Decertification from international management standards: a systematic literature review and research agenda

Purpose – After twenty years of research on decertification from management system standards, this paper presents the first systematic literature review and research agenda on the topic. Design/methodology/approach – The study is structured as a systematic literature review of articles retrieved from Elsevier's Scopus. Findings – Evidence is coded and classified to expound emerging themes around four key foci: drivers, performance implications, post-decertification paths, and contextual factors. Originality – Our study identifies significant gaps in the academic body of knowledge and suggests several directions for further investigation, providing a solid foundation for future research. Practical implications ¬– The outcomes offer valuable guidance to managers by highlighting relevant issues to consider when adopting, managing, and abandoning management system standards. Furthermore, regulatory bodies such as ISO, SAI, and B Lab could leverage our findings to gain a deeper understanding of the decertification phenomenon and take appropriate countermeasures to address and reverse it.