Re‐evaluating green marketing strategy: a stakeholder perspective

Purpose – The present study aims to examine the influence of stakeholders on green marketing strategy (GMS). Marketing literature recognizes that stakeholders play a significant role in influencing organizations and markets, but has not targeted a single integrated approach to examine the relationship between stakeholder management and GMS.Design/methodology/approach – This research comprised several phases, including the development of a typology of GMS, an analysis of how managers prioritize stakeholders, a study of the influence of stakeholders on GMS, and an analysis of the influence of the organizational context on managers' perception of the stakeholders. The hypotheses were validated using multivariate correlational techniques.Findings – The study identified the stakeholders associated with GMS and their impact on the strategy adopted by the firms, and established how this is moderated by the firm's own economic sector and organizational characteristics.Research limitations/implications – Future st...

[1]  M. Toffel,et al.  Stakeholders and Environmental Management Practices: An Institutional Framework , 2004 .

[2]  S. Hart A Natural-Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1995 .

[3]  W. Edward Stead,et al.  Management for a Small Planet: Strategic Decision Making and the Environment , 1992 .

[4]  Stephen Fineman,et al.  GREEN STAKEHOLDERS: INDUSTRY INTERPRETATIONS AND RESPONSE* , 1996 .

[5]  Giuliano Noci,et al.  At last we are creating environmental strategies which work , 1997 .

[6]  James W. Kolari,et al.  Marketing Strategy Implications of the Miles and Snow Strategic Typology , 1987 .

[7]  M. Polonsky A stakeholder theory approach to designing environmental marketing strategy , 1995 .

[8]  Gordon R. Foxall,et al.  Multiple Stakeholder Orientation in UK Companies and the Implications for Company Performance , 1997 .

[9]  Frances Bowen,et al.  Does Size Matter? , 2002 .

[10]  C. Hutchinson,et al.  Corporate strategy and the environment , 1992 .

[11]  Stewart Clegg,et al.  Changing Paradigms: The Transformation of Management Knowledge for the 21st Century , 1998 .

[12]  Jean-Jacques Lambin,et al.  Market-Driven Management , 2000 .

[13]  Robert N. Stern,et al.  The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. , 1979 .

[14]  A. Verbeke,et al.  Proactive environmental strategies: a stakeholder management perspective , 2003 .

[15]  Philip L. Cochran,et al.  The Evolution of the Corporate Social Performance Model , 1985 .

[16]  Nancy C. Roberts,et al.  The stakeholder audit goes public , 1989 .

[17]  Paul A. Zandbergen,et al.  Ecologically Sustainable Organizations: An Institutional Approach , 1995 .

[18]  Stelios C. Zyglidopoulos,et al.  The Social and Environmental Responsibilities of Multinationals: Evidence from the Brent Spar Case , 2002 .

[19]  Mark Cordano Making the Natural Connection: Justifying Investment in Environmental Innovation , 1993 .

[20]  Gordon R. Foxall,et al.  Consumer and nonconsumer stakeholder orientation in U.K. companies , 1996 .

[21]  Joseph Sarkis,et al.  Manufacturing strategy and environmental consciousness , 1995 .

[22]  R E Miles,et al.  Organizational strategy, structure, and process. , 1978, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[23]  Robert W. Ruekert,et al.  Marketing's Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework , 1987 .

[24]  Raymond WheelerDavid R. Singh Manjula Hartman,et al.  The cost of air pollution abatement , 1995 .

[25]  Magali A. Delmas,et al.  A Framework for Analyzing Environmental Voluntary Agreements , 2001 .

[26]  John M. DeCicco,et al.  A Method for Green Rating of Automobiles , 1999 .

[27]  M. Carrigan POSIT‐ive and negative aspects of the societal marketing concept: Stakeholder conflicts for the tobacco industry , 1995 .

[28]  Ronald K. Mitchell,et al.  Who Matters to Ceos? An Investigation of Stakeholder Attributes and Salience, Corpate Performance, and Ceo Values , 1999 .

[29]  Barbara Gray,et al.  Testing a Model of Organizational Response to Social and Political Issues , 1994 .

[30]  T. Rickards Sense making in organizations , 1997 .

[31]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .

[32]  R. Klassen,et al.  The Impact of Environmental Technologies on Manufacturing Performance , 1999 .

[33]  Henry Mintzberg The design school: Reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management , 1990 .

[34]  Demond Miller,et al.  Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation , 1998 .

[35]  P. Shrivastava The Role of Corporations in Achieving Ecological Sustainability , 1995 .

[36]  K. Dechant,et al.  Environmental leadership: From compliance to competitive advantage , 1994 .

[37]  A. Gouldson,et al.  Environmental Management and Business Strategy , 1993 .

[38]  Henrikke Baumann,et al.  Mapping the green product development field: engineering, policy and business perspectives , 2002 .

[39]  Sarah D. Stanwick,et al.  The Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance, and Organizational Size, Financial Performance, and Environmental Performance: An Empirical Examination , 1998 .

