The study explores the key reinforcing factors of green competitive advantage among equipment manufacturing enterprises in China. Primary data using a survey method has been collected from managers and customers of equipment manufacturing organizations. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CBSEM) using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 have been employed to estimate empirical findings. The results show that green brand image leads the process of reinforcing green competitive advantage. It has been seen that customer pressure, regulatory pressure and green creativity positively influence green production. However, the influence of customer pressure is higher, which provide an insight to the decision makers. Additionally, the work has indicated that although green production and green creativity directly have a positive role in reinforcing green competitive advantage. But, the role becomes stronger when it contributes toward green competitive advantage via green brand image. The study concludes that the role of customers is highly significant, they can play a vital role in reinforcing green competitive advantage for the enterprises and also they can influence firms to adopt green production. Similarly, the green awareness programs would be pivotal to create awareness among the general customers for persuading a business environment for cleaner production in the country.

Introduction

The internal and external business environment of manufacturing firms has been significantly changed due to the rapid economic globalization. In order to adapt the changes of the market environment at a faster speed, reducing the operating cost and offering better products to customers, enterprises must emphasize upon innovation. At the same time, resources and environmental issues have become the primary dilemma faced by enterprises. The latest advancements show that a great deal of efforts is being made for environmental protection through innovation (Cole & Grossman, 2018; Shu et. al., 2016). Zailani et al., (2015) argued that due to the excessive consumption of resources and increasingly prominent environmental problems, firms should implement green production to effectively reduce environmental risks and their negative consequences in the whole production process. The concept and practice of green production is getting great attention due to its focus on addressing environmental issues. Green production refers to the process of adding environmental concepts into product life cycle (Przychodzen & Przychodzen, 2015). Even though, the implementation of green production reduces waste and improve productivity in an all-round way (Tseng et. al., 2013). But, to what extent it can be useful in establishing a green image and improving core competitiveness is not explored yet.

Green marketing strategy has increasingly become a sustainable business operation goal, and Green Marketing Audit (GMA) is an effective measurement tool. In order to satisfy the green marketing quality assurance, the tight integration of green marketing missions, competition, stakeholders’ requirements, and business activities are necessary. This study focuses on the establishment of green marketing audit criteria and priority sequence, using Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to combine the Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques. The major contributions of this study are as follows: (1) the proposed model provides a new practical architecture of GMA, which incorporates the experience and judgment of professional experts, and satisfies the needs of existing internal auditing operations; and (2) the GMA evaluation shows that linking the green marketing activities and firm performance contributes to the development of green marketing strategy management in Taiwan.

Introduction

Sustainable city development is an increasingly important focus of government policy, where the alignment of climate change and low-carbon strategy implementation are the key challenges (Mi et al., 2019). In the complex business world, traditional business operation strategies are insufficient to face increasingly strict environmental policies, stakeholder requirements, and the competition for innovation products/services. Implementing internal green practices and introducing monitoring mechanisms into firm operational processes can contribute to environment performance (Li et al., 2018). Regarding internal green marketing actions, Papadas et al. (2018) indicated that strategic green marketing and internal green marketing actions have positive influence on competitive advantage. The success of green marketing strategy depends on the effective implementation of green marketing activities. Although many approaches and checklists of marketing audit have been proposed (Herhausen, Egger and Oral, 2014; Morgan, Clark and Gooner, 2002), the main focus is limited to the audits of sales and collection (Taghian and Shaw, 2008). Given the impact of growing consumption on the environment, the number of companies developing green products has been rapidly increasing, and consumers have shown an increasing interest in these green products (Dangelico and Vocalelli, 2017).

1- Introduction

2- Literature review and hypotheses development

3- Methods

4- Results

5- Discussion

References

Abstract

This paper seeks to clarify and refine the relationship between strategic and internal green marketing and firm competitiveness. Despite the significance of corporate environmental strategy to firms adopting a triple-bottom line performance evaluation, there is insufficient focus on strategic green marketing and its impact on a firm’s competitiveness. This study fills the gap by providing a comprehensive view of strategic green marketing and its impact on competitive advantage. Findings also reveal the moderating role of internal green marketing actions towards the development of a sustained competitive advantage. Specifically, the findings build on contemporary green marketing literature suggesting that a significant interplay between strategy and people exists which enhances the creation of competitive advantage. This in turn increases financial performance. Finally, this research uses an updated approach to build on current literature concerning the drivers and outcomes of strategic green marketing. This provides managers with nuanced insights about environmentally-driven competitive advantage.

