اثر صدور گواهینامه با استاندارد مدیریت کیفیت ISO 9000: یک روش سیگنالینگ

Theory suggests that certification with a management standard may reduce information asymmetries in supply chains and thereby generate a competitive advantage for certified firms. This article uses an 11-year panel of U.S. manufacturing facilities to test whether certification with the ISO 9000 Quality Management Standard generates a competitive advantage. Results suggest that certified facilities grow faster after certification and that operational improvements do not account for this growth. Results also indicate that the growth effect is greater when buyers have greater difficulty acquiring information about suppliers.

Certified management standards are rapidly diffusing across many industries, yet uncertainty still exists about their role and function. This study explores the extent to which certification with one of the most important management standards provides a competitive advantage. We hypothesize that certification may provide a way of communicating about unobservable firm attributes, thereby generating a growth effect for certified organizations. Our results are consistent with this hypothesis. We find that certified facilities grow faster and that this advantage does not result from changes in quality performance, inventory management, within-firm production allocation, or pre-certification growth differences. We also find that certification is particularly beneficial for organizations that operate in large and advertising intensive industries, industries where information search costs may be higher. Exploratory tests of an alternative effect of ISO 9000 on operational performance do not yield significant results. This study has practical value for both managers and institutional agents. For managers, it suggests that they should consider certification as a means of credibly communicating to buyers. For buyers, regulators, and other institutional agents, it suggests that certified management standards might provide a viable way of reducing problems of asymmetric information. In addition to its practical relevance, the study also contributes to the literature on management standards. To understand the function of certified management standards, research must untangle how and when these standards benefit organizations. By beginning to untangle the communication and operational advantages of certification, and by exploring when such communication has greater value, this article helps to clarify how certified management standards may function.