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IJQRM
24,5 An empirical study of the motives
and benefits of ISO 9000
certification: the UAE experience
472
Walid Zaramdini
College of Business and Economics, UAE University, Al-Ain,
Received April 2005
Revised April 2006 United Arab Emirates

Abstract
Purpose – The aim of the paper is to analyze the different aspects of the motives and benefits of
certified ISO 9001: 2000 companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 900 certified UAE companies were surveyed in April
2004 in UAE. The response rate was equal to 23.2 percent.
Findings – The paper finds that certified companies were more concerned by internal reasons like
improving processes or products than by external reasons like pressure from customers or imitation of
competitors. In addition, the certification process had generated more internal benefits than external
ones.
Research limitations/implications – These findings may indicate that the surveyed firms will
sustain their quality efforts as continuous improvement is one of the cornerstones of ISO 9001: 2000
standard. In April 2004, when this survey was conducted, the number of certified companies listed in
Dubai or in Abu Dhabi Stock Exchanges was still small. This limited the analysis of the certification’s
financial benefits.
Originality/value – This is one of the first papers trying to analyze the motives and benefits of ISO
9001: 2000 certified companies in the UAE. The selection of the motives and benefits were validated
through statistical analysis and the relationship between expected and perceived benefits was
discussed.
Keywords ISO 9000 series, Companies, United Arab Emirates
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The ISO 9000 series of quality standards have been available in the marketplace for
nearly two decades. They serve as guidelines for any organization willing to establish
or improve its quality management system (QMS). Usually, when a company obtains
the ISO 9001: 2000 certificate, its business partners will be more confident in its QMS
(Stevenson and Barnes, 2001). Actually, the ISO 9000 standards are adopted in 154
countries and more than 670 000 ISO 9001: 2000 certificates have been issued
worldwide (ISO, 2004).
Some researchers investigated the “pros” and “cons” of the certification process
International Journal of Quality & (Stevenson and Barnes, 2001) or how the ISO 9000 helped companies in their total
Reliability Management quality management (TQM) journey (Magd and Curry, 2003; Sun, 1999). Other authors
Vol. 24 No. 5, 2007
pp. 472-491
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0265-671X
This work was financially supported by the Research Affairs at the UAE University under a
DOI 10.1108/02656710710748358 contract number: 01-03-4-11/4
studied the financial performances of the certified firms (Chow-Chua et al., 2003; Motives and
Häversjö, 2000; Tsekouras et al., 2002; Wayhan et al., 2002). benefits of
van der Wiele et al. (2005) provided an interesting classification of the research on
ISO 9000. They identified six major issues, namely: ISO 9000
(1) the relationship between ISO 9000 and TQM;
(2) perceptions about the benefits of ISO 9000;
473
(3) the relationship between ISO 9000 and organizational improvement;
(4) the usefulness of ISO 9000 for different sizes and types of organizations;
(5) the long-term effects of ISO 9000; and
(6) the motivation to implement ISO 9000.

Certain researchers investigated the state of ISO 9001: 2000 certification in the Arab
world. For example, Mezher (2000) studied the transition of 30 Lebanese firms from
ISO 9000 certification to TQM. A total of 32 Saudi manufacturing firms were surveyed
by Mezher and Ramadan (1999). They analyzed the costs and benefits linked with the
certification process. The main benefits perceived by Saudi firms were associated with
the improvement of customer service and firm’s efficiency. Similar results were found
by Magd et al. (2003). Egyptian companies were studied by Magd and Curry (2003).
The surveyed firms showed more interest towards internal operational benefits like
improvement in documentation or in the efficiency of the quality system. However,
some of these studies are just descriptive and do not include an in depth statistical
analysis.
We have noticed that among the Arab countries, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
has the highest number of certified companies (about 900 certificates according to “The
ISO survey – 2004” (ISO, 2004)). The remaining top four positions are held by Egypt
(810 certificates), Saudi Arabia (394 certificates), and Morocco (296 certificates). The
UAE economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas export (it has about 10
percent of world oil reserves) and recently diversified its economy into the
manufacturing and services sectors. Dubai has become a Middle East hub for tourism
and trade businesses. However, the UAE has not been the subject of important
research regarding the ISO 9000 standards. This gave impetus to the following
research questions:
(1) What are the motivational and beneficial aspects of ISO 9001: 2000 certification
in UAE?
(2) What are the relationships between these two aspects?
Thus, it would be interesting to conduct an empirical study on the motives and benefits
of ISO 9000 certified companies in UAE. The contributions of this study to the body of
knowledge related to ISO 9000 research are as follows:
.
An extensive review of the different motives and benefits that are linked with
ISO 9001: 2000 certification.
.
An empirical study of the motives and benefits of the certified UAE
organizations, where statistical analyses were performed (reliability and
validity tests, t-test of the means, principal components analysis and
correlation analysis).
IJQRM .
Certain motives can be considered as “expected benefits”. Then, the gaps
24,5 between these expected benefits and their associated “perceived” benefits were
analyzed.

The remaining part of the paper will be as follows: first, we review the previous
literature on motives and benefits of ISO 9001: 2000 certification. Next, we present the
474 research methodology followed by the survey results. After discussing the main
findings of the empirical research, we finally conclude by providing useful
recommendations for practitioners.

