The Effectiveness of ISO 9000 in an Emerging Market as a Business Process Management Tool: The Case of the UAE

The popularity of the ISO 9000 standard initiated so may points of views for researchers and organizations implementing ISO 9000 for whether the standard that utilizes business process management approach had fulfilled its scope and helped companies in initiating an effective quality management system or not in an emerging market?. The literature review highlighted the richness in studies and researchers in different parts of the world addressing the ISO 9000 standard implementation and other factors affecting it are not having the same weight in the Arab World in general and the United Arab Emirates UAE in particular as an emerging market country, despite the fact that the UAE is occupying the second place in term of the number of certified organizations in the Arab world. From this point, it is clear that it is a need to have an exploratory study to evaluate ISO 9OOO implementation within the UAE organizations to determine the effectiveness of the standard based on the usage as a business process approach or a tool. More specifically, the research intended to cover areas such as drivers for adopting the standard, benefits of the standard, and problems witnessed during implementation. In achieving the objectives of the study, a quantitative study in nature were undertaken through a sample of 100 certified firms in the UAE with a feedback of 51% was obtained. Initial findings indicate that organizations which implemented the standard indicated that they had a positive impact and it seen as a good starting point to continue with such business process management tools/systems in sustaining business.