18 - (2013) heras-saizarbitoria & boiral - iso 9001 and iso 14001

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ISO 9001 and ISO 14001: Towards aResearch Agenda on Management

System Standards*ijmr_334 47..65

Iaki Heras-Saizarbitoria and Olivier Boiral1

Department of Management, E.U.E. Empresariales, University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU, Plaza Oati 1,20018, San Sebastian, Spain, and 1Dpartement de management, Facult des sciences de ladministration, Universit

Laval, Pavillon Palasis-Prince, 2325, rue de la Terrasse, Local 1638, Qubec, Qubec G1V 0A6, CanadaCorresponding author email: [email protected]

Management system standards, also called meta-standards, have been adopted by an

increasing number of organizations across the world. Although these managementsystemstandards are based on thesame type of management principles andinstitutional

arrangements, the literature remains scattered, with diverse studies focused on specificstandards and published in various journals. The main objective of this paper is to

analyse the academic research on meta-standards through an integrative reviewintended to shed light on the main conclusions and substantial advances made in thisarea. This integrative review focuses more specifically on the two main meta-standards

which have been adopted by more than 1.3 million organizations worldwide: ISO 14001and ISO 9001.The paper contributes insights into the main streams of the literature andcurrent knowledge gaps to be addressed in future research on the various issues related

to meta-standards: global governance, diffusion processes, motivations, benefits ofadoption and impacts on performance, internalization, integration, consultancy and

auditing.

Introduction

The development of management standards nowencompasses a very wide range of aspects of busi-ness activity, such as quality management (e.g. ISO9001), environmental management (e.g. ISO 14001),the prevention of occupational hazards and the pro-vision of health and safety regulations in the work-place (e.g. OHSAS 18000), and corporate social

responsibility (e.g. SA 8000). These standards tendto use quite similar methodology with regard totheir creation, structure, implementation process andmonitoring by a third party, a trend that was estab-lished by the successful ISO 9001 and ISO 14001standards. Indeed, it should be taken into accountthat, by late 2010, over 1,100,000 ISO 9001 certifi-cates and 250,000 ISO 14001 certificates had beenauthorized in a total of 178 countries all over the

world (ISO 2011; see Figure 1).Similarly, standards-based management is a

research field that has received a lot of attention inrecent years, owing to the great success enjoyed bymanagement standards all over the world. In ouropinion, therefore, it is important to review the differ-ent approaches to the study of standardization in amanagement context, so as to attempt to synthesize

*This article is a result of a Research Project funded by theBasque Autonomous Government (GIC 10/89) and theSpanish Ministry for Education and Science (ECO2009-12754). The authors wish to express their sincere thanks tothe Co-Editor-in-Chief of IJMR Oswald Jones and to thethree reviewers for their assistance; their constructive criti-cism and suggestions helped us to improve and develop the

paper substantively.

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International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 15, 4765 (2013)

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2012.00334.x

2012 The AuthorsInternational Journal of Management Reviews 2012 British Academy of Management and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA

02148, USA


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and thus improve academic knowledge, which isin the interests of the various different stakeholdersinvolved (i.e. managers, consultants, policy-makersand researchers).

This work represents an attempt to analyse in depththe class of standards known as management systemstandards (MSS), also referred to as meta-standards

(Uzumeri 1997), and which have been so successfulin recent years. In this paper, a review of the substan-tial advances made in the field of this subject of studyis carried out; the review comes within the categoryof integrative reviews, works that seek to mergefindings from related areas (Macpherson and Jones2010, p. 109). Moreover, a research agenda for thefield is proposed. The paper focuses on the two mainglobal management standards at the internationallevel: ISO 14001 and ISO 9001.

A systematic literature review was carried outin order to identify the most prominent theoreticaland empirical academic works on the topic. In short,the ABI/Inform, Emerald and Science Direct data-bases were used to perform literature searches withthe following keywords: (1) ISO 9000, ISO 9001,ISO 14001, ISO 14000; (2) ISO standards; (3) meta-standard; and (4) management system standard/s.

The main contribution of this paper is to providean integrative review of the multifaceted literature onmeta-standards, to analyse the main conclusions ofstudies carried out from different perspectives and to

propose various avenues for future research basedon the knowledge gaps identified. The remainder ofthe paper is organized as follows. Following thisintroduction, the paper presents a short overviewof standardization and MSS or meta-standards. Inthe third section, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are brieflyanalysed, followed by a fourth section in which an

attempt is made to synthesize the main theoreticalperspectives or approaches applied to the analysis ofthose meta-standards in academic studies. The fifthsection constitutes an outline map of the main areasof research undertaken to date and the areas in which,in the authors opinion, research should be under-taken in the future. The paper ends with a summaryof the main conclusions.

Standardization and meta-standards

Standardization constitutes a mechanism of coordi-nation and an instrument of regulation comparablewith other instruments, such as public regulations,markets and hierarchies or formal organizations(Antonelli 1998; Brunsson and Jacobsson 2000). Ina global economy, without standardization and itsresults technical standards or specifications inter-changes would become exceedingly difficult. Stand-ardization can, then, stimulate international trade byeliminating obstacles arising from different national

Figure 1. Worldwide ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification. Source: ISO Survey (ISO 2011)

48 I. Heras-Saizarbitoria and O. Boiral

2012 The AuthorsInternational Journal of Management Reviews 2012 British Academy of Management and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.


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practices. Thus, standards are important for thepromotion of economic efficiency, as they provide abasis for reducing information-related transactioncosts (Nadvi and Wltring 2004).

