DO STANDARDIZED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS HINDER INNOVATION PROCESSES?

The aim of this research is to respond, from an empirical point of view, to the following question: "Do management systems based on standards hinder innovation processes?". In order to achieve this objective, an empirical work with the participation of 254 companies is presented here. The research was carried out in 2006 within the framework of a wider research project called "Integrated Management Systems (IMS) in Spanish Companies". Study results are presented and statistically analyzed Discussion of the research findings and future work are also provided.