Clustering of European countries based on ISO 9000 certification diffusion

Purpose – One of the stated goals behind the formation of the International Organization for Standardization was to develop standards to facilitate international trade in goods and services. This goal has caused different country‐group trends in the diffusion of ISO certification. The purpose of this paper is to create a taxonomy of ISO 9000 certification diffusion in Europe.Design/methodology/approach – The diffusion of ISO certificates in Europe was analyzed using the single linkage clustering algorithm. Then the features of each cluster were highlighted.Findings – European nations were found to belong to three macro areas which differ for patterns of ISO 9000 certification diffusion: the constant growth area, the saturation area and the decline area.Research limitations/implications – The present study deals with European nations, focusing on ISO 9000 standards. Future research will be addressed toward the analysis of other standards in a wider geographical area in order to see if the results found for...

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