Strategic orientation and financial performance of firms implementing ISO 9000

The ISO 9000 scheme has been reproved for being a paper driven process with little if no impact on firm performance. As international scientific literature indicates a wide range of factors leading to the adoption of the ISO 9000 schemes, the impact of this adoption should be viewed and examined in a framework of the firms’ strategic orientation. A sample of Greek businesses that adopted the ISO 9000 scheme in the early 1990s is classified into three categories of strategic orientation, namely cost leadership, market differentiation and focus strategy. If all the firms are pooled together, there is no significant difference in their financial performance indicators after a period of six years following the adoption of ISO 9000. However, if the firms are examined separately and according to their strategic orientation, those firms pursuing a cost leadership strategy present statistically significant growth of financial profitability indicators, while those firms pursuing a market differentiation strategy present statistically significant growth of their turnover and market share. Thus, strategic orientation is a moderating factor influencing the relationship between registration to a quality scheme such as the ISO 9000 scheme, and the firm's financial performance.