RT Article
T1 The Effect of Sustainability Standard Uncertainty on Certification Decisions of Firms in Emerging Economies
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 154
IS 3
SP 667
OP 681
A1 Montiel, Ivan
A1 Christmann, Petra
A1 Zink, Trevor
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2019
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785667513
AB Voluntary sustainability standards that establish global rules for firms’ environmental and/or social conduct and allow for verification of firm compliance via third-party certification hold the promise to govern firms’ sustainability conduct in a globalizing world economy. However, the recent proliferation of competing and overlapping global sustainability standards that have been developed by various stakeholders with different agendas, creates uncertainties for firms that likely reduce their propensity to adopt any standard. Without widespread adoption these standards cannot effectively govern firm conduct and in contrast create barriers for firms’ access to export markets. We suggest that the uncertainties associated with competing standards and the effect of these uncertainties on standard certification decisions are especially large for firms in emerging economies because these firms lack access to information about current and future standards and the resources to obtain certifications to multiple standards. We theoretically propose and empirically identify three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty: (i) diversity of customer requirements, (ii) dynamism of customer requirements, and (iii) the unpredictability of the future evolution of standard and propose that each of these sources reduces firms’ propensity to obtain certification to any standard. Our empirical results based on certifications to food safety standards by a sample of 97 Mexican food exporting firms confirm that three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty exist and that all of them negatively impact certification. We discuss ethical implications and offer recommendations for both suppliers as well as standard setting organizations.
K1 Sustainability standard uncertainty
K1 Voluntary sustainability standards
K1 Global Governance
K1 Emerging economies
K1 Certification
DO 10.1007/s10551-016-3350-0