INT. J. PROD. RES., 1997, VOL. 35, NO. 2, 569-576 Experiences of US- and foreign-owned firms: a new perspective on ISO 9000 implementation M. EBRAHlMPOURt, B. E. WITHERSt* and N. HIKMETj Responses from over 500 companies relating to their experiences with ISO 9000 implementation are presented. Companies were categorized according to owner- ship: US-owned (Type U) and foreign-owned (Type F) manufacturing firms. The results reveal the importance and the dual role ofdocumentation as a critical factor necessary to obtain ISO 9000 registration: (1) as the critical element requiring the highest level of effort in the registration process; and (2) as one ofthe key potential barriers to successful implementation. Increasing market share is the highest rated reason for achieving ISO 9000 registration. ISO 9000 registered companies expect a high degree of improvement in product design, process design, product quality, communication, and supplier relations. The findings also reveal that there is no significant difference between the two firm ownership types for all variables tested, indicating that the ISO 9000 standards appear universal in applicability. 1. Introduction ISO 9000 is a series of standards sponsored by the International Organization for Standardization. These standards provide the basis for establishing, documenting, and maintaining a system which ensures the quality of the process. Basically, registration under this series indicates that a firm is meeting a minimum standard for quality systems and, thus, can produce and deliver goods or services from processes that meet expected ISO 9000 registration standards (De Angelis 1991, Korane 1993). Only recently have the ISO 9000 standards received any significant momentum or acceptance worldwide. The major impetus for this shift seems to be their incorpora- tion into the European Community's global assessment procedures which enable Europeans to reject products or services from companies that are not registered with the ISO (Marash 1993). As of June 1994, worldwide registration had risen to 70 517, an increase of 153% over the number in December 1992 (Mobil Survey 1994). By 1 December 1994, US registration had jumped to 4942, a 637% increase over the December 1992 number of 671 (ISO 9000 Registered Company Directory 1994). From 100000 to 150000 US firms are expected to seek registration during the next decade (Russell 1993). The registration has even spread to the Japanese firms where over 1050 firms, as of June 1994, were ISO 9000 registered, an increase of 542% over the number of registered Japanese firms in January 1993 (ISO 9000 Registered Company Directory 1994). In recent years, there has been an explosion of published work on various issues associated with ISO 9000 registration. However, almost all of these works are Revised March 1996 * To whom correspondence should be addressed. t Department of Management Science and Information Systems, College of Business Administration, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881 USA. % School of Business Administration, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110 USA. § This research was supported by a grant from the American Society for Quality Control (ASQC). 0020-7543/97 $12-00 © 1997 Taylor & Francis Ltd.