Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:48:27.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Institutional Perspective on the Diffusion of International Management System Standards: The Case of the Environmental Management Standard ISO 14001

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Magali A. Delmas  and
Maria J. Montes-Sancho
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This paper analyzes how national institutional factors affect the adoption of the international environmental management standard ISO 14001, using a panel of 139 countries from 1996 to 2006. The analysis emphasizes that during the emerging phase of the standard, the potential lack of consensus within the constituents of the national institutional environment concerning the value of a new standard could send mixed signals to firms about the standard. The results show that in the early phase of adoption, regulative and normative forces within the institutional environment can work against each other. Results also show that regulative or coercive forces play a relatively more important role in the early phase of adoption of the standard than in the subsequent phases of diffusion. In the later phases of diffusion of ISO 14001, normative forces, such as the diffusion of other management standards, as well as factors related to trade, play a more important role. Because of the similarities between environmental management standards and corporate social responsibility standards, this study can help identify some of the challenges for diffusion of ISO management standards in the area of social responsibility.

Type
Special Section Accountability in a Global Economy: The Emergence of International Accountability Standards to Advance Corporate Social Responsibility
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 103 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrahamson, E., & Fairchild, G. 1999. Management fashion: Lifecycles, triggers, and collective learning processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4): 708–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albuquerque, P., Bronnenberg, B. J., & Corbett, C. J. 2007. A spatio-temporal analysis of the global diffusion of ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 certification. Management Science, 53(3): 451–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, R. N. L., Amaral, D., Darnall, N., Gallagher, D. R., Edwards, D. Jr., Hutson, A., D’Amore, C., Sun, L., & Zhang, Y. 2003. Environmental management systems: Do they improve performance? Final report of the National Database on Environmental Management Systems Pilot Project. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Department of Public Policy.Google Scholar
Arias, M. E., & Guillen, M. F. 1998. The transfer of organizational management techniques. In Alvarez, J. L. (Ed.), The diffusion and consumption of business knowledge. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bansal, P., & Bogner, W. C. 2002. Deciding on ISO 14001: Economics, institutions, and context. Long Range Planning, 35(3): 269–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, F. S., & Berry, W. D. 1994. The politics of tax increases in the states. American Journal of Political Science 38(3): 855–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casper, S., & Hancke, B. 1999. Global quality norms within national production regimes: ISO 9000 standards in the French and German car industries. Organizational Studies, 20(6): 961–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castka, P., & Balzarova, M.A. 2008. ISO 26000 and supply chains: On the diffusion of the social responsibility standard. International Journal of Production Economics, 111(2): 274–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coglianese, C., & Nash, J. 2001. Regulating from the inside: Can environmental management systems achieve policy goals? Washington D.C.: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
Corbett, C. J., & Kirsch, D. A. 2001. International diffusion of ISO 14001 certification. Production and Operations Management, 10(3): 327–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christmann, P., & Taylor, G. 2001. Globalization and the environment: Determinants of firm self-regulation in China. Journal of International Business Studies, 32(3): 439–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daley, D. M., & Garand, J. C. 2005. Horizontal diffusion, vertical diffusion, and internal pressure in state environmental policymaking 1989–1998. American Politics Research, 33(5): 615–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darnall, N. 2003. Why firms certify to ISO 14001: An institutional and resource-based view. In Nagao, D. (Ed.), Best paper proceedings: Sixty-first meeting of the Academy of Management. Washington, D.C.: Academy of Management.Google Scholar
Delmas, M. 2000. Barriers and incentives to the adoption of ISO 14001 in the United States. Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Fall: 1–38.Google Scholar
Delmas, M. 2001. Stakeholders and competitive advantage: The case of ISO 14001. Production and Operations Management, 10(3): 343–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delmas, M. 2002. The diffusion of environmental management standards in Europe and in the United States: An institutional perspective. Policy Sciences, 35(1): 91–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delmas, M. 2003. In search of ISO: An institutional perspective on the adoption of international management standards. University of California, Santa Barbara, February 2003. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=379800.Google Scholar
Delmas, M., & Montiel, I. 2008. The diffusion of voluntary international management standards: Responsible Care, ISO 9000, and ISO 14001 in the chemical industry. Policy Studies Journal, 36(1): 65–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delmas, M., & Montiel, I. 2009. Greening the supply chain: When is customer pressure effective? Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 18(1). 171–201.Google Scholar
