تقاضا برای تصویب ایزو 14001 در زنجیره تامین جهانی: تجزیه و تحلیل تجربی با تمرکز بر بازارهای سازگار با محیط زیست آگاه

This paper analyzes the environmental preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets influencing the number of adoptions of ISO 14001—the international standard certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) concerning an Environmental Management System (EMS)—in a country. Customers in different countries have different priorities and ideas with regard to the environment and its management, and therefore it is possible that environmental preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets are greater, although many earlier studies suggest that foreign customers generally form a significant stakeholder group encouraging the adoption of ISO 14001. A random-effects Tobit estimation using a sample of 155 countries over eight years supports the view that the environmental preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets (including Finland, Japan, Germany and Denmark) are more likely to encourage domestic along with foreign suppliers to adopt ISO 14001. As it is easier for firms in environmentally conscious markets to adopt ISO 14001 because of their better economic performance, they have already adopted certification and consequently require their domestic and foreign suppliers to do likewise in the global supply chain. For this reason, suppliers wishing to access environmentally conscious markets can obtain an advantage with ISO 14001 certification.

Recently, environmental management has become a key corporate priority for many firms, implying that firms cannot survive without consideration of the environment because of growing public concern about the environment. In light of this, the adoption of ISO 14001—the international standard primarily concerned with an Environmental Management System (EMS) as certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)—is attractive to many firms. Since its release in 1996, the global number of ISO 14001 adoptions has steadily increased, totaling 154,572 in 2007 (Fig. 1). While any organization, including local governments, can decide to adopt ISO 14001, the majority of adoptions are by firms.A trigger for the increased number of ISO 14001 adoptions is the environmental preferences and pressures of stakeholders, especially on the demand side, as they influence firm profits. Firms therefore attempt to satisfy their stakeholders with ISO 14001 adoption, as this indicates their commitment to environmental management. Indeed, many previous studies that have analyzed the determinants of ISO 14001 adoption have found that environmental preferences and pressures of stakeholders influence the firm's decision. In particular, Christmann and Taylor (2001), Nakamura et al. (2001), Welch et al. (2002), Bansal and Hunter (2003), Hibiki et al. (2004), Neumayer and Perkins (2004), Wu et al. (2007), Arimura et al. (2008) and Nishitani (2009) suggest that foreign customers form a significant stakeholder group encouraging the adoption of ISO 14001. This implies that foreign customers are more likely to consider that the quality of the supplier's EMS will influence the quality of their EMS in the global supply chain. However, customers in different markets have different priorities and ideas with regard to the environment and its management, and this suggests that it may be somewhat incorrect to argue that all foreign customers are more environmentally conscious (Neumayer and Perkins, 2004). Accordingly, we need to focus on the relationship between the environmental preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets and ISO 14001 adoptions. This is because environmentally conscious markets are comprised of a higher proportion of environmentally conscious customers, and it is possible that they are more likely to require not only their domestic but also their foreign suppliers to adopt ISO 14001. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyze whether the environmental preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets influence suppliers’ decisions to adopt ISO 14001. According to the World Economic Forum (2003) Survey on Private Sector Environmental Innovation1, the private sector in Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom (UK) are more environmentally proactive, and therefore regarded as environmentally conscious markets. However, while we focus on the environmental preferences and pressures of customers in these environmentally conscious markets, there is also much debate on whether ISO 14001 adoption by a firm is related to past economic performance or budget constraints. This is because ISO 14001 incurs large initial costs, including the registration fee (Nakamura et al., 2001, Babakri et al., 2003, Arimura et al., 2008 and Nishitani, 2009). Hence, we analyze the effect of the environmental preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets with and without consideration of past economic performance and compare the results. In the analysis, we employ country-level data, as firm-level data are unavailable. Thus, we consider country-level data of a sample of 155 countries as representing firm-level data at the macro level, as country-level data are compiled using firm-level data. More specifically, we analyze whether Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the UK, and countries exporting to these environmentally conscious markets, are more likely to exhibit a higher number of ISO 14001 adoptions. The main conclusions are as follows. First, exports to Finland, Japan, Germany and Denmark, along with an environmentally conscious market dummy that takes a value of one if the sample country is Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Denmark or the UK, are significantly positive. This supports the view that customers in environmentally conscious markets are more likely to require not only their domestic but also their foreign suppliers to adopt ISO 14001. Second, if GDP per capita is included in the model, the environmentally conscious market dummy becomes insignificant. This implies that firms in environmentally conscious markets have better economic performance; therefore, it is easier for them to adopt ISO 14001. Moreover, they have also already adopted certification and consequently require their domestic and foreign suppliers to do likewise in the global supply chain. The structure of the paper is as follows. In Section 2, we provide an overview of ISO 14001. Section 3 reviews the literature on the effect of foreign customers on ISO 14001 adoption. Section 4 discusses the hypotheses concerning the determinants of ISO 14001 adoption. Section 5 presents the data and the econometric models used for the estimation. Section 6 concerns the estimation results. Finally, Section 7 provides some concluding remarks.

