ISSN: 2658-8455

Volume 3, Issue 2-1 (2022), pp.83-99.

© Authors: CC BY-NC-ND

The Effect of ISO 9001 Certification on Financial Performance: A

Systematic Review

Sara MATRADI, (PhD Student)

Economics and Management Studies and Research Laboratory
Faculty of Law, Economic and Social Sciences
Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco.

Younes MOUNIR, (PhD, Professor)

Economics and Management Studies and Research Laboratory
Faculty of Law, Economic and Social Sciences
Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco.

Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences

Correspondence address :
Disclosure Statement :
Conflict of Interest :
PO Box 8658 Dakhla district
Ibn Zohr University
Morocco (Agadir)
0528 23 28 20
sara.matradi@edu.uiz.ac.ma
Authors are not aware of any findings that might be perceived as affecting
the objectivity of this study
The authors report no conflicts of interest.

MATRADI, S., & MOUNIR, Y. (2022). The Effect of ISO 9001

Cite this article : Certification on Financial Performance: A Systematic Review.
International Journal of Accounting, Finance, Auditing, Management and
Economics, 3(2-1), 83-99. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6399991

License This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license

Received: March 07, 2022 Published online : March 31, 2022

International Journal of Accounting, Finance, Auditing, Management and Economics - IJAFAME

ISSN: 2658-8455
Volume 3, Issue 2-1 (2022)
 Sara MATRADI & Younes MOUNIR. The effect of ISO 9001 certification on financial performance: A systematic review

The Effect of ISO 9001 Certification on Financial Performance: A

Systematic Review

Abstract
Due to the high cost of the certification, many decision-makers dwell on the gain of maintaining an
ISO 9001 as well as the financial benefits this certification will bring on their businesses. For this,
quality management systems (QMS) standards are obtaining a growing attention in management. As
such, many authors have investigated the advantages of implementing ISO 9001 and its effect on the
financial performance of companies.
Our research aims to ascertain the effect of ISO 9001 QMS certification on the financial performance
of the companies and to develop a research model on the relationship between the two components. To
obtain a better understanding, this study records various empirical research related to the two, namely,
ISO 9001 certification and firms' financial performance, in an attempt to ascertain the link between
them through a systematic literature review from 41 empirical studies done around different countries,
covering the period of 2000-2021.
The main findings about the impact of ISO 9001 certification on firms' financial performance are not
consistent. Some studies attempted to show the positive effects, some report neutral or mediated
impact, and many authors do not confirm it. However, many variables directly factor in the QMS of
the companies, and consequently indirectly affect their financial performance.
For further research, evaluating the financial cost of ISO certification can help to measure the real
financial impact and investigate if ISO registration can really yield financial gain.

Keywords: Quality Management Systems (QMS), ISO 9001 Certification, Financial Performance,
Systematic Literature Review.
JEL Classification: L15, L25
Paper type: Theoretical Research

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1. Introduction
Nowadays, all decision-makers recognize the importance of meeting consumers' requirements
and strive to be the first to earn their trust by constantly capturing new markets and ensuring
the long-term viability of their businesses. Therefore, the ISO 9001 standard was created to
address these issues. It is one of the most popular standards created by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help companies to achieve customer satisfaction,
focus on the most important areas of their business, and improve efficiency.
ISO 9001 is an international unified standard that sets the requirements for implementing
quality management system (QMS) that can be applied to all types of organizations regardless
of their size and activity field. According to the ISO survey, the number of certifications has
increased in the last decade. It reached around 1 217 972 towards the end of 2019, an increase
of 37 007 compared to the previous year. Therefore, it becomes evident to evaluate the
financial aspect of this certification and investigate if ISO registration can really bring about
financial gain to the companies.
ISO 9001 certification is considered a successful exercise for the majority of companies
(Boulter & Bendell, 2002). Goals towards ISO certification are multiple. This standard is used
by organizations to achieve benefits for themselves by satisfying the customer requirements
and expectations around the provided products or services. Some companies consider ISO
9001 certification as a solution for problems related to improving market shares, lowering
costs, costumer pressure, image improvement, etc., whereas others use the certification as a
process for continuous improvement.
The diffusion of the certification is determined by many variables. According to Taouab
(2016), the size of the companies, turbulence, pressure of the environment, strategy and the
implication of the employees, are all factors of contingency towards ISO 9001 certification.
Confirming this result, other studies consider other factors that lead to the diffusion of ISO
certification, like: employee involvement, the environment, competitive pressure, strategic
direction, and size (Boiral, 2003; Boulter & Bendell, 2002; Taylor & Wright, 2003).
QMS standards are obtaining a growing attention in management. As such, many authors
have investigated the advantages of implementing ISO 9001 and its effect on the financial
performance of companies. This topic remains unclear and undetermined (Neyestani &
Juanzon, 2017). Our research tries to highlight this ambiguous side through a systematic
literature review.
This paper is structured as follows. The first section is focused on the literature review of
relation between QMS and financial performance from 41 empirical studies done around
different countries, covering the period of 2000-2021. The second section is based on
presenting the used methodology. Finally, the results of this systematic literature review are
presented in the third and last section.
2. Literature review
More than one million organizations worldwide have implemented the ISO 9001 standard for
QMS and has received considerable attention in management research in the last years. As
mentioned above, It reached around 1 217 972 towards the end of 2019, an increase of 37 007
compared to the previous year. An acceptable number of scientific studies have been
published on the impact of quality management practices on financial performance. The
majority concludes that there is a positive relationship between the quality management
system implementation and the financial performance (Astrini, 2021; Ionașcu & al., 2017;
Jalil & al., 2017; Pantouvakis & Dimas, 2010; Wayhan & al., 2002).
Corbett & al. (2005) support the view that consistent and documented QMS improve
abnormally, and significantly firm's financial performance. These results are in line with

