Firms choose to seek environmental management system certifications such as ISO 14001 certifications for certain reasons. Since obtaining and maintaining such certifications is costly and also voluntary, firms are choosy in deciding which of their establishments are to be certified. In this paper we put forward a hypothesis that firms seek ISO 14001 certifications for their establishments when ...

The Noodsberg Cane Growers’ Association (NCGA) initiated an environmental management system (EMS) in the Midlands North region of the South African sugar industry, based on ISO 14001. A brief description of ISO 14001 is given, outlining the principles behind the system. The course of action taken in the development of the NCGA management system is described. A breakdown of the components of the...

This paper integrates a stakeholder perspective into the resource-based view of the firm, to analyze the mechanisms that link the adoption of the international Environmental Management Standard ISO 14001 to firms’ competitive advantage. This paper shows that the perceived competitiveness impact of the standard depends mostly on the involvement of firms’ external stakeholders (distributors, cust...

In this paper, we explore the drivers of certification with the ISO 14001 environmental management standard. Scholars and practitioners debate whether ISO 14001 certification signals superior underlying environmental performance or signifies merely the adoption of specific environmental management practices. Our paper helps to resolve this debate by developing a theory of why and when organizat...

There is an increasing growth of customers and regulators requesting enterprises to adopt the ISO 14001 environmental management standard over the last 15 years. Yet, any evidence for consistent environmental, market, and social benefits has been widely debated, which in turn, might be partly linked to the underlying organizational motives for environmental management system adoption. Based on ...

Independent third party certification has been proposed as a governance mechanism to control for unobservable practices of firms, such as green practices. Although showing some promise, it has been also argued that the challenge of independent third party certification is to force firms to embrace certifications in substance (hence to internalize the certifications in daily practice) not only t...

Studies analyzing the effects of ISO 14001 certification and determinants of environmental performance tend to be based on a traditional and instrumental model of efficiency. Using structural equation modelling developed through a survey of 303 organizations, this paper compares the validity of this instrumental model with two alternatives models: the legitimacy-based model and the hybrid model...

The ISO 14000 and ISO 9000 standards have a positive impact on achieving sustainable and efficient business. The ISO 14001, in particular, is credited with a crucial role of assisting businesses with managing their environmental credentials which are vital in the upcoming carbon economy. This paper explores the significance of ISO 14001 and expands on the possibilities of the use of this standa...

The need for sustainable development has become paramount, whereby there is a need to satisfy the needs of today, without compromising the needs of tomorrow with the aim of improving the quality of life now and in future. Environmental management systems need to be integrated into the overall management systems in order for society to develop in a sustainable manner. ISO 14001 has the effective...