[40]  G. Huber,et al.  Firm and industry as determinants of executive perceptions of the environment , 1998 .

[41]  B Clemens,et al.  Changing environmental strategies over time: an empirical study of the steel industry in the United States. , 2001, Journal of environmental management.

[42]  R. F. Poist,et al.  Role and relevance of logistics to corporate environmentalism , 1995 .

[43]  Monica Giulietti,et al.  Consumer Choice and Industrial Policy: a Study of UK Energy Markets , 2003 .

[44]  James A. Fitchett Buyers be Wary: Marketing Stakeholder Values and the Consumer , 2004 .

[45]  W. Scott,et al.  Institutions and Organizations. , 1995 .

[46]  D. Pujari,et al.  Green and competitive: Influences on environmental new product development performance , 2003 .

[47]  Andrew J. Hoffman,et al.  Organizations, policy, and the natural environment : institutional and strategic perspectives , 2003 .

[48]  R. Gray,et al.  Corporate social and environmental reporting , 1995 .

[49]  Theodore T. Herbert,et al.  Generic strategies: An empirical investigation of typology validity and strategy content , 1987 .

[50]  L. Preston,et al.  The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications , 1995 .

[51]  J. Aragón-Correa Strategic proactivity and firm approach to the natural environment , 1998 .

[52]  Andrew J. Hoffman,et al.  From Heresy to Dogma: An Institutional History of Corporate Environmentalism , 1999 .

[53]  David Wheeler,et al.  What Improves Environmental Performance? Evidence from Mexican Industry , 1997 .

[54]  Steve Percy Environmental sustainability and corporate strategy: Why a firm's “chief environmental officer” should be its CEO , 2000 .

[55]  Jean Garner Stead,et al.  Management for a small planet , 1996 .

[56]  Martin Jänicke,et al.  ‘Dirty industries’: Patterns of change in industrial countries , 1997 .

[57]  Joel J. Davis,et al.  Ethics and environmental marketing , 1992 .

[58]  David H. Rylander,et al.  Strategic green marketing , 1993 .

[59]  Perry Sadorsky,et al.  The Determinants of an Environmentally Responsive Firm: An Empirical Approach , 1996 .

[60]  Vasanthakumar N. Bhat,et al.  Green Marketing Begins with Green Design , 1993 .

[61]  Forest L. Reinhardt,et al.  Environmental Product Differentiation: Implications for Corporate Strategy , 1998 .

[62]  Jacquelyn Ottman,et al.  Exploratory examination of whether marketers include stakeholders in the green new product development process , 1998 .

[63]  Stuart L. Hart,et al.  DOES IT PAY TO BE GREEN? AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMISSION REDUCTION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE , 1996 .

[64]  G. Hooley,et al.  Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning , 1993 .

[65]  David Paton,et al.  The characteristics and attributes of UK firms obtaining accreditation to ISO 14001 , 2001 .

[66]  Samuel B. Graves,et al.  The corporate social performance-financial performance link , 1997 .

[67]  Andrew Crane,et al.  Facing the backlash: green marketing and strategic reorientation in the 1990s , 2000 .

[68]  M. Clarkson A Stakeholder Framework for Analyzing and Evaluating Corporate Social Performance , 1995 .

[69]  Gerald Vinten,et al.  The stakeholder manager , 2000 .

[70]  R. Isaak The Making of the Ecopreneur , 2002 .

[71]  Bodo B. Schlegelmilch,et al.  Consumer Perceptions of the Environmental Impact of an Industrial Service , 1993 .

[72]  Petra Christmann Effects of “Best Practices” of Environmental Management on Cost Advantage: The Role of Complementary Assets , 2000 .

[73]  G. Savage,et al.  Strategic stakeholder perspective to ESOP negotiations: the case of United Airlines , 2003 .

[74]  A. Schaefer,et al.  Stage models of corporate 'greening': a critical evaluation , 1998 .

[75]  Kendall Roth,et al.  Why Companies Go Green: A Model of Ecological Responsiveness , 2000 .

[76]  J. Elkington Towards the Sustainable Corporation: Win-Win-Win Business Strategies for Sustainable Development , 1994 .

[77]  J. Hattie,et al.  An evaluation of typologies of marketplace strategic actions , 2003 .

[78]  Timothy W. Nix,et al.  Strategies for assessing and managing organizational stakeholders , 1991 .

[79]  H. Thomas,et al.  Taxonomic Mental Models in Competitor Definition , 1990 .

[80]  Ann Buchholtz,et al.  Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management , 2005 .

[81]  Nigel Roome,et al.  Developing environmental management strategies , 1992 .

[82]  Michael Jay Polonsky,et al.  Stakeholder management and the stakeholder matrix: Potential strategic marketing tools , 1996 .

[83]  Frances Bowen,et al.  Environmental visibility: A trigger of green organizational response? , 2000 .

[84]  Sandra Rothenberg,et al.  Green Schemes: Corporate Environmental Strategies and Their Implementation , 1997 .

[85]  Joel A. C. Baum,et al.  Institutional Linkages and Organizational Mortality , 1991 .

