Investigation of the Effectiveness of the Introduction of the Quality Management System According to the ISO 9001 Standard in Transport Companies: Slovakia Case Study
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In the chapter "Material and methods", topics that are not of importance for the research are described in detail (Table 1...). Additionally, in this table, the costs of certification are presented as the costs of introducing a management system, which is not true. In the same chapter, the authors state that the duration of the introduction of the management system is from 1 to 3 weeks. All these facts lead to the conclusion that authors do not understand this issue. They also talk about certification bodies and accredited bodies in the same context, which also creates the impression that the authors do not understand this issue.
The hypotheses are not well defined, the authors defined them as research questions
It is not clear how they conclude that ISO has an impact on all these factors and not something else. How independent variables were chosen? Where are references about it? This is a small sample for this type of study. The evidence is not conclusive.
The text in chapter 4.2 is not in significant correlations with the hypotheses
The conclusion contains many unfounded recommendations
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Point 1: In the chapter "Material and methods", topics that are not of importance for the research are described in detail (Table 1...). Additionally, in this table, the costs of certification are presented as the costs of introducing a management system, which is not true. In the same chapter, the authors state that the duration of the introduction of the management system is from 1 to 3 weeks. All these facts lead to the conclusion that authors do not understand this issue. They also talk about certification bodies and accredited bodies in the same context, which also creates the impression that the authors do not understand this issue.
Response 1: Thank you for your comment on our post. One of the authors has been dealing with the issue of quality management systems in transport, freight forwarding and logistics for a long time, both theoretically and practically. He participated in the introduction of quality management systems according to the ISO 9001 standard in a number of Slovak transport companies. Currently, as an approved external lead auditor for a globally known certification company, he also performs certification and supervisory audits in road transport companies in the Slovak Republic. Another author has theoretical experience as part of engineering and doctoral studies, as well as practical experience as part of professional supervision in transport companies, also as an external assessor for the Slovak National Accreditation Service (www.snas.sk).
Thank you for the comment on tab. 1, we have removed it. We also fixed the related text on the lines 329 – 331. Incorrect tab name. 1 and the related text was created during the translation of the contribution from Slovak to English and insufficient control of the translation by the authors. In tab. 1 was the cost of quality management system certification, not the cost of implementing a quality management system according to ISO 9001. Corrections on lines 291-331.
Point 2: The hypotheses are not well defined, the authors defined them as research questions.
Response 2: Thank you for the reminder. Hypotheses were changed to research questions and a research question related to the comment in point 4 (chapter 4.2) was also added.
Point 3: It is not clear how they conclude that ISO has an impact on all these factors and not something else. How independent variables were chosen? Where are references about it? This is a small sample for this type of study. The evidence is not conclusive.
Response 3: Transport was chosen due to the fact that it was also significantly affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the lockdowns, which also affected the production and sale of products and thus the drop in demand for transport. Another reason was that, based on the authors' available information, contributions were not published on whether the established quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard contributed to maintaining the performance of road freight transport companies even during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the reasons was the focus of the authors of the article, who have been professionally active in the road transport sector for a long time.
So the purpose of the article and its originality is to determine the impact of the introduction of a quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard on the performance of a selected sample of transport companies. The impact of the introduction of the quality management system on the performance of a selected sample of transport companies was investigated through the use of several tools of financial, regression and correlation analysis, and this is original compared to those published so far.
For an objective assessment of the impact of the introduction of a quality management system according to ISO 9001 on financial performance, only those transport companies that had a quality management system in place only in a certain specified period were selected. Thus, the main criterion for choosing a suitable transport company for examining the financial situation was the introduction of a quality management system according to ISO 9001 in 2013 and 2014 already in existing companies operating in the transport sector. For that reason, only 17 suitable transport companies based in Slovakia were selected for evaluation, whose business activity was related to the performance of road freight transport operator activities and they had been issued Community licenses. Twelve transport companies from this sample obtained the ISO 9001 certificate in 2014 and five companies in 2013. Information about the companies analyzed in this paper was obtained from the RUZ database. Ten companies were selected, which are categorized as small enterprises with the number of employees from 9 to 49 employees, of which 698 were registered in Slovakia as of 31/12/2021, and seven companies that are categorized as medium-sized enterprises with the number of employees from 50 to 99 employees were selected of which there were 87 registered in Slovakia as of 12/31/2021 according to the register of financial statements.
Unfortunately, a larger sample based on the selected selection criteria was not available in the Slovak Republic.
The explanation of the sample selection is on lines 395-411.
The original contribution of the contribution is also the examination of the financial situation in transport companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given that the data was obtained from transport companies only in the Slovak Republic, we suggest changing the name of the contribution to:
Investigation of the effectiveness of the introduction of the quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard in transport companies: Slovakia Case Study
See changes on line 4.
