Cross-country diffusion of the ISO Energy Management Standard: How important is the neighbourhood effect?

diffusion of the ISO Energy Management Standard

Abstract

This study examines the uneven spread of ISO-50001 standards at the country level for a sample of 96 countries over the period 2011-2019. For the empirical estimation, we applied probit regression to analyze the reach of the certification across countries, and the negative binomial regression to analyze the intensity of diffusion. The findings show that infrastructural and institutional quality facilitate the diffusion of the ISO standard. Countries with more developed energy sectors are more likely to have a higher level of energy management certification. Furthermore, the diffusion of the certification is strongly affected by the geographic location of a country. The number of ISO-50001 certificates in a country is related to the intensity of the certification in the neighboring countries. We also found the neighborhood effect measured in terms of distance-weighted corticates in other countries as a strong predictor of the diffusion process.