What Explains the Uneven Take-Up of ISO 14001 at the Global Level? A Panel-Data Analysis

By Eric Neumayer, Richard Perkins. 2004

152 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Since its release in the mid-1990s, close to 37 000 facilities have been certified to ISO 14001, the international voluntary standard for environmental management systems. Yet, despite claims that the standard can be readily adapted to very different corporate and geographic settings, its take-up has been highly geographically variable. This paper contributes to a growing body of work concerned with explaining the uneven diffusion of ISO 14001 at the global level. Drawing from the existing theoretical and empirical literature we develop a series of hypotheses about how various economic, market, and regulatory factors influence the national count of ISO 14001 certifications. These hypotheses are then tested using econometric estimation techniques with data for a panel of 142 developed and developing countries. We find that per capita ISO 14001 counts are positively correlated with income per capita, stock of foreign direct investment, exports of goods and services to Europe and Japan, and pressure from civil society. Conversely, productivity and levels of state intervention are negatively correlated. The paper finishes by offering a number of recommendations to policymakers concerned with accelerating the diffusion of voluntary environmental standards.

Subfields: Building and Construction, Marketing, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/de04df737e041d042a9670d1a20eb13b1ef73cf3

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Building and Construction

In Marketing

In Strategy and Management

Citations in the corpus

Transnational linkages in sustainability experiments:A typology and the case of solar photovoltaic energy in India (2015, background): “Green procurement requirements imposed by global firms on suppliers may create pressures for the adoption of ‘beyond compliance’ environmental codes, standards and organisational practices (Neumayer and Perkins, 2004).”
11 Postcards from the Edge (2007, background): “Neumayer and Perkins (2004) found that participation in ISO 14001 is influenced by pressure from local wealthy stakeholders, civil society, and foreign customers in Europe and Japan.”
Environmental Innovations, Local Networks and Internationalization (2012, background): “…with transnational linkages for increasing environmental efficiency: for example, through the generation of environmentally beneficial technological spillovers, stimulation of competitive dynamics and the effect of “green” procurement requirements on domestic suppliers (Neumayer & Perkins, 2003).”
The Next Wave of Globalization: Relocating Service Provision to India (2007, background): “These included various international certifications such as International Standards Organization (ISO) certifications including ISO 9001 and 14001, the Carnegie Mellon software and other certification levels, and the adoption of “six sigma” processes (Guler et al. 2002; Neumayer and Perkins 2004).”
Geographic Variations in the Early Diffusion of Corporate Voluntary Standards: Comparing ISO 14001 and the Global Compact (2010, methodology): “(5) prepare a public statement declaring that ISO14001 is being implemented; and (6) employ a registered auditor to confirm that the organization's procedures are consistent with the documented EMS (Neumayer and Perkins, 2004).”
Fostering Environment Efficiency through Transnational Linkages? Trajectories of CO2 and SO2, 1980–2000 (2008, unknown): “A number of studies have found that transnational linkages via trade and investment have been associated with the adoption of new and/or more stringent government regulatory policies (Garcia-Johnson, 2000) and private regulatory codes (Neumayer and Perkins, 2003).”
T ra nsna tio na l linka ge s a nd t he spill ove r of env iro n m ent- ef fi ci ency into develo pi ng c ountri es (2009, background): “These predications are largely borne out by the empirical record, which shows that public and private commitment towards environmental protection rises with per capita income (e.g. Dasgupta et al., 2001, Neumayer and Perkins, 2004).”