Systematic Review of Challenges to ISO 9001 Adoption in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LIMCs) of Asia.

  • Unique Paper ID: 191023
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 8
  • PageNo: 5535-5541
  • Abstract:
  • ISO 9001:2015 is standard developed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for establishing Quality Management System. This system is globally recognized for increasing organizational performance and customer satisfaction. However, the adoption of ISO 9001 is limited within Low- and Middle-Income countries (LIMCs). This paper based on PRISMA systematic review of 21 empirical and conceptual studies focused on finding out the challenges to ISO adoption within LIMCs of Asia published between 2000 to 2025. Nine themes were generated to categorized the challenges pointed out in the studies. The themes are 1) Knowledge and Awareness barriers, 2) Human Capital and Competency constraints, 3) Financial Constraints, 4) Organizational culture and resistance to change, 5) Symbolic Adoption and Superficial implementation of standards,6) Documentation and system formalization challenges, 7) Deficit of Leadership and commitment of top management, 8) Lack of Market and customer demand of certified products, 9) Absence of institutional and Regulatory environment. The findings reveal that the organizational culture and resistance to change was the most common among LIMCs of Asia.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{191023,
        author = {Enusha Khadka and Dr. Chan Sai Keong},
        title = {Systematic Review of Challenges to ISO 9001 Adoption in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LIMCs) of Asia.},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {8},
        pages = {5535-5541},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=191023},
        abstract = {ISO 9001:2015 is standard developed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for establishing Quality Management System. This system is globally recognized for increasing organizational performance and customer satisfaction. However, the adoption of ISO 9001 is limited within Low- and Middle-Income countries (LIMCs). This paper based on PRISMA systematic review of 21 empirical and conceptual studies focused on finding out the challenges to ISO adoption within LIMCs of Asia published between 2000 to 2025. Nine themes were generated to categorized the challenges pointed out in the studies. The themes are 1) Knowledge and Awareness barriers, 2) Human Capital and Competency constraints, 3) Financial Constraints, 4) Organizational culture and resistance to change, 5) Symbolic Adoption and Superficial implementation of standards,6) Documentation and system formalization challenges, 7) Deficit of Leadership and commitment of top management, 8) Lack of Market and customer demand of certified products, 9) Absence of institutional and Regulatory environment. The findings reveal that the organizational culture and resistance to change was the most common among LIMCs of Asia.},
        keywords = {ISO 9001:2015, Quality Management System, PRISMA systematic review, Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Adoption challenges},
        month = {January},
        }

Cite This Article

Khadka, E., & Keong, D. C. S. (2026). Systematic Review of Challenges to ISO 9001 Adoption in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LIMCs) of Asia.. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(8), 5535–5541.

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