The impact of forest certification standards on firm management and market performance is analysed in this paper, so as to isolate the influence of internal (moral and learning) and external (market and signalling) sources of motivation. To do so, three propositions are formulated and then empirically tested on a sample of Spanish companies certified by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). In the structural model, the association of the external motivations with management performance was not confirmed, although the one of internal motivations was significant and companies certified due to internal reasons yielded greater benefits. Our results suggested that the implementation of forest certification per se will not improve overall performance. Moreover, when the standard is internally driven, it is reasonable to expect the implementation of the necessary measures to improve management performance, using the guidelines prescribed by such standard. The findings may be used to characterize certified firms and to anticipate the benefits of both the implementation and the certification of the standard, shedding light on the associations between the motivational factors and the benefits of forest certification standards, a field which has yet to be addressed.

中文翻译：

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森林认证及其对企业管理和市场绩效的影响：动机的关键作用


本文分析了森林认证标准对企业管理和市场绩效的影响，从而分离出内部（道德和学习）和外部（市场和信号）动机来源的影响。为此，我们制定了三项建议，然后对经过森林认证认可计划 (PEFC) 认证的西班牙公司样本进行了实证测试。在结构模型中，外部动机与管理绩效的关联并未得到证实，尽管内部动机的关联性很重要，并且由于内部原因而获得认证的公司获得了更大的收益。我们的结果表明，实施森林认证本身不会提高整体绩效。此外，当该标准是内部驱动的时，可以合理地期望使用该标准规定的指导方针实施必要的措施来提高管理绩效。研究结果可用于描述认证企业的特征，并预测标准实施和认证的效益，揭示森林认证标准的激励因素和效益之间的关联，这是一个尚未解决的领域。