Focusing on the specific case of managementstandards, in their monograph on standardization

Brunsson and Jacobsson (2000) refer repeatedlyto standards for administrative processes, andFurusten (2000, p. 71), in the same monograph,defines management standards as standards onhow to design and manage organizations. We canexplicitly identify these administrative standardswith what we would define here as MSS, a termthat already has a certain tradition of academicacceptance behind it in studies relating to qualitymanagement and environmental management (e.g.Corbett and Kirsch 2001; Delmas 2002; Karapetro-vic 2002; Neumayer and Perkins 2004; Wilkinson

and Dale 2001).In the literature on the subject, MSS are often

called meta-standards (e.g. Boiral 2001; Braun 2005;Christmann and Taylor 2006; Corbett and Yeung2008; Karapetrovic and Willborn 1998; Wilkinsonand Dale 1999). Uzumeri (1997) refers to them aslists of design rules to guide the creation of entireclasses of management systems. Since systems theo-rists use the term metasystem for lists of this type, itfollows that this type of management standard shouldbe referred to as a meta-standard (Uzumeri 1997,p. 22). Corbett and Yeung (2008) use the term meta-

standard loosely to refer to standards that apply tobroad processes (rather than individual products) andto entire families of such process standards (Corbettand Yeung 2008, p. 1).

These management standards are, of course, to bedistinguished from the technical norms and specifi-cations relating to those requirements with whichparticular products or processes need to comply.Even so, such a broad definition of standardizationin the field of management could encompass, forexample, international norms and guidelines deal-ing with accountancy and audits (the InternationalStandards on Auditing, for instance) or such generalmanagement models as that of the EFQM (Euro-pean Foundation for Quality Management). Theseguidelines and models are based on a set of guide-lines and benchmarks developed by specific organ-izations and referring to a particular field ofmanagement. Although the focus and content ofMSS may be quite different, their principles, struc-ture, terminology and certification processes sharecommon characteristics.

ISO 9001 and ISO 14001: the firstglobal meta-standards

The ISO 9001 standard does not refer to compliancewith an objective or with a particular result. Thatis, it is not a performance standard measuring the

quality of companies products or services. Rather,ISO 9001 proposes guidelines to systematize andformalize a series of company processes into a seriesof procedures, and to document this implementation.ISO 9001 standardizes procedures, duties and roles,rather than goals or outcomes (Braun 2005; Guleret al. 2002).

Compliance with ISO 9001, which can be certifiedby an institution accredited for this purpose, requiresdocumentation to show the implementation of aquality management system, including standardizedand documented procedures on the basic processes

used to produce the product or service whichthe customer acquires. ISO 9001 standard is thus amanagement tool based on the systematization andformalization of tasks in order to achieve producthomogeneity and to conform to the specificationsestablished by the customer (Anderson et al. 1999).

Similarly, ISO 14001 does not fix environmen-tal goals or environmental targets to be achieved(requirements for the prevention and reduction ofthe impact of pollution, for instance), as a result ofthe possible attainment of which a certificate wouldbe obtained. Rather, this standard establishes require-

ments defining the operational systems to be com-plied with within companies in relation to activitieswhich have an environmental impact (Delmas 2001;King and Lenox 2001). It is a model which providesa systematic framework within which to incorporateenvironmental concerns into a companys day-to-dayoperations.

From a global perspective, the successful diffusionof these MSS or meta-standards would appear to beclosely linked to the basic impetus of the processof globalization of the Western economies, to theextending global supply chains and the still growingimportance of transnational corporations (Braun2005). In the current economic environment, inwhich outsourcing and relocation of companiesactivities have become key strategic elements ofglobal supply chains, it is necessary to foster acertain homogeneity of management systems inorder to favour the development of such processes,and MSS may help to achieve this aim. As Boiral(2001, p. 80) states: the development of manage-ment standards is part of the growing globalization

Research Agenda on Management System Standards 49



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of the world economy, which requires the adoption ofinternational standards that facilitate exchanges andcommunication between countries.

Approaches to the academic study

of meta-standards

Introduction

Standardization of management systems and its end-product, meta-standards, constitute a clear exampleof a multidimensional phenomenon which has impli-cations of an extremely varied nature. It is for thisreason that they have been studied from the perspec-tive of a variety of disparate but related disciplines,such as international economics, management stu-dies (and, more specifically, the study of operations

management) and organizational sociology.In this section of the paper, an attempt will be made

to produce a synthesis of these approaches.1 First, thedifferent theoretical approaches will be structured inthree main groups: (1) technical approaches, in whichwe would place the standpoint of Operation Manage-ment and other technical standpoints involving astudy of the meta-standards that refer to more or lessgeneral, mature fields such as Quality Management,Environmental Management and System Thinking,among others; (2) non-technical approaches, withthe following four sub-approaches: self-regulation,decentralized institutions and signalling models,cartels and clubs and New Institutionalism; and (3)other approaches, in which we have grouped variouspieces of research based on eclectic works and whichare, consequently, difficult to classify.

The following two subsections focus on thepresentation of the first two general approaches.The main works published in the literature couldbe included in them. In the research perspective thatwe have generically named other approaches, weinclude other works from various different stand-

points, such as works of a pragmatic nature carriedout from the standpoint of international economicsand international business, those that focus on thesame standpoint but which are clearly critical (e.g.Clapp 2001), highlight new challenges regarding

governance and regulation2 (e.g. Haufler 1999), thosecarried out from the standpoint of economic geogra-phy (e.g. Neumayer and Perkins 2004, 2005) andmore eclectic works which are difficult to classify(e.g. Naveh and Marcus 2004; Rondinelli and Vastag2000).

