Cicera Maria Gomes dos Santos
Universidade Nove de Julho - UNINOVE, Brazil
E-mail: cissagomes@hotmail.com
Alexandre de Oliveira e Aguiar
Universidade Nove de Julho - UNINOVE, Brazil
E-mail: aaguiar@uni9.pro.br
Submission: 16/04/2018
Accept: 14/05/2018
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper
is to study potential association between international trade and ISO 14001
certification. The study is based upon a search conducted by International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) performed in 2013, which includes
responses from 110 countries in 11 languages. At this time, among all topics
from the research, the variables studied were motivations for implementation
and the benefits achieved. These data were crossed with features of
international business trade to identify its real outcome. The null hypothesis
to be tested is that there was no correlation or association between
international trade and the studied variables. Results show that there were 16
weak correlations between motivations to implement ISO 14001 and international
trade. The survey result shows that
there are weak correlations among countries international trade and motives to
get certification. Because the degrees of correlation are low, there is reason
to further studies, what could probably include multivariate techniques.
Anyway, the study suggests that some of the expected results and benefits for
the business were not achieved or were achieved at degrees lower than expected
in countries where trade is higher. Regarding motivations to implement the
survey confirmed that attending to customers’ and stakeholders’ interests is an
important driver for companies that export.
Keywords: Environmental management system; certification;
motivation; international trade; ISO 14001
1. INTRODUCTION
The ISO 14001 standard was first published by
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1996, and was further
updated in 2004 and 2015. Its intent is to allow businesses to be registered or
certified for implementing an environmental management system (EMS). It was
designed to help organizations to reduce environmental impact while improving
financial and environmental performance (BANSAL; HUNTER, 2003). By holding ISO
14001 certificate companies enhance stakeholders’ reliability (ISO, 2015).
According to ISO, there have been more than 300,000 ISO 14001 certificates
issued around the world and most of them in Europe and East Asia & Pacific
regions.
Organizations seek to implement ISO 14001
standard for environmental, organizational and financial reasons, including:
improvement of environmental performance, obtaining access to new and
international markets, reducing general and insurance costs as much as
environmental liabilities, improving industry-government relations and
enhancing public image and competitive advantage (EDWARDS, 1999).
After its first issue in 1996, ISO 14001
standard has undergone two versions ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 14001:2015. Before
promoting changes to the 2004 version in order to publish the 2015 version, ISO
performed a survey to understand the view of the standard users on motivations,
results and expectations for next revision.
Several
authors remarked the importance of exports on the trends of companies in
specific countries to seek ISO 14001 certification.
According
to Berliner and Prakash (2013) countries adopted ISO 14001 when customers and
stakeholders overseas recognized this approach and internally environmental
regulations were poorly enforced. According to Goedhuys and Sleuwaegen (2016)
EMS matters more to firms that export. Potoski and Prakash (2006) observed that
countries, which export destinations, had higher levels of ISO 14001
certifications showed also higher certification levels. Based on that, they
affirmed that ISO 14001 adoption was not about the quantity companies had been
exporting but which countries had received these exports. Both groups Chung et al. (2005) and Zeng et al. (2005) affirmed that China
started its adoption to enter in the international market and to satisfy
customers’ requirements.
Some
authors show that not always the ISO 14001 certification in countries is
related to the direction of trade – export or import. For example, Potoski and
Prakash (2004) identified among nongovernmental companies in 59 countries that
level of ISO 14001 adoption was higher when its international trading partners
also had adopted this regime. Mohamed (2001), Quazi et al. (2001), Fryxell and Szeto (2002), Pan (2003) and Zutshi and
Sohal (2004) indicated that reduction or elimination of international trade
barrier was a motivation to implement it.
The
point of view of importers has also been studied. Bellesi et al. (2005) through a survey with six European countries
discovered that importers feel more confident engaging a new supplier awarded
with ISO 14001 because it means the supplier administrates well its business
and it is environmentally friendly. According to Nishitani (2010), companies
which aimed to export to environmental conscious markets needed ISO 14001
certification. This can also be seen in studies that dealt with the supply
chain in international markets. For example, To and Lee (2014) showed that
developed countries, due to the higher availability of resources, adopted first
ISO 14001 and through close cross-country supply chain diffused it from west to
east (TO; LEE, 2014).
