An empirical examination of ISO 9001’s influence on sustained success of companies

The purpose of this study was to study the impact of ISO 9001 on the main factors of the sustained success of companies. A background theoretical study was conducted on sustained success factors and the impacts of ISO 9001 implementation on companies’ performance. Then, the impacts of ISO 9001 on industrial companies in Turkey were identified and validated through questionnaires and interviews. The study revealed that all the SSFs were positively influenced by ISO 9001. Despite the contradictions in the literature, the study shows ISO 9001 has a positive effect on the innovative ability of these companies and a clear positive effect on adopting spiritual values. But ISO 9001 does not support a shift toward a less bureaucratic culture. This study was limited by the difficulty of distinguishing the findings based on the sectors and sizes of the companies. Although the findings could cover all areas, this research was only conducted in industrial companies based in Turkey. At the time of undertaking the current study, there are no empirical studies on the effect of ISO 9001 on the SSFs; in this study, the effect of ISO 9001 implementation on these factors was practically validated.