Delmas, M., & Terlaak, A. 2002. Regulatory commitment to negotiated agreements: Evidence form the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 4(1): 5–29.Google Scholar
Delmas, M. A., & Montes-Sancho, M. 2010. Voluntary agreements to improve environmental quality: Symbolic and substantive cooperation. Strategic Management Journal, 31(16): 576–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desrochers, P. 1998. A geographical perspective on Austrian economics. The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, 1(2): 63–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMaggio, P. 1988. Interest and agency in institutional theory. In Zucker, L. G. (Ed.), Institutional patterns and organizations: Culture and environment: 3–22. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociology Review, 48(4): 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EarthTrends. 2005. Earth Trends data tables on environmental institutions and governance: Global governance, participation in major multilateral agreements. http://earthtrends.wri.org/.Google Scholar
Edelman, L. B. 1992. Legal ambiguity and symbolic structures: Organizational mediation of civil rights law. American Journal of Sociology, 97(6): 1531–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, L. B., Uggen, C., & Erlanger, H. S. 1999. The endogeneity of legal regulation: Grievance procedures as rational myth. American Journal of Sociology, 105(2): 406–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feenstra, R. 2000. World trade flows, 1980–1997. Berkeley: University of California, Davis, Center for International Data.Google Scholar
Frank, D. J. 1997. Science, nature, and the globalization of the environment, 1870–1990. Social Forces, 76 (December): 409–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, W., Mulvey, E. P., & Shaw, E. C. 1995. Regression analyses of counts and rates: Poisson, overdispersed Poisson, and negative binomial models. Psychological Bulletin, 118: 392–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilbert, D. U., & Rasche, A. 2007. Discourse ethics and social accountability: the ethics of SA8000. Business Ethics Quarterly, 17(2): 187–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, R. H., Kouhy, R., & Lavers, S. 1995. Corporate social and environmental reporting: a review of the literature and a longitudinal study of UK disclosure. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 8(2): 47–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gereffi, G., Garcia-Johnson, R., & Sasser, E. 2001. The NGO-industrial complex. Foreign Policy, July–August: 56–65.Google Scholar
Greene, W. 2003. Econometric analysis (5th ed.). New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Guillen, M. F. 1997. Scientific management’s lost aesthetic: Architecture, organization, and the Taylorized beauty of the mechanical. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42(4): 682–715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guler, I., Guillen, M. F., & MacPherson, J. M. 2002. Global competition, institutions, and the diffusion of organizational practices: The international spread of the ISO 9000 quality certificates. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(3): 507–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, A., & Ventresca, M. 1999. The institutional framing of policy debates: Economics versus the environment, American Behavioral Scientist, 42(8): 1368–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, A., & Ventresca, M. (Eds.). 2002. Organizations, policy and the natural environment: Institutional and strategic perspectives. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ingram, P., & Silverman, B. S. (Eds.). 2002. The new institutionalism in strategic management. Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ISO. 2005. The ISO survey of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certificates. Geneva: International Standard Organization.Google Scholar
ISO. 2006. The ISO survey of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certificates. Geneva: International Standard Organization.Google Scholar
Kagan, R. A. 2001. Adversarial legalism. The American way of law. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley, M. R., & Arora, A. 1996. The role of institution-building in US industrial modernization programs. Research Policy, 25(2): 265–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kollman, K., & Prakash, A. 2002. EMS-based environmental regimes as club goods: Examining variations in firm-level adoption of ISO 14001 and EMAS in UK, US, and Germany. Policy Sciences, 35(1): 43–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Porta, R.Lopez-de-Silanes, F., & Shleifer, A. 2008. The economic consequences of legal origins, Journal of Economic Literature, 46: 285–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazerson, M. 1995. A new phoenix? Modern putting-out in the Modena knitwear industry. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(1): 34–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, B., & Spiller, P. 1994. The institutional foundations of regulatory commitment: A comparative analysis of telecommunications regulation. Journal of Law Economics and Organization, 10(2): 201–46.Google Scholar
Mahajan, V., Muller, E., & Wind, Y. (Eds.). 2000. New-Product Diffusion Models. Boston: Kluwer Academic Press.Google Scholar
Manetti, G., & Becatti, L. 2009. Assurance services for sustainability reports: Standards and empirical evidence. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(1): 289–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G., & Simon, H. A. 1958. Organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Martindale-Hubbell, . 1995–2005. Martindale-Hubbell international law directory. Summit, N.J.Google Scholar
Mazurek, J. 2001. Third-party auditing of environmental management systems: U.S. Registration practices for ISO 14001: National Academy of Public Administration (01–04).Google Scholar
