This paper investigates the determinants of the early adoption of the international environmental management standard ISO 14001 using a panel of 84 countries from 1996 to 2002. It analyzes the relationship between firms’ decisions to adopt international management standards and institutional factors. The analysis emphasizes that, in the case of an emerging standard, the potential lack of consensus within the regulatory/institutional environment concerning the value of a new standard could send mixed signals to firms about the standard. The results show that in the early phase of adoption, regulative and normative forces within the institutional environment can work against each other. This study contributes to the institutional theory perspective by offering a more complex specification of the neo-institutional model where institutional forces can compete with each other.

This paper analyzes the determinants of the cross-national adoption of the international Environmental Management System standard ISO 14001 using a panel of 102 countries from 1996 to 2000. I use new institutional economics to develop hypotheses on the impact of the institutional environment on the cost of adopting the management standard. I also develop hypotheses using the institutional sociology perspective to address the role of the institutional environment in affecting demand and legitimation processes related to the standard. The results of the statistical analysis show that both rationales of cost minimization and legitimation play a role in the adoption of the standard. Using both theories improves our understanding of institutional forces affecting the early adoption of emerging management standards.

In this paper we analyze the factors that drive the adoption of resource efficiency practices in constrained economic times. We uncover the ‘paradox’ of lower investments in resource efficiency practices in a downturn market and identify the characteristics of firms that seek the opportunity to invest more in such conditions. We argue that even though the attractiveness of resource efficiency practices should increase in downturn market conditions, such practices require complementary capabilities, strategies and organizational structure for their successful adoption. We test our framework using data from a French survey with responses from5, 877firms. Our results show that only 6% of the firms in our sample invest in resource efficiency practices in downturn markets, and that those firms are more likely to be vertically integrated, and to have a main focus on cost leadership strategies, have adopted environmental standards and conduct their research internally. We provide recommendations to encourage more widespread adoption of such models of frugal strategies.

Environmental information programs have the potential to increase public awareness of environmental pollutants and associated health risks, and ultimately lead to the adoption of healthier behaviors and environmentally-friendly practices. In this dissertation, I study the role of information from such programs to mitigate environmental pollution and improve public health protection. My research explores information from two environmental information programs developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – air quality (AQ) information from the AirNow program and toxic chemical releases information from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI).� One focus of this research is to better understand how the public engages with AQ information from the AirNow program through a mobile application (commonly called app).� We developed an AQ app, AirForU, using data from the AirNow program, recruited about 3000 app users and studied their engagement with the app. Groups that are disproportionately affected by air pollution were more engaged with the app than the general public, however, engagement dropped over time for most app users. Highly engaged app users adopted health protective measures against air pollution directly as a result of the information provided in the app. We tested the effect of various air pollution messages to boost engagement with AQ information using two methods -through an online survey and through a field experiment conducted via the app. Survey results suggest that messages with a strong fear appeal might not be effective at engaging the public in the case of air pollution. For the app experiment, the messages were effective to re-engage less engaged app users, but the content of the message mattered less. Results from this study suggest that targeted messages and timely reminders positively influence engagement with AQ information. Another focus of this research was to develop a robust environmental and economic performance index to evaluate facilities reporting to the TRI.� A novel method, data envelopment analysis, capable of addressing irregularities in TRI data was successfully used to develop this index and allow easy comparison of facility performance within industrial sectors.� This method of analysis could be used to easily communicate and evaluate environmental performance for individual facilities by both the public and the facilities themselves.� Both research efforts were aimed at improving the effectiveness of environmental information programs.