Forest certification and its impact on business management and market performance: The key role of motivations

Abstract

The impact of forest certification standards on firm management and market performance is analysed in this paper, so as to isolate the influence of internal (moral and learning) and external (market and signalling) sources of motivation. To do so, three propositions are formulated and then empirically tested on a sample of Spanish companies certified by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). In the structural model, the association of the external motivations with management performance was not confirmed, although the one of internal motivations was significant and companies certified due to internal reasons yielded greater benefits. Our results suggested that the implementation of forest certification per se will not improve overall performance. Moreover, when the standard is internally driven, it is reasonable to expect the implementation of the necessary measures to improve management performance, using the guidelines prescribed by such standard. The findings may be used to characterize certified firms and to anticipate the benefits of both the implementation and the certification of the standard, shedding light on the associations between the motivational factors and the benefits of forest certification standards, a field which has yet to be addressed.