Technical approaches

These approaches focus on the practical implicationsof meta-standards for organizations (e.g. Andersonet al. 1999; Benner and Veloso 2008; Casadess andKarapetrovic 2005; Corbett and Kirsch 2001; Corbettand Yeung 2008; Martnez-Costa et al. 2008, 2009;Terziovski et al. 2003). Thus, a great deal of researchhas focused on the measurement of meta-standardsimpacts in the field of operations management,quality management, environmentalmanagementand

supply chain management (for a recent review of theworks published on ISO 9001 from this perspective,see Sampaio et al. 2009). Thismeasurement generallyuses quantitative surveys, which have played a domi-nant role in the literature. Studies on the impactsof meta-standards have been conducted in variouscountries, often using a very similar methodology(e.g. questionnaire). Certain surveys have also beenconducted from a transnational perspective (e.g.Corbett and Kirsch 2001). Various studies have ana-lysed the motivations behind adopting meta-standards(e.g. Bansal and Roth 2000; Martnez-Costa et al.

2008; Sampaio et al. 2009; Yin and Schmeidler2009). The effect on the performance of organiza-tions has also been widely debated (e.g. Carlsson andCarlsson 1996; Corbettet al. 2005; Dicket al. 2008;Huarng et al. 1999; Martnez-Costa et al. 2008;Terziovskiet al. 2003). For example, the benefits ofISO 9001 implementation have been widely studied.Thus, the ISO 9001 adoption has been associatedwith productivity and effectiveness (Douglas andGlen 2000; Jang and Lin 2008), quality improve-ment (Escanciano et al. 2001; Sun 2000), customersatisfaction (Gonzlez-Torre et al. 2001; Moatazed-Keivani et al. 1999) and employee motivation(Kunnanatt 2007; Santos and Escanciano 2002). Thesame type of study has been undertaken with regard tothe benefits of ISO 14001 (Bansal and Hunter 2003;Delmas 2001; Gonzlez-Benito and Gonzlez-Benito2005; Yin and Schmeidler 2009).

1At this point we would like to express our gratitude for theguidance provided by one of the three reviewers of this

paper, as this helped us in the complex structuring work ofthe different standpoints referred to in the study that haveanalysed meta-standards.

2This is a sub-approach with a clear link to that of self-regulation, but which is put together in a different way as ithas far less theoretical basis.




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In short, this first standpoint also includes inquantitative terms an extremely far-ranging litera-ture, and is also the approach that was developedfirst, at a very early stage (in the early 1990s inthe case of ISO 9001). Generally speaking, technicalapproaches tend to encourage organizations to adopt

meta-standards by shedding light on their positiveimpacts, measured through quantitative studiescarried out in various regions and sectors of activity.Nevertheless, these studies tend to overlook certainpitfalls and pervasive effects that can result from theadoption of meta-standards: paperwork, superficialimplementation and lack of internal motivation(Boiral 2003, 2007; Christmann and Taylor 2006;Jiang and Bansal 2003; Walgenbach 2001). More-over, technical approaches tend to focus on thestandard implications for the organization and toneglect more global issues that can explain their

international development and institutionalizationthroughout various sectors of activity, such as theuse of meta-standards as self-regulation mecha-nisms, their role as signalling models and their sociallegitimacy in the eyes of certain stakeholders.

Non-technical approaches

These approaches are essentially focused on theanalysis of the development, rationality and sociallegitimacy of meta-standards, from a more globaland theoretical perspective. Through the adoption of

meta-standards and their certification, legitimacy isawarded to the organizations adopting them, and thisgrants benefits beyond pure technical or efficiencyadvantages (Beck andWalgenbach 2005).This stand-point is most salient in New Institutionalism,althoughit can be argued that it is also present in otherapproaches and, on occasions, even in works which, interms of both the views they express and the journalsin which they are published, could be included amongtechnical approaches (e.g. Nair and Prajogo 2009).This does not really come as a shock, above all if onetakes into account that, according to some authors,third-party certification, like other forms of auditingcertification, is primarily aimed at creating trust andsocial legitimacy in the eyes of stakeholders (Boiraland Gendron 2011; Power 2003).

Self-regulation refers to the adoption of voluntarystandards (e.g. environmental standards such as ISO14001) beyond the requirements of government regu-lation (Christmann and Taylor 2006; King and Lenox2000; Prakash and Potoski 2007). As is underlined byORourke (2006) and Christmann and Taylor (2001),

the inability of some countries to establish a systemof public regulation in relation to particular fields ofactivity such as the environment or employees rights,has intensified companies interest in self-regulation,a subject which is also of great relevance in the fieldof management standards. Despite liberalization, the

global economy continues to be governed by rules,but the rules are changing, and international stand-ards point to one such set of changes (Nadvi andWltring 2004). If it is true, in fact, that in modernnation-states the main burden of regulatory activity isassumed by the public administration, which for thispurpose has at its disposal various powers to sanctionor to encourage, the new supranational organizationswhich have arisen out of the decline of the nation-state, such as the European Union, the United Nationsor the OECD, do not benefit from the same hierarchi-cal authority and power to sanction, which has led

to the emergence of new regulatory institutionsthat do not belong to the traditional sphere of publicregulation. For Mendel (2001), standardization thusrepresents a form of coordination and hybrid govern-ance that is on the increase. All in all, from thisperspective, standardization is thus perceived as anew form of alternative to traditional public regula-tion. The absence of a regulatory power of a globalpublic nature the task of designing, implementingand enforcing standards tends to be assumed bydifferent regional or global institutions of a non-governmental nature in areas that have traditionally

belonged to the area of regulation by the authorities(Abbott and Snidal 2001; Brunsson and Jacobsson2000; Neumayer and Perkins 2005). Among thesenew regulatory institutions, special mention shouldbe made of the International Organization forStandardization. This body, known by its acronymISO (International Standardization Organization),3

together with the IEC (International ElectrotechnicalCommission) and the ITU (International Telecommu-nication Union), form the main international organ-izations for standardization.The three bodies have, inconjunction with the WTO (World Trade Organiza-tion), formed a strategic alliance with the commonaim of promoting the creation of a free and equitableglobal trading system. This agreement, known as theAgreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, providesfor the establishment of a code of conduct for the

3The International Organization for Standardization wasreconstituted as the successor organization to the short-livedInternational Standards Association, which had already beenestablished in the 1920s (Braun 2005).




