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New ISO 9001 study by RSM Alumna wins MSc thesis award

New ISO 9001 study by RSM Alumna wins MSc thesis award

A new analysis of existing data from businesses using the ISO 9001international standard for quality management has won an award for its author Basak Manders, an MSc graduate from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM).

Basak Manders was awarded first prize for her MSc thesis The financial impact of ISO 9000 certification: a meta-analysis during the annual thesis award ceremony organised by the Dutch network for quality management, NNK (Nederlands Netwerk voor Kwaliteitsmanagement).

In her thesis, Basak examines the business impact of ISO 9001, which is used by more than a million organisations worldwide. Many studies report contradictory results: positive impacts, neutral impacts, a mixture of these, or even negative impacts. Basak did not gather new data, but instead re-analysed data from existing studies and made use of statistical methods to produce a common result. Her main finding is that ISO 9001 implementation leads to more income, thanks to an increase in sales. However, her studies were unable to prove that internal costs decrease due to improved efficiency. According to the jury, Manders’ thesis was ‘a well-founded and well-conducted methodical analysis which is of great importance to the sector and of societal value.’

Basak is the fourth winner of this award in seven years for thesis supervisor and RSM Associate Professor of Standardisation, Dr Henk de Vries. He said: “I am in particular impressed that she managed to learn the sophisticated meta-analysis methods and did this excellent study in three months. It is great that she decided to continue her research in the form of a PhD study in which she extends her research to the relationship of ISO 9001 with innovation and the impact of both on business performance.”

The NKK intends to promote the importance of quality management and the development of applied knowledge in the industry and society by means of the annual research award and its Business Improvement Event.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe. It is located in the international port city of Rotterdam where core Dutch values of openness, flexibility and acceptance of diversity have attracted businesses on a global scale. Our emphasis is on groundbreaking research and practices relevant to business; our primary focus is on developing business leaders who carry their innovative ideas into a sustainable future. Our portfolio includes a broad array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and executive education programmes. www.rsm.nl

For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at mschouten@remove-this.rsm.nl.