Mendel, P. J. 2001. Global models of organization: international management standards, reforms, and movements. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, J., Boli, J., Thomas, G., & Ramirez, F. 1997. World society and the nation state. American Journal of Sociology, 103(1): 144–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J., Frank, D., Hironaka, A., Schofer, E., & Tuma, N. 1997. The structuring of a world environmental regime, 1870–1990. International Organization, 51(4): 623–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J., & Rowan, B. 1977. Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2): 333–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, S., & DeLeon, P. 2005. The patterns of institutional interaction and ISO 14001 adoptions. Comparative Technology and Society, 3(1): 35–57.Google Scholar
Mostek, M. 1998. Limited privilege and immunity for self-evaluative environmental audits in Nebraska: moving environmental performance to the next level. Creighton Law Review, 32: 545.Google Scholar
Neumayer, E., & Perkins, R. 2004. What explains the uneven take-up of ISO 14001 at the global level? A panel-data analysis. Environment and Planning, 36: 823–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orts, E. W., & Murray, P. C. 1997. Environmental disclosure and evidentiary privilege. University of Illinois Law Review: 1–69.Google Scholar
Prakash, A., & Potoski, M. 2006. Racing to the bottom? Trade, environmental governance, and ISO 14001. American Journal of Political Science, 50(2): 347–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prakash, A., & Potoski, M. 2007. Investing up: FDI and the cross-country diffusion of ISO 14001 management systems. International Studies Quarterly. 51: 723–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potoski, M., & Prakash, A. 2004. Regulatory convergence in nongovernmental regimes? Cross-national variation in ISO 14001 adoption. Journal of Politics, 66(3): 885–905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasche, A., & Esser, D. E. 2006. From stakeholder management to stakeholder accountability. Journal of Business Ethics, 65: 251–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, C. A., & Bednar, D. A. 1994. Defining quality: Alternatives and implications. The Academy of Management Review, 19(3): 419–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritti, R. R., & Silver, J. H. 1986. Early processes of institutionalization: The dramaturgy of exchange in interorganizational relations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31(1): 25–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodgers, K. E. 1996. The ISO environmental standards initiative. New York University Environmental Law Journal, 5: 181–275.Google Scholar
Rogers, E. M. 1962. Diffusion of innovations. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Russo, M. 2001. Institutions, exchange relations, and the emergence of new fields: Regulatory policies and independent power production in America, 1978–1992. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46(1): 57–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russo, M. V. 2002. Institutional change and organizational strategy: ISO 14001 and toxic emissions in the electronics industry. In Nagao, D. (Ed.), Academy of Management Best Papers Proceedings.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, W. R. 1995. Institutions and Organizations. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Sitkin, S. B., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Schroeder, R. G. 1994. Distinguishing control from learning in total quality management: A contingency perspective. The Academy of Management Review, 19(3): 537–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutton, J. R., & Dobbin, F. 1996. The two faces of governance: Response to legal uncertainty in US firms, 1955 to 1985. American Sociological Review, 61(5): 794–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teece, D. J. 1980. The diffusion of an administrative innovation. Management Science, 26(5): 464–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolbert, P. S., & Zucker, L. G. 1983. Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880–1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(1): 22–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolbert, P. S., & Zucker, L. G. 1996. The institutionalization of institutional theory? In Clegg, S. R., Hardy, C., & Nord, W. R. (Eds.), Handbook of organization studies: 175–190. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Uzumeri, M. V. 1997. ISO 9000 and other metastandards: Principles for management practice? Academy of Management Executive, 11(1): 21–36.Google Scholar
Waddock, S. A., & Graves, S. B. 1997. The corporate social performance financial performance link. Strategic Management Journal, 18(4): 303–19.3.0.CO;2-G>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watkins, R. V., & Gutzwiller, E. C. 1999. Buying into ISO 14001. Occupational Health & Safety, 68(2): 52–54.Google Scholar
Westney, D. E. 1987. Imitation and innovation: The transfer of Western organizational patterns to Meiji Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westphal, J. D., Gulati, R., & Shortell, S. M. 1997. Customization or conformity? An institutional and network perspective on the content and consequences of TQM adoption. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42(2): 366–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wry, T. E. 2009. Does business and society scholarship matter to society? Pursuing a normative agenda with critical reaslims and neoinstitutional theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 89: 151–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xia, J., Wang, J., Wang, Y., & Xing, R. 2008. Stakeholder pressures and the global diffusion of the ISO 14001 initiative: A resource dependence perspective. International Journal of Sustainable Society, 1(1): 4–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zucker, L. G. 1983. Organizations as institutions. In Bacharach, Samuel B. (Ed.), Perspectives in organizational sociology: Theory and research (ASA Series), vol. 2. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.Google Scholar