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preparation, adoption and application of standardsbased on both the principles of non-discriminationand harmonization and the stated objective of pre-venting international standards becoming unneces-sary technical barriers to free trade.

In short, what stands out in this standpoint is

the notion of meta-standards as moving towards aglobal regulationtool. Within thisstandpoint, it wouldalso be interesting to explain, among other things, thedifferences from the sub-standpoint associated withworks that analyse the link between meta-standardsand private international business regulation andsoft law (e.g. Abbott and Snidal 2006; Vogel 2008).This sub-standpoint of soft laws differs from others inthat it focuses on an analysis of the legitimacy andenforcement mechanism of initiatives such as ISO14001, compared with hard law (Roht-Arriaza 2000;Vogel 2008).

Another perspective featuring in managementstudies, closely related to that referred to above, isthe analysis of meta-standards from the perspectiveof decentralized institutions and signalling models,based on Michael Spences theory of market signal-ling (King and Toffel 2009; Terlaak and King 2006).This perspective concentrates on analysing the roleof meta-standards and their certification and theelimination of asymmetries in information. For thisperspective, meta-standards can be seen as signals ofsupplier characteristics that lower search and moni-toring costs in supply chains (Christmann and Taylor

2001; King et al. 2005). More specifically, Terlaakand King (2006) argue that many studies carriedout from the perspective of the technical approachthat have tried to analyse companies motivation foradopting meta-standards have failed to explain fullythe nature of certified management standards. Theseauthors affirm that, from a theoretical perspective,the aforementioned studies do not explain whyorganizations implement and certify such meta-standards, given that, since the requirements of thestandards are public and consultancy firms are avail-able to aid the adoption of practices, companies donot need to certify the systems that they implement inorder to gain an operational benefit (Terlaak andKing 2006). In other words, they underline the ideathat an organization does not need a certificate inorder to make the standard work and that there mustbe non-technical reasons that explain the existence ofmeta-standards. Therefore, Terlaak and King (2006)argue that certified management standards constitutea form of private decentralized institution, becauseparticipation is voluntary and because a wide variety

of stakeholders, rather than a single central authority,provide rewards for participating or sanctions for notparticipating. They emphasize the process of certifi-cation itself, which is, in their opinion, the distin-guishing element of these decentralized institutions:certification as a critical determinant of the function

of management standards (Terlaak and King 2006,p. 1092). The importance given to the notion ofinformation asymmetry could be identified as adistinguishing feature of the standpoint, whichstresses that theraison dtreof meta-standards is toreduce information asymmetries between potentialexchange partners.

Following an approach clearly related to that above,the phenomenon of meta-standards has also beenstudied (especially in relation to ISO 14001) fromthe viewpoint of the theory of cartels and clubs whichcan be applied to voluntary programmes in which

certifiable meta-standards may also be included(particularly noteworthy for these purposes are thecontributions from Diayeet al. (2007), Kerret (2008)and Potoski and Prakash (2004, 2005)). Basing theirobservations on the theoretical model proposed byBuchanan, Potoski and Prakash (2005) point outthat, for companies, the benefits of membership (theso-called club goods) are the excludable brandingcertification that allows members to publicize theirclub membership and thus claim credit for theirpro-environment activities. The key conceptual dis-tinction made by the authors is that

clubs excludable benefits are not the rewardsmembers receive from external audiences for takingspecific environmental action. Rather, excludable

benefits stem from membership in ISO 9001 orISO 14001, which provides a credible signal ofa companys overall approach to environmentalgovernance. (Potoski and Prakash 2005)

The notion of information asymmetries is alsopresent in this standpoint, although one of the mostobvious distinguishing features that can be estab-lished in this case is the importance given to the studyof costs and benefits associated with meta-standardcertification the additional costs and the exclud-able branding benefits (Prakash and Potoski 2006).It is also highlighted that international trade buyersface higher transaction costs in identifying qualityexporters because of spatial, cultural, and linguisticdistances and that, as a result, meta-standards such asISO 9001 or ISO 14001 were explicitly designed tosolve the information asymmetry problem in inter-national trade (Potoski and Prakash 2009).




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Meta-standards have also been analysed from theperspective of New Institutionalism. This approachto the study of the adoption of meta-standardstakes as its reference point institutional and neo-institutional theories of the study of organizationsand suggests that firms obtain legitimacy by con-

forming to the dominant practices within their organ-izational field. In their seminal work, DiMaggio andPowell (1991) maintain that there are three typesof external pressure that lead organizations towardsisomorphism or homogeneity: coercive, mimeticand normative.4 First, coercive isomorphism mayresult from the pressure of external stakeholders toadopt meta-standards. For example, pressure fromcustomers is one of the main drivers of ISO 9001certification (Boiral 2003; Buttle 1997; Carlsson andCarlsson 1996). Second, mimetic isomorphism tendsto occur when meta-standards are viewed by compa-

nies as exemplary forms of management practices.The imitation of organizations adopting these exem-plary management practices tends to propagatecertain standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001across national borders (e.g. Beck and Walgenbach2005; Boiral 2007; Boiral and Amara 2009; Guleret al. 2002; Vasconcelos and Vasconcelos 2003).Third, for several authors, normative isomorphismoccurs when an accreditation institution has the rightto evaluate and inspect other organizations, grantingthe use of a seal or label certifying that the authorizedorganization follows the processes prescribed by

the authorizer, and certificates such as ISO 9001 andISO 14001 fall into this category (Guleret al. 2002;Mendel 2002; Vasconcelos and Vasconcelos 2003).