Motives for seeking certification

A high number of reasons motivated different organizations for obtaining the ISO
9001: 2000 certificate or its predecessors (ISO 9001/9002/9003: 1994) (see Table I).
Jones et al. (1997) studied the reasons of certified Australian companies. They
divided them into three categories: “developmental”, “non-developmental” and
“mixed”. Companies, which belonged to the first category, were motivated by the
internal benefits obtained from the certification process like the improvement of the
“company’s internal processes” or “business performances”, whereas companies
belonging to the “non-developmental” category were pushed towards certification by
the market forces (explicit demand of important customers or necessary condition to
bid for government tenders). The “mixed” category regrouped companies having both
types of reasons. In fact, the developmental reasons are synonymous with the internal
reasons, and the non-developmental reasons are synonymous with the external ones.
Out of the 272 companies that replied to their mail questionnaire, only one company in
every seven pursued the certification for developmental reasons. When examining the
reasons of certified Malaysian companies, Yahya and Goh (2001) adopted the same
approach of Jones et al. (1997). However, they found no dominant category between the
companies studied. Escanciano et al. (2001) adopted the internal-external classification
of Vloeberghs and Bellens (1996) and found that Spanish companies were more
motivated to pursue the certification for internal reasons rather than for external ones.
In this research, and after an extensive review of previous literature, we selected 19
common reasons that could motivate UAE companies in seeking ISO 9001: 2000
certification. We note that the redundant and open to interpretation type of
motivational statements were eliminated from the selection. Furthermore, the selected
motives were classified into two groups: internal group and external group. The
internal motives are synonymous with the internal forces that are pushing the
organization in seeking ISO 9000. These forces could be either associated with
operational performances (like improving the quality system of the organization) or
with managerial performances (like improving communication between the
organization’ employees), whereas the external motives refer to the motives that are
associated with the company’s external environment. We mean by external
environment all those elements outside an organization that have potential to affect
all or part of it (like customers, competitors, government and suppliers).

Benefits of certification
Different authors studied the benefits of ISO 9001: 2000 certification from the
viewpoint of quantitative financial performance (Chow-Chua et al., 2003; Häversjö,
Number Reasons Typea Sources

1 Top management decision I Brown et al. (1998), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Escanciano et al. (2001)
2 Improving product and/or service I Buttle (1997), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Ebrahimpour et al. (1997), Escanciano et al. (2001), Llopis
quality and Tari (2003), Poksinska et al. (2002), Singels et al. (2001)
3 Improving processes and procedures I Bryde and Slocock (1998), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Ebrahimpour et al. (1997), Escanciano et al.
(2001), Jones et al. (1997), Krasachol et al. (1998), Lee (1998)
4 Improving productivity and/or I Brown et al. (1998), Bryde and Slocock (1998) Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Llopis and Tari (2003)
efficiency
5 Reducing incidents, rejections and I Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Llopis and Tari (2003)
complaints
6 A step towards total quality I Brown et al. (1998), Bryde and Slocock (1998), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Escanciano et al. (2001)
management Krasachol et al. (1998), Llopis and Tari (2003)
7 Use it as a basis for internal costs I Buttle (1997), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Escanciano et al. (2001)
reduction
8 Improving communication within the I Ebrahimpour et al. (1997)
organization
9 Improving relationships between I Ebrahimpour et al. (1997)
employees and management
10 Use it as a promotional and/or E Brown et al. (1998), Escanciano et al. (2001), Jones et al. (1997), Singels et al. (2001)
marketing tool
11 Maintaining and/or increasing market E Bryde and Slocock (1998), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Escanciano et al. (2001), Krasachol et al.
share (1998), Singels et al. (2001)
12 Demand and/or pressure from E Bryde and Slocock (1998), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Ebrahimpour et al. (1997), Escanciano et al.
customers (2001), Jones et al. (1997), Krasachol et al. (1998), Lee (1998), Singels et al. (2001)
13 Competitive advantage E Brown et al. (1998), Bryde and Slocock (1998), Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Ebrahimpour et al. (1997),
Escanciano et al. (2001), Jones et al. (1997), Krasachol et al. (1998), Lee (1998), Singels et al. (2001)
14 Requisite to compete in the sector E Brown et al. (1998), Escanciano et al. (2001), Jones et al. (1997), Lee (1998), Singels et al. (2001)
15 Our competitors are ISO 9001 certified E Ebrahimpour et al. (1997), Escanciano et al. (2001)
16 Direct entry to new market E Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Escanciano et al. (2001), Singels et al. (2001)
17 Be role model to suppliers E Brown et al. (1998), Bryde and Slocock (1998)
18 Improving the organization’s public E Ebrahimpour et al. (1997), Escanciano et al. (2001), Jones et al. (1997)
image
19 Requested by the government E Carlsson and Carlsson (1996), Huarng et al. (1999), Singels et al. (2001)
a
Note: E for external and I for internal

certification
Motives of ISO 9000
ISO 9000
Motives and

475

Table I.
benefits of
IJQRM 2000; Tsekouras et al., 2002; Wayhan et al., 2002) or qualitative performances (Arauz
24,5 and Suziki, 2004; Brown et al., 1998; Bryde and Slocock, 1998; Buttle, 1997; Chow-Chua
et al., 2003; Escanciano et al., 2001; Huarng et al., 1999; Jones et al., 1997; Singels et al.,
2001). For example (Buttle, 1997) found that “improving efficiency”, “improving
awareness of procedural problems” and “better management control” were the top
three benefits perceived by the firms studied, followed by “using standard as a
476 promotional tool” and “increasing customer satisfaction”. (Escanciano et al., 2001)
found similar results where “better understanding of processes/responsibilities” and
“company image in the market improved” were considered as the most important
benefits.
Similarly to the motives items list, each benefit item was classified according to its
internal or external most likely effect. Table II lists all the 20 benefits items collected
from different articles.

