Comprehensive Analysis of ISO Certification in Chinese Industries

This report investigates the impact of ISO certification on industries in China. The study analyzes the proportion of ISO-certified industries, the relationship between company age and employee numbers, and the association between ISO certification and various sectors. Utilizing a case-control study with a sample of 5717 observations and 23 variables, the research employs descriptive and inferential statistics, including t-tests, chi-square tests, and ANOVA. Key findings reveal that most industries are not ISO certified, contradicting some literature, and a positive association exists between company age and employee count. The report discusses these findings, compares them to existing literature, and suggests future research directions, such as incorporating more variables and alternative sampling procedures. The study also highlights the importance of evaluating product quality and understanding the reasons behind non-certification, offering valuable insights into the Chinese market and the implications of ISO standards.

ISO Certification in China
Student’s Name:
Date

Objective of the Study
• Investigating the proportion of industries that are ISO certified
• Investigating the relationship between the age of the company and
the number of employees
• Investigating whether there is association between ISO certifiaction
and industries in China

ABSTRACT
 The study involved investigating how the ISO certification status of the companies affects various
operations of an industry
 To achieve this, significance information about ISO certification was obtained from the previous journals.
Information concerning the operations of different industries and the ISO certification status of the
company was the major concern of the study
 The data was conducted using a case control study
 The sample size for the data was collected using a simple random sampling procedure
 The data that was collected contained 5717 observation and 23 variables
 The data obtained was analyzed on SPSS focusing on descriptive statistics and inferential statistics
 The results obtained from analysis was discussed and some managerial advice was issued in relation to
the results obtained from the study

INTRODUCTION
 It is certain that thee quality of products and services is a major concern to the end-users.
 Different industries and institution aim at providing standard goods and services to the end users
 Customers feel protected when they are offered standard goods and services (Dumond & Johnson,
2013).
 The ISO certificates are recognized at the global level and this ensures that the products and services
offered by ISO certified customers are well trusted by the customers even at the global levels (Boiral,
2011)
 In some countries where quality is a major consideration, some companies are suspended from
performing their activities until they are ISO certified
 Thus, this research will contribute a lot in determining how the ISO certification status of the
companies affects various operations of an industry


LITERATURE REVIEW
 A research conducted by Heras-Saizarbitoria, Arana Landín, & Molina-Azorín (2011), obtained that the
investors who wanted to be major shareholders in the company considered the ISO certification status
of the company by 78% compared to those who didn’t consider
 Li & Hamblin (2016) obtained that investors made greater contributions for companies that were ISO
certified compared to those that were not ISO certified
 According to del Mar Alonso-Almeida & Rodríguez-Antón (2011), sometimes ISO certification fails to
achieve its objectives of ensuring production of products that are of high quality and genuine
 It was obtained that some companies produce substandard goods due to lack of follow up procedure for
the products that are produced ((Guchu, 2012). This occurs after receiving ISO certification
 A a survey conducted indicated that there was a significant difference in the operating profit and the
industry of the company (Jorge Gamboa & Filipe Melão, 2012)

METHODOLOGY
 The data was collected using a case-control study
 The sample size for the data was collected using a simple random sampling procedure
 The data that was collected contained 5717 observation and 23 variables
 A Quantitative Research Design was implemented for this research

 The mean of the return on asset was obtained to be .2236 with a standard deviation was obtained to be
0.209. The standard deviation indicated that many observations of ROA had less variability from the
center
 The average age of the company since it was founded was 7.62 with a standard deviation of 7.04.
 The standard deviation indicated that most companies had an age that was 7.04 times away from the
mean
 The average sales was obtained to be 11698.57 with a standard deviation of 32873.609. This implied very
high dispersion among the sales (Ullah, Wei, & Xie, 2014).
 The coefficient of skewness was 11.38 which further indicated that sales were highly positively skewed
 The majority of the employees reached high school and college level of education
 Also, it was obtained that very employees in most companies had masters and doctorate degree
RESULTS
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

Proportions of Industries in
China
The pie-chart below indicates that business services had the highest
proportion while telecommunication had the lowest proportion

Percentage proportion of industries
in China
It was obtained that business services industry had the highest
percentage among all the industries while telecommunication had the
lowest.

Number of employees in the
industry based on the year the
company was founded
It was obtained from the bar chart that the company had high number
of employees compared to when it was foundes

Certification status of the
companies
It was also obtained that the highest proportion of the company was
not ISO certified (Guchu, 2012).

Proportion of industries that are
ISO certified
It was obtained that 85% of industries were not ISO certified

Relationship between the year the
company was founded and the
number of employees
• The scatterplot indicated that there was a positive association
between the year the company was founded and the number of
employees

 From the chi-square test, it was obtained that there was an association between certification status and the
companies (Escanciano & Santos-Vijande, 2014).
 The t-test had a p-value of 0.000 which indicated that there was a significant difference between the ISO
certified industries and those that weren’t ISO certified
 There was a moderate positive association between the age of the company and the number of employees
of 0.577. Meaning that the relationship between the age of the company and the number of employees
were 57.7 %
 From the ANOVA test it was obtained that there was a significant difference in the average profit among the
various industries. This was concluded by the p-value which was obtained to be less than 0.05
INFERENTIAL STATITICS
RESULTS

Findings of the Analysis
• The results indicated that there was an association between the
number of employees and the year the company was founded
• It also indicated that there was an association between the ISO
certification status and the industries in China
• Finally, the highest proportion of industries were not ISO certified

Discussion
 From the test most industries in China were not ISO certified which contradicted the findings in the literature
review which had indicated that most industries in China were ISO certified
 Therefore, the China Bureau of standards should consider evaluating the quality of the products that are
produced across various industries (Chatzoglou, Chatzoudes, & Kipraios, 2015)
 It should also consider knowing why most companies prefer operating by not being ISO certified.
 The literature review had indicated that there was an association between the industry and ISO certification
status of the company, the current status also indicated the presence of the association
 The analysis indicated that on average there was a higher number of employees working for the ISO certified
companies compared to those working for the non-ISO certified companies

Limitations and Direction for Future Study
 Despite having used simple random sampling, the researcher seemed to have been biased by using the
majority of the companies that were not certified.
 This implies that in future the researcher should consider using alternative sampling procedure such as
stratified random sampling or cluster sampling
 The researcher should also consider including more variables that will are more closely related to ISO
certification such as the profit index for the company before and after certification

References
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Chatzoglou, P., Chatzoudes, D., & Kipraios, N. (2015). The impact of ISO 9000 certification on firms’
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Dumond, E. J., & Johnson, T. W. (2013). Managing university business educational quality: ISO or
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del Mar Alonso-Almeida, M., & Rodríguez-Antón, J. M. (2011). Organisational behaviour and strategies in
the adoption of certified management systems: an analysis of the Spanish hotel
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Escanciano, C., & Santos-Vijande, M. L. (2014). Reasons and constraints to implementing an ISO 22000
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Guchu, G. (2012). ISO quality management system implementation for small to medium manufacturing
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