[86]  R. Freeman Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[87]  Perry Sadorsky,et al.  The Relationship Between Environmental Commitment and Managerial Perceptions of Stakeholder Importance , 1999 .

[88]  Robert D. Klassen,et al.  PLANT‐LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ORIENTATION: THE INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT VIEWS AND PLANT CHARACTERISTICS , 2001 .

[89]  Michael J. Lenox,et al.  Industry Self-Regulation Without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry's Responsible Care Program , 2000 .

[90]  M. Polonsky,et al.  A Stakeholder Perspective for Analyzing Marketing Relationships , 2002 .

[91]  Grant T. Savage,et al.  Stakeholder analysis for multi‐sector innovations , 2002 .

[92]  J. Dutton,et al.  THE CREATION OF MOMENTUM FOR CHANGE THROUGH THE PROCESS OF STRATEGIC ISSUE DIAGNOSIS , 1987 .

[93]  William M. Pride,et al.  Environmental management:The construct and research propositions , 1994 .

[94]  D. North Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance: Economic performance , 1990 .

[95]  Sanjay Sharma,et al.  Proactive corporate environmental strategy and the development of competitively valuable organizational capabilities , 1998 .

[96]  Linda C. Angell,et al.  Towards a Process Model of Corporate Greening , 2000 .

[97]  D. Rondinelli,et al.  Proactive corporate environmental management: A new industrial revolution , 1998 .

[98]  C. Oliver STRATEGIC RESPONSES TO INSTITUTIONAL PROCESSES , 1991 .

[99]  Rh Walker,et al.  Green Marketing and Green Places: A Taxonomy for the Destination Marketer , 1998 .

[100]  M. Halme Shifting environmental management paradigms in two Finnish paper facilities: a broader view of institutional theory , 1996 .

[101]  Sándor Kerekes,et al.  Evaluation of corporate environmental management approaches: A framework and application , 1996 .

[102]  P. Varadarajan,et al.  Delineating the scope of corporate, business, and marketing strategy , 1994 .

[103]  Jean-Jacques Lambin,et al.  Market-Driven Management : Strategic and Operational Marketing , 2000 .

[104]  M. Porter,et al.  Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship , 1995 .

[105]  O. Ferrell,et al.  Corporate social responsibility and marketing: An integrative framework , 2004 .

[106]  Robert J. Keith,et al.  The Marketing Revolution , 1960 .

[107]  I. MacMillan,et al.  Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest , 1986 .

[108]  Tim Rowley Moving Beyond Dyadic Ties: A Network Theory of Stakeholder Influences , 1997 .

[109]  M. Porter Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance , 1985 .

[110]  Robert W. Ruekert Developing a market orientation: An organizational strategy perspective , 1992 .

[111]  A. Subrahmanyam Ecology and Distribution , 1999 .

[112]  Peter Wright,et al.  AGENCY CONFLICT AND CORPORATE STRATEGY: THE EFFECT OF DIVESTMENT ON CORPORATE VALUE , 1997 .

[113]  Sanjay Sharma A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIVENESS STRATEGIES: ANTECEDENTS AND OUTCOMES. , 1997 .

[114]  Robert A. Phillips,et al.  The Environment as a Stakeholder? A Fairness-Based Approach , 2005 .

[115]  Stephen J. Grove,et al.  Environmental Advertising Claims: A Preliminary Investigation , 1991 .

[116]  Carl P. Zeithaml,et al.  Environmental Management: Revising the Marketing Perspective , 1984 .

[117]  Donald A. Fuller Sustainable Marketing: Managerial - Ecological Issues , 1999 .

[118]  Lynelle Preston,et al.  Sustainability at Hewlett-Packard: From Theory to Practice , 2001 .

[119]  Michael Jay Polonsky,et al.  An Introduction To Green Marketing , 1994 .

[120]  Ronald K. Mitchell,et al.  Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of who and What Really Counts , 1997 .

[121]  Anil Menon,et al.  Enviropreneurial Marketing Strategy: The Emergence of Corporate Environmentalism as Market Strategy , 1997 .

[122]  Jacquelyn Ottman,et al.  Stakeholders' Contribution to the Green New Product Development Process , 1998 .

[123]  J. Aragón-Correa RESEARCH NOTES. STRATEGIC PROACTIVITY AND FIRM APPROACH TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. , 1998 .

[124]  R. Sanchez,et al.  A systems view of the firm in competence-based competition , 1996 .

[125]  Joel J. Davis,et al.  Strategies for environmental advertising , 1993 .

[126]  Energy and Materials Program,et al.  Green Products by Design: Choices for a Cleaner Environment , 1992 .

[127]  A. Carroll Corporate Social Responsibility , 1999, The Routledge Companion to Corporate Social Responsibility.

[128]  Sanjay Sharma Managerial Interpretations and Organizational Context as Predictors of Corporate Choice of Environmental Strategy , 2000 .

[129]  K. Getz Implementing Multilateral Regulation , 1995 .

[130]  Leslie C Carlson,et al.  The Harm Chain , 2003 .