This article analyzes the contribution of certifiable environmental management standards—such as ISO 14001 and the Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)—to corporate environmental performance. Based ...on a content analysis of 414 third‐party‐verified environmental statements from EMAS‐registered Spanish organizations, which included information for around 6,700 detailed indicators, a weak improvement in environmental performance was found. Less than half of the analyzed indicators—namely, 48.27%—revealed a net improvement. Similarly, analysis of the justifications of the registered companies for the lack of improvement points to a rather symbolical adoption of the certification, intended to do only the bare minimum. These findings call into question the prevailing opinion about the positive impact of voluntary certifiable environmental management standards on environmental greening. Implications for managers and public policy makers, as well as for other stakeholders, are discussed.
Extant research has primarily focused on the economic drivers and outcomes of corporate environmental performance. This trajectory oversimplifies the motives for environmental strategies across all ...firm types and particularly overlooks how firm ownership presents other motives for environmental strategies. In this study, we leverage institutional theory to examine how family motives, underpinned by family members' desire to gain or preserve family legitimacy and socio-emotional wealth, affect ISO 14001 certification. Using firm-level data, we find that family ownership has a positive effect on ISO 14001 certification. This effect is stronger for firms whose names include the family name and also for firms located closer to large cities. Our study contributes to nonmarket strategy literature by showing that family motives underpin firms’ environmental initiatives. It also contributes to institutional theory by delineating the levels of legitimacy that spur nonmarket strategy in family firms.
The adoption of voluntary environmental certifications such as ISO 14001 and Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) has gained momentum in the last two decades. The scholarly literature has analyzed ...in depth the performance implications of the adoption of these certificates. Yet the findings are scattered and inconclusive. This article aims to shed light on this issue by meta‐analyzing the influence of the adoption of voluntary environmental certifications on corporate environmental performance, drawing on a sample of 53 scholarly studies analyzing a total of 182,926 companies. The findings show a positive influence of ISO 14001 and EMAS certifications on corporate environmental performance. A set of underlying moderating effects are also identified, such as a more pronounced positive effect for adoptions based on environmental innovation and for firms with a more mature certification. Implications for scholars, managers, and other stakeholders are discussed.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the benefits of integrated management systems by comparing them with the benefits obtained through the individual implementation of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 ...standards.
The methodology used is a literature review based on an electronic search in the Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Emerald databases.
Findings show that although some benefits are common regardless the system management type, the benefits obtained with integration are greater than considering management systems separately because of the wider scope considered in integration.
This is one of the first papers, to the best of our knowledge, to compare benefits from the two management systems standards when implemented separately and when integrated.
In addition, some ideas are proposed for consideration in future research on the internalization of management systems and selection effect.
•Benefits of MSs are greater than managing MSs separately.•Internal and external benefits of integration are detected.•Integration benefits impact in the entire organization.
Purpose
The concept of lean and ISO 14001 as a combined approach is an evolving strategy for streamlining operational processes and attaining environmental sustainability in the manufacturing ...context. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation in the manufacturing industry for achieving the operational and environmental benefits.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review (SLR) based on Scopus and Web of Science databases is conducted to present peer-reviewed articles on the CSFs for lean and ISO 14001 implementation in manufacturing operations. This article applies the CSF theory to classify the CSFs for a joint lean and ISO 14001 adoption.
Findings
Numerous CSFs are synthesised from the SLR across seven theoretical contexts of industry, competitive strategy, managerial position, environmental, temporal, internal/external, monitoring and building/adapting factors for a combined lean and ISO14001 implementation.
Research limitations/implications
Numerous CSFs are synthesised from the SLR across seven theoretical contexts of strategic direction, competitive strategy, leadership and management, environmental, temporal, internal/external, monitoring and continuous process improvement factors for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation.
Practical implications
This paper contributes to academic scholarship by providing a theoretical perspective through classification of CSFs for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation to achieve operational and environmental performance. This paper also contributes to practitioners and policymakers who can use the emergent theoretical framework for application in practice for a more efficient and effective deployment of both strategies in the manufacturing industry.
Originality/value
To the best of author's knowledge, this study is the first to propose a theoretical framework of CSFs for a combined lean and ISO 14001 implementation based on the CSF theory and SLR findings in the manufacturing industry.
