This article explores the decoupling between the rhetoric and practice of ISO 9000, an internationally disseminated standard in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Extensive fieldwork based on 65 in-depth interviews of general managers, middle managers and employees was undertaken in eight Spanish SMEs which adopted the standard over a long period of time. Contrary to common belief and the dominant neo-institutional approach to ISO certification, the findings indicate that firms tend to adopt ISO 9000 symbolically in response to various internal organisational contingencies, rather than as part of their adaptation to external pressures. ISO 9000 certification in SMEs can be compared to the acquisition of an organisational degree whose optimistic rhetoric and similar institutional pressures mask the considerable heterogeneity of certified organisations and elasticity of the standard when integrated into daily activities.