Research methodology
The collection of data was done through a questionnaire survey. The latter was mailed
to 900 UAE certified companies nationwide, in the beginning of April 2004,
accompanied with a return postage envelope. The companies’ addresses were collected
from different sources namely: Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gulf
Oilfield Directory 2003 published by Arabian Publications (a publisher of professional
directories in UAE) and ISO Master Guide 2004-2005 published by Spear Publishing
(a marketing consulting company in Dubai). The list included companies operating in
different fields such as oil and gas, telecommunications, construction, information
technology, manufacturing and government agencies. Apart from the general
demographic questions that were asked (like size, field of operation, ownership, etc.),
the questionnaire survey included two sets of questions. One set is related to the
motivational aspects of the ISO 9001: 2000 certification and the second is related to the
benefits aspects. These questions were adapted from previous literature on the subject
as detailed in the preceding section.
A study group composed by three quality managers and two quality consultants,
who have an extensive experience in quality management within UAE firms, helped us
review the survey. In the light of their comments, the questionnaire was refined to
better adapt with the local culture. Evidently, the internal-external classification of the
question statements was not made apparent to the respondent. The questionnaire was
directly sent to the quality managers of the companies surveyed because it was an
important recommendation from the study group. Besides, many authors in similar
studies selected the quality manager as the most suitable person to answer their
questionnaires as he/she is usually the key person in coordinating the certification
process and is supposed to have had an extensive training in quality management
(Carlsson and Carlsson, 1996; Escanciano et al., 2001; Llopis and Tari, 2003). The Likert
scale of five points was used for evaluating every question statement. The scale was
assigned values from one to five to indicate agreement or disagreement with the
statement.
Out of 900 sent questionnaires, 220 were received. Among the 220 received
questionnaires, eleven were eliminated from subsequent analysis as they had
incomplete responses. Thus, the research is based on the data provided by 209
respondents, which leads to 23.2 percent response rate.
Number Benefits Typea Sources

1 Improved product and/or service I Arauz and Suziki (2004), Brown et al. (1998), Escanciano et al. (2001), Singels et al. (2001)
quality
2 Reduction in incidents, rejections and I Arauz and Suziki (2004), and Escanciano et al. (2001)
complaints
3 Increased productivity and/or I Buttle (1997), Dick (2000), Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002), Häversjö (2000), Jones et al. (1997), Lee
efficiency (1998), Santos and Escanciano (2002)
4 Reduced internal costs I Arauz and Suziki (2004), Buttle (1997), Escanciano et al. (2001)
5 Improved profitability I Arauz and Suziki (2004), Buttle (1997), Dick (2000), Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002), Häversjö (2000),
Jones et al. (1997), Lee (1998), Santos and Escanciano (2002)
6 Increased workforce motivation and I Buttle (1997), Brown et al. (1998), Escanciano et al. (2001), Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002), McLachlan
retention (1996)
7 Employees become more quality aware I Brown et al. (1998), Chow-Chua et al. (2003), Dick (2000), Quazi and Padibjo (1998), Tsiotras and
Gotzamani (1996)
8 Improved processes and procedures I Arauz and Suziki (2004), Chow-Chua et al. (2003), Poksinska et al. (2002)
9 Elimination of redundancy or I Chow-Chua et al. (2003), McLachlan (1996)
unnecessary work
10 Better working environment I Escanciano et al. (2001)
11 Better customer service I Arauz and Suziki (2004), Buttle (1997)
12 Increased customer satisfaction E Arauz and Suziki (2004), Buttle (1997), Lee (1998), McLachlan (1996), Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002),
Quazi and Padibjo (1998)
13 Reduction in the number of customer E Buttle (1997), Escanciano et al. (2001)
audits
14 Expansion to international markets E Chow-Chua et al. (2003), Brown et al. (1998), Buttle (1997)
15 Greater competitive advantage E Dick (2000), Gotzamani and Tsiotras (2002), McLachlan (1996), Quazi and Padibjo (1998)
16 Effective promotional and/or E Buttle (1997)
marketing tool
17 Improved market share E Brown et al. (1998), Dick (2000), Jones et al. (1997), McLachlan (1996), Santos and Escanciano (2002)
18 Suppliers’ quality improved E Escanciano et al. (2001)
19 Established and/or improved mutual E Arauz and Suziki (2004), Escanciano et al. (2001)
cooperation with suppliers
20 Organization’s image in the market E Chow-Chua et al. (2003), Tsiotras and Gotzamani (1996), Vloeberghs and Bellens (1996)
improved
Note: a E for external and I for internal

certification
Benefits of ISO 9000
ISO 9000
Motives and

477

Table II.
benefits of
IJQRM Survey results
24,5 Table III presents a descriptive statistical analysis of the companies’ demographic
information. We note that most of the responding companies were from the private
sector and a great number of them have either a small size or a medium size. In
addition, the majority of the surveyed companies are operating in the service sector.
Most of the respondents have a long working experience in the quality field. We note
478 that 108 surveyed companies have acquired the ISO 9001: 1994 or ISO 9002:1994
certificate then acquired the ISO 9001: 2000 certificate, whereas 101 organizations are
newly accredited.
The data analysis uses reliability tests, validity tests, t-test of the means, factor
analysis and correlation analysis. All statistical analyses were performed by using
SPSS (Release 12.0.0).