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 Sara MATRADI & Younes MOUNIR. The effect of ISO 9001 certification on financial performance: A systematic review

Novokmet & Rogošić (2017) who claimed that the maturity of QMS have a positive effect on
financial performance, and more clearly companies with mature quality management systems
have a better long-term financial outcome. In order to investigate various economic sectors in
Greece, Chatzoglou & al. (2015) proposed a conceptual framework integrating five factors:
quality awareness, operations execution, market share, customer satisfaction and sales
revenue. Results showed that adoption of ISO influence significantly to the overall financial
performance. Furthermore, ISO implementation significantly enhances operational and
market performance, which consequently improves the overall financial performance.
Some studies have also shown that the relationship between QMS and financial gain can
possibly be mediated by other variables such as firm size, age (Bogataj & Al., 2017; Häversjö,
2000; Hendricks & Singhal, 2001; McGuire & Dilts, 2008; Sampaio & al., 2012; Ullah & al.,
2014), time (Cândido & al., 2016), cost (Karim, 2015; Rusjan & Alič, 2010), flexibility and
innovation (Jalil & al., 2017), and strategic orientation (Dimara & al., 2004). As mentioned by
Chatzoglou & al. (2015), ISO implementation can be directly associated with significant
improvements in quality awareness, operation execution, market share, customer satisfaction
and sales revenue.
Although the majority of the aforementioned studies affirm the positive relationship between
ISO 9001 certification and financial performance, a considerable proportion of scholars fail to
find enough evidence to maintain such a relationship (Islam & al., 2016; Martínez‐Costa &
Martínez‐Lorente, 2007; McGuire & Dilts, 2008).
Nevertheless, Islam & al. (2015) and Zondo (2018) find no significant direct relationship
between ISO 9001 certification and organizational financial performance. Therefore,
Tsekouras & al. (2002) and Wayhan & al. (2002) suggest that the ISO 9001 registration does
not necessarily improve financial ratios in the short term. It is considered beneficial only in
the long term. While Karim (2015) mentions that firms' financial performance must not only
revolve around ISO certification as many other variables influence it.
It appears that there is a great disagreement among scholars. Karim (2015) considers it
important to discuss the different issues from previous research. He claims that deliberating
the various results will help establishing a common understanding to allow the development
of a practical framework to facilitate the decision-making process of ISO certification.
Neyestani & Juanzon (2017) try to explain these unclear and contradictory results by
highlighting the different organizational contexts. In other words, ISO 9001 certified
organizations with different quality management contexts have significantly different
performance outcomes on the financial performance and customer results in different
industries. The difficulty to establish a transparent relationship between QMS and financial
performance may be affected by the existence of other intermediate factors like productivity,
image, or customer satisfaction (Marín & Ruiz‐Olalla, 2011). The following table reports
some of the studies that have investigated this relationship.
Table 1. Some studies results that relating QMS and financial performance

Applied
Authors Country Main findings
Methodology
Amente (2020) Ethiopia Case study The ISO 9001 certification has a strong significant
positive impact.
Belkasseh (2019) Morocco Case study The real implementation process slows down the
financial performance of companies.
Jalil& al. (2017) Pakistan Survey Positive association between QMS and financial
performance.
Cândido & al. Portugal Event study No significant statistical differences in the financial
(2016) performance.

