Title: Assessing the efficiency of the ISO 9001 quality management system in the Kuwaiti banking industry through the application of the structural equation model

Authors: Ahmad R. Alsaber; Anwar Al-Kandari; Mohamad Alnajem; Omar Al-Husainan; Aly Mansour; Karim Ullah; Rania Nafea

Addresses: Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, American University of Kuwait, Salmiya, Kuwait ' Business and Management Department, Kuwait Technical College, Street 5 Block 2, Kuwait ' College of Business Administration, Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), Mubarak Al-Abdullah, Kuwait ' College of Business, Australian College of Kuwait, Mubarak Al-Abdullah, Kuwait ' Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, The American University of Kuwait, Salmiya, Kuwait ' The Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance, Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, Pakistan ' College of Administrative and Financial Services (CAFS), University of Technology Bahrain, Salmabad, Bahrain

Abstract: The paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of ISO 9001 in improving sustainable service quality of banks in Kuwait. The data from a sample 360 respondents is analysed using structured equation modelling (SEM) in SmartPLS to evaluate the degree of achievement in important standard's objectives, namely competency framework, customer focus, risk-based thinking, leadership and commitment. The study goes further to evaluate how the ISO 9001 effectiveness transforms into organisational performance in Banks. Finally, the model fit is assessed to reveal its good fit. The findings have interestingly shown that the ISO 9001 implementation seems to be creating effectiveness through more workers, in this case bankers, centric elements such as competency framework, their risk-taking behaviour. However, little evidence is found for the factors extrinsic to the workers, such as customer focus and leadership and commitment. These findings imply that ISO 9001 requires adoption and implementation strategies, which needs to gear around rationalising and embedding the ISO 9001 principles as these being intrinsic to employees. Approaching the ISO 9001 as imposition from leadership or even showing it as requirement of the customers will be less likely to work in the banking services at Kuwait.

Keywords: Kuwait; banking sector; ISO 9001 effectiveness; performance; SEM-PLS; QMS; conceptual framework.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPM.2026.150344

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2026 Vol.27 No.1, pp.73 - 95

Received: 06 Oct 2023
Accepted: 26 Feb 2024
Published online: 10 Dec 2025 *

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