Finally,
the importance of ISO 14001 in international trade is pointed out for the
possibility of recovering a country from the crisis by reinforcing trade, and
the potential of ISO 14001 as a market opener. Iatridis and Kesidou (2016)
affirmed that companies in middle crises, like Greek firms, seek ISO 14001 to
restore their reputation in foreign markets and to stimulate their
competitiveness.
This article’s purpose is to investigate
possible correlations between ISO 14001 implementation and international trade
in the countries where organizations operate.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
As a preliminary
information, it is important to describe the context of ISO 14001 continuous
improvement research.
2.1.
Motivations
to implement ISO 14001 and the potential benefits
The early
adopters had their motives to implement the standard. Edwards (1999) recognized
six areas that encouraged companies to pursue certification: environmental
performance, regulatory effectiveness, management effectiveness, competitive
advantage, financial impacts and stakeholders’ interest. Bansal and Hunter
(2003) through a US firms study identified that companies could differentiate
their business in their sector creating a competitive advantage or signalizing
to stakeholders that a heavy polluter was concerned about environment. Besides
that, they found evidence proving that ISO 14001 facilitated international
trade.
The literature
has been saying that, through ISO 14001, institutions can access specific
markets, achieve better public image, among others (MOREIRA, 2001; ABNT, 2004).
Improvement on environment performance was met by several organizations in
Mexico (DASGUPTA et al., 2000), United States (POTOSKI; PRAKASH, 2005), and
Japan (ARIMURA et al., 2008). It also says that companies significantly
performed better in environmental issues after ISO 14001 certification than
they did before (MATELA, 2006); besides that, it can bring to organizations
financial benefits besides good environmental practices (ALBERTON; COSTA JR,
2007).
De Oliveira,
Serra and Salgado (2010) researched Brazilian companies to identify which
benefits were achieved. They found that development of preventive responses,
reduction of energy, gas and oil consumption were the main benefits. Morrow and Rondinelli (2012) studied German
companies and collected answers on improvement on documentation, organization
and image, boost in staff morale, reduction in resources usage and gas emission.
German companies were proud to be a benchmark for suppliers, even if they had
achieved it on their own process optimization only partially.
Institutional
theory seems to be the predominant theory referential when discussing why
companies go to ISO 14001 certification. Table 1 summarizes some of the
categories of motivations found in scientific literature.
Table 1: Motivations to implement ISO 14001 and
literature sources
Motivation |
Authors |
Public
Image |
Fryxell and Szeto (2002), Pan (2003),
Yiridoe et al. (2003), Zutshi and Sohal (2004), González and González
(2005), Schylander and Martinuzzi (2007), Salomone (2008), Arena (2012), ISO
(2014), Mariotti et al. (2014), Singh et al. (2015), Iatridis
and Kesidou (2016). |
Customer
requirement |
Tuppura et al.
(2015), Quazi et al. (2001),
Fryxell and Szeto (2002), Yiridoe et al.
(2003), Schylander and Martinuzzi (2007), ISO (2014), Djekic et al.
(2014), Zeng et al. (2005).
|
Government
requirement |
Gavronski et al.