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Taouab (2016) Morocco Survey Companies that have implemented ISO 9001 perform
better than those who have not implemented it.
Chatzoglou & al. Greece Practical ISO implementation is highly associated with
(2015) approach improvements in overall financial performance.
Pantouvakis & Europe Case study No clear position on the benefits of ISO certification
Dimas (2010) in the literature.
Martínez‐Costa Spain Survey The data suggest that not only is ISO 9000 positive
& Martínez‐ for companies but also it can actually reduce benefits
Lorente (2007) and profitability.
Corbett & al. USA Event study Significant improvements in financial performance.
(2005)
Sharma (2005) Singapore Practical Firms can benefit from ISO 9000 certification if they
approach are interested in the quality philosophy by improving
their internal business processes.
Wayhan & al. USA Case study ISO certification has no effect on sales, equity and
(2002) gross margins, and a very limited effect on return on
assets.
Aarts & Vos New Event study Implementing ISO 9001 does not appear to have led
(2001) Zealand to improved financial performance of organizations.
Source: Authors
In literature, the financial performance is measured based on a variety of indicators, or data
issued from financial statements, balance sheets, income statements, statement of cash flows,
etc., but can also refer to market data (e.g. market value of the shares). It can be defined by a
variety of indicators (Benner & Veloso, 2008; Martinez-Costa & al., 2009), such as turnover
(sales), return on assets (ROA), return on sales (ROS), return on equity (ROE), return on
investment (ROI), earnings per share (EPS), earnings before interest (EBI), tax depreciation
and amortization (EBITDA).
Some papers use sales as a measurement proxy of the financial performance (Amente, 2020;
Cândido & al., 2016; Chatzoglou & al., 2015; Corbett & al., 2005; Hendricks & Singhal,
2001; Heras & al., 2002; Islam & al., 2016; McGuire & Dilts, 2008; Sharma, 2005). Others
use market share (Chatzoglou & al., 2015; Forker & al., 1996; Islam & al., 2015, 2016; York
& Miree, 2004), ROA (Benner & Veloso, 2008; Cândido & al., 2016; Eriksson & Hansson,
2003; Ionașcu & al., 2017; Islam & al., 2016; Kafel & Simon, 2017), or ROS (Benner &
Veloso, 2008; Corbett & al., 2005). Whereas others use ROE (Astrini, 2021), ROI (Dimara &
al., (2004), operating income (Belkasseh, 2019; Eriksson & Hansson, 2003; Fons, 2011;
Hendricks & Singhal, 2001), Profit (Amente, 2020; Ionașcu & al., 2017; Islam & al., 2015),
total revenue (Fons, 2011), EBIT margin (Novokmet & Rogošić, 2017), or EPS (Sharma,
2005).
3. Methodology
We conducted a systematic literature review methodology, which is a rigorous scientific
process, to obtain a better understanding of the link between ISO 9001 based on QMS and
financial performance. Okoli (2015) has an operative definition of a systematic literature
review as Fink’s (2005) definition of a research literature review, it's “a systematic, explicit,
[comprehensive,] and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the
existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and
practitioners” (pp. 3, 17). The aim of this systematic review is to: (1) analyze the main
characteristics of the researches relating ISO 9001 QMS certification to the financial
performance; (2) evaluate the financial aspect of this certification and investigate if ISO

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 Sara MATRADI & Younes MOUNIR. The effect of ISO 9001 certification on financial performance: A systematic review

