ISO Research Library

There is a growing recognition that the “Rising Powers”, namely the emerging economies, in particular, but not only, China, India and Brazil, whose economic dynamism has begun to transform the contours of the global economy, will bring about radical shifts in global governance. A critical question t...

Management system standards, also called meta‐standards, have been adopted by an increasing number of organizations across the world. Although these management system standards are based on the same type of management principles and institutional arrangements, the literature remains scattered, with ...

Multinational and domestic corporations around the world are adopting environmental management systems (EMS) and certifying them by international standards. ISO 14001 is becoming the dominant international standard for assessing environmental management processes and in Europe many firms are also re...

Previous research evaluating ISO 14001 certification has shown that it both increases environmental performance and has no effect. We hypothesize that the equivocal findings are due to two factors: institutional pressures arising from differences in regulatory settings across and within countries, a...

The objective of this paper is to analyze the adoption and outcomes of the ISO 14001 standard through a systematic review of the main studies on this issue published in peer‐reviewed journals between 1996 and 2015. The 94 papers analyzed make it possible to paint a comprehensive picture of the effec...

There are several concerns related to the increasing production of palm oil in Southeast Asia, including pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and land conversion. The RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certification standard provides an incentive for reducing environmental impacts of palm oil ...

This paper is based on the systematic literature review method and investigates the impacts of the EMS and ISO 14001 Standards towards corporate performance. Two units are considered through the methodology of research; firm size and market orientation. The evidence comes from the analysed dataset o...

Voluntary programs have become widespread tools for governments and nongovernmental actors looking to improve industry's environmental and regulatory performance. Voluntary programs can be conceptualized as club goods that provide nonrival but potentially excludable benefits to members. For firms, t...

In this study, 236 regeneration areas (mostly clear-cuts) in southern Norway were selected by random stratified selection: 118 of the study units were cut before and 118 after the introduction of forest certification in 1998. The degree of compliance with biodiversity measures established in the pre...

As a result of increasing global awareness about the importance of the environment, depletion of natural resources and legal pressures for companies to manage their processes in a sustainable manner, ISO 14001 systems have been gaining increasingly more importance in the organizational scenario. The...

Environmental management systems developed by Chilean forest companies in fast-grown plantations and implemented for ISO 14001:1996 certification, best forest management practices certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and occupational health and safety (OHSAS 18001:1999), have been analysed t...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the indirect effects of environmental management system implementation and certification. Specifically, the paper comprehensively assesses the effects of International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14001 and European Union Eco‐Management and Auditing Sche...

This paper is a literature review of existing empirical studies on the business and environmental impacts of ISO 14001, with the aim to understand the contribution of this standard towards sustainability and whether it can be a source of business and monetary benefits. The article finds that most...

Eco-certification of agricultural commodities offers an appealing option to promote more sustainable practices among smallholders, increase agricultural value, and lift farmers out of poverty through better market access. This study evaluates whether coffee cultivation is associated with changes in ...

In this paper we analyse the impact of a variety of private standards on worker empowerment in the horticultural export sector in Peru. Empowerment is defined as workers’ knowledge of their own rights and workers’ perceived agency to improve employment conditions. We use data from a company and a tw...

Private standards are spreading rapidly in international food production and trade, and are moving beyond food quality and safety aspect to address environmental and social concerns. We examine how effective private standards are in improving employment conditions in global food supply chains. Using...

Following a growing interest in corporate social responsibility, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced plans for development of the ISO 26000—guidance standard for social responsibility. Despite initial signals that ISO 26000 will be built on the intellectual and practic...

Governments enact environmental regulations to compel firms to internalize pollution externalities. Critics contend that regulations encourage technological lock‐ins and stifle innovation. Challenging this view, the Porter‐Linde hypothesis suggests that appropriately designed regulations can spur in...

This is a compilation of case studies on implementation of ISO 14001 and environmental management systems. Key features include business relevant case studies and information on issues of environmental management and environmental performance, sustainability, integration, stakeholders and use of IT....

Several studies have examined the determinants of training in developing countries but only few have paid attention to the potential importance of international standards such as ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 on the firm's training decision. This paper examines training determinants using recent employer su...