(2013), Biondi et al. (2000), Quazi et al. (2001), Fryxell and Szeto (2002), Poksinska et
al. (2003), Yiridoe et al. (2003), Jiang and Bansal (2003), Zutshi
and Sohal (2004), González and González (2005), Schylander and Martinuzzi
(2007), Arena (2012), To and NF Tang (2014), Singh et al. (2015). |
Environment
protection |
Morrow and Rondinelli (2002), Schylander
and Martinuzzi (2007), Arena (2012), Psomas et al. (2011),
ISO (2014), Mariotti et al. (2014), Bellesi et al. (2005). |
Reduction
of environmental impact |
Schylander and Martinuzzi (2007), ISO
(2014), Singh et al. (2015). |
Financial
benefit |
Quazi et al. (2001), Fryxell and
Szeto (2002), Pan (2003), Zutshi and Sohal (2004), Schylander and Martinuzzi
(2007), Salomone (2008), Djekic et al. (2014),
Singh et al. (2015). |
Integration
ISO management standards |
No source found |
Other |
Heras-Saizarbitoria
(2011), Qi et al. (2012), Matela (2006), Orbegozo et al. (2012), Chung et al. (2005), Bansal and Hunter (2003), Berliner and
Prakash (2013), Goedhuys and Sleuwaegen (2016), Potoski and Prakash (2004),
Prakash and Potoski (2006), Mohamed, (2001), Nishitani (2010), To and Lee
(2014). |
2.1.1. Literature
that remarks benefits achieved
Literature
is not always consistent regarding real benefits and results from the
implementation of ISO 14001. Some
literature authors say results are good, others say results are not any
different from the non-certified companies.
A
number of papers have been published bringing positive results in companies
that implemented ISO 14001. The papers include results in countries such as
USA, Canada, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Greece, East Asia, China, Brazil, New
Zealand and Nigeria. Benefit categories have been
chosen as a way to make the overview easier to understand.
Some specific
issues to be remarked is that the specific environmental issues that have been
reported as improvements were waste management (ZUTSHI; SOHAL, 2004; PSOMAS et al., 2011; DJEKIC et al., 2014; OWOLANA; BOOTH, 2016;
TESTA et al., 2016; MELNYK, 2002;
MELNYK, 2003), natural resources usage (SANTOS et al., 2016) and toxic releases (SZYMANSKI; TIWARI, 2004). Supply
chain relationship improvements have been reported as well (ZENG et al., 2005).
Table 2: Categories of benefits perceived in ISO 14001
implementation according to several sources.
Benefit category |
References |
Improving in legal compliance,
monitoring and avoiding liabilities |
Chin and Pun (1999); Biondi et al. (2000); Arena et
al. (2012); Yiridoe et al. (2003); To and Tang (2014);
Djekic et al. (2014); Santos et al. (2016); Testa et al. (2016) |
Improved image |
Chin and Pun (1999); Biondi et al. (2000); Arena et
al. (2012); Melnyk et al. (2002);
Pan (2003); To and Tang (2014); Djekic et al. (2014) |
Employee morale, motivation and
awareness |
Chin and Pun (1999); Morrow and
Rondinelli (2002); Pan (2003); To and Tang (2014); Santos et al. (2016); Owolana and Booth,
(2016) |
Work environment safety |
Yiridoe et al. (2003) |
Managerial efficiency |
Biondi et al. (2000); Pan (2003); Zeng et al.
(2005); To and Tang (2014); Simon et al.
(2013) |
Better environmental performance |
Arena et al. (2012); Montabon et
al. (2000) (waste
reduction); Melnyk et al. (2002 and
2003) (reduced waste); Pan (2003); Szymanski and Tiwari (2004) (toxic
emissions); Zutshi and Sohal (2004) (waste reduction); Link and Naveh (2006);
Psomas et al. (2011); Djekic et al. (2014); Santos et al. (2016); Owolana and Booth,
(2016); Testa et al. (2016) |
Better production performance |
Melnyk et al. (2002); Pan (2003); Yiridoe
et al. (2003); Gavronski et al. (2008) |
Financial: profit margins, cost
reduction and general business profitability |
Melnyk et al. (2002); Morrow and Rondinelli (2002); Pan (2003); Zutshi and Sohal
(2004); Link and Naveh (2006); Wahba (2008); Gavronski et al. (2008); Simon et al.
(2013); Testa et al. (2016) |
Benefits related to customer and
market |
Melnyk et al. (2002); Poksinska et al. (2003); Pan (2003); Yiridoe et
al. (2003); Gavronski et al.
(2008); Psomas et al. (2011); Santos et al. (2016) |
Relationship with stakeholders |
Poksinska et al. (2003); Zeng et al.