registration can really bring about financial gain to the companies; (3) verify how the
financial performance was analyzed and which were the performance indicators considered ;
(4) verify how the relation between ISO 9001 QMS and financial performance is approached
and (5) point out the main research contributions and the gaps to be filled.
For this reason, we used Google scholar to accede to Emerald Insight, Taylor & Francis,
Science Direct, and other databases, frequently used by researchers across various disciplines.
We first searched Google Scholar using Keywords as “ISO 9001” for searching studies about
QMS, and the terms “financial performance”, “financial results”, “financial gain”, to limit the
number of studies to be analyzed. It should be noted that this literature review is not oriented
to specific journals.
Scientific publications separately related to both topics have been collected; namely, ISO
9001 certification, and financial performance. The results have been integrated in one
research in an attempt to find the relationship between them. The methodology that was used
for this research can be represented as the scheme on the figure 1. First, we started by limiting
our literature review published between 2000-2021, considering, in this period, different ISO
9001 editions, principles and requirements. This timeframe (articles published in the past
twenty-one years) was deemed appropriate due to technological advancements changes
methods for archiving and retrieving information, so that we can build our study on the recent
literature considering information retrieval and synthesis in the digital age. Two inclusion
criteria were considered: (1) articles that combine the two topics and showed an analysis of
the relation between ISO 9001 QMS and financial performance; and (2) articles published in
English for reaching a wider audience.
The analysis method that we used consists of three rounds. The first round sought to verify if
the searched articles explicitly contained an established relation between ISO 9001 QMS and
financial performance, which provided a list of articles, a selection of 41 scientific
publications. Based on the final list, the second round sought to identify the number of articles
by journal, country, citations years and the methodology employed. In the third and final
round, we extracted, analyzed and synthesized data, and reported the findings in order to
verify how the relation between ISO 9001 QMS and financial performance is approached. We
used Microsoft Excel to process and analyze the data.

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Figure 1. Synthesis of the systematic review procedures

Step 1 Resulting articles

First search for articles in Google scholar, and in

Emerald Insight, Taylor & Francis, Science Direct, and n=61
other databases, frequently used by researchers.

Step 2
Application of four (4) exclusion criteria:
• Using only scientific articles and not doctoral n=50
dissertation, book chapters, editorials or news, etc.
• Articles found with unanimous journals;
• Articles written with another language than
English;
• Articles that presenting the terms "ISO 9001" and
"performance" in the body of the text and did not
aim to study the relationship between ISO 9001
QMS and financial performance.

Step 3

Select the final list of articles to analyze. n=41

Source: Authors

4. Results
Following the application of the systematic review procedures, we obtained a clear overview
concerning the journals, the study’s evolution over the years and the main methodological
approaches. Figure 2 presents the number of articles by 26 selected journals. As the figure
shows, we have in first position the International Journal of Quality & Reliability
Management approaching topics such as productivity improvement, performance
improvement, reliability management of systems, and service quality. The following two
journals were: Journal of Operations Management addressing topics such as operations
management, supply chain management, etc., and Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence who deals with all aspects of total quality management.
In the last years, an increase has been noticed regarding the number of articles per year as the
(Figure 3) shows. It is noticeable increase over time which shows an increasing interest in the
subject.
The current stage of our analysis proves a predominance of surveys, with 16 published studies
(Figure 4). We notice that among the approaches used in the analyzed studies, we have six
case studies, and six models.
It is also observed in the figure 5, that most of the selected studies are conducted in the USA,
followed by Spain, Greece, and Slovenia.

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The number of studies according to the number of extracted citations was also presented to
measure the usefulness, impact, or influence of the selected publications (Table 2). It can be
observed that 26% of the selected studies contained 0 to 10 citations; succeeded by 19% of
studies that varied from 101 to 200 citations and 19% of studies represent more than 200
citations.
Authors with the highest number of citations in this study were in the 1st round: Corbett & al.
(2005) with 822 citations, Hendricks & Singhal (2001) with 753 citations, followed by Benner
& Veloso (2008) and Sharma (2005) who have exceeded 350 citations. Leading articles, that
had more than 200 citations were developed by Wayhan & al. (2002) (299 citations), York &
Miree (2004) (277 citations), Heras & al. (2002) (235 citations), and Häversjö (2000) (233
citations). When articles with more than 100 citations were: Martínez‐Costa & Martínez‐
Lorente (2007), Lee & Billy (2009), Aarts & Vos (2001) Dimara & al. (2004), Eriksson &
Hansson (2003), Rusjan & Alič (2010), McGuire & Dilts (2008), Chatzoglou & al. (2015).
Figure 2. Published paper per journal

5
Number of
4 articles
3

1
The Journal of Global Business…

International Journal of Financial…

International Journal of Production…

Journal of Business Economics and…

South African Journal of Economic and…

International Journal of Quality &…

International Journal of Operations &…

Total Quality Management & Business…

International Journal of Productivity…

0
Archives of Business Research

Amfiteatru Economic Journal

The Journal of Developing Areas

Journal of Universal Excellence
The TQM magazine

Management science

Total Quality Management

Global Finance Journal

Measuring Business Excellence

Journal of Managerial Sciences
Journal of Operations Management

Maritime Policy & Management

The TQM Journal

Managerial auditing journal

Quality Innovation Prosperity

Industrial Engineering Letters
The international journal of accounting

Source: Authors
The third and last analysis step allowed to determine: (1) the purpose of the selected articles;
(2) the models used to evaluate QMS and financial performance; (3) the indicators used to
evaluate the financial performance; (4) how the relation between QMS and financial
performance were analyzed, and which were the obtained results; and (5) the contributions
and gaps observed in each article.

