In an economic environment characterized in recent years by globalization and the
integration of economic processes, standardization in management systems has had a high growth. In
this context, there has been a remarkable increase in certain standards, or norms, issued by
international organizations. Among these standards, two main groups stand out, both issued by the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO): one for quality management systems – the
family of ISO 9000 standards – and the other for environmental management systems – the ISO 14000
standards. This paper aims to analyze the world wide diffusion process of these two standards, using
data provided by the ISO itself.