Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of the diffusion of the international environmental management system standard ISO 14001 within the chemical industry using a panel of 126 different countries during the period 2000 to 2003. We investigate how institutional pressure originating from different stakeholders such as governments, businesses, and the civil society and forces related to trade will drive the diffusion. Our results show that the level of community involvement within a particular country and the previous experience of businesses with voluntary standards such as Responsible Care and ISO 9000 impacts ISO 14001 adoption in chemical firms.