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This paper examines how economic and sociological globalization influence the cross-country diffusion of the most widely adopted non-governmental environmental regime, ISO 14001. This regime encourages firms to adopt progressive environmental programs which are beyond the legal requirement. We present a panel analysis of ISO 14001 adoption across 106 countries over seven years. For economic globalization, we find that trade flows supports diffusion. Sociological globalization supports ISO 14001 though transnational governmental and non-governmental networks and several cultural networks. Spread of ISO 14001 is also facilitated with higher embeddedness in the Internet network. In sum, globalization seems to be positive influence on the cross-country diffusion of a beyond compliance environmental regimes. In sum to better understand the virtues and limitation of globalization, scholars should focus on specific sub-components of economic and sociological globalization and how they influence any policy relevant phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary environmental programs are codes of progressive environmental conduct that firms pledge to adopt. This paper investigates whether ISO 14001, a voluntary program with a weak sword ? a weak monitoring and sanctioning mechanism, can mitigate shirking and improve participants? environmental performance. Our analysis of over 3,000 facilities regulated as major sources under the U.S. Clean Air Act suggests that ISO 14001 certified facilities reduce their pollution emissions more than non-certified facilities. This result persists even after controlling for facilities? emission and regulatory compliance histories as well as addressing potential endogeneity issues between facilities? environmental performance and their decisions to join ISO 14001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]