Figure 3. Number of articles by year

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7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Source: Authors
Figure 4. Research methodologies

18
16
14
12 Number of
10 articles
8
6
4
2
0

Source: Authors
Figure 5. Allocation of articles by countries
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Source: Authors

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Table 2. Number of articles according to the number of citations

Number of citations Number of articles

0 to 10 10
11 to 30 7
31 to 50 2
51 to100 6
101 to 200 8
More than 200 8
Total 41
Source: Authors
Table 3 shows the results found in this systematic literature review regarding the relation
between ISO 9001 based QMS and financial performance.
Based on the present systematic review of the literature, and the analysis of the purpose of
each article, it is attainable to classify the articles according to the type of relationship. It is
possible to separate the studies into four groups:
1. Authors who affirm the positive effect of ISO registration on the financial
performance;
2. Authors who affirm the negative effect of ISO registration on the financial
performance;
3. Authors who detected no relationship between ISO certification and financial
performance;
4. Studies that did not analyze or have an objective vision of this relationship.
Results show 23 of 41 analyzed studies (57%) found a positive relation between ISO 9001
and companies’ financial performance, but only 4 studies (10%) concluded negative
relationship. On the other hand, 8 studies (19%) did not find such relation, whereas 6 articles
(14%) did not analyze or have an objective vision of this relationship.
This unclear and contradictory result is explained by different organizational contexts
(Neyestani & Juanzon, 2017). That means ISO 9001 certified organizations with different
quality management contexts have significantly different performance outcomes on the
financial performance and customer results in different industries. The difficulty to establish a
transparent relationship between QMS and financial performance may be affected by the
existence of other intermediate factors like productivity, image, or customer satisfaction
(Marín & Ruiz‐Olalla, 2011)
Also, in other studies we found that ISO 9001 certification is not associated with significant
financial performance in the longer term, or that there is no significant difference between the
impacts of quality management on financial performance for firms with and without ISO 9001
certification. These indicate that there are firms that do succeed in improving their financial
results (for example, their market share and their sales, because the quality certificate opens
the door to certain customers).

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Table 3. Relation between ISO 9001 and financial performance

Positive effect
Negative effect No relationship Did not analyze
of ISO
of ISO between ISO or have an
registration
Authors registration on certification and objective vision
on the
the financial financial of this
financial
performance performance relationship
performance
Karim (2015) X
Belkasseh (2019) X
Amente (2020) X
Novokmet &
Rogošić (2017) X
Taouab (2016) X
Aarts & Vos
(2001) X
Aba & al. (2015) X
Nguyen & al.
(2016) X
Wayhan & al.
(2002) X
McGuire & Dilts
(2008) X
Ullah & al. (2014) X
Benner & Veloso
(2008) X
Bogataj & al.
(2017) X
Cândido & al
(2016) X
Corbett & al.
(2005) X
Dimara & al.
(2004) X
Eriksson &
Hansson (2003) X
Hendricks &
Singhal (2001) X
Jalil & al. (2017) X
Kathiravan & al
(2003) X
Marín & Ruiz‐
Olalla (2011) X
Pantouvakis &
Dimas (2010) X
Chatzoglou & al.
(2015) X
Rusjan & Alič X

