An exploratory examination of environmentally responsible straight rebuy purchases in large Australian organizations

This paper is an exploratory examination into the purchase of recycled paper within large Australian organizations. In‐depth interviews were held with 11 purchasing agents (PAs). The findings of the study tend to support earlier research in this area, which suggests that organizations can be classified into four categories of environmentally responsible purchasing behavior: founder’s ideas; symbolism; opportune; and restraint. Understanding the influence of PA’s attitudes and perceptions toward environmental product attributes can assist organizations who are marketing such products to become more effective. This study found that while environmental attributes are important, PAs are also concerned with traditional marketing mix variables such as price, delivery and quality. The emphasis marketers give to products’ environmental attributes will therefore depend on the firm and PA’s environmental involvement.

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