Relationships among ISO 9001, competitive dimensions and profitability

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the relationships among ISO 9001 certification, competitive dimensions and profitability by focusing on two major industries in the USA. In this study, data was collected from 441 ISO 9001 registered manufacturing companies, of which, 295 companies belong to the electronics industry and 119 companies to the chemical industry. One important result of this research is that there is evidence that ISO 9001 registration efforts benefit a firm's competitiveness. However, achieving ISO 9001 certification alone will not lead to higher profitability. In the chemical industry, companies attain better financial performance by making improvements in costs. For electronics firms, higher profits can be obtained through enhancing the quality of their products, reducing cost of doing business and providing greater flexibility to their customers.