Do integration difficulties influence management system integration levels?

The objective of this article is to empirically analyse whether there is a relationship between the difficulties found in the integration process and the level of system integration achieved. A sample of 362 organisations registered, at least, to both ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004, is examined. Structural equation modelling is applied to their responses to a mailed survey. Two different groups are studied depending on the number of management systems implemented: two systems for the first group and three for the second. The results demonstrate that organisations with three implemented management systems face difficulties in the integration process that affect the level of integration, while this relationship is not significant for those organisations with two management systems. This paper is one of the first studies focussing on integration difficulties and their effect on the level of integration achieved. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.