.253**
0.303**
0.290**
0.305**
0.129**
0.236**
0.237**
0.258**
0.224**
0.299**
0.139**
0.227**
1
0.352**
0.305**
0.224**
0.177**
0.278**
0.445**
0.286**
0.135**
0.189**
0.299**
0.309**
0.213**
0.291**
0.045
0.197**
1
0.212**
0.230**
0.376**
0.230**
0.314**
0.280**
0.123*
0.139**
0.278**
0.274**
0.145**
0.160**
0.099*
0.208**
2.12
0.701
0.715
1.221
1.86
0.631
0.694
1.818
1.76
0.582
0.606
2.733
1.76
0.594
0.827
3.951
2.15
0.798
0.775
1.059
1.91
0.639
0.690
1.707
1.84
0.599
0.550
2.216
1.95
0.759
0.987
1.744
1.96
0.781
0.899
1.271
1.72
0.614
0.634
1.319
2.06
0.783
0.896
1.381
2.17
0.888
1.158
3.411
2.16
0.831
0.876
0.923
Descriptive statistics
Mean
Std. dev.
Skewness
Kurtosis
RC5
1
0.032
0.123*
0.036
0.095
0.233**
0.126*
0.056
0.06
0.106*
0.064
0.193**
0.054
0.063
RC6
RS1
RS2
RS3
RS4
RS5
OP1
OP2
OP3
OP4
OP5
OP6
OP7
1
0.108*
0.012
0.198**
0.133**
-0.016
0.066
0.161**
0.140**
0.063
0.079
0.002
0.190**
1
0.318**
0.233**
0.485**
0.176**
0.109*
0.172**
0.220**
0.174**
0.221**
0.043
0.141**
1
0.198**
0.361**
0.163**
0.231**
0.248**
0.246**
0.241**
0.263**
0.205**
0.243**
1
0.318**
0.247**
0.196**
0.341**
0.325**
0.257**
0.181**
0.119*
0.296**
1
0.254**
0.214**
0.303**
0.336**
0.282**
0.323**
0.101*
0.263**
1
0.135**
0.153**
0.248**
0.057
0.037
0.121*
0.158**
1
0.260**
0.281**
0.352**
0.352**
0.306**
0.334**
1
0.554**
0.375**
0.255**
0.184**
0.487**
1
0.352**
0.333**
0.186**
0.385**
1
0.489**
0.283**
0.357**
1
0.305**
0.278**
1
0.339**
1.74
0.684
0.864
0.942
2.54
0.996
0.476
0.353
1.89
0.748
0.804
1.047
2.25
0.994
0.666
0.05
2.25
0.775
0.88
1.212
1.87
0.666
0.837
2.151
2.18
0.921
0.857
0.554
2.34
0.860
0.778
0.077
2.21
0.871
0.79
0.688
1.82
0.587
0.414
1.375
2.21
0.823
0.761
0.505
2.06
0.798
0.916
1.145
2.48
0.875
0.547
0.138
2.46
0.883
0.534
0.126
**
Item
References
Adams, M., 1999. Determinants of ISO accreditation in the New Zealand manufacturing sector. Omega, The International Journal of Management Science 27,
285292.
Ahire, S.L., Golhar, D.Y., Waller, M.A., 1996. Development and validation of TQM
implementation constructs. Decision Sciences 27 (1), 2356.
Anderson, J.C., Gerbing, D.W., 1988. Structural equation modeling in practice: a
review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin 103 (3),
411423.
Anderson, S.W., Daly, J.D., Johnson, M.F., 1999. Why rms seek ISO 9000 certication:
regulatory compliance or competitive advantage? Production and Operations
Management 8 (1), 2843.
Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006. Manufacturing Industry: Australia 200405,
Report Number: 8155.0 (Publication date/accessed: 21 December 2006).
Badri, M.A., Davis, D., Davis, D., 2000. Operations strategy, environment uncertainty
and performance: a path analytic model of industries in developing countries.
Omega, The International Journal of Management Science 28, 155173.
Barringer, B.R., Harrison, J.S., 2000. Walking a tightrope: creating value through
interorganizational relationships. Journal of Management 26 (3), 367403.
Benner, M.J., Tushman, M., 2002. Process management and technological innovation:
a longitudinal study of the photography and paint industries. Administrative
Science Quarterly 47, 676706.
Benner, M.J., Tushman, M., 2003. Exploitation, exploration, and process management: the productivity dilemma revisited. Academy of Management Review 28
(2), 238256.