Reliability and validity tests

The internal consistency of a group of measurement items refers to the degree to which
items in the group are homogenous. In this study, the internal consistency is estimated
by using the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient. The Cronbach’s alpha for the 19
motives items is equal to 0.823 (higher than 0.6), which suggests a satisfactory
reliability (Malhotra, 2004). Moreover, the previous Cronbach’s alpha was recalculated
after dropping a specific item but its value has not increased, except for the “Requested
by the government” item where the reliability coefficient became equal to 0.831.

Description Frequency

Company size
Small (no. of employees , 100) 78
Medium . 100 no. of employees , 500) 77
Large . 500 no. of employees , 2,000) 40
Very large (no. of employees . 2,000) 14
Ownership
Private 177
Government 15
Joint 17
Activities
Services 117
Manufacturing 89
Oil and gas 3
Respondents experience
, 2 years 15
. 2 years . . . , 5 years 47
. 5 years 134
Missing 13
No. of companies that shifted from
Table III. ISO 9001:94 to ISO 9001:2000 83
Description of ISO 9002:94 to ISO 9001:2000 25
respondents Newly accredited 101
The Cronbach’s alpha for the 20 benefits items equals 0.901 (higher than 0.6). An Motives and
internal consistency analysis was performed but has not led to a higher Cronbach’s benefits of
alpha value; hence all benefits items are considered important.
The validity analysis of the questionnaire instrument refers to the extent to which it ISO 9000
measures what it was intended to measure. In this study, two different types of validity
are considered: content validity and construct validity.
The first one, also called face validity, depends on to what extent the researchers 479
developed the measurement items to cover the content domain of the variable being
measured. Usually, it is subjectively judged by the researchers. As earlier presented in
Tables I and II, the motives and benefits items were carefully selected from an
extensive review of literature. Furthermore, the validity of the lists of motives and
benefits statements was confirmed by a panel of quality managers and consultants
during the preliminary testing stage.
The construct validity refers to what extent the questionnaire instrument measures
a theoretical construct or trait it was supposed to measure. Some authors adopted the
internal-external classification prior to their statistical analyses (Jones et al., 1997;
Escanciano et al., 2001; Yahya and Goh, 2001; Vloeberghs and Bellens, 1996). Others
used it when performing a principal component analysis (Arauz and Suziki, 2004;
Brown et al., 1998; Bryde and Slocock, 1998; Buttle, 1997; Huarng et al., 1999; Llopis
and Tari, 2003; Singels et al., 2001).
So, in this research, the classification of motives and benefits items into internal and
external categories is first adopted as a theoretical trait (Tables I and II). Then, a
confirmatory factorial analysis (principal components with varimax rotation) is
conducted. We fix the number of factors to two then we check if each motive or benefit
statement belongs to its initial category. In other words, an internal motive statement
should have a high loading on the internal factor and have a low loading on the
external factor. Tables IV and V confirm the construct-validity of the internal-external
aspects of the motives and benefits items, presented in Tables II and III, respectively.
However, in Table V, the benefit statement (increased customer satisfaction) should
have loaded higher on the external factor. This result could be explained by the fact
that the respondents have considered it as an internal benefit item; nevertheless, the
remaining benefit items followed the predicted classification of Table II.
The low cumulative variance explained in both confirmatory factorial analyses
(40.61 percent and 47.26 percent) suggests an increase in the number of factors as this
will be more suitable from a statistical point of view. This issue will be treated later in
the factorial analysis section.

Analysis of the means

In this section, we are interested in ranking the motives and benefits items according to
their mean value. A t-test was performed on the respondents’ data in order to determine
the significant items. Since a five-point Likert type scale was used (1 ¼ strongly
disagree, 5 ¼ strongly agree), therefore the null hypothesis (H0) is that the average
score of motivation is less or equal to three. The alternative hypothesis (Ha) is that it is
greater than three. The confidence level is set at 95 percent, thus a ¼ 0:05. The results
of the t-test for the question statements corresponding to the motivational aspects are
described in Table VI.
IJQRM
Component
24,5 Motives items Internal External

Improving productivity and/or efficiency 0.782 20.039

Reducing incidents, rejections and complaints 0.701 0.102
Use it as a basis for internal costs reduction 0.694 0.188
480 Improving processes and procedures 0.684 20.046
Improving product and/or service quality 0.683 20.005
Improving communication within the organization 0.655 0.255
Improving relationships between employees and management 0.642 0.136
A step towards total quality management 0.469 20.044
Top management decision 0.213 0.166
Requisite to compete in the sector 0.083 0.772
Our competitors are ISO 9001 certified 0.004 0.732
Demand and/or pressure from customers 20.015 0.696
Direct entry to new market 0.048 0.669
Competitive advantage 0.158 0.652
Use it as a promotional and/or marketing tool 0.074 0.630
Improving the organization’s public image 0.132 0.491
Maintaining and/or increasing market share 0.219 0.480
Be role model to suppliers 0.395 0.448
Table IV. Requested by the UAE government 20.133 0.300
Construct-validity for the Eigenvalue 3.90 3.81
motives items Cumulative variance explained (%) 20.55 40.61