(2005); Gavronski et al. (2008); Psomas et al. (2011) |
Regarding
management tools, cleaner production was the only specific management tool
cited (ZENG et al., 2005). Examples
of specific internal improvement in management were the assistance to
management in environmental matters (TO; TANG, 2014), emergency preparedness
activities (DJEKIC et al. (2014) and
the improvement in work environment (YIRIDOE et al., 2003).
Some studies
remark that there are conditions to perceive benefits. For example, Gavronski et al. (2013) said that Brazilian
companies with external motivations improved processes efficiency and
environmental management.
2.1.2. Literature
that remarks no benefits, or no significant difference
Bansal
and Hunter (2003) differed from the majority of authors saying that in the
United States ISO 14001 secured a competitive advantage, but only for first
moves. ISO 14001 attracted new customers that demanded it, but only few of them
were from the domestic market. Potoski and Prakash (2004) found that countries
with high numbers of ISO 9001 certifications also had high numbers of ISO 14001
certifications and there was a non-linear relationship between wealth (per
capita GDP) and number of ISO 14001 certifications, showing adoption decrease
tendency for the wealthiest countries. Cañón and Garcés (2006) detected in
Spain a benefit and a problem; there was a positive financial performance and a
negative impact of certification on pioneer, middle polluting and lower size
firms.
3. MEASURING INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Gross National Income
based on purchasing-power-parity (GNIPPP), import and export figures were
extracted from World Bank (2016) in US dollars on http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators#.
3.1.
Methods
Description
3.1.1. Data
Collection
The
survey performed by ISO, between 2012 and 2013, used an electronic questionnaire,
which was produced by ISO team. The details of the process are described in
public report. The questionnaire was posted online in 11 languages, involving
an ad-hc group with members from 10 different countries. The questionnaire was
online from 30 January – 30 April 2013. The topics treated in the
questionnaire-included information on the respondent. These pieces of
information are about level of knowledge on ISO 14001, responsibility and
interaction with management system and if he/she was answering from his/her
personal point of view or as a view of the company, as well as information on
the company and its environmental management system – size of company, sector,
how long it had been certified, scope of certification and some implementation details.
The opinions collected were divided in the following dimensions: motivations
for implementation, benefits for the business, benefits for environmental
performance, and on at which degree some concepts and requirements on
sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, and product life
cycle among others should be included in ISO 14001 revision (ISO, 2014a).
A
total of 4925 answers have been received by ISO. However, from all these, 1749
were the respondents that were qualified as experienced users (current users or
past users) and that answered as a member of a company and not from his/her
individual view. These are the answers taken for the current work. From all
respondents those that have never been involved in the practice with ISO 14001
management system and those who were not talking on behalf of a company have
been removed from the basis, as well as those that did not answer to a full
section.
ISO
supplied the raw data, which provided the research team with a raw .xls file
that included all answers. These are the most recent data available, once no
other similar survey has been conducted. The sections of the questionnaire and
the assertive used are described in table 3.
Table 3: Questionnaire sections used for this paper
Theme |
Specific assertions |
Scale |
Motivations |
Public image |
1 – 8 (1 most important, 8 less important |
Customer requirement |
||
Government/regulatory agency requirement |
||
Commitment to environmental protection and conservation |
||
Reduction of risk related to adverse environmental impact |
||
Cost savings/financial benefit |
||
Opportunities for integration with other management standards applied
by the organization (such as ISO 9001, ISO 50001, ISO 26000, OHSAS 18001) |
||
Other factors |
||
Benefits - environmental
management |
Meeting stakeholder requirements |
1 – 6 (0 – no value, 1 – low, 2 – moderate, 3 – high, 4 – very high
and 5 – don´t know |
Achieving strategic objectives |
||
Providing a competitive advantage |
||
Improving public image |
||
Integrating with the business
management system(s) |
||
Providing a financial benefit |
||
Business management |
Management commitment to environmental management |
1 – 6 (0 – no value, 1 – low, 2 – moderate, 3 – high, 4 – very high
and 5 – don´t know |
Employee engagement in environmental management |
||
Communication with stakeholders |
||
Stakeholder satisfaction |
||
Ability to meet legal requirements |
||
Improvement of the organization’s environmental performance |
||
Improvement in supplier environmental performance |
The
used answers were related to respondents work country and their motivations to
adopt ISO 14001: public image, customer requirement, government requirement,
environmental protection, environmental impact risk reduction, financial
benefits and integration with other ISO management standards. Each answer has
been associated with trade information of the country of operation of the firm.