Benner, M.J., Veloso, F.M., 2008. ISO 9000 practices and nancial performance: a
technology coherence perspective. Journal of Operations Management 26 (5),
611629.
Boiral, O., 2003. ISO 9000: outside the iron cage. Organization Science 14 (6),
720737.
Boiral, O., Roy, M.-J., 2007. ISO 9000: integration rationales and organizational
impacts. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 27 (2),
2007.
Bollen, K.A., 1989. Structural Equations with Latent Variables. Wiley, New York.
Bollen, K.A., Long, J.S., 1993. Introduction. In: Bollen, K.A., Long, J.S. (Eds.), Testing
Structural Equation Models. SAGE Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
Bourgeois, L.J., 1980. Strategy and environment: a conceptual integration. Academy
of Management Review 5 (1), 2539.
Boyd, B.K., Dess, G.G., Rasheed, A.M.A., 1993. Divergence between archival and perceptual measures of the environment: causes and consequences. Academy of
Management Review 18 (2), 204226.
Buttle, F., 1997. ISO 9000: marketing motivations and benets. International Journal
of Quality and Reliability Management 14 (9), 936947.
Byrne, B.M., 1994. Testing for the factorial validity, replication, and invariance of
a measuring instrument: a paradigmatic application based on the Maslach
burnout inventory. Multivariate Behavioral Research 29 (3), 289311.
Cagliano, R., Caniato, F., Spina, G., 2003. E-business strategy: how companies are
shaping their supply chains through the Internet. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 23 (10), 11421162.
Cannon, A.R., St John, C., 2007. Measuring organizational complexity: a theoretical
and empirical assessment. Organizational Research Methods 10 (2), 296321.
Carr, S., Mak, Y.T., Needham, J.E., 1997. Differences in strategy, quality management
practices and performance reporting systems between ISO accredited and nonISO accredited companies. Management Accounting Research 8 (4), 383403.
Chou, C.P., Bentler, P.M., 1995. Estimates and tests in structural equation modeling. In: Hoyle, R.H. (Ed.), Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues, and
Applications. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 3755.
Clements, R.B., 1993. Quality Managers Complete Guide to ISO 9000. Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Clougherty, J.A., Grajek, M., 2008. The impact of ISO 9000 diffusion on trade and
FDI: a new institutional analysis. Journal of International Business Studies 39,
613633.
Coase, R.H., 1937. The nature of the rm. Economica 4 (16), 368405.
Conti, T., 1999. Vision 2000: positioning the new ISO 9000 standards with respect to
total quality management models. Total Quality Management 10 (4/5), 454464.
Conti, T., 2004. How to conceptually harmonize ISO 9000 certication, levels of excellence recognition and real improvement. Total Quality Management 15 (56),
665677.
Corbett, C.J., Kirsch, D.A., 2001. International diffusion of ISO 14000 certication.
Production and Operations Management 10 (3), 327342.
Corbett, C.J., Montes-Sancho, M.J., Kirsch, D.A., 2005. The nancial impact of ISO
9000 certication in the US: an empirical analysis. Management Science 51 (7),
10461059.
Cronbach, L.J., 1951. Coefcient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 16 (3), 297334.
De Treville, S., Shapiro, R.D., Hameri, A.P., 2004. From supply chain to demand chain:
the role of lead time reduction in improving demand chain performance. Journal
of Operations Management 21 (6.), 613627.
Dess, G.G., Beard, D.W., 1984. Dimensions of organizational task environments.
Administrative Science Quarterly 29 (4), 655688.
Dill, W.R., 1958. Environment as an inuence on managerial autonomy. Administrative Science Quarterly 2, 409443.
DiMaggio, P.J., Powell, W.W., 1983. The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational elds. American Sociological
Review 48, 147160.
63
Doty, D.H., Bhattacharya, M., Wheatley, K.K., Sutcliffe, K.M., 2006. Divergence
between informant and archival measures of the environment: real differences, artifact, or perceptual error? Journal of Business Research 59,
268277.
Douglas, T.J., Fredendall, L.D., 2004. Evaluating the Deming management model of
total quality in services. Decision Sciences 35 (3), 393422.
Emerson, R.M., 1962. Power-dependence relations. American Sociological Review
27, 3141.
Farrell, A.M., 2009. Insufcient discriminant validity: a comment on
Bove, Pervan, Beatty, and Shiu (2009). Journal of Business Research,
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.05.003.
Finkelstein, S., 1997. Interindustry merger patterns and resource dependence: a
replication and extension of Pfeffer 1972. Strategic Management Journal 18,
787810.
