ISO 14001 standard: Literature review and theory-based research agenda

Environmental sustainability has gained momentum in the business world and academia. After about 20 years of research in this field, this paper presents a holistic literature review specifically focused on ISO 14001, which is widely considered the most important environmental certification. The authors apply an antecedents-process-consequences framework to analyze systematically the scientific debate in this field. They identify six streams of ISO 14001 research, that is, drivers, barriers, tools and methods, impact on performances, enabling factors affecting adoption, and enabling factors affecting performances. The authors then summarize these research streams and highlight conflicting results and unexplored research areas. Finally, they propose a theory-based research agenda.