In
order to represent features of international trade in several countries, some
variables have been used and their descriptions are in table 4.
Table 4: Variables used to understand country's
international trade.
Name |
Description |
GNIPPP2012 |
Gross national income, standardized according to purchase power parity
in 2012 (chosen because of the data of survey) in US dollars |
EXPORT |
Total exports of the country in US dollars |
IMPORT |
Total imports of the country in US dollars |
BALANCE OF TRADE |
Result of the balance of trade of the country in US dollars |
Cert/ GNIPPP |
Relation between certifications ISO 14001 and GNIPP |
%Exp/GNIPPP |
Percentage from relation between exports ISO 14001 and GNIPP |
%Imp/GNIPPP |
Percentage from relation between imports ISO 14001 and GNIPP |
%Balance/GNIPPP |
Percentage from relation between balance of trade ISO 14001 and GNIPP |
3.2.
Data
Analysis
Correlations were
tested for each assertive about motivation to implement, benefit to
environmental management and benefit to business management.
Correlations have been
tested using Spearman’s “rho” coefficient by Spearman. This choice is justified
because the data distribution was not a normal one. The test has been performed
under the significance level of 5% (p<0,05) (MYERS, 2006).
The distribution of the
answers according to the countries has not been balanced, what can introduce
some bias. However, the gains in this case would not bring significant benefit
because the choice of balancing by trade weight or weighting by certification
numbers in each country would be arbitrary.
4. RESULTS
4.1.
Motivations
to implement
The
results from 48 possible correlations among international trade and motives to
implement ISO 14001, presented on table 5, showed 16 significant ones, although
all of them were weak. The motive customer requirement was negative with export
amount (rho=-0,0955; p=0,0001), import amount (rho=-0,0799; p=0,0008) and
balance of trade (rho=-0,0473; p=0,048). Proportion import/GNIPPP correlated
positively (rho=0,0476; p=0,0466) with com customer requirement and other five
items. Environmental protection resulted the highest positive correlations with
proportional of export, import and balance of trade with GNIPPP and
certifications/GNIPPP. Because the motivation scale is inverted (higher
motivation is lower score) the conclusion is that higher importance of customer
requirements were associated with higher exports and with higher balance of
trade. On the other hand, higher importance of customer requirements is
correlated with lower imports of the countries where the companies operate. It
is also remarkable that public image, government requirement and financial
benefits correlated with one single variable, showing that probably these
benefits have very little role in the environmental management within
international trade context.