Introduction

Unlocking the relationship between corporate environmental strategy and firm competitiveness is paramount for contemporary business researchers, policy makers and practitioners (Gibbs & O’Neill, 2016). A green economy that is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive is also the goal of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2011). Despite calls for radical, holistic approaches beyond mere technological fixes and product innovation (Geels, McMeekin, Mylan, & Southerton, 2015; Lim, 2016) there remains a perceived but unresolved tension between green marketing and competitive advantage. A reluctance to pursue a green marketing orientation (Papadas, Avlonitis, & Carrigan, 2017) undermines universal engagement with sustainable business practices, and exacerbates corporate risk and losses. Despite the potential costs involved, the damaging and costly environmental consequences of traditional linear production and consumption are driving more innovative firms to shift their focus to clean production, design for the environment and ecoefficiency (Banerjee, 2017), and pursue resource efficient circular economy (CE) strategies including materials recycling and product repurposing (Moreau, Sahakian, van Griethuysen, & Vuille, 2017). CE has also gained momentum in the European Union Circular Economy package (EU, 2015) and Chinese law. There is no alternative to sustainable development and yet many companies remain convinced that their competitiveness will be eroded if they become more environmentally-friendly (Nidumolu, Prahalad, & Rangaswami, 2009). Further, much research in marketing remains data rather than theory driven (Hult, 2011; Webster, 2009). This hinders progress and leads to fragmented understanding of environmental concerns in marketing. A gap exists for a sound theoretical approach to provide a holistic understanding of the intersection between green marketing and competitiveness. Such an advance in knowledge not only presents theoretical support for future empirical investigation, but also provides legitimacy for managers facing resistance to the adoption of a green marketing orientation. This paper addresses that theoretical gap.

1- INTRODUCTION

2- GREEN MARKETING AND CF LABELS

3- A BRIEF LITERATURE REVIEW

4- A PILOT ONLINE SURVEY IN ITALY

5- CONCLUDING REMARKS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

6- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

REFERENCES

Abstract

Italian consumers’ serveyed revealed a generally positive willingness to pay for milk labeled for lower carbon footprint. Green marketing and related sustainable labels are important devices to convey information to consumers about more sustainable business models. Italian consumers’ willingness to pay for milk with lower carbon footprint analyzed through a pilot survey is positive and significant. Consumers’ willingness to pay also depends on the importance consumers assign to climate change, price sensitivity, as well as on income.

INTRODUCTION

Responsible consumption and production are one of the 17 sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (2015), which states that “It’s in businesses’ interest to find new solutions that enable sustainable consumption and production patterns.” Indeed, analyzing the value chain of a product and identifying hot spots of the life cycle where interventions have a great potential to reduce environmental impacts often lead to economic advantages (Coderoni, Valli, & Canavari, 2015). In Europe, the EU Sustainable Development Strategy sets out the aim of promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns. Its main objectives are decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, addressing social and economic development within the carrying capacity of ecosystems. The key of this challenging process is the alignment between the behavior of producers and consumers: on one side, producers should always aim to improve their business performance by introducing more sustainable business models, on the other side, consumers should be conscious of the consequences of their consumption choices and adapt their behavior accordingly. For this reason, it is fundamental that consumers have access to information about the environmental sustainability of production processes. Therefore, businesses willing to actively target consumers who are interested in more sustainable products should implement appropriate green marketing strategies. The idea of green marketing emerged in the 1980s, and over the years, a large body of literature highlighted the growing environmental awareness and consumers’ interest in green products or their willingness to pay (WTP) for more sustainable products (Mintel, 1991; Worcester, 1993). The most common instruments to support changes in consumption patterns are the so-called “sustainable labels,” that is, types of labels that are designed to convey to the consumer concepts related to sustainability, considering the environmental, ethical, and social elements involved (Padel, Zander, & Gössinger, 2010; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006; Zander & Hamm, 2010). Sustainable labels, for instance, can help orienting the consumer toward buying more greenhouse gases (GHG) saving products and therefore mitigating their contribution to global warming. To this extent, they are referred to as “carbon footprint” (CF) labels, as they indicate the grams of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) 1 emitted into the atmosphere along all the life cycle of a product or service, which comprises production, transport, transformation, distribution, and purchase (Kohnle, 2013).