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(2010)
Fons (2011) X
Sharma (2005) X
Häversjö (2000) X
York & Miree
(2004) X
Zondo (2018) X
Islam & al. (2015) X
Sampaio & al.
(2012) X
Islam & al. (2016) X
Kafel & Simon
(2017) X
Astrini (2021) X
Lee & al. (2009) X
Neyestani &
Juanzon (2017) X
Psomas &
Kafetzopoulos
(2014) X
Alič (2014) X
Ionașcu & al.
(2017) X
Martínez‐Costa &
Martínez‐Lorente
(2007) X
Heras & al. (2002) X
Source: Authors
Concerning the performance evaluation, some studies used models with some indicators
based on a literature review was identified. While other studies didn't use models or indicators
for performance evaluation, but represented the general results obtained after the
implementation of ISO 9001.
The financial performance measure can be defined either by data issued from financial
statements, balance sheets, income statements, statement of cash flows, etc. or can be defined
by indicators such as profit, operating income, sales, market share, ROA, ROS, ROE, ROI,
EPS, EBI, EBITDA. Based on this systematic literature review, the table 4 shows the
financial performance evaluation measures.
Based on these results, and taking into consideration the literature review, the relationship
between QMS (represented by ISO 9001 certification) and financial performance could be
positive or negative. We also observed that a number of factors influence ISO certification,
including time, size, productivity, strategic orientation, and so on (Figure 6). We concluded
that these variables could have an indirect relationship with financial performance and
consequently affect it. As a result, we propose in this work that future studies examine these
characteristics when gauging financial performance.

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Figure 6. Variables affecting QMS implementation and its impact on the financial performance

Source: Authors
Table 4. Financial performance measures

Financial Performance Measures

Can be defined by data issued from: Can be defined by indicators:
• Financial statements, • Profit,
• Balance sheet, • Operating income,
• Income statement, • Sales,
• Statement of cash flows, etc. • Market share,
• ROA,
• ROS,
• ROE,
• ROI,
• EPS,
• EBITDA, etc.
Source: Authors

5. Conclusion & Research perspectives

This literature systematic review aimed to understand the studies that approached the relation
between ISO 9001 based QMS and financial performance, in order to develop a research
model on the relationship between ISO 9001 QMS and financial performance. We conducted
in the first round a literature review to understand the main characteristics of the relation
between QMS and financial performance from 41 empirical studies done around different

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countries, covering the period of 2000-2021, then we tried to present the results revealing the
state-of-the-art on this subject.
Reaching a firm conclusion is challenging. In this sense, our research aims to ascertain the
direct and positive relationship that ISO 9001 certification has with financial performance. As
we have seen in the literature review of this research, regardless of geography or research
style, findings about the impact of ISO 9001 certification on financial performance are not
consistent. Some studies attempted to show a positive effect (56%), when others showed a
negative effect (10%). We also found, some authors report neutral or (15%) mediated impact.
However, many authors do not confirm it (19%). The intermediated factors are: firm size, age
(Bogataj & Al., 2017; Häversjö, 2000; Hendricks & Singhal, 2001; McGuire & Dilts, 2008;
Sampaio & al., 2012; Ullah & al., 2014), time (Cândio & al., 2016), cost (Karim, 2015;
Rusjan & Alič, 2010), flexibility and innovation (Jalil & al., 2017), and strategic orientation
(Dimara & al., 2004; Jalil & al., 2017). As mentioned by Chatzoglou & al. (2015), ISO
implementation can be directly associated with significant improvements in quality
awareness, operation execution, market share, customer satisfaction and sales revenue.
However, some gaps were observed and can be considered in future studies. In our opinion, it
is not easy to measure the financial performance due to problems related to data accessibility,
like disclosing information as well as the reluctance of directors and managers. The second
reason is linked to the many variables influencing firms’ financial outcome; namely, the very
expensive costs linked to the certification, which has been ignored indifferent studies. Firms
should evaluate the financial cost of ISO certification, because it can help to measure the real
financial impact and investigate if ISO registration can really yield financial gain.
Moreover, the virtues of ISO certification are not in its possession. Therefore, companies
should evaluate the reasons why ISO is being pursued, estimate its financial costs and
benefits, and carefully decide whether ISO certification can lead the organization to financial
gain (Karim, 2015). Furthermore, achieving the benefits from ISO certification is a process
that takes time, and is most unlikely to cause a swift reversal in a company’s commercial or
financial results (Heras & al., 2002). Nevertheless, directors should obtain a global and
critical vision to evaluate the results achieved by ISO certification, and take into their
consideration financial indicators and results of all activities that may help them to improve
the financial outcome of their companies (Marín & Ruiz‐Olalla, 2011).
For study limitations, we found a few research papers treating this topic. It’s important to
mention that the results of this systematic literature review are limited to the considered
search terms. According to this, applying the terms ‘ISO 9001’ and ‘financial performance’
for search articles on QMS and financial performance in the selected databases may have left
out some relevant studies on the subject. For this reason, it is recommended that search terms
be expanded in future systematic reviews.
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