Table 5: Spearman's Rho correlations among
international trade and motives to implement
Spearman Correlation |
Public
Image |
Customer
requirement |
Government
requirement |
Environment
protection |
Envimpact
reduction |
Financial
Benefits |
Integration |
Others |
|
GNIPPP2012 |
Coef. Corr |
0,0222 |
-0,0695 |
-0,0068 |
-0,0181 |
-0,0332 |
-0,0398 |
0,0624 |
0,0177 |
Signif. P |
0,3540 |
0,0037 |
0,7769 |
0,4504 |
0,1651 |
0,0959 |
0,0091 |
0,4609 |
|
N |
1748 |
1747 |
1743 |
1748 |
1749 |
1749 |
1745 |
1746 |
|
EXPORT |
Coef. Corr |
0,0360 |
-0,0955 |
-0,0205 |
-0,0016 |
-0,0296 |
-0,0522 |
0,0633 |
0,0005 |
Signif. P |
0,1320 |
0,0001 |
0,3932 |
0,9456 |
0,2159 |
0,0290 |
0,0081 |
0,9826 |
|
N |
1748 |
1747 |
1743 |
1748 |
1749 |
1749 |
1745 |
1746 |
|
IMPORT |
Coef. Corr |
0,0279 |
-0,0799 |
-0,0087 |
0,0107 |
-0,0063 |
-0,0276 |
0,0654 |
0,0282 |
Signif. P |
0,2429 |
0,0008 |
0,7167 |
0,6552 |
0,7924 |
0,2485 |
0,0062 |
0,2394 |
|
N |
1748 |
1747 |
1743 |
1748 |
1749 |
1749 |
1745 |
1746 |
|
BALANCE OF TRADE |
Coef. Corr |
0,0744 |
-0,0473 |
0,0082 |
-0,1140 |
-0,0450 |
-0,0018 |
0,0021 |
0,0105 |
Signif. P |
0,0018 |
0,0480 |
0,7315 |
0,0000 |
0,0598 |
0,9397 |
0,9294 |
0,6607 |
|
N |
1748 |
1747 |
1743 |
1748 |
1749 |
1749 |
1745 |
1746 |
|
a%Exp/GNIPPP |
Coef. Corr |
-0,0170 |
0,0120 |
0,0425 |
0,0830 |
0,0203 |
0,0229 |
0,0222 |
0,0212 |
Signif. P |
0,4785 |
0,6154 |
0,0763 |
0,0005 |
0,3967 |
0,3377 |
0,3536 |
0,3766 |
|
N |
1748 |
1747 |
1743 |
1748 |
1749 |
1749 |
1745 |
1746 |
|
%Imp/GNIPPP |
Coef. Corr |
-0,0319 |
0,0476 |
0,0510 |
0,1220 |
0,0566 |
0,0455 |
0,0540 |
0,0622 |
Signif. P |
0,1829 |
0,0466 |
0,0333 |
0,0000 |
0,0179 |
0,0570 |
0,0240 |
0,0093 |
|
N |
1748 |
1747 |
1743 |
1748 |
1749 |
1749 |
1745 |
1746 |
|
%Balance/GNIPPP |
Coef. Corr |
0,0170 |
-0,0090 |
-0,0181 |
-0,0576 |
-0,0305 |
-0,0080 |
-0,0239 |
-0,0069 |
Signif. P |
0,4767 |
0,7066 |
0,4499 |
0,0161 |
0,2027 |
0,7393 |
0,3190 |
0,7742 |
|
N |
1748 |
1747 |
1743 |
1748 |
1749 |
1749 |
1745 |
1746 |
4.2.
Benefits
for business
When looking at the correlations of
international trade variables and the benefits for business, it is clear that a
higher number of correlations occurred, as shown in table 6. Correlations occur
both with import and export variables, what means that as a general rule more
intense international trade is associated with higher perceived benefits from
the business point of view. The correlations coefficients are still low,
showing in general a weak correlation.
Table 6: Spearman's Rho correlations among
international trade and benefits for business
|
GNIPPP12 |
EXPORT |
%Exp/GNIPPP |
Country_import |
%Imp/GNIPPP |
Country_balan |
%Balan/GNIPPP |
|
Meeting
stakeholder requirements |
Correlation
Coefficient |
-0,100 |
-0,113 |
-0,049 |
-0,130 |
-0,081 |
0,012 |
0,032 |
Sig.
(2-tailed) |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,043 |
0,000 |
0,001 |
0,631 |
0,190 |
|
N |
1,673 |
1,673 |
1,673 |
1,673 |
1,673 |
1,673 |
1,673 |
|
Achieving strategic objectives |
Correlation
Coefficient |
-0,083 |
-0,110 |
-0,074 |
-0,122 |
-0,104 |
0,052 |
0,032 |
Sig.
(2-tailed) |
0,001 |
0,000 |
0,002 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,034 |
0,197 |
|
N |
1,667 |
1,667 |
1,667 |
1,667 |
1,667 |
1,667 |
1,667 |
|
Providing
a competitive advantage |
Correlation
Coefficient |
-0,150 |
-0,170 |
-0,057 |
-0,187 |
-0,086 |
-0,015 |
0,020 |
Sig.