Generally speaking, organizations seek supportand legitimacy in their institutional fields by adopt-ing structural models that are perceived to be thebest available. In that way, entities such as ISO arekey players in defining the isomorphic properties ofmany institutional fields. One of the most prominentaspects of this sub-approach is that it focuses onanalysing the cross-national dissemination of meta-standards and the institutional pressures that explainwhy companies certify. This standpoint emphasizesthe importance of coercive, normative and mimeticforces and the mechanisms of international dissemi-nation of the ISO 9001 standard (Casper and Hancke1999; Guleret al. 2002; Mendel 2001). In short, the

distinguishing feature of this sub-approach is thatNew Institutionalism explains what meta-standardsare by focusing on the institutional pressures thatencourage their adoption. Nevertheless, according tocritical approaches based on New Institutionalism,meta-standards can be superficially implemented

when organizations are mostly driven by the quest forsocial legitimacy rather than the search for improve-ments of internal practices (Boiral 2007; Christmannand Taylor 2006; Walgenbach 2001).

A research agenda on meta-standards

As already pointed out by Uzumeri (1997) more thana decade ago, meta-standards could lead to funda-mental changes in management practice, since theyrepresent a new management technology that may

have a profound impact on the short-term evolutionof management practice. This author also declaredthat scholars, practitioners and policy-makers shouldbegin the serious task of mapping and analysing theirbroader implications (Uzumeri 1997).

It seems clear that the American scholars wishhas only partly come true. Although academic litera-ture on the subject of meta-standards has grown inrecent years, it is surprising that its volume has notincreased even more, especially in view of the obser-vation made by Corbett and Yeung (2008) to theeffect that, Once one considers that literally millions

of organizations worldwide are directly impacted bysuch meta-standards, it is surprising that not morescholarly research exists on most of these standards(Corbett and Yeung 2008, p. 1). In our opinion,however, the principal shortfall lies in the badlystructured and insufficiently incremental manner inwhich academic research into the phenomenon hasdeveloped.

Table 1 summarizes the principal research areasthat are currently being produced through themedium of specialized academic literature, in anattempt to carry out a mapping exercise that may beof interest to researchers working in this researchfield.

Regarding research area 1, the complex processby which standards are created, along the lines ofthe complete work undertaken by Haufler (1999),carried out from a critical perspective, in relation toISO 14001, should be studied further. As Nadvi andWltring (2004) point out, global meta-standards for-mulated by private and public/private initiatives suchas ISO imply new forms of global governance in the

4Other followers of this line of theory maintain that theseprocesses can be divided into coercive, normative and cog-nitive mechanisms leading to organizational isomorphism(Braun 2005; Guleret al. 2002; Mendel 2002).




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Table 1. Academic study of meta-standards: an integrative review

Research areas Representative works(theoretical approach/es)a

Main research results(representative works)

1. Creation ofmeta-standardsand implications

for globalgovernance

Haufler (1999) [O]Clapp (2001) [O]Summers (2003) [NI]

Nadvi and Wltring (2004) [O]Giovannucci and Ponte (2005) [NI]Nadvi (2008) [O]Ruwet (2011) [O]

Creation of meta-standards is a complex political process (Clapp2001; Haufler 1999)

Meta-standards imply new forms of global governance in the

world economy (Summers 2003) Meta-standards are frequently launched without the real

participation of the developing countries (Giovannucci and Ponte2005; Nadvi and Wltring 2004)

2. Internationaldiffusion processof meta-standards

Terlaak and King 2006 [SR]Corbett and Kirsch (2001) [TA]Guleret al. (2002) [NI]Delmas (2002) [NI]Saraiva and Duarte (2003) [TA]Poksinskaet al. (2003) [C&C]Franceschiniet al. (2004) [TA]Vastag (2004) [SR]Neumayer and Perkins (2004 2005) [O]Corbett (2006) [TA]

Marimnet al. (2006) [TA]Alburquerqueet al. (2007) [TA]Potoski and Prakash (2009) [DIS]Delmas and Montes (2008) [NI]

Positive correlation between certificates and macro-economicvariables (Neumayer and Perkins 2004; Potoski and Prakash2004)

ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 meta-standards had followed similardiffusion patterns (Corbett 2006; Corbett and Kirsch 2001)

ISO 14001 certification levels by country depend on ISO 9001certification levels, export propensity, and environmental attitudes(Corbett and Kirsch 2001)

Bilateral trade and geographical proximity are drivers of ISO9001, while cultural similarity drives for ISO 14001

(Alburquerqueet al. 2007) The diffusion models for innovations fit well (Alburquerqueet al.

2007; Franceschiniet al. 2004; Marimnet al. 2006)

3. Motivations toadoptmeta-standards

Bansal and Roth (2000) [NI,TA]Gonzlez-Benito and Gonzlez-Benito(2005) [TA]Beck and Walgenbach (2005) [NI]Kinget al. (2005) [DIS]Darnall and Edwards (2006) [NI]Yin and Schmeidler (2009) [TA]Martnez-Costaet al. (2008) [TA]Sampaioet al. (2009) [TA]Nair and Prajogo (2009) [NI,TA]

Prajogo (2011) [NI,TA]

Different typology of motivation: internal vs external(Gonzlez-Benito and Gonzlez-Benito 2005); functionalist vsinstitutional (Nair and Prajogo 2009).

