Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2020, 68(1), 157-168 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun202068010157

Why Do Firms Voluntarily Adopt Environmental Management Systems? The Case of the Czech Republic

Eva Horváthová
Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Department of the Human Dimensions of Global Change, V Jircharich 6, Prague 1, 110 00, Czech Republic

We examine why firms voluntarily implement environmental management systems. Employing the ISO 14001 management system and using firm-level data for the Czech Republic, we find that environmental management systems are typically adopted by large firms and by those firms that initially pollute the environment more. These systems are more commonly implemented by firms operating in service industries. On the other hand, we find little support that the adoption of environmental management systems is influenced by the firm's financial performance and labor costs.

Keywords: environmental management systems, firms, logit
Grants and funding:

We thank Roman Horváth, Lubomír Lízal, Bedřich Moldán and seminar participants at the Charles University and the University of Economics, Prague for helpful comments. This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR), Grant No. 20-18261S.

Received: January 9, 2020; Accepted: January 15, 2020; Published: February 27, 2020  Show citation

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Horváthová, E. (2020). Why Do Firms Voluntarily Adopt Environmental Management Systems? The Case of the Czech Republic. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 68(1), 157-168. doi: 10.11118/actaun202068010157
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