Component
Benefits items Internal External

Increased productivity and/or efficiency 0.767 0.076

Elimination of redundancy or unnecessary work 0.709 0.150
Reduced internal costs 0.692 0.192
Improved product and/or service quality 0.662 0.078
Improved processes and procedures 0.644 0.104
Better customer service 0.643 0.121
Better working environment 0.636 0.171
Increased customer satisfaction 0.615 0.219
Reduction in incidents, rejections and complaints 0.603 0.189
Improved profitability 0.601 0.370
Employees become more quality aware 0.566 0.078
Increased workforce motivation and retention 0.551 0.297
Greater competitive advantage 0.228 0.805
Expansion to international markets 0.087 0.799
Improved market share 0.142 0.709
Effective promotional and/or marketing tool 0.004 0.628
Organization’s image in the market improved 0.142 0.614
Suppliers’ quality improved 0.416 0.605
Established and/or improved mutual cooperation with suppliers 0.468 0.568
Table V. Reduction in the number of customer audits 0.167 0.522
Construct-validity for the Eigenvalue 5.48 3.96
benefits items Cumulative variance explained (%) 27.43 47.26
 Motives and
Item name Type Mean Rank Std dev. t-values
benefits of
Top management decision I 4.62 1 0.593 39.54 * ISO 9000
Improving processes and procedures I 4.46 2 0.596 35.49 *
Improving product and/or service quality I 4.39 3 0.657 30.63 *
Improving productivity and/or efficiency I 4.16 4 0.778 21.52 *
Reducing incidents, rejections and complaints I 4.13 5 0.777 21.01 * 481
Improving the organization’s public image E 4.05 6 0.813 18.63 *
A step towards total quality management I 3.99 7 0.882 16.22 *
Use it as a promotional and/or marketing tool E 3.99 8 0.912 15.62 *
Competitive advantage E 3.78 9 0.995 11.33 *
Improving communication within the organization I 3.75 10 0.825 13.08 *
Maintaining and/or increasing market share E 3.65 11 0.919 10.24 *
Requisite to compete in the sector E 3.59 12 1.115 7.69 *
Improving relationships between employees and
management I 3.46 13 0.843 7.95 *
Be role model to suppliers E 3.43 14 1.008 6.17 *
Use it as a basis for internal costs reduction I 3.26 15 0.904 4.13 *
Our competitors are ISO 9001 certified E 3.17 16 1.139 2.18 *
Demand and/or pressure from customers E 3.12 17 1.111 1.619
Direct entry to new market E 2.84 18 1.066 2 2.20 *
Requested by the government E 2.17 19 1.028 2 11.641 *
Table VI.
Note: * Indicates that the corresponding p-value is lower than 0.05 Motives

The motives items are listed in decreasing order by their mean score. All statements
turned out to be significant at 95 percent confidence level, except for the “demand
and/or pressure from customers” item. The most significant ones are “top management
decision”, “improving processes and procedures”, and “improving product/service
quality” showing a t-value of 39.54, 35.49 and 30.63, respectively. As shown in Table VI,
the first five positions were occupied by internal motives. The first external motive,
“improving the organization’s public image”, held the sixth position.
However, for the “Demand and/or pressure from customers” statement, we cannot
reject the null hypothesis, in other words the respondents have not considered it as an
important reason for seeking the ISO 9001: 2000 certification. The “Direct entry to new
markets (like EU community)” presented a significant negative t-value. Hence, the
usually advanced argument that firms seek the certification for accessing the European
markets is not the case in UAE. The “Requested by the government” motive item
scored the lowest mean value. In fact, it was included in the questionnaire for testing
the consistency of the respondents’ answers (the UAE government does not impose on
public or private organizations the possession of ISO 9001: 2000 certificate).
Table VII presents the mean, standard deviation and t-values results for the 20
benefit statements. The first four important benefits are associated with internal
operational issues like processes, procedures and product/service quality. The internal
benefit statements like “improved processes and procedures”, “employees become
more quality aware” and “improved product and/or service quality” showed significant
positive t-values. The “Reduction in the number of customer’s audits” benefit
statement held the last position in Table VII.
IJQRM
Item name Type Mean Rank Std dev. t-value
24,5
Improved processes and procedures I 4.28 1 0.612 30.17 *
Employees become more quality aware I 4.20 2 0.584 29.60 *
Improved product and/or service quality I 4.16 3 0.664 25.19 *
Better customer service I 4.11 4 0.645 24.89 *
482 Organization’s image in the market improved E 4.07 5 0.714 21.71 *
Increased customer satisfaction E 4.06 6 0.712 21.48 *
Effective promotional and/or marketing tool E 4.00 7 0.806 17.85 *
Reduction in incidents, rejections and complaints I 3.99 8 0.693 20.65 *
Increased productivity and/or efficiency I 3.79 9 0.774 14.73 *
Better working environment I 3.73 10 0.717 14.75 *
Greater competitive advantage E 3.71 11 0.907 11.28 *
Elimination of redundancy or unnecessary work I 3.60 12 0.815 10.60 *
Improved market share E 3.47 13 0.809 8.38 *
Established and/or improved mutual cooperation
with suppliers E 3.45 14 0.796 8.25 *
Suppliers’ quality improved E 3.45 15 0.860 7.64 *
Improved profitability I 3.39 16 0.772 7.35 *
Increased workforce motivation and retention I 3.36 17 0.786 6.69 *
Reduced internal costs I 3.34 18 0.835 5.96 *
Expansion to international markets E 3.22 19 1.092 2.91 *
Reduction in the number of customer audits E 3.09 20 0.972 1.28
Table VII.
Benefits Note: * Indicates that the corresponding p-value is lower than 0.05