Flynn, B., Sakakibara, S., Schroeder, R.G., Bates, K.A., Flynn, E.J., 1990. Empirical
research methods in operations management. Journal of Operations Management 9 (2), 250284.
Fornell, C., Larcker, D.F., 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research XVIII,
3950.
Frishammar, J., 2006. Organizational environment revisited: a conceptual review
and integration. International Studies of Management and Organization 36 (3),
2249.
Frohlich, M.T., 2002. e-Integration in the supply chain: barriers and performance.
Decision Sciences 33 (4), 537556.
Frohlich, M.T., Westbrook, J.D., 2001. Arcs of integration: an international study of
supply chain strategies. Journal of Operations Management 19, 185200.
Fuentes-Fuentes, M., Albacete-Saez, C., Llorens-Montes, F., 2004. The impact of environmental characteristics on TQM principles and organizational performance.
Omega 32, 425442.
Gulati, R., Gargiulo, M., 1999. Where do interorganizational networks come from?
American Journal of Sociology 104, 14391493.
Guler, I., Guillen, M., Macpherson, J., 2002. Global competition, institutions, and the
diffusion of organizational practices: the international spread of ISO 9000 quality
certicates. Administrative Science Quarterly 47 (2), 207233.
Gupta, Y.P., Somers, T.M., 1996. Business strategy, manufacturing exibility, and
organizational performance relationships: a path analysis approach. Production
and Operations Management 5 (3), 204233.
Hair Jr., J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., 2006. Multivariate
Data Analysis, 5th ed. Pearson Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.
Handeld, B.R., 1993. A resource dependence perspective of Just-in-Time purchasing. Journal of Operations Management 11, 289311.
Hannan, M.T., Freeman, J., 1977. The population ecology of organizations. American
Journal of Sociology 82, 929964.
Heide, J.B., 1994. Interorganizational governance in marketing channels. Journal of
Marketing 58, 7185.
Hill, T.J., 2000. Manufacturing Strategy: Texts and Cases, 3rd ed. Irwin, Homewood,
IL.
Hoyle, D., 1998. ISO 9000 Quality Systems Handbook. Butterworth Heinemann,
Oxford.
Hu, I.T., Bentler, P.M., 1995. Evaluating model t. In: Hoyle, R.H. (Ed.), Structural
Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues and Applications. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 7699.
Hu, I.T., Bentler, P.M., 1999. Cutoff criteria for t indexes in covariance structure
analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation
Modeling 3, 155.
Hult, G.T.M., Ketchen, D.J., Nichols, E.L., 2002. An examination of cultural competitiveness and order fullment cycle time with supply chains. Academy of
Management Journal 45 (3), 577586.
International Organization for Standardization, 2008. The ISO Survey of Certications 2006 (Date accessed: August 2008) http://www.iso.org.
ISO 9001, 2000. ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management SystemsRequirements, Standards Australia, Homebush, NSW.
ISO 9004, 2000. ISO 9004:2000 Quality Management SystemsGuidance for Performance Improvement, Standards Australia, Homebush, NSW.
Johnson, P.J., 1997. Meeting the International Standards, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, New
York.
Joreskog, K.G., 1971. Statistical analysis of sets of congeneric tests. Psychometrika
36 (2), 109133.
Joreskog, K.G., 1998. Interaction and nonlinear modeling: issues and approaches. In:
Schumacker, R.E., Marcoulides, G.A. (Eds.), Intereation and Nonlinear Effects in
Structural Equation Modeling. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 239299.
Juttner, U., 2007. Demand chain management-integrating marketing and supply
chain management. Industrial Marketing Management 36 (3), 377392.
Kano, N., 1984. Attractive quality and must-be quality. The Journal of the Japanese
Society for Quality Control (April), 3948.
Karapetrovic, S., Willborn, W., 2001. ISO 9000 quality management standards and
nancial investment services. The Service Industries Journal 21 (2), 117136.
Kaufmann, L., Carter, C.R., 2002. International supply management systemsthe
impact of price vs. non-price driven motives in the United States and Germany.
Journal of Supply Chain Management 38 (3), 417.
Kirchenstein, J.J., Blake, R., 1999. Using ISO 9000 and the European quality award
approach to improve competitiveness. In: Stahl, M.J. (Ed.), Perspectives in Total
Quality. Blackwell, Malden, Mass, pp. 343370.
Kline, R.B., 2005. Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling, 2nd ed.
Guilford Press, New York.
