Determinants of the Success of ISO 9000 Implementation and What That Means: The Case of Taiwan

Survey data from 441 firms in Taiwan were collected and used to test the theoretical model. Based on structural equation modeling, our empirical analysis demonstrates several key findings: (1) Good underlying pre-implementation planning is a solid foundation for ISO implementation. (2) Employee empowerment is essential, because it internalizes the need for maintenance activities. (3) Successful ISO implementation depends most on maintenance activities in, and this must become part of the routine-part of the organization. (4) These constructs are a series of chain, rather than parallel components, a firm cannot simply select some of the ISO 9000 practices discussed above and expect to realize full operational benefits from implementing partial ISO 9000.