Abstract

Voluntary management standards have recently become a new form of industrial coordination. Once an organization implements a management practice, theorganization may then voluntarily apply for a third party certification to demonstrate compliance with a certain standard. Based on the principles of institutional theory, various scholars have analyzed how various elements of the institutional environment influence the adoption of these new management standards. However, missing in the literature, is the analysis of how the combination of different institutional pressures shape (e.g. accelerate or decelerate) adoption patterns. This paper addresses this question by analyzing the adoption of the environmental management standard ISO 14001 among automotive suppliers located in Canada, Mexico and the United States.