REVISITING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIVENESS AND ISO 9001

The relationship between organizational innovativeness and ISO 9001 is still ambiguous in the literature. This paper aims to shed light on this understudied issue by observing how different levels of ISO 9001 quality management system internalization influence organizational innovativeness. To answer this question we analysed the relationship between internal motivation for implementation of ISO 9001, internalization of ISO 9001 and organizational innovativeness in one hundred and fifty seven ISO 9001 certified organizations from four European countries (Austria, Croatia, Italy and Romania). We found out that higher levels of internalization of ISO 9001 have a positive relationship with organizational innovativeness, while higher levels of internal motivation for implementation of ISO 9001 have a positive influence on ISO 9001 internalization. Through analysis of internal motivation as an important antecedent of ISO 9001 internalization and its relationship with organizational innovativeness, our findings can help organizations to reconcile the need for achieving innovativeness and quality at the same time. Future research should try to broaden the research sample and conduct a longitudinal study in order to analyse the influence of other institutional factors on the relationships proposed in our research.