(2-tailed) |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,019 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,554 |
0,410 |
|
N |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
|
Improving
public image |
Correlation
Coefficient |
-0,156 |
-0,195 |
-0,059 |
-0,191 |
-0,058 |
-0,029 |
0,028 |
Sig.
(2-tailed) |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,016 |
0,000 |
0,017 |
0,238 |
0,261 |
|
N |
1,662 |
1,662 |
1,662 |
1,662 |
1,662 |
1,662 |
1,662 |
|
Integrating
with the business management system(s) |
Correlation
Coefficient |
-0,193 |
-0,211 |
-0,010 |
-0,217 |
-0,040 |
0,026 |
0,067 |
Sig.
(2-tailed) |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,672 |
0,000 |
0,100 |
0,295 |
0,007 |
|
N |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
1,663 |
|
Providing
a financial benefit |
Correlation
Coefficient |
-0,062 |
-0,080 |
-0,062 |
-0,094 |
-0,086 |
-0,010 |
-0,004 |
Sig.
(2-tailed) |
0,012 |
0,001 |
0,012 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,673 |
0,863 |
|
N |
1,660 |
1,660 |
1,660 |
1,660 |
1,660 |
1,660 |
1,660 |
4.3.
Benefits
for environmental management
In the case of benefits for management,
the results are in table 7. All surveyed benefits correlated with exports,
imports and gross national product. This shows that in countries with higher
GNIPPP, countries with higher exports and countries with higher imports have
perceived fewer benefits for the environmental management. However, regarding
balance of trade, only there were correlations between management commitment to
environmental management and improvements in suppliers’ environmental
performance.
Table 7: Spearman's Rho correlations among
international trade and benefits for business
Spearman Correlation |
Management
commitment to environmental management |
Employee
engagement in environmental management |
Communication
with stakeholders |
Stakeholder
satisfaction |
Ability
to meet legal requirements |
Improvement of the organization’s environmental
performance |
Improvement
in supplier environmental performance |
|
GNIPPP2012 |
Coef. Corr |
-0,072 |
-0,082 |
-0,167 |
-0,172 |
-0,156 |
-0,159 |
-0,215 |
Signif. P |
0,003 |
0,001 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
|
N |
1,677 |
1,673 |
1,659 |
1,661 |
1,664 |
1,665 |
1,661 |
|
EXPORT |
Coef. Corr |
-0,086 |
-0,115 |
-0,193 |
-0,188 |
-0,165 |
-0,175 |
-0,240 |
Signif. P |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
|
N |
1,677 |
1,673 |
1,659 |
1,661 |
1,664 |
1,665 |
1,661 |
|
IMPORT |
Coef. Corr |
-0,111 |
-0,113 |
-0,201 |
-0,203 |
-0,184 |
-0,194 |
-0,238 |
Signif. P |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
0,000 |
|
N |
1,677 |
1,673 |
1,659 |
1,661 |
1,664 |
1,665 |
1,661 |
|
BALANCE OF TRADE |
Coef. Corr |
0,128 |
0,012 |
-0,013 |
-0,010 |
-0,028 |
0,038 |
-0,073 |
Signif. P |
0,000 |
0,628 |
0,593 |
0,683 |
0,255 |
0,120 |
0,003 |
|
N |
1,677 |
1,673 |
1,659 |
1,661 |
1,664 |
1,665 |
1,661 |
|
%Exp/GNIPPP |
Coef. Corr |
-0,087 |
-0,065 |
-0,028 |
-0,027 |
0,024 |
-0,013 |
-0,028 |
Signif. P |
0,000 |
0,007 |
0,260 |
0,280 |
0,327 |
0,589 |
0,260 |
|
N |
1,677 |
1,673 |
1,659 |
1,661 |
1,664 |
1,665 |
1,661 |
|
%Imp/GNIPPP |
Coef. Corr |
-0,154 |
-0,082 |
-0,057 |
-0,069 |
0,000 |
-0,057 |
-0,037 |
Signif. P |
0,000 |
0,001 |
0,019 |
0,005 |
0,991 |
0,019 |
0,131 |
|
N |
1,677 |
1,673 |
1,659 |
1,661 |
1,664 |
1,665 |
1,661 |
|
%Balance/GNIPPP |
Coef. Corr |
0,091 |
0,042 |
0,054 |
0,061 |
0,076 |
0,091 |
0,021 |
Signif. P |
0,000 |
0,084 |
0,028 |
0,012 |
0,002 |
0,000 |
0,384 |
|
N |
1,677 |
1,673 |
1,659 |
1,661 |
1,664 |
1,665 |
1,661 |
5. DISCUSSION
The first result is that correlations, when existing,
are low, showing that the influence of international trade in the motivations
and benefits for the implementation of ISO 14001 are less important than
literature such as Goedhuys and Sleuwaegen (2016); Both groups Chung et al. (2005) and Zeng et al. (2005); Bellesi et al. (2005) and Nishitani (2010)
proposed.
