IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jenpmg/v69y2026i2p404-424.html

Corporate environmentalism and economic performance: examining the effects of ISO 14001 certification on technical efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Danbee Song
  • Jong Hoon Shin
  • Abdoul G. Sam

Abstract

The ISO 14001 voluntary standard is a blueprint for improving an organization’s environmental record and one of many tools available to address our planet’s ecological challenges. Since its introduction in 1996, adoption of the standard has surged globally, despite its significant costs. We examine the economic benefits to firms of being ISO 14001-certified by exploring whether certification results in a more efficient production process, using a panel of South Korean manufacturing firms and a stochastic frontier model with endogeneity. We find evidence that ISO 14001 certification significantly improves technical efficiency among high-polluting industries, increasing output by an average of 2.7%. This research enriches the empirical literature on voluntary environmental programs by showing that the standard improves technical efficiency among manufacturing firms. This may account for the popularity of the standard in South Korea, a global leader in manufacturing and exports, where its effects on efficiency have not been empirically examined.

Suggested Citation

  • Danbee Song & Jong Hoon Shin & Abdoul G. Sam, 2026. "Corporate environmentalism and economic performance: examining the effects of ISO 14001 certification on technical efficiency," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(2), pages 404-424, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:69:y:2026:i:2:p:404-424
    DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2024.2371567
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2024.2371567
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09640568.2024.2371567?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:69:y:2026:i:2:p:404-424. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJEP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.