Point 4: The text in chapter 4.2 is not in significant correlations with the hypotheses
Response 4: Thank you for the reminder. Hypotheses were changed to research questions and a research question related to the comment in point 4 (chapter 4.2) was also added. Correction on lines: 266-282 and 570.
Point 5: The conclusion contains many unfounded recommendations
Response 5: The conclusion was modified and supplemented also based on your comment. Edits on lines 682-692 and 739-780.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
I appreciate the precision of the processing and the high level of knowledge of the issue. Both authors are certainly interested in the issue for a long time. The analysis of the state of knowledge is sufficiently extensive and comprehensive for the needs of the article. The used methods are correct and justified. But the article is not a case study only for the Slovak Republic (according to the title and abstract). The authors could have paid at least partial attention to the situation in other European or even non-European countries. I do not require the addition of this in the article. I recommend the article for publication without modifications.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Point 1: I appreciate the precision of the processing and the high level of knowledge of the issue. Both authors are certainly interested in the issue for a long time. The analysis of the state of knowledge is sufficiently extensive and comprehensive for the needs of the article. The used methods are correct and justified. But the article is not a case study only for the Slovak Republic (according to the title and abstract). The authors could have paid at least partial attention to the situation in other European or even non-European countries. I do not require the addition of this in the article. I recommend the article for publication without modifications.
Response 1: Thank you for your comment on our post. One of the authors has been dealing with the issue of quality management systems in transport, freight forwarding and logistics for a long time, both theoretically and practically. He participated in the introduction of quality management systems according to the ISO 9001 standard in a number of Slovak transport companies. Currently, as an approved external lead auditor for a globally known certification company, he also performs certification and supervisory audits in road transport companies in the Slovak Republic. Another author has theoretical experience as part of engineering and doctoral studies, as well as practical experience as part of professional supervision in transport companies, also as an external assessor for the Slovak National Accreditation Service (www.snas.sk).
Given that the data was obtained from transport companies only in the Slovak Republic, we suggest changing the name of the contribution to:
Investigation of the effectiveness of the introduction of the quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard in transport companies: Slovakia Case Study
See changes on line 4.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors affirm that "there is less effort to find evidence, a causal relationship, about the impact on the financial side on the company's performance" (lines 76-77), but then they cite several studies that seem to investigate this relationhip. So the purpose of the article and its originality does not emerge.
The ISO 9001 content is taken for granted.
The choice of the transport industry and the sample composition are not adequately explained.
The 4.2 paragraph refering to COVID-19 pandemic effects seems to be a stand-alone argument, not adeguately and logically connected to the main argument.
Academic and managerial implications are not adeguately developed.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 3 Comments
Point 1: The authors affirm that "there is less effort to find evidence, a causal relationship, about the impact on the financial side on the company's performance" (lines 76-77), but then they cite several studies that seem to investigate this relationship. So the purpose of the article and its originality does not emerge.
Response 1: So the purpose of the article and its originality is to determine the impact of the introduction of a quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard on the performance of a selected sample of transport companies. The impact of the introduction of a quality management system on performance was investigated through the use of several tools of financial analysis, regression and correlation analysis on the assessed companies, and this is original compared to the contributions published so far, which were also not focused on transport companies.
The original contribution of the contribution is also the examination of the financial situation in transport companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Point 2: The ISO 9001 content is taken for granted.
Response 2: We agree with the comment and have incorporated it on lines 164-172.
Point 3: The choice of the transport industry and the sample composition are not adequately explained.
Response 3:.Transport was chosen due to the fact that it was also significantly affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the lockdowns, which also affected the production and sale of products and thus the drop in demand for transport. The second reason was that, based on the authors' available information, contributions were not published on whether the established quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard contributed to maintaining the performance of road freight transport companies even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The third reason was the focus of the authors of the article, who have been professionally active in the road transport sector for a long time. One of the authors has been dealing with the issue of quality management systems in transport, shipping and logistics for a long time, both theoretically and practically. He participated in the introduction of quality management systems according to the ISO 9001 standard in a number of Slovak transport companies. Currently, as an approved external lead auditor for a globally known certification company, he also performs certification and supervisory audits in road transport companies in the Slovak Republic.
Another author has theoretical experience as part of engineering and doctoral studies, as well as practical experience as part of professional supervision in transport companies, also as an external assessor for the Slovak National Accreditation Service (www.snas.sk).
Given that the data was obtained from transport companies only in the Slovak Republic, we suggest changing the name of the contribution to:
Investigation of the effectiveness of the introduction of the quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard in transport companies: Slovakia Case Study
See changes on line 4.
Point 4: The 4.2 paragraph referring to COVID-19 pandemic effects seems to be a stand-alone argument, not adequately and logically connected to the main argument.
Response 4: Thank you for the valuable reminder. Correction on lines: 266-282 and 570.
Point 5: Academic and managerial implications are not adequately developed.
Response 5: We developed academic and managerial implications more on lines 682-692 and 739-780.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
No more suggestions.