This study proposed an extended value-attitude-behavior model to explain for consumers’ green purchase behavior and validated this model on a random sample of 399 Chinese consumers in Hong Kong. Results of structural equation modelling showed that consumers’ environmental consciousness (value) strongly influenced their attitude towards environmental issues and towards eco-social benefits (attitude), which in turn exerted positive effects on their green purchase behavior (behavior). Green product information was found to be a key determinant of consumers’ green purchase behavior. Moreover, high quality green products were reported to moderate the relationships between attitude towards eco-social benefits and green purchase behavior and between green product information and green purchase behavior, but not on the relationship between attitude toward environmental issues and green purchase behavior.

Introduction

Organizations have been paying more attention to market green products (Kumar et al., 2017; Moser, 2016). In the European Union (EU), 26% of consumers purchased green products frequently while 54% of EU consumers purchased them sometimes (The European Commission, 2016). In China, demand for organic and green food has surged because of increasing disposable income (McCarthy et al., 2015). Young consumers have high intention to purchase green products (Chekima et al., 2016; Yadav and Pathak, 2017) and health consciousness and environmental consciousness influenced their purchase of organic food (Rana and Paul, 2017). Ritter et al. (2015) suggested that more studies should be done on what and how to promote green purchase behavior. Using customerdominant logic that focuses on consumers’ values, attitudes, behavior, and context rather than organizational strategy, policy, practices, and activities (Cheung and To, 2016; Heinonen and Strandvik, 2015), valueattitude-model (VAB) (Homer and Kahle, 1988; Milfont et al., 2010) was selected because Kim and Choi (2005) highlighted that value-attitude behavior model proved to be useful for understanding the predictors of environmentally conscious behavior and their interrelationships of environmental concern and green purchase behavior in a collectivistic society where individuals are prone to engage in recycling behavior because they are more cooperative and tend to help others than those in collectivistic society (Li, 1997). We also extended this model in this study by examining how consumers’ environmental consciousness (value) affects their attitudes towards environmental issues and eco-social benefits (attitudes), which in turn influence consumers’ green purchase (behavior). The VAB model is chosen because there is a gap between the high value that people place on the environment and their low level of action taken by them to handle environmental issues. Unless we have a better understanding on reasons of people’s considerations on environment, otherwise, we cannot translate their environmental concern onto intensively protecting the environment and achieving sustainable development.

1- Introduction

2- Literature review and hypothesis development

3- Research methods

4- Results

5- Conclusions

References

Abstract

This study contributes to exploring the effects of regulatory fit with green marketing messages on consumer behavioral intentions by examining the moderating roles of perceived motives of green initiatives and perceived incentive mechanisms. Experiment 1 explores the effects of regulatory fit and non-fit on behavioral intentions in terms of the different types of green marketing messages. Experiment 2 explores the moderating effect of perceived different motives of green initiatives on the link between promotion/prevention regulatory fit and behavioral intentions. Additionally, Experiment 3 examines the moderating effect of perceived different incentive mechanisms on the relationship between promotion/prevention regulatory fit and behavioral intentions. Based on these findings, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Introduction