Certifiable management systems, such as ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS), ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System ...(OHSMS), have gained popularity within different countries around the world. The integration of these management systems (MS) that work in a separated way has been pointed out by many researchers as a way to improve the overall management system efficiency. In this context, it is remarkable the engagement of the Journal of Cleaner Production (JCP) in contributing to developing the Integrated Management System (IMS) field. The objective of the present study is to analyze the evolution of IMS research on JCP, presenting its contributions and gaps in the IMS scope. The analysis was conducted through a theoretical framework of IMS on JCP. The identified contributions were split into five groups: (I) IMS and Sustainability, (II) IMS and Strategy, Performance and Innovation, (III) Analysis of integration levels and motivations, benefits and difficulties of IMS implementation, (IV) IMS methods, guidelines and maturity model and (V) IMS and Corporate Social Responsibility. The results showed the JCP is the most influential journal in IMS area. Regarding the gaps in the IMS literature, we found lack of studies approaching IMS and performance (mainly environmental performance), IMS and sustainability, methods and guidelines for IMS based on empirical evidences, analysis of the levels of integration and motivations, benefits and difficulties taking into account the implementation strategy adopted, IMS and innovation management and IMS and social responsibility. It is suggested the gaps found in this paper are explored in future studies.
•IMSs have gained popularity within different countries around the world.•JCP presents important contributions that support the IMS research.•It needs to study IMS and performance, specially environmental performance.•It needs to explore IMS as a driver to sustainable development.•It needs to develop methods and guidelines for IMS based on empirical evidences.
Organisations face barriers in the transition towards a circular economy. Environmental management systems have often been adopted to tackle environmental challenges, but, more recently, scholars ...have proposed dynamic capabilities as a strategy to foster circular economy initiatives. Considering the level of internalisation of the environmental management system, we investigated the contribution of dynamic capabilities to organisation performance and circular economy implementation. Using partial least squares structural equation modelling, we analysed more than 800 European organisations registered with the Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme. Our results proved that dynamic capabilities contribute to the internalisation of the environmental management system, which consequently improves the overall organisation performance and circular economy adoption. In addition, while dynamic capabilities directly influence the circular economy and environmental performance of an organisation, EMAS internalisation is crucial for a better economic performance and environmental reputation. Lastly, we assessed the contribution of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities to the internalisation of the environmental management standard proving their crucial role in the integration of the standard's requirements. Our study highlights the scarce linkages between the Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme and the circular economy by suggesting how organisations can identify and pursue circular economy opportunities through dynamic capabilities.
Over the last two decades, the phenomenon of green growth has gained much attention from academics and policymakers striving to find a sustainable solution to environmental problems worldwide. ...Technological innovation serves as a tool to abate the acute environmental crisis and continuously promote sustainable development by converting traditional economies into green economies. Pakistan is among the developing countries relying on conventional technology and energy resources to meet population and economy demands, which has led to a surge in greenhouse gases and other hazardous air pollutants. The literature exploring green growth in the Pakistani context is scant; the present study will therefore fill this gap and explore the dynamic linkage between technological innovation and ISO 14001 with green growth in Pakistan in the presence of environmental challenges such as energy consumption and population growth. A novel grey relational analysis model approach is employed to examine the interrelationship between the study parameters. Results indicate that technological innovation is significantly correlated with green growth, and ISO 14001 also shows a substantial relationship with green growth. However, among the environmental challenges, energy consumption poses a barrier to green growth development as the country’s energy mix is dominated by fossil fuels as compared to renewables. The research findings produce a much-needed policy suggestion to address the environmental challenges by promoting green growth development in Pakistan.
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 the Institutional Theory and the Natural Resource-based view, this study examines the relationship of two different organizational adoption motives (i.e., internal and external) with triple bottom line perceived benefits (i.e., environmental, social, and market) on the adoption of ISO 14001. Using empirical data collected from a large-scale survey of Australian firms, we found that the motivation for environmental management system adoption was aligned closely with the types of benefits that accrued. The results indicate that external motives enhance social and market positioning, whereas internal motives better serve environmental benefits. Thus, managers may be seeking only a narrowly bounded set of outcomes from ISO 14001, rather than broader strategic improvement. The results also show the environmental benefits of adopting ISO 14001 to improve both the social and market benefits of the adopter enterprises. Practically, environmental benefits should be realized before firms can expect to reap social and market benefits from the environmental management system adoption. Our investigation on multiple motivations for organizational adoption of a voluntary standard provides important theoretical and practical insights on which organizational environmental management system adoption motives are conducive to fostering a broader set of strategic benefits.
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