Isomorphic pressures are important drivers (Bansal and Roth2000; Beck and Walgenbach 2005)

Firms seek certification when their partners lack credibleinformation (Kinget al. 2005)

Customer pressure and the external image are the main drivers(Darnall and Edwards 2006)

4. Benefits ofadoption(A) andimpact onperformance(B)

(A) Carlsson and Carlsson (1996) [TA]Buttle (1997) [TA]Brown and Van der Wiele (1995, 1996) [TA]Huarng et al. (1999) [TA]Bansal and Bogner (2002) [TA]Melnyket al. (2002) [TA]Terziovskiet al. (2003) [NI,TA]Casadess and Karapetrovic (2005) [TA]Prajogo (2011) [NI,TA]Boiral and Amara (2009) [NI,TA]Boiral (2011) [NI,TA]Heras-Saizarbitoriaet al. (2011a) [NI,TA](B)Rondinelli and Vastag (2000)[O]

Terziovskiet al. (2003) [NI,TA]King and Lenox (2001) [SR]Russo and Harrison (2001) [NI]Bansal and Bogner (2002) [O]Terziovskiet al. (2003) [NI,TA]Corbettet al. (2005) [NI,TA]Potoski and Prakash (2005) [C&C]Kinget al. (2005) [DIS]Dicket al. (2008) [TA]Benner and Veloso (2008) [NI,TA]Martnez-Costaet al. (2008) [TA]Heras-Saizarbitoriaet al. (2011b) [NI,TA]

Main benefits of ISO 9001: improvement of operationalperformance; greater customer satisfaction; improvedrelationships within the organization; improvement in the internalefficiency of the company; improved image for competitors andstakeholders (Brown and Van der Wiele 1996; Casadess andKarapetrovic 2005; Terziovskiet al. 2003)

Main benefits of ISO 14001: reduction in the consumption ofresources and improved image for competitors and stakeholders(Bansal and Bogner 2002; Melnyket al. 2002)

Positive impact of meta-standards in business performance(Bansal and Bogner 2002; Corbett et al. 2005; Dicket al. 2008;Kinget al. 2005; Martnez-Costa et al. 2008; Potoski and Prakash2005; Russo and Harrison 2001; Heras-Saizarbitoria et al. 2011b)

Significantly positive relationship between the drivers foradopting the meta-standards and the benefits and/or the businessperformance (Boiral 2007, 2011; Prajogo 2011; Terziovski et al.2003; Heras-Saizarbitoria et al. 2011a)

Paradoxical impacts of ISO 9001 certification and differentperformance configurations based on criteria related toeffectiveness and internal problems Boiral and Amara (2009)




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world economy, subject to potential conflicts that mayarise as a consequence of the competing interests ofprivate businesses and civil society stakeholders, anaspect which could constitute an extremely interest-ing subject for study and which has been littleexploited to date in relation to meta-standards. Simi-larly, the problem of developing countries limitedcapacity to exert an influence on the process of crea-tion of meta-standards is also a subject of great inter-est on which outstanding work has already beencarried out (e.g. Clapp 2001; Giovannucci and Ponte2005; Nadvi 2008; Nadvi and Wltring 2004;Summers 2003), despite the fact that there is stillmuch evidence to gather. In this research area, there isno clear dominating theoretical approach.

In the second research area, there are severalstudies carried out from the perspective of operations

management (Casadess et al. 2008; Corbett 2006;Franceschini et al. 2004; Marimn et al. 2006;Poksinska et al. 2003; Saraiva and Duarte 2003)which have tried to model the diffusion of meta-standards and have confirmed the existence ofsimilar diffusion patterns for different types of meta-standard (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 14001). In contrast,other studies carried out from other non-technicalapproaches have tried to analyse which factorsexplain geographical differences in the diffusion ofmeta-standards (Alburquerque et al. 2007; Corbett2006; Corbett and Kirsch 2001; Delmas 2002; Grol-leau et al. 2008; Guleret al. 2002; Neumayer andPerkins 2005; Potoski and Prakash 2004; Terlaak andKing 2006; Vastag 2004). These studies stress thata positive correlation exists between the number ofcertificates and macro-economic variables such as

Table 1. Continued

Research areas Representative works(theoretical approach/es)a

Main research results(representative works)

5. Differences inadoption levels(internalization)

Boiral (2003, 2007) [NI]Naveh and Marcus (2004) [O]Boiral and Roy (2007) [NI,TA]

Boiral (2007) [NI]Nair and Prajogo (2009) [NI,TA]Christmann and Taylor (2006) [SR]Jang and Lin (2008) [NI,TA]Yin and Schmeidler (2009) [NI,TA]Boiral and Amara (2009) [NI,TA]Heras-Saizarbitoria 2011 [NI, TA]

Different internalization levels of both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001(Boiral and Roy 2007; Jang and Lin 2008; Naveh and Marcus2004)

Discrepancy between written document and daily practices andritualistic/Symbolic adoption (Boiral 2003 2007; Christmann andTaylor 2006)

Internalization rationale depending on institutional pressures andinternal involvement (Boiral 2007)

Internal drivers positively correlated to the depth of adoption(Boiral and Amara 2009; Jang and Lin 2008; Yin and Schmeidler2009) and Internalization with operational performance (Nair andPrajogo 2009)

Heterogeneous internalization of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001standards (Boiral 2007; Christmann and Taylor 2006;Heras-Saizarbitoria 2011; Yin and Schmeidler 2009)

