Abstract
Organizations use standards to help them manage their activities in order to comply with regulations and help prevent, mitigate, and control adverse environmental impacts. ISO 14001 is an international standard for environmental management that provides a framework for addressing these responsibilities. As a policy tool, ISO 14001 could provide a common language and transnational bridge for environmental governance across disparate environmental regulatory contexts in a globalized world. Some studies have indicated that ISO 14001 has a positive effect on environmental performance in firms, while others have called ISO 14001’s efficacy into question. This suggests a need to examine the nature of ISO 14001 implementation, along with the relationships between contextual factors that may affect its implementation and the extent that the Standard provides value for its users. This dissertation focuses on the nature and extent of environmental and business management value that ISO 14001 users gain from its implementation, and factors that affect its efficacy in U.S. organizations.
The study is comprised of three research objectives related to the value users gained from implementation of ISO 14001 in relation to environmental management and business management. The first examined the relationship between an organization’s motivations for adopting ISO 14001 and the degree of value gained. The second examined the relationship between the length of time over which ISO 14001 had been implemented and value gained; and the third examined the relationship between organization size and value gained.
Using data from the International Organization for Standardization’s 2013 ISO 14001 Continual Improvement Survey and results of survey participant interviews, this research adapts an existing theoretical model and seeks to increase understanding of how contextual factors influence ISO 14001 system outcomes. It also considers multiple theories for explanations of firm behavior, and suggests that institutional factors and resource-based factors contribute to variations in EMS implementation. Efforts to evaluate or improve ISO 14001’s effectiveness should consider the quality of its implementation and integration into daily operations, as well as the means for developing environmental management system capabilities within the firm.