64
Lima, M.A.M., Resende, M., Hasenclever, L., 2000. Quality certication and performance of Brazilian rms: an empirical study. International Journal of Production
Economics 66, 143147.
Malhotra, M.K., Grover, V., 1998. An assessment of survey research in POM: from
constructs to theory. Journal of Operations Management 16 (4), 407425.
Mardia, K.V., 1970. Measures of multivariate skewness and kurtosis with applications. Biometrika 36, 519530.
Marsh, H.W., Hau, K.T., Wen, Z., 2004. In search of golden rules: comment on
hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for t indexes and dangers on overgeneralizing Hu and Bentlers (1999) ndings. Structural Equation
Modeling 11 (3), 320341.
McAdam, R., McKeown, M., 1999. Life after ISO 9000: an analysis of the impact of
ISO 9000 and total quality management on small businesses in Northern Ireland.
Total Quality Management 10 (2), 229241.
Meredith, J., 1995. What is empirical research? Decision Line 26 (2), 1011.
Muthen, B., Kaplan, D., 1985. A comparison of some methodologies for the factor analysis of non-normal Likert variables. British Journal of Mathematical &
Statistical Psychology 38 (2), 171189.
Naveh, E., Erez, M., 2004. Innovation and attention to detail in the quality improvement paradigm. Management Science 50 (11), 15761586.
Naveh, E., Marcus, A., 2004. When does the ISO 9000 quality assurance standard
lead to performance improvement? Assimilation and going beyond. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 51 (3), 352363.
Naveh, E., Marcus, A., 2005. Achieving competitive advantage through implementing
a replicable management standard: installing and using ISO 9000. Journal of
Operations Management 24 (1), 126.
Naveh, E., Marcus, A., Hyoung, K.M., 2004. Implementing ISO 9000: performance
improvement by rst and second movers. International Journal of Production
Research 42 (9), 18431863.
Nunnally, J.C., 1978. Psychometric Theory, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Ory, D.T., Mokhtarian, 2009. Modeling the structural relationships among shortdistance travel amounts, perceptions, affections, and desires. Transportation
Research Part A 43, 2643.
Paulraj, A., Chen, I.J., 2007. Environmental uncertainty and strategic supply management: a resource dependence perspective and performance implications. The
Journal of Supply Chain Management Summer, 2942.
Pfeffer, J., 2005. Developing resource dependence theory: how theory is affected by
its environment. In: Smith, K.G., Hitt, M.A. (Eds.), Great Minds in Management:
The Process of Theory Development. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp.
436459.
Pfeffer, J., Salancik, G.R., 1978. The External Control of Organizations: A Resource
Dependence Perspective. Harper & Row, New York.
Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Lee, J.-Y., Podsakoff, N.P., 2003. Common method
biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology 88 (5), 879903.
Porter, M.E., 1980. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and
Competitors. The Free Press, New York.
Prescott, J.E., 1986. Environments as moderators of the relationship between strategy and performance. Academy of Management Journal 29 (2), 329346.
Rahman, S., 2001. A comparative study of TQM practice and organisational performance with and without ISO 9000 certication. International Journal of Quality
and Reliability Management 18 (1), 3549.
Rigdon, E.E., Schumacker, R.E., Wothke, W., 1998. A comparative review of interaction and nonlinear modeling. In: Schmacker, R.E., Marcoulides, G.A. (Eds.),
Interaction and Nonlinear Effects in Structural Equation Modeling. Erlbaum,
Mahwah, NJ, pp. 116.
Rossetti, C., 2008. Supply management under high goal incongruence: an empirical examination of disintermediation in the aerospace supply chain. Decision
Sciences 39 (3), 507540.
Schermelleh-Engel, K., Moosbrugger, H., Muller, H., 2003. Evaluating the t of structural equation models: tests of signicance and descriptive goodness-of-t
measures. Methods of Psychological Research Online 8 (2), 2374.
Schreiber, J.B., Stage, F.K., King, J., Nora, A., Barlow, E.A., 2006. Reporting structural
equation modeling and conrmatory factor analysis results: a review. The Journal of Educational Research 99 (6), 323337.
Schriesheim, C.A., Cogliser, C.C., 2009. Construct validation in leadership research:
explication and illustration. The Leadership Quarterly 20, 725736.
Sharfman, M.P., Dean Jr., J.W., 1991. Conceptualizing and measuring the organizational environment: a multidimensional approach. Journal of Management 17
(4), 681700.
Sharma, S., Mukherjee, S., Kumar, A., Dillon, W.R., 2005. A simulation study to investigate the use of cutoff values for assessing model t in covariance structure
models. Journal of Business Research 58, 935943.
