A worldwide analysis of management systems certification

Abstract

According to the last available ISO survey, in December 2009 there were 1.065.785 issued ISO 9001 certificates, thus reflecting the importance of ISO 9001 certification worldwide, and approximately 223.149 ISO 14001 issued certificates. In the line of our previous publications, this paper presents a further set of statistical analyses conducted over ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 available data. We provide some key results, which try to answer important questions regarding quality and environmental management systems certification in several countries. We believe that such results provide an additional important contribution to the study of management systems diffusion/evolution, aimed at providing fact-based insights into, among other, the following issues: Which are the countries leading quality and environmental management system certification?; Which are the countries that present highest growth rates between 2008 and 2009?; What has been the evolution of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certification in the different countries in the past few years?; What are market future perspectives regarding certification?