Global trends in environmental management system and ISO14001 research

Abstract

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard provides a guideline for an organisation to perform a continuous improvement to their environmental performance. In light of continued concerns over global environmental impacts and climate change, the ISO 14001 standard serves to demonstrate organisational commitment to sustainable production processes. The objective of our paper is to determine the thematic and geographical trends of published EMS research with a view of developing a coordinated and holistic research framework which can be applied to facilitate the adoption of ISO 14001 in developing and developed regions of the world. Drawn from a portfolio of 509 articles from the Web of Science database, this study investigates the global trends of ISO 14001 EMS research between 2000 and 2016. The results show a considerable increase in scientific publications; from 10 articles in 2000 to 58 articles in 2016. Three themes were identified from the analysis: socio-ecological (60 %), economic implications (25 %), and environmental aspects (15 %). In addition to a concentration of articles towards the socioecological theme of research, it is found that the majority of the published research derived from Europe (40 %), North America (21 %), and China (11 %). Articles authored by researchers from developing countries were poorly represented in the findings. In order to address the thematic and global imbalance of EMS research, a research framework is proposed that promotes multi-stakeholders inclusion (e.g. industry, academics, government, etc.), cross-ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT country research collaboration and a focus on demand-driven approach for problem solving and policy-making.

Environmental Performance Management Systems (EPMS) versus Sustainable Development/Competitive Advantage in the Case of the Tunisian Companies

“…In this context, relevant efforts have been made to a new look and a new performance approach that tried to cross traditional boundaries of financial performance, to overcome that of global performance. These are embodied in recent studies developed by Greve et al (2017) and Salim et al (2018) These results could serve as a specific reference for policymaking at firms to continuously improve their environmental performance. In addition, this study has an important implication for management practices by illustrating the potential of environmental strategies and environmental management accounting to improve environmental performance.…”

“…While, Salim et al (2018), nominates that the environmental management systems EMS allows for incremental changes in production and consumption via technological fixes that improve efficiency as means to address the complex environmental challenges we are facing today, known as the 'reformist the concept of sustainable consumption and production position'. EMS supporters traditionally oppose calls for comprehensive transformation of societal structures, such as capitalism, materialism, and consumerism.…”

Organization and management theories in environmental management systems research: A systematic literature review

“…Standard‐based EMS have attracted attention from policy makers for their potential to complement “command‐and‐control” regulations in fostering environmental protection (Daddi, Testa, Iraldo, & Frey, ) and as a research field for academics in management and organizational studies (Testa, Heras‐Saizarbitoria, Daddi, Boiral, & Iraldo, ). As for the latter, management scholars have mostly focused on the socio‐ecological, technical, and economic aspects of EMS adoption and diffusion (Salim et al, ). Noteworthy studies on EMS have investigated the motivations and drivers of EMS adoption (Delmas & Toffel, ; Heras‐Saizarbitoria, Arana, & Boiral, ; King, Lenox, & Terlaak, ), the relation between EMS adoption and environmental performance (Daddi, Iraldo, Testa, & De Giacomo, ; Daddi, Magistrelli, Frey, & Iraldo, ; Iraldo, Testa, & Frey, ; Russo, ;) or competitive performance (Darnall & Edwards, ; Darnall, Henriques, & Sadorsky, ; Hojnik & Ruzzier, ), substantive EMS internalization and symbolic adoption (Boiral, ; Castka & Prajogo, ; Christmann & Taylor, ; Testa, Boiral, & Iraldo, ; Yin & Schmeidler, ), and EMS certification diffusion and abandonment (Daddi, De Giacomo, Frey, & Iraldo, ; Merli & Preziosi, ; Preziosi, Merli, & D'Amico, ).…”

“…To this aim, organization and management theories provide many opportunities for further advancement (Daddi, Todaro, De Giacomo, & Frey, 2018). Although a number of reviews of the literature on voluntary standards already exist (e.g., Boiral, Guillaumie, Heras-Saizarbitoria, & Tayo Tene, 2017;Ferenhof et al, 2014;Heras-Saizarbitoria & Boiral, 2013;Nawrocka & Parker, 2009;Salim et al, 2018;Tuczek, Castka, & Wakolbinger, 2018), a systematic analysis of organization and management theories utilized in EMS studies is still missing. Thus, the present study aims at answering the following research questions: (a) Which organization and management theories have been utilized in standard-based EMS research?…”

“…First, no previous studies have reviewed the literature on environmental standards with the aim to point up the predominant theoretical lenses in the field. Review studies have rather focused on specific aspects of the phenomenon, such as adoption (Boiral et al, 2017), international diffusion (Salim et al, 2018), outcomes (Nawrocka & Parker, 2009), or on specific research settings, such as SMEs (Ferenhof et al, 2014).…”