6. Integration ofstandards

Karapetrovic and Willborn (1998) [TA]Wilkinson and Dale (1999) [O]Beckmerhagenet al. (2003) [TA]Zutshi and Sohal (2005) [TA]Zenget al. (2006) [TA]Salomone (2008) [TA]Bernardo et al. (2009) [TA]

Academic controversy about integration models (Karapetrovicand Willborn 1998; Wilkinson and Dale 1999) Integration is often confused with the mere fusion of bothsystems documentation procedures (Bernardo et al. 2009) Different perspectives towards integrating ISO 9001 and ISO14001 (Zenget al. 2006; Zutshi and Sohal 2005)

7. Consultancy(A) andauditing(B) formeta-standards

(A) Sakofsky (1993) [TA]Vloeberghs and Bellens (1996) [O]Marimnet al. (2002) [TA](B) Chanet al. (1993) [TA]Williamson et al. (1996) [TA]Terziovski and Power (2007) [O]Boiral and Gendron (2011) [NI,O]

Gap between clients expectations and their perception of thequality of the consulting service (Marimn et al. 2002)

The role of the auditor is critical for the adoption ofmeta-standards (Williamson et al. 1996)

Quality auditors are frequently unfamiliar with the clientsindustry and process or products/services (Terziovski and Power2007)

Misconceptions of the certification and auditing practices in thearea of accountability for sustainable development (Boiral andGendron 2011)

aTA, Technical Approaches; SR, self-regulation; DIS, decentralized institutions and signalling models; C&C, theory of cartels and clubs;NI, New Institutionalism; O, Others (see the classification used in the paper).




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management system (Beckmerhagen et al. 2003;Karapetrovic 2003; Karapetrovic and Willborn 1998;Wilkinson and Dale 2001). At the same time, thefirst studies analysing these aspects have begun to bepublished in the academic world (Bernardo et al.2009; Fresner and Engelhardt 2004; Salomone 2008;

Zeng et al. 2006; Zutshi and Sohal 2005). Giventhe technical specialist nature of the theme, in thisresearch area it is also clear that the technical per-spective is the dominant theoretical approach.

Finally, research area 7 deals with specialist con-sultancy and the third-party auditing and registrationindustry related to meta-standards. Various studies ofthe field have confirmed the importance of externalconsultancy services in the process of adoption ofmeta-standards (e.g. Marimnet al. 2002; Sakofsky1993; Vloeberghs and Bellens 1996). Similarly,although it is stressed that the role of the auditor is

critical for the adoption of meta-standards (Sakofsky1993; Terziovski and Power 2007; Williamsonet al.1996) and requires careful interpretation and train-ing, several studies point out that quality auditorsare frequently unfamiliar with the clients industry,quality system and process or products/services, andthat this results in a poor-quality audit (Chan et al.1993; Hutchins 1993; Williamson et al. 1996). In arecent paper, Boiral and Gendron (2011) point outthat, although audit failure crises have not been asprominent in the context of the audits of meta-standards as they have been in the context of finan-

cial audits, There is a significant gap between theimagery of rationality and infallibility surroundingISO audits and what these audits can actually deliver(Boiral and Gendron 2011, p. 14). However, it shouldbe taken into account that the conclusions drawnby the authors are not based on sufficient empiricalevidence, as they themselves acknowledge, whichis why empirical work will need to be carried out onthis interesting and controversial research area. Inthis area, special mention should also be made of thecontributions made from a technical theoretical per-spective, although attention should also be drawn tothe fact that interesting contributions are starting tobe published from the New Institutionalism perspec-tive (e.g. Boiral and Gendron 2011), based on a moredeveloped and complex framework.

Discussion and conclusion

The objective of this paper was to analyse, throughan integrative study, the main findings of the litera-

ture on meta-standards and the avenues for futureresearch, based on the most significant knowledgegap identified. The concept of management standardor meta-standard is complex, multi-faceted andhas been extensively analysed in the literaturefrom various perspectives, including operations

management, strategic management, internationaleconomics, economic geography and organizationalsociology. The level of analysis has ranged from apragmatic approach to the more theoretical level, butwithout much inter-relation between the various dif-ferent research areas.

It can be stated that the conclusions drawn fromthe extensive body of academic literature availableon the subject have helped us to understand betterwhy and how these standards have been developedand disseminated. In this sense, the non-technicalcontributions have proved to be of special interest

owing to the solid nature of the basic theoreticalprinciples they put forward. Nevertheless, there stillremain many issues to be explored and a set of keyknowledge gaps on which research should focus inthe future, using both quantitative and qualitativeresearch methods (see Table 2).

Regarding the diffusion of meta-standards,since the temporal aspects of the adoption of meta-standards might also be important, there could be alink between these studies and others of a theoreticaland empirical nature which have already becomeestablished features in the field of management, and

deal in particular with the influence of fashionablepractices in business management (Abrahamson1991, 1996). It may also interesting to analyse theimpact of the global financial and economic crisison the decertification process, which has recentlystarted to be analysed in the relevant literature(Casadess et al. 2008; Marimn et al. 2009) something that concerns, above all, the ISO itself(ISO 2005).

However, although many interesting results havebeen obtained, clear answers are still waiting to befound to such elementary questions as the relation-ship between the economic competitiveness of coun-tries and the number of ISO certificates awarded.Thus, very competitive economies such as Germanyand Finland have a relatively low level of certificates,whereas less competitive countries (e.g. Italy, Spain,Israel) have a very high level of certificates. In ouropinion, in order to make progress in this researcharea, importance should be given to approacheswith a more pragmatic vision, which might be ableto throw light on this phenomenon, such as, for




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example, those approaches which gather specificevidence linked to the various different public andprivate programmes to promote meta-standards thathave been established in an international context.

