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Understanding Firms’ Approaches to Voluntary Certification: Evidence from Multiple Case Studies in FSC Certification

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Abstract

Voluntary certifications, such as Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) in the forestry sector, are used to manage sustainable and socially responsible practices in firms. Even though the certifications are based on standards, it has been reported that adopting firms are nothing but a homogeneous cohort of adopters and in fact differ in their approaches to the certification. In this paper, we conceptualize firms’ approach to certification and link the approaches to various aspects of certification. Using an inductive approach and deriving our data from multiple case studies from forestry FSC certification, we argue that firms’ approach to certification is explained by their development of absorptive capacity, alignment of their organizational routines and their engagement in negotiations with FSC. We also argue that these approaches affect firm’s benefits from certification, their level of adherence to the requirements of the certification and their likelihood to withdraw from the certification. We discuss our findings in view of the literature on absorptive capacity, institutional literature and the literature on collective action and also discuss the implications of the study to voluntary certification literature in general.

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Notes

  1. The literature uses several modifications of the term “voluntary certifications”; such as voluntary certification programmes or eco-labels (Castka and Corbett 2014). All of these terms refer to certifications that are administered by third parties with independent verification mechanisms and which are voluntary. In this paper, we use the term “voluntary certification” or only “certification”.

  2. Appendix 1 provides background information on FSC certification.

  3. The experts belonged to the following organizations: Crown Forestry, NZFFA, NZFOA, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry of Primary Industry, Mitre 10, NZ Institute of Forestry, Council of Outdoor Recreation Association, Royal NZ Forest and Bird Society, Greenpeace NZ and SGS.

  4. In particular, the conflict with principle 10 around plantations and the value of plantations in New Zealand to prevention of the depletion of natural forests. Other significant issues that were raised by the respondents included the need to use chemicals for intensive plantation management and the desire for forestries to use GMO product. A further challenge identified was a misfit of FSCs’ requirements in relation to the indigenous issues around land use and Treaty of Waitangi.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Kathryn Bowler, Pavel Castka & Michaela Balzarova

Authors
  1. Kathryn Bowler
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  2. Pavel Castka
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  3. Michaela Balzarova
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Correspondence to Pavel Castka.

Appendices

Appendix 1: The Context of the Study—FSC Certification

As a result of the 1992 UN Rio Earth Summit, Forest Principles for Forest Management were drafted. A number of groups, namely Friends of the Earth UK (FoE-UK), The Ecological Trading Company (ETC), The Woodworkers Alliance for Rainforest Protection (WARP), worked through series of working groups and pilot studies paving the way for the creation of Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), FSC certification and FSC eco-label. The FSC Founding Assembly was held in Toronto in 1993 resulting in the Secretariat opening in Mexico in 1994; later moved to Bonn, Germany in 2003—its current location. FSC was set up as an Association—memberships are divided into three chambers, environmental, social and economic with fixed voting weights at 33.3 % each and there is also northern and southern sub chambers each with 50 % voting rights. This enables an open, participatory system, in which no one category could be suppressed and all chambers guaranteed a voice and vote. A General Assembly is held every few years to address changes in Principles and Criteria. Motions are proposed by one member, seconded by two and voted on by members. FSC Board of Directors is accountable to members; made up of nine elected representatives, 3 from each chamber for a 3 year term.

Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) offers assurance to the supply chain and consumers that products under the FSC eco-label come from responsible sources. FSC is based on a system of performance-based measurements and forestry industry members are verified through independent third party audits. Certification is on two levels: certified sustainable forestry management (FM) and a certified chain of custody (CoC) system which tracks FSC-certified material from the forest along the supply chain to the consumer. As of August 2013, FSC has certified 182.022 million hectares and issued 26,773 certificates for CoC and 1209 FM certificates in 80 countries. 44 % of total certified area is in Europe and about 40 % in North America. The reader is encouraged to review two papers from the Journal of Business Ethics: paper by Schepers (2010) that provides more detailed overview of FSC and paper by Castka and Corbett (2014) that describes governance of FSC and other certifications.

Appendix 2: Interview Questions

  • When certification was first achieved and what was the main driver?

  • What was their FSC demand and where was that coming from?

  • What changes to systems/operations were required and what cost was involved in becoming certified?

  • What ongoing costs, operational improvements or changes were/are required to maintain certification?

  • Had other labels or schemes had been considered?

  • What were the key benefits and disadvantages, both tangible and non-tangible of belonging to the certification scheme?

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Bowler, K., Castka, P. & Balzarova, M. Understanding Firms’ Approaches to Voluntary Certification: Evidence from Multiple Case Studies in FSC Certification. J Bus Ethics 145, 441–456 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2880-1

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