لینک کردن وضعیت تکنولوژیکی شرکت و صدور گواهینامه ایزو 9000: نتایج حاصل از یک تحقیق تجربی

This work presents part of the results of a multi-sector environment study undertaken in Spain on the Spanish firms' experience with the ISO 9000 certification and its consequences. Specifically, the article is focused on the analysis of the firm's technological status and its influence on the perception of the certification's results, as well as its possible relationship with the firm's decision to proceed towards Total Quality. The results show that the technologically superior firms are the ones that seem to be the most satisfied with the certification's results. In like manner, the analyses performed have enabled us to confirm the presence of a positive relationship between a high technological level and the firm's advance towards TQM.

At present, companies are performing their activities in continually more changing, interrelated and uncertain environments. In this situation, entrepreneurial survival not only depends on a high degree of continuous competitiveness in order to remain in the market, but also on the possession of the necessary instruments and measures to achieve it. Nowadays, no one doubts that one of the conditions for assuring company survival and reaching a superior competitive position is constituted by quality, its improvement and of course, its proof. In this sense, the high quality of the products no longer represents an exceptional stroke of fortune, but is to an increasingly greater extent the result of quality programmes founded on very clear principles, such as those established by the ISO 9000. Unfortunately, on many occasions environmental pressures, rather than the desire for improvement, are the main stimulus for a multitude of organizations to implant quality systems such as the above-mentioned norm and proceed with their certification. Therefore, the possession of a quality system is not considered a sufficient element of proof of managerial commitment to quality. Not until an organization has passed the evaluation of an independent accredited organism, that is, until it has become certified, is this commitment recognized. Thus, the ISO 9000 certification has become the most utilized mechanism for differentiating quality companies from the rest. In some markets, it is considered an indispensable condition for contracting suppliers, and this in spite of the fact that its possession does not guarantee the firm's product and/or service quality, but rather only the regularity and consistency of its processes. In any event, the certification's importance is reflected in the nearly 400,000 certified companies in the world, and in the immense quantity of publications, articles and investigative studies on this theme (Wenmoth and Dobbin, 1994, Weston, 1995, Vloeberghs and Bellens, 1996, Meegan and Taylor, 1997, Brown et al., 1998, Neergard, 1999, Bryde and Slocock, 1998, European Commission—DG III, 1997, Ho, 1994, Idris et al., 1996, Lee, 1998 and Mann and Kehoe, 1995, among others). Thanks to these studies, it has not only been possible to learn of the reasons guiding the decision to become certified and its benefits, but also of the proof of its potential for stimulating a firm's advance towards Total Quality. From a reading of one of them, Vloeberghs and Bellens (1996), describing the experience of Belgian firms, the existence of a relationship between a high degree of satisfaction with certification and the firm's technological level may be deduced. These authors state that the companies that possess a high technological status are the ones most satisfied with the certification. In like manner, this work reveals that the firms with a superior technological level—and more specifically, those dedicated to high technology—are the ones that proceed onward to Total Quality Management to a greater extent once the ISO 9000 has been attained. This same conclusion was reached by Casadesús and Jiménez (1998), although their study was focused on the certification experience in Catalonia. As a revision of the literature shows that such affirmations have not been tested empirically, our intention in the present article is to give empirical support to them. To this end, we have put forward the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: A positive relationship exists between a firm's technological status and its satisfaction with the certification. Hypothesis 2: The higher the technological status of a firm, the more likely is its advance towards Total Quality once it has become certified. With the object of testing their veracity, we have proposed this empirical study on the ISO 9000 certification in Spain, in which its actual effects on a company are analysed on a national and multisectorial level. Its main outcomes are presented subsequently.

The present study has intended to give an empirical base to the affirmations of certain studies on the existence of a relationship between a firm's technological status and the certification. In relation to the influence of a company's technological level on the perception of satisfaction with the certification, evidence has been obtained confirming the fact that the firms that declare that they hold a high technological level show higher levels of satisfaction than those which consider themselves to be lower in technological status than their competitors. Perhaps the fact that high technology companies are more used to manipulating complex techniques and processes has made it easier for them to accommodate their work procedures to the certification's requirements, and quickly benefit from its advantages. Finally, the results of the performed analyses have enabled us to observe that a firm's technological level is a variable that can make it more receptive to the Total Quality postulates, especially in SMEs. Thus, despite the fact that the road to entrepreneurial excellence is open to all types of companies, it may be appreciated how the higher their technological status is, the greater is their preoccupation for continuing to advance in pursuit of quality.