Corporate environmental behavior toward sustainable development: Motivations, benefits, and challenges of ISO 14001 adoption at Japanese subsidiaries in Thailand
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Since the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, ISO 14001 has become an internationally recognized environmental management system that has spread all over the world. The existing literature has examined in detail the motivations, benefits, and challenges of ISO 14001 adoption in developed countries. However, there is a relative lack of studies on the adoption of ISO 14001 by the subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries, and in Thailand in particular. This paper investigates the motivations, benefits, and challenges of ISO 14001 adoption at Japanese subsidiaries in Thailand based on the results of a questionnaire survey of 100 subsidiaries and a semi-structured interview survey of 11 subsidiaries. We find that the main motivations are pressures by the national and local governments, as well as by the customers. In addition to the tax incentives, the main benefits are gaining competitiveness, enhancing the corporate image, and maintaining efficient management. We also identify the following challenges: the costs of ISO 14001 adoption, and the training and awareness of the employees. Compared with the existing literature, we find some new motivations, benefits, and challenges related to the local context of ISO 14001 adoption. Although our results are valid only for the Japanese subsidiaries in Thailand, the in-depth understanding of the motivations, benefits, and challenges of ISO 14001 adoption may contribute to the expanding literature about corporate environmental behavior toward sustainable development.
自 1992 年在里约热内卢召开地球问题首脑会议以来,ISO 14001 已成为国际公认的环境管理系统,并在世界各地得到推广。现有文献详细研究了发达国家采用 ISO 14001 的动机、益处和挑战。然而,关于发展中国家,特别是泰国的跨国公司子公司采用 ISO 14001 的研究却相对缺乏。本文基于对 100 家子公司的问卷调查和对 11 家子公司的半结构式访谈调查的结果,研究了在泰国的日本子公司采用 ISO 14001 的动机、益处和挑战。我们发现,主要动机是来自国家和地方政府以及客户的压力。除了税收优惠外,主要的好处是获得竞争力、提升企业形象和保持高效管理。我们还发现了以下挑战:采用 ISO 14001 的成本以及员工的培训和意识。与现有文献相比,我们发现了一些与本地采用 ISO 14001 相关的新动机、新益处和新挑战。虽然我们的研究结果只适用于日本在泰国的子公司,但我们对采用 ISO 14001 的动机、益处和挑战的深入理解,可能会为不断扩展的有关企业环境行为以实现可持续发展的文献做出贡献。