An exploration of interventions in ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification context - A multiple case study approach

Firms are reliant on third party certification schemes to provide an independent account of their quality, environmental and social practices. Although firms are typically involved with certification schemes over long periods, even decades, available literature so far provides little understanding about what certification related interventions firms pursue. To fill this gap, this study determines a typology of interventions and develops a theoretical understanding on why, how and under what circumstances firms intervene. Based on a qualitative enquiry involving 15 case study firms certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, the interventions are classified as incremental interventions (external audit quality, contractual, learning and benchmarking interventions) and breakthrough interventions (adoptive, integrative and infrastructural interventions). The pursuit of individual interventions is explained by institutional pressures, firms' motivation for certification, competence of certification intermediaries, and by complexity of firms' internal processes. A temporal perspective of the interventions and a set of four sequential pathways are discussed as well. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.