Tourism and leisure activities have proliferated and become important parts of modern life. Thus, when consumers engage in tourism and leisure activities on their travel itinerary, hotels make an essential contribution to the overall visitor satisfaction at a particular destination (Presbury et al., 2005). However, because hotel development depends on an abundance of natural resources, an important issue for hotels is to reduce the destruction of the environment while they are operating (Wang, Wang, Wang, Yan and Li, 2018). Therefore, along with rising environmental awareness, increasingly more people care about the problem of environmental degradation, which has caused the hotel industry to become aware that the market is changing dramatically, thus creating “green hotels” (Han et al., 2010). Due to the environmental issue constantly being at the forefront of attention and with the green consumption generation having arrived, enterprises are also actively implementing green marketing in response to market demand (Wang, 2017). Thus, by implementing green marketing and sending messages related to the use of green products, one can make consumers feel the benefits of green consumption (e.g., the impact on social benefits, such as health, environment, and future generations), which can facilitate consumers in moving from intention to action (Litvine and Wüstenhagen, 2011; Wei et al., 2018) and establish their awareness and understanding; they can then benefit the brand through purchasing intentions and brand selection (Ruiz and Sicilia, 2004). Jiang and Kim (2015) have shown that consumers’ interpretation of green marketing messages influences their behavioral intentions toward business. Thus, the use of green marketing messages to facilitate positive consumer behavioral intentions is important when conducting green marketing (Blose et al., 2015; Grazzini et al., 2018) and is an important research focus of the present study. As concluded by Line and Hanks (2016), environmental sustainability is an important issue in the hospitality and tourism industry, and researchers should pay more attention to understanding consumer attitudes, evaluations, and behaviors toward green hotel products and services. Previous studies have suggested that the concept of “regulatory focus theory (RFT)” should be applied in message construction to understand how consumers interpret received messages differently (e.g., Lin, 2011; Hsu and Chen, 2014; Hsu et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2018).

Advertising discourse has been pivotal in shaping public understanding of environmental issues. While much has been written on the negative impacts of green marketing narratives on the global struggle against contemporary ecological crises (e.g. Budinsky and Bryant, 2013; Gunster, 2005, 2007; Hansen, 2002; Hansen and Machin, 2008), such studies have been relatively sparse in non-Western contexts. This article focuses on an issue that has arguably become a priority on China’s public agenda: the expansion of private car ownership and its devastating social and environmental impacts.

Over the past three decades, the accelerating industrialization and marketization in China has been accompanied by a sharp increase of domestic environmental issues, which has led to growing public attention and policy discussions. In particular, major metropolitan areas such as Beijing and Shanghai have suffered from increasing low visibility days since the 2000s, making air pollution a high-profile public issue in China (Chan and Yao, 2008; Chen, 2014a, 2014b). Among the various contributing factors of China’s poor air quality, the dramatic increase in private car ownership has been frequently regarded as a major cause by government and media narratives. For instance, the number of vehicles in Beijing increased from 1.39 million to 2.65 million between 1999 and 2005 (Chan and Yao, 2008). In response to such explosive increase, the Beijing government has taken a series of tough measurements to control vehicle exhaust, such as adopting the Euro-III standards and conducting traffic control by banning certain license numbers. One recent example showing the tough control of private vehicles in China was the use of odd-even car ban1 in Beijing and its surrounding six provinces between late August and early September, 2015. This radical measurement reduced almost 50% road traffic and significantly improved air quality. However, when the ban was lifted in early September,Beijing’s air pollution quickly returned to alarming levels (Tatlow, 2015).

As the public concern over private vehicles’ negative environmental impacts keeps growing, question marks begin to haunt the discourse regarding private vehicle use in China. Within this context, many automobile brands begin to employ concepts such as “energy efficiency” and “earth friendly” to continue the promotion of private car ownership. Empowered by various forms of green consumerism, these seemingly environmental narratives tend to underscore the glaring contradictions between the marketing of private vehicles and their actual usage. In many ways, these narratives have received a great success: although automobile sales in China have slowed down in 2014 and are very likely to face even weaker growth in coming years, China remains the most promising market for global automobile corporations (Murphy, 2015). In other words, the growth of private car ownership in China has not yet been challenged by the rising public concern over air pollution. In this regard, the green narratives promoted by China’s automobile advertisements (auto-ads) would continue to be a crucial component in the public debates on China’s escalating environmental degradation.

