| This study started with the question of whether or not forest certification can really benefit certified firms, through improvements such as access to new niche markets, promotion of a firm's environmental image, or maintenance/improvement of a firm's market share. The Chinese forest product industry was considered for this study because China is expected to take leadership of CoC certificates in the global market in terms of the number of CoC certificates issued. To solve these research questions, such as what companies expect to gain from forest certification and why certified companies choose forest certification for their businesses, three models were suggested with regard to seven variables: reactive/proactive market orientation, early adoption/creativity/business system innovativeness, and internal/external environmental orientation. These three models are: 1) Adoption of forest certification is associated with seven variables. Adoption of forest certification, which is categorized by four types of groups---forest CoC certification, internationally environmental certification only, local environmental certification at least, and no certification---can be analyzed by multinomial logistic regression. Chinese manufacturers who are internally environmentally oriented are 2.835 more times likely to adopt at least one local environmental certification rather than a forest CoC certification. 2) Environmental performance is also associated with seven variables. Environmental performance is measured on a scale and can be analyzed by linear regression. Reactive market orientation, business system innovativeness, internal environmental orientation and external environmental orientation are significantly associated positively with environmental performance. 3) Innovativeness has a mediated effect on the association between market orientation and environmental performance. The mediated effect can be measured by serial steps combining regression analyses. The mediated effect of business system innovativeness exists on the association between proactive market orientation and environmental performance. |