Expected and perceived benefits analysis

Certain similarities exist between Tables II and III items with respect to particular
aspects of motives and benefits under study in this empirical research. For example, in
Table II we identified “improving product and/or service quality” as a motive item and
in Table III we identified the “improved product and/or service quality” as a benefit
item. As the difference between the two statements is not only in the verbal context but
also in how the respondents perceive the effect of ISO 9000 on the product and/or
service quality, by consequence the two items can be classified as “expected” benefit
and “perceived” benefit, respectively. In Table VIII we gathered nine pairs of expected
and perceived benefits associated with ISO 9001: 2000 certification, then we analyzed
their aggregate mean differences (expected-perceived). If the mean difference, for a
certain pair of statements, had a significant negative value then the perceived benefit
value exceeded the expected benefit value. Hence, the ISO 9001: 2000 certification led to
a good quality surprise. In other words the respondents found an improvement or an
amelioration in the statement studied. On the contrary, if the mean difference had a
significant positive value then the ISO 9001: 2000 certification led to an unsatisfactory
quality result.
In Table VIII, most of the significant mean differences were positive with a
corresponding positive t-value like in pairs: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Apparently, the
respondents did not feel that, after acquiring the ISO 9001: 2000 certificate, their
respective firms improved their productivity, processes, procedures and product
quality. Except for pair 6, where the associated means are nearly equal to three, the
mean values of the internally-oriented pairs (1, 2, 3 and 4) are greater or equal to four.
Hence, the respondents still obtained a good outcome from the certification process.
 Motive item – benefit item Mean 1 Mean 2 Mean diff. Std. error mean t-value Sig. (two-tailed)

Pair 1 (I) (Improving – increased) productivity and/or

efficiency 4.16 3.79 0.368 0.051 7.238 0.000
Pair 2 (I) (Improving – improved) product and/or service
quality 4.39 4.16 0.234 0.046 5.110 0.000
Pair 3 (I) (Improving – improved) processes and procedures 4.46 4.28 0.187 0.043 4.357 0.000
Pair 4 (I) (Reducing – reduction in) incidents, rejections and
complaints 4.13 3.99 0.139 0.051 2.746 0.007
Pair 5 (I) Use it as a basis for internal costs reduction –
reduced internal costs 3.26 3.34 20.086 0.053 2 1.636 0.103
Pair 6 (E) Maintaining and/or increasing market share –
improved market share 3.65 3.47 0.182 0.061 2.987 0.003
Pair 7 (E) Competitive advantage 3.78 3.71 0.072 0.066 1.092 0.276
Pair 8 (E) (Use it as a (n) – effective) promotional and/or
marketing tool 3.99 4.00 20.010 0.050 2 0.190 0.849
Pair 9 (E) Improving the organization’s public image –
organization’s image in the market improved 4.05 4.07 20.024 0.056 2 0.429 0.668

(motives – benefits)
Paired samples t-test
ISO 9000
Motives and

Table VIII.
483
benefits of
IJQRM Although the externally oriented pairs (8 and 9) had a non-significant t-value and
24,5 presented a negative mean difference, they seem to show the usefulness of the
certification (their mean value are significantly greater than four). The remaining pairs
5 and 7 are disregarded from this analysis as they showed non-significant mean
differences along with relatively low respective mean values.

484 Factor analysis

The factor analysis is used to reduce the multiple relationships that may exist among
variable statements. It uncovers the common dimensions that link together the
seemingly unrelated variables, and provides insight into the underlying structure of
the data. The principal component extraction method was chosen to analyze the
correlation matrix, and to extract the eigenvalues over one. For easier interpretation of
the data set, the varimax rotation was applied. Only the factor loadings, that had
values greater than 0.5, were considered.
The factor analysis of the motives items was performed for only 16 items because
the significance of the t-test statistics along with the sign of the t-value, carried out in
the previous sub-section, showed no important effect for the last three statements (see
Table VI). We note that the value of the overall Kaise-Meyer-Olkin measure of
sampling adequacy (KMO statistic) for the motives factor analysis was equal to 0.806
(greater than 0.5) hence the usefulness of the performed factor analysis (Malhotra,
2004). The motives items were reduced to four factors. They were named as
“operational improvement”, “following competitors”, “human resources improvement”
and “supplier relationship”. The naming of the factors was done according to the
statements included in every factor. For instance, Factor 1 of Table IX was called
“operational improvement” because the question statements under this grouping
included issues such as “improving productivity/efficiency”, “improving
product/service quality” and “improving processes/procedures”. These motivational
aspects might be regarded as associated with the operational function of the
organization. The second factor was labeled “following competitors” as three out of the
four variables that had higher loading were explicitly associated with competition
issues per se. Lastly, and by applying the same reasoning process for the first two
factors, the third factor was called “human resources improvement” and the fourth was
called “supplier relationship”.
The factor analysis of the benefits items was performed for only 19 items because
the significance of the t-test statistics along with the sign of the t-value, carried out in
the previous sub-section, showed no important effect for the last statement “Reduction
in the number of customer audits” (see Table VIII). The value of the overall
Kaise-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO statistic) for this factor
analysis is 0.875 (greater than 0.5). Five factors were selected and named as:
“profitability”, “human resources”, “product quality”, “marketing” and “suppliers” (see
Table X).

