An International Empirical Study on the Motivations for and Experiences with ISO 9000/14000: Use Taiwan as an Example

The ISO 14000 series of environmental management systems standards was introduced in Fall 1996, and by the end of 2000, over 400,000 firms in over 150 countries have adopted ISO 9000 since it was introduced in 1986.

Its successor, ISO 14000, was introduced in 1996 and has already been adopted by over 30,000 firms in over 100 countries. This paper reports on the results of international ISO 9000/14000 mail survey, administered in 15 nations including the United States, Canada, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia etc. to explore and compare the similarities and differences of motivations, implementations and certification benefits among these countries.