This paper examines the preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets, including Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the UK, as an influence on the number of ISO 14001 adoptions. The main findings are as follows. First, Tobit estimation suggests that the environmentally conscious markets dummy and exports to Finland, Japan, Germany and Denmark are significantly positive. Therefore, Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the UK, and countries exporting to Finland, Japan, Germany and Denmark are more likely to have a higher number of ISO 14001 certifications. Importantly, even if GDP per capita is included in the estimation model, the environmental preferences and pressures of customers in environmentally conscious markets still have strong positive effects. This supports hypotheses 1 to 3. Therefore, this strongly suggests that customers in environmentally conscious markets require not only their domestic but also their foreign customers to seek ISO 14001 certification. Moreover, exports to other countries have a significantly negative effect, and this implies that the environmental preferences and pressures of customers only in environmentally conscious markets positively influence suppliers’ decisions to adopt ISO 14001 certification. The environmental policies of these countries may be a trigger for the strong environmental preferences and pressures of customers in these environmentally conscious markets because Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark are among the international forerunners in environmental policy (Andersen and Liefferink, 1997). Environmental policy in these countries could become even more evident given the Kyoto Protocol negotiated in 1997. In light of this, many firms in environmentally conscious markets have refused to trade goods and services with suppliers that do not satisfy their own environmental standards, as reflected in the number of ISO 14001 adoptions in supplier countries. Second, random-effects Tobit estimation suggests that the environmentally conscious markets dummy and exports to Finland, Japan, Germany and Denmark are significantly positive. Therefore, Finland, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the UK, and countries exporting to Finland, Japan, Germany and Denmark, are more likely to have a higher number of ISO 14001 certifications6. However, the positive effect of environmentally conscious markets on their domestic suppliers becomes insignificant if we control for economic performance, and this provides the greatest difference between the findings obtained from the standard Tobit and random-effects Tobit estimations. This implies that firms in environmentally conscious markets have better economic performance, and therefore it is easier for them to adopt ISO 14001 certification. For instance, Nishitani (2009) found that firms with better economic performance are more likely to adopt ISO 14001 earlier. Therefore, it is possible that firms with better economic performance have adopted ISO 14001 given a strict environmental policy, and therefore require their domestic and foreign suppliers to do likewise in the global supply chain because the quality of the supplier's EMS will influence the quality of their own. This may the reason why the number of initial adoptions of ISO 14001 has increased globally each year. Importantly, Prakash and Potoski (2006) also suggest that if the major export markets of a country have a higher number of ISO 14001 adoptions, the number of certifications will also increase. This supports our interpretation, although Prakash and Potoski did not consider our theory regarding initial ISO 14001 adoption. Future research will resolve this issue more precisely. While many previous studies suggest foreign customers as one of the significant stakeholders that influence ISO 14001 adoption, our study finds that only customers in environmentally conscious markets encourage domestic and foreign suppliers to adopt ISO 14001. For this reason, suppliers wishing to access environmentally conscious markets can obtain a particularly valuable external benefit by adopting ISO 14001.