Correlation analysis
Between each motive factor and benefit factor, a bi-variate Pearson correlation was
carried out and the results were reported in Table XI. Let us use 0.4 as a cut-off point
when considering the existence of a correlation between two factors. By examining
Table XI, the following cases emerge:
 Motives and
Varimax rotated loading
Operational Following Human Supplier benefits of
Item name improvement competitors resources relationship ISO 9000
Improving productivity and/or
efficiency 0.816
Improving processes and 485
procedures 0.771
Improving product and/or service
quality 0.757
Reducing incidents, rejections and
complaints 0.689
Use it as a basis for internal costs
reduction 0.600
Requisite to compete in the sector 0.807
Our competitors are ISO 9001
certified 0.793
Use it as a promotional and/or
marketing tool 0.690
Competitive advantage 0.565
Improving communication within
the organization 0.772
Improving relationships between
employees and management 0.741
Maintaining and/or increasing
market share 0.565
Be role model to suppliers 0.616
Top management decision 0.576
A step towards total quality
management 0.576
Improving the organization’s public Table IX.
image 0.551 Rotated component
Eigenvalue 2.98 2.61 2.00 1.62 matrix for the motives
Cumulative variance explained (%) 18.68 35.05 47.6 57.76 items

.
The highest correlation coefficient is equal to 0.566 and shows that the motive
factor “following competitors” is significantly correlated with the benefit factor
“marketing”. Both factors have in common certain items like “promotion
effectiveness” and “competitive advantages”.
.
Similar to the above analysis, the motive factor “operational improvement” and
the benefit factor “profitability” have a significant moderate correlation (the
correlation coefficient is equal to 0.435). The above-mentioned factors have three
similar variables in common like: “improving productivity and/or efficiency”
which has a higher loading on the “operational improvement” factor, and
“improved productivity and/or efficiency” which has a higher loading on
“profitability” benefit factor (see Tables IX and X).

The remaining values of Table XI, although significant, do not lead to a particular
interpretation.
IJQRM
Varimax rotated loading
24,5 Human Product
Item name resources quality Marketing Suppliers

Reduced internal costs 0.789

Improved profitability 0.750
486 Increased productivity and/or efficiency 0.683
Employees become more quality aware 0.748
Increased workforce motivation and retention 0.692
Better working environment 0.609
Improved processes and procedures 0.594
Elimination of redundancy or unnecessary
work 0.538
Better customer service 0.750
Increased customer satisfaction 0.696
Improved product and/or service quality 0.687
Reduction in incidents, rejections and
complaints 0.617
Effective promotional and/or marketing tool 0.832
Improved market share 0.701
Organization’s image in the market improved 0.653
Greater competitive advantage 0.610
Suppliers’ quality improved 0.823
Established and/or improved mutual
Table X. cooperation with suppliers 0.766
Rotated component Expansion to international markets 0.591
matrix for the item Eigenvalue 2.76 2.59 2.56 2.50 2.40
benefits Cumulative variance explained (%) 14.52 28.17 41.68 54.87 67.54

Benefits factors
Motives factors Profitability Human resources Product quality Marketing Suppliers

Operational improvement 0.435 * * 0.259 * * 0.347 * * 20.074 0.046

Following competitors 0.077 2 0.096 2 0.070 0.566 * * 0.141 *
Human resources 0.271 * * 0.213 * * 0.049 0.190 * * 0.212 * *
Table XI. Supplier relationship 0.006 0.172 * 0.184 0.146 * 0.241 * *
Correlations between the
motives and benefits Notes: * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed); * * Correlation is significant at the 0.01
factors level (two-tailed)

