Outcomes of Environmental Management Systems: the Role of Motivations and Firms’ Characteristics

Abstract

This article analyzes the influence of the sources of motivation that lead companies to adopt environmental management systems (EMSs) on the outcomes of these systems. A set of hypotheses derived from an extensive review of the literature is analyzed using cluster analysis – in order to identify groups of companies – as well as correlation and regression analyses, with data obtained from a survey of 361 Spanish organizations that have environmental certification. The results reveal that, for the groups identified, companies from the holistic cluster (with high levels of both internal and external drivers) and from the internal focus cluster (with more intensive internal sources of motivation) secure greater benefits from the process of adopting an EMS. This article also sheds light on the influence on the outcomes of some variables that have been under‐researched, such as the economic resources invested in an EMS and whether or not the certified companies belong to a sector with high environmental pressure. The findings help to characterize the firms with environmental certification and may also help managers, policy makers and other stakeholders to anticipate the potential benefits of EMSs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Renewing environmental certification in times of crisis

“…For example, Guoyou et al (2012) concluded that the internal motivation was the main driving force of internalizing ISO 14001. Similarly, in a recent survey on EMAS registered organizations, Heras-Saizarbitoria et al (2015a) evidenced that the internal drivers have a significantly higher influence on the perceived benefits of the adoption, irrespective of the size, the sector of activity and the environmental pressures of the company. Conversely, external motivations to adopt EMSs, such as market demand, are not necessarily in line with the internal needs related to environmental management practices (Christmann and Taylor, 2006;Heras-Saizarbitoria et al, 2011;Boiral, 2007Boiral, , 2011.…”

Communicating environmental management certification: Signaling without signals?

“…Many empirical works have analyzed the main drivers and the drivers related to the outcomes of environmental certifiable meta‐standards (Boiral et al, ; Heras‐Saizarbitoria & Boiral, ; Sartor et al, ), considering the connection between the level of internalization and completeness of adoption of the standards and the motivations (Heras‐Saizarbitoria, Arana, & Boiral, ; Heras‐Saizarbitoria et al, ; Lannelongue, Gonzalez‐Benito, & Gonzalez‐Benito, ). These works have evidenced that the adoption of environmental meta‐standards such as ISO 14001 and EMAS can be driven by various internal and external motivations (Fryxell, Lo, & Chung, ; Gavronski, Paiva, Teixeira, & de Andrade, ; González‐Benito & González‐Benito, ; Heras‐Saizarbitoria et al, , ). Among the external factors of motivations, as pointed out by Heras‐Saizarbitoria and Boiral () in their review, together with company image drivers and the motivation to send out a message to potential consumers by stressing the company's environmental concern (King et al, ), the empirical literature emphasizes the influence of customer pressure and the pressure by the public administration.…”

Why Companies Do Not Renew Their EMAS Registration? An Exploratory Research

“…Moreover, according to HerasSaizarbitoria et al (2015), EMAS is more internally focused. Firms aim to obtain positive outcomes from improved internal processes [19]. Generally, a firm's size influences the internalization of proactive environmental practices.…”