Since the release of ISO 14001 in 1996, China has witnessed a surge in the number of ISO 14001 certification. As an international environmental standard, ISO 14001 has two basic functions: one is playing as an environmental management instrument, while the other as a signal of firms’ better environmental performance to stakeholders. Based on the stakeholder theory, we have examined the effects ...

Purpose: This study aspires to explore how the United States stock market reacts to ISO 14001 certification announcements. Design/methodology/approach: The manuscript employs an event-study methodology on a sample of 140 announcements and matching control firms to study the impact of ISO 14001 certification announcements. Findings: Our results suggest that ISO 14001 certification announcements ...

In this article, we analyze the impact on hotels of the ISO 14001 environmental certification system from the customers’ perspective. Based on a comparison of customer ratings of 6,850 hotels in Spain with and without ISO 14001 certification, overall guests rate the hotels with ISO 14001 certification higher than those without the certification. These results are stronger for hotel comfort and ...

ISO 14001, released in 1996, provides the basic framework for the establishment of an Environmental Management System (EMS) that can be audited and certi¢ed. ISO is not only an acronym for the International Organization for Standardization, but is also a term that refers to its Greek meaning: ‘equal.’ The main rationale for the creation of ISO 14001 was that its worldwide acceptance should faci...

Globalization critics argue that international trade spurs a race to the bottom among national environmental standards. ISO 14001 is the most widely adopted voluntary environmental regulation which encourages firms to take environmental action beyond what domestic government regulations require. Drawing on a panel study of 108 countries over seven years, we investigate conditions under which tr...

I draw upon the dynamic capability model to explore how new process standards influence the ability of manufacturing facilities to improve environmental performance by reducing toxic emissions. The process standards studied are the ISO 14001 environmental management standards, in use since 1996. Hypotheses are developed to account for how early adoption of ISO 14001 and experience with the stan...

This paper explores the diffusion patterns of the ISO 14001 environmental management system worldwide. By using the data obtained from the ISO Survey of Certifications, the diffusion of ISO 14001 was investigated at global, regional, and country-specific levels. The results showed that both global and regional patterns resembled a typical logistic growth curve. The parameters of logistic curves...