As far as studies that attempt to analyse themotivation behind adopting meta-standards are con-

cerned, the perceptions of not only general managers,but also of internal stakeholders (such as middlemanagers or workers themselves who do not performmanagement tasks) and those outside the company(customers, suppliers, consultants and auditors)should be taken into account. In this way, a richerand more complete view of a process as complex asthe one we are faced with could be obtained. In thecase of studies that attempt to analyse the impact onperformance based on perceptual or self-reportingmeasurements, problems of bias should be takeninto account. Thus, Corbettet al. (2005), Heraset al.

(2002), Wayhan and Balderson (2007), Wayhanet al.(2002) and Yin and Schmeidler (2009) have pointedout possible bias related to performance variablesbased on managers ratings or on data supplied bythe companies themselves, since the person provid-ing the information has a personal interest in over-valuing it. Thus, when it is possible, it seems better toensure the use of more objective data or indicatorsfrom existing records (e.g. commercial databasescontaining economic and financial information,or publicly available databases with informationon environmental performance). Furthermore, as

stressed by Christmann and Taylor (2006), futureresearch on the drivers for the adoption of meta-standards should go beyond treating customers asa homogeneous group by including the types ofrequirements and preferences that different custom-ers impose on suppliers.

However, there is no doubt that one of the mostthought-provoking research areas owing to itsdiverse implications is that related to the internali-zation of meta-standards (research area 5). There is aclear knowledge gap in this field, and empiricalstudies (especially those based on quantitativemethodology) are necessary in order to analyse theperceptions of the various stakeholders with regardto the process of adoption and internalization ofmeta-standards. Furthermore, as both Christmannand Taylor (2006) and Nair and Prajogo (2009) havepointed out, owing to the increasing importance ofcontext dependence, future research should explorethe sources of variation in the quality of implemen-tation of meta-standards in cross-country studieswith different cultures and political environments. As

Christmann and Taylor (2006) underlined, research-ers need to acknowledge the limitation of certifi-cation as a measure, and need to evaluate howvariations in the quality of standard implementationmay affect their results.

Finally, for future work, research should also focus

on studying audits by third parties one of the proc-esses that characterize the phenomenon of meta-standards and one which has not received muchattention from researchers in recent years. It would beinteresting to analyse the consistency of externalauditing services rigorously, limited as they are by thefact that they are contracted and paid for by thecompany that wishes to become certified. This issuehas already been analysed in other areas of businessas a result of the accounting scandals that occurred inthe US a few years ago and, more recently, with theproblems facing credit-rating institutions in the finan-

cial crisis that arose in 2008. Indeed, as has beendemonstrated by recent scandals in the accountancysector and the financial market, third-party auditof meta-standards an activity that shares certainfeatures with that of account auditing and credit-rating is no guarantee of honesty (Boiral andGendron 2011; King et al. 2005).This question mightbe related to a possible erosion of the prestige andcredibility of management standards, a danger whichhas been pointed out ever since the phenomenonbegan (Askey and Dale 1994).Thus, with a view to thefuture it would also be interesting to analyse whether,

as a result of the rapid expansion in the diffusion ofmeta-standards, the quality of audits has improved,with better-trained and better-qualified auditors beingable to provide a more helpful auditing style, as someauthors maintain (e.g. Terziovski and Power 2007),or whether it is rather the case that a rapid decline inquality has taken place. As pointed out by Brumm(1997), the existence of many entities capable ofperforming the required audits and issuing the rel-evant certificates was pointed out as a weakness thatfavouredinstrumental implementationpractices, con-tributing to the erosion of the prestige and credibilityof meta-standards, as recently stressed by severalauthors (e.g. Boiral and Gendron 2011; Christmannand Taylor 2006; Yeung and Mok 2005).

In short, further critical and rigorous empiricalstudies are necessary in order to analyse the realperceptions of the various stakeholders (consumers,managers, suppliers, intermediary clients, workersand public administration) regarding the adoption ofmeta-standards and their effects. However, in orderfor the results of such research to constitute a clear




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contribution to an improvement in knowledge aboutthis phenomenon, the multidisciplinary orientationof these studies is an essential requirement.

Meta-standards regulate management practicesin a broad range of companies around the globe. Thestudy of the complex role of the adoption of these

meta-standards by researchers of very different back-grounds and different cultural and political environ-ments could provide valuable contributions to abetter understanding of their real role, for both aca-demic and practitioner purposes.

Lastly and as far as the limitations of the reviewof literature conducted are concerned, we wonderwhether the concept of meta-standard has sufficientmaturity or, in other words, has a sufficiently solidconceptual foundation, given the continued fragmen-tation of the management field (Hodgkinson 2001).Nevertheless, as we have attempted to argue in this

paper, we understand that, despite its complexityand clearly multi-faceted nature, the concept ofmeta-standard meets these requirements and is asufficiently mature, clear and well-defined manage-ment concept. Furthermore, we must also considerwhether the possible subjective bias in the work is alimitation. Indeed, as is the case with all integrativereviews about a multi-faceted and complex subjectmatter such as the one studied here, in which reviewsare not of an obviously systematic nature, it is clearthat other ways of mapping the academic knowledgein the field might well exist. For example, other

authors might define approaches that have tendedto study meta-standards in the academic literaturedifferently. Despite the limitations referred to, weunderstand that reviews such as the one contained inthis work are necessary to the field, to give, amongother reasons, other researchers who are interested inreviewing this complex line of work cause to makefurther contributions that may start to clarify andprovide evidence of the maturity of this field.

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