Sherer, P.D., Lee, K., 2002. Institutional change in large law rms: a resource dependency and institutional perspective. Academy of Management Journal 45 (1),
102119.
Shi, G., Shi, Y.-Z., Chan, A.K.K., Wang, Y., 2009. Relationship strength in service industries: a measurement model. International Journal of Market Research 51 (5),
659685.
Sia, C.-L., Teo, H.-H., Tan, B., Wei, K.-K., 2004. Effects of environmental uncertainty on
organizational intention to adopt distributed work arrangements. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 51 (3), 253267.
Sila, I., 2007. Examining the effects of contextual factors on TQM and performance
through the lens of organizational theories: an empirical study. Journal of Operations Management 25, 83109.
Simmons, B.L., White, M.A., 1999. The relationship between ISO 9000 and business
performance: does registration really matter? Journal of Managerial Issues XI
(3), 330343.
Sroufe, R., Curkivoc, S., 2008. An examination of ISO 9000: 2000 and supply chain
quality assurance. Journal of Operations Management 26 (4), 503520.
Standards Australia, 2004. Joint Accredited System-Australia and New Zealand (JASANZ) Register (Date accessed: October 2004) http://www.jas-anz.com.au.
Stewart, T.A., OBrien, L., 2005. Execution without excuses. Harvard Business Review
83 (3), 102111.
Tan, K.C., 2001. A structural equation model of new product design and development.
Decision Sciences 32 (2), 195226.
Tan, K.C., Handeld, R.B., Krause, D.R., 1998. Enhancing the rms performance
through quality and supply base management: an empirical study. International
Journal of Production Research 36 (10), 28132837.
Terlaak, A., King, A.A., 2006. The effect of certication with the ISO 9000 quality
management standard: a signaling approach. Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization 60, 579602.
Terziovski, M., Power, D., Sohal, A., 2003. The longitudinal effects of the ISO 9000
certication process on business performance. European Journal of Operations
Research 146, 580595.
Terziovski, M., Samson, D., Dow, D., 1997. The business value of quality management systems certication: evidence from Australia and New Zealand. Journal
of Operations Management 15 (1), 118.
Tsiotras, G., Gotzamani, K., 1996. ISO 9000 as an entry key to TQM: the case of Greek
industry. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management 13 (4),
6476.
Tummala, V.M.R., Tang, C.L., 1996. Strategic quality management, Malcolm Baldrige
and European quality awards and ISO 9000 certication: core concepts and comparative analysis. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management
13 (4), 838.
Tzelepis, D., Tsekouras, K., Skuras, D., Dimara, E., 2006. The effects of ISO 9001 on
rms productive efciency. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management 26 (10), 11461165.
Ulrich, D., Barney, J.B., 1984. Perspectives in organizations: resource dependence.
Efciency and Population. Academy of Management Review 9 (3), 471481.
Uzumeri, M.V., 1997. ISO 9000 and other metastandards: principles for management
practice? Academy of Management Executive 11 (1), 2136.
Venkatraman, N., Ramanujam, V., 1986. Measurement of business performance
in strategy research: a comparison of approaches. Academy of Management
Review 11 (4), 801815.
Vickery, S.K., Jayaram, J., Droge, C., Calantone, R., 2003. The effects of an integrative
supply chain strategy on customer service and nancial performance: an analysis of direct and indirect relationships. Journal of Operations Management 21,
523539.
Ward, P., Duray, R., Leong, G., Sum, C., 1995. Business environment, operations strategy, and performance: an empirical study of Singapore manufacturers. Journal
of Operations Management 13, 99115.
Ward, P.T., Duray, R., 2000. Manufacturing strategy in context: environment,
competitive strategy and manufacturing strategy. Journal of Operations Management 18, 123138.
Weick, K.E., 1979. The Social Psychology of Organizing. Addison-Wesley, Reading,
MA.
Williams, F., DSouza, D., Rosenfeldt, M., Kassaee, M., 1995. Manufacturing strategy, business strategy and rm performance in a mature industry. Journal of
Operations Management 13, 1933.
Williamson, O.E., 1975. Markets and Hierarchies. Free Press, New York.
Withers, B.E., Ebrahimpour, M., Hikmet, N., 1997. An exploration of the impact of
TQM and JIT on ISO 9000 registered companies. International Journal of Production Economics 53 (2), 209216.
Yeung, A.C.L., 2008. Strategic supply management, quality initiatives, and organizational performance. Journal of Operations Management 26 (4), 490502.