5.1.
Motivations
for implementation
One of the issues that is more important is the
customer requirements, which are quoted as an important driver for the
implementation of ISO 14001. In the international trade context, the results
show that it does have an importance, because as seen in table 5 the
correlations show that the higher the numbers of international trade, both in
absolute volume and as proportion of GNIPPP, the more the importance of
customer requirements as a motivation for implementation of ISO 14001. This
confirms the inclusion of customer requirements as a motivation for
implementation, as proposed by Tuppura et al. (2015), Quazi et al. (2001),
Fryxell and Szeto (2002), Yiridoe et al. (2003), Schylander and Martinuzzi
(2007), ISO (2014), Djekic et al. (2014), Zeng et al. (2005) as a general rule
and Bellesi et al. (2005), To and Lee
(2014) specifically regarding international trade.
When looking at the specific variables, %ImportGNIPPP
was correlated positively with six different motivations. Because of the
inverted scale that means that there is a trend that the more important imports
in the country's economy, the less important are these motivations.
5.2.
Benefits
for the business
It is noteworthy that most trade variables are
negatively correlated to the surveyed benefits. That means that the more the
country exports or imports, both as absolute numbers or proportion of GNP, the
less benefits for the business are perceived. That is contradictory with the
theory because it would be expected that as a general rule they would perceive
benefits such as financial benefits as reported e.g. by Morrow and Rondinelli
(2002) or in marketing by Poksinska et al.
(2003), or specifically for international trade satisfying stakeholders’
requirements as noted by Bellesi et al.
(2005).
5.3.
Benefits
for Environmental Management
All surveyed environmental management benefits were negatively correlated with GNIPPP, exports and imports volumes, that means that in countries with larger economies and in countries with larger volumes of imports and exports the perceived environmental benefits tend to be lower than in countries with less GNIPPP and less international trade. However, there was a slightly positive correlation between perceived benefits and the proportion of trade balance at the country, that means, in countries with a higher importance of positive trade balance the benefits are more perceived. Although only two of the benefits had some correlation with exports proportion, most of them had negative correlation with imports. Although the correlation coefficients are low, this also challenges expectations and literature that argues that these benefits occur and give reason to the skeptics.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The intention of this project was to identify the relation between ISO 14001 certification and its affect in import and export volume. The survey result shows that there are weak correlations among countries international trade and motives to get certification. Because the degrees of correlation are low, there is reason to additional studies, what could probably include multivariate techniques. Anyway, the study suggests that some of the expected results and benefits for the business are not being achieved, or are achieved at degrees lower than expected in countries where trade is higher.
Regarding motivations to implement the survey confirmed that attending to customers and stakeholders’ interests is an important driver for companies that export.
Because the correlations are low this study suggests that importance of ISO 14001 certification in international trade is smaller than expected by hypotheses in scientific literature.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study received funding of the National Council on Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq, Brazil).
We also thank ISO – International Organization for Standartization for making the survey data available.
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