University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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environment and develop a better image and gain clients’ trust. This situation is even
more likely to take place when accompanied by information asymmetry. As ISO
14001 (as well as EMAS and other standards) is a process rather than a performance
standard, it poses no specific requirements related to environmental performance.
The only minimum requirement pertains to the management system. This implies the
risk that businesses will take only small, incremental actions, failing to significantly
improve their environmental performance but giving way to a successful third-party
audit which in fact only confirms EMS’s compliance with ISO 14001. It gives little
information about improvement of environmental performance. If a business’
stakeholders are not familiar with the idea of EMS and the related standardization
norms, information asymmetry occurs between them and the businesses. This may
lead to businesses enjoying undeserved benefits (e.g. enhanced image, the consumers’
growing trust) on account of having a certified system in place which in turn may for
example trigger off demand for their products.
The reasons for implementing EMSs mentioned by the respondents included certain
motives of economic nature like efforts to reduce costs (12.81 %), efforts to boost
sales (8.90 %) or to increase the market share (8.54 %), as well as an opportunity to
boost exports of the company’s products (4.63 %). While it is true that those
motivations were not frequently quoted they suggest that by taking extra voluntary
efforts aimed at lessening environmental impact, businesses expect certain benefits
of economic nature. This does not imply of course that businesses’ care for the
natural environment is dubious. However, one should expect that business entities
combine environmental and economic goals. Therefore this conduct can hardly be
referred to as altruistic.