ISO 14001 certification on the profitability of manufacturing companies under the food and beverage industry: A case analysis

Does being green pay off on the bottom-line? Unfortunately, that question of becoming ISO 14001 certified to reap financial benefits remains generally questionable. Theories and research conclude that the certification serves to signal to society exceptional environmental behavior improving the profitability of those businesses that engage in this behavior however, some studies show otherwise. As current findings are mixed, the main objective of this study is to investigate whether the adoption of ISO 14001 influences the profitability of companies under the food and beverage manufacturing sector in the Philippines. This would pave the way for an investment of environmental management. This paper used Robert Yins case study approach and compared the before and after performance of sample firms, using secondary data, to properly assess the effect of certification on operating performance. The researchers examined the collected data, using descriptive statistics, to evaluate whether there is a significant change in the event-window period as a result of ISO 14001 certification. To supplement the quantitative analysis, a survey was also conducted with some of the companies having ISO 14001 certification to identify the benefits that they have experienced. After analyzing all the obtained data, the results showed that there is no sufficient evidence to say that there is a significant change in profitability brought about by ISO 14001 certification