An empirical study of the motives and benefits of QMS/ISO implementation among Indian SMEs

This is one of the first papers trying to analyse the motives and benefits of QMS/ISO implementation in Indian SMEs. A survey work of 220 certified Indian SMEs is carried out and presented in the paper. The relationships between expected and perceived benefits were analysed through statistical analysis. This paper highlights the results of this survey, which concluded that QMS/ISO certified companies were more concerned by internal reasons like improving processes/productivity or products/services than by external reasons like pressure from customers or imitation of competitors. In addition, the paper pointed out that the QMS implementation process had generated more internal benefits than external ones. The findings of the research work also indicate that the SME firms will sustain their quality efforts as continuous improvement. This paper is structured as: first, we review the previous literature on motives and benefits of QMS/ISO implementation and identified research gaps. Next, paper present the research methodology followed by the survey analysis and results. After discussing the main findings of the empirical research, we finally conclude with useful recommendations for practitioners.