Discussion
Five out of the six most important reasons that motivated UAE firms in seeking ISO
9001: 2000 certification are associated with internal issues. So, the certification process
is believed to lead to a better quality in: processes, procedures and products. This result
highly corroborates with the studies of: Buttle (1997), Carlsson and Carlsson (1995),
Llopis and Tari (2003) and Poksinska et al. (2002). The remaining reason is related to
the improvement of the organization’s public image, an outcome found as well by:
Arauz and Suziki (2004), Escanciano et al. (2001), Huarng et al. (1999) and Llopis and
Tari (2003). In fact, acquiring a quality certificate through a third party accreditation
agency can be used by the certified firm as an objective evidence of the high standard Motives and
of its QMS. Therefore, caring about their public image does not necessarily mean that benefits of
the responding firms acquired the ISO 9000 certificate for just impressing their
stakeholders. ISO 9000
The top benefits perceived by the surveyed firms illustrate again the
internal-external duality. Similar results were observed in the studies of: Brown et al.
(1998), Buttle (1997), Chow-Chua et al. 2003), Escanciano et al. (2001), and Magd et al. 487
(2003). It seems that the UAE firms are satisfied with the ISO 9001: 2000 certification as
they have realized their expected benefits.
Comparing 19 motives and 20 benefits items is difficult due to their intrinsic
differences. For example the “top management decision” motive statement has no
counterpart in the benefits list. However, the relationship between the motives and
benefits items can be studied through a principal component analysis. Four motives
factors were determined and named as: “operational improvement”, “following
competitors”, “human resources improvement” and “supplier relationship”. Also five
benefits factors were determined and named as: “profitability”, “human resources”,
“product quality”, “marketing” and “suppliers”. We note that the motives and benefits
factors, determined in this study, are similar to the ones listed in the papers of: Arauz
and Suziki (2004); Buttle (1997); Huarng et al. (1999); Llopis and Tari (2003) and Singels
et al. (2001). After conducting the factorial analysis, we performed a correlation
analysis between the motives and benefits factors. We found that the external motive
factor “following the competitors” presented a significant moderate correlation with
the external benefit factor “marketing”. A similar result was also found between the
internal motive factor “operational improvement” and the external benefit factor
“profitability”.
The relationship between the motives and benefits was further investigated by
analyzing the mean differences between the expected-perceived pairs of motives and
benefits. The analysis revealed two results:
(1) A little “disappointment” was observed by the respondents relative to the
improvement of the internal operational aspects like: productivity or product
quality.
(2) A “satisfactory” performance was noticed by the firms relative to marketing
and public image issues.

In other words, the responding firms met some of their external goals and to a lesser
degree their internal ones. Although the internal goals have been met moderately, they
still represent an important achievement because they scored above four on a five-point
Likert scale. Besides, improving the efficiency of the firm or its product quality cannot
be based solely on ISO 9001: 2000 certification. It seems that the managers have
over-emphasized the outcomes of ISO 9000. This could explain why certain
discrepancies have emerged between certain expected and perceived benefits.

Conclusions
The state of implementation of ISO 9000 in different countries is reported in many
academic articles. However, relative to the Arab world, a paucity of research does exist.
In this paper, we have studied the motives and benefits of ISO 9001: 2000 certified
firms in the UAE through a large-scale questionnaire survey. In fact, the UAE has the
IJQRM highest number of certified firms among the Arab countries and their contact
24,5 addresses are readily available from different databases. Logically, studying the
motives and benefits will not only explain why the number of certifications in UAE is
high, but also can provide the non certified firms with useful information which can
lead them to join the ISO 9000 movement. The response rate is equal to 209 out of 900
contacted organizations. Different manufacturing and service firms have answered our
488 survey and most of them present a medium or small size. More than half of the
responding firms have moved from the ISO 9001/9002/9003: 1994 to the ISO 9001: 2000
version of the standard.
Our findings suggest that the certified firms have adopted the right approach when
seeking ISO 9000 certification because they have focused on the potential internal
benefits. As a consequence of that, the certified firms have improved their business
performances. The UAE present one of the most competitive economic environment in
the region, therefore the UAE firms are keen to implement a reliable quality
management system. The ISO 9000 certification can help them in achieving their
quality targets so this can justify the high number of certified firms in UAE. The link
between the motives and benefits was analyzed by performing different statistical
techniques and revealed a significant moderate correlation between motives and
benefits factors.
This research can be continued in the following two areas: First, the outcomes of
this empirical study can represent an important reference when investigating the
long-term benefits of ISO 9001: 2000 certification in UAE. A similar approach was
adopted by Terziovskiet al. (2003, 1999), who studied the effects of ISO 9000
certification on Australian companies. Second, it will be interesting to study the impact
of ISO 9001: 2000 certification on the financial performances of the certified UAE firms.

Recommendations for practitioners

The practical implications of this study are as follows:
.
The ISO 9001: 2000 certification has delivered important internal and external
benefits to the certified UAE companies regardless of their size, field of operation
and ownership.
.
The responding firms have obtained interesting results because they have
focused on the right motives, which are mainly associated with operational
aspects.
.
The ISO 9001: 2000 certification have been used as a marketing tool and have
thus improved the firms’ public image.
.
It seems that the responding firms are not fully aware of the potential use of ISO
9001: 2000 certification as a passport for international business.
.
In order to successfully integrate the benefits of the certification along the supply
chain, the responding firms should have spent more efforts in convincing their
suppliers about its usefulness.

Finally the ISO 9001: 2000 certification is just the first step in the quality ladder.
Indeed, the UAE certified firms should continue their efforts relentlessly in order to
attain and sustain organizational excellence (Dale and Lascalles, 1997).
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About the author

Walid Zaramdini is working in the College of Business and Economics in the United Arab
Emirates University, Al-Ain, UAE, as an Assistant-Professor of Operations Management. Prior
to that, he completed his PhD in Management Science and Engineering from the University of
Tsukuba, in Japan. He published papers in the International Journal of Production Research and
in the Journal of the Japan Industrial Management Association. Dr Zaramdini worked as quality
manager in an international automotive manufacturing company where he had the following
responsibilities: implementing the quality assurance system, dealing with the customers’
complaints and auditing the suppliers’ quality systems. He can be contacted at:
walidz@uaeu.ac.ae

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