Does ISO 9000 series certification matter for the financial performance of ports? Some preliminary findings from Europe

This article investigates the role of ISO 9000 certification on the financial performance of the port authorities. The financial and scale efficiency of 18 European port authorities, some certified and some not, have been reviewed and results derived using data envelopment analysis. The inputs and outputs used in the analysis were selected following the literature and after employing regression analysis on the whole data set and the results reveal that ISO certified ports are more efficient financially than their non-certified competitors. By further using the efficiency slacks from the frontier, an indicative estimation of the magnitude of this inefficiency has been also calculated. The method followed may provide the impetus for a research agenda aiming explicitly on the exact contribution of certification on the financial ‘below the line’ results of the companies.