مقاله سال 2016

Green marketing is defined as “the effort by a company to design, promote, price and distribute products in a manner which promotes environmental protection” (Polonsky, 2011, p. 1311). Green marketing is part of the key movements in modern business sustainability though their primary concern has always been revenues and profits (Akenji, 2014; Maniatis, 2015; Yang et al., 2015). Companies focusing on the natural ecological balance in their entire operation are more environmentally friendly while maximizing profits, they reduce environmental pollution, conserve natural resources and protect the environment. They gain a unique competitive advantage and develop new markets as they improve their corporate image their reputation and their product image from the consumer perspective (Chen, 2008). Consumer green marketing awareness is materialized when customers have confidence in eco-label and eco-brand which influences their green product purchase behaviour (Norazah, 2013a, 2013b; Rahbar & Abdul Wahid, 2011).

Numerous studies have been conducted to establish the influence of consumer attitude towards green products and its impact on customer satisfaction in the Western countries but few studies of consumer green marketing awareness and purchase intention have been done in Asian countries, including Malaysia (Haytko & Matulich, 2008; Menichelli et al., 2014). Hence, this research aims to examine the mediating roles of corporate social responsibility on the links from green marketing awareness to consumer purchase intention. Research output on the existence of mediating effects would add a new impetus to the emergent literature and preceding studies on consumer green marketing awareness, which has been so far inadequately researched in the Malaysian setting. Following this introduction, the ensuing section reviews the literature on green marketing awareness, purchase intention, and corporate social responsibility with the key hypotheses. Next, a clarification of the research method is presented. The subsequent section presents the data analysis, path analysis and hypotheses testing based on the development of structural equation models via the partial least square (PLS) approach. The final section is the discussion and conclusion of the research findings.

In the managerially oriented studies that dominate the field of green marketing, the focus is on understanding how to accomplish the marketing of green products in an efficient and profitable manner (see also A¨hlstro¨m, Macquet, & Richter, 2009; Kilbourne, 1998b; Merila¨inen, Moisander, & Pesonen, 2000). These studies set out to profile the green consumer (e.g., Baker, Thompson, & Engelken, 2004; Burke, Milberg, & Smith, 1993; Dickson, 2005; McDonald, Oates, Alevizou, Young, & Hwang, 2012; McEachern & McClean, 2002; Megicks, Memery, & Angell, 2012) and to explore how green consumers make purchasing decisions (e.g., Carrigan & Attalla, 2001; Harper & Makatouni, 2002; Leonidou, Leonidou, & Kvasova, 2010; Schro¨der & McEachern, 2004). Discussions within this body of work revolve around how to communicate with green consumers (e.g., Banerjee, Gulas, & Iyer, 1995; Lord & Putrevu, 1998; Zinkhan & Carlson, 1995), as well as if and how to design and implement green-marketing strategies and programmes (for a more comprehensive overview of green-marketing research, see Chamorro, Rubio, & Miranda, 2009; Charter & Polonsky, 1999; Fisk, 1998; Grove, Fisk, Pickett, & Kangun, 1996; Nair & Menon, 2008; Peattie, 2002; and, e.g., Wong, Turner, & Stoneman, 1996). While these studies generate important and useful insights into the character of green consumers and provide valuable discussions concerning the design of green-marketing programmes, they have two important limitations.

First, although the matter of how green marketing should be carried out is often discussed, there are relatively few studies of how green marketing is actually carried out in practice. That is, there are surprisingly few empirical studies that examine how green marketing is accomplished in the day-to-day practices of corporations.

Second, when empirical studies of green marketing are carried out, those that are produced are highly abstract (often at a general industry level), linear, and rational accounts of green marketing (see, e.g., Grove et al., 1996; Iles, 2008). Following the marketing-management approach (for a critique of the marketing-management approach, see Svensson, 2003), in these studies green marketing is presented as merely a matter of adapting traditional marketing techniques and ideas to environmental issues. The favoured strategy is referred to as green niche marketing (Crane, 2000), and to market green products, a company needs only to find a suitable green consumer segment, develop a green offering that will align with this segment’s ethical values and attitudes, and then communicate the benefits of its green products effectively (e.g., Chamorro et al., 2009; McEachern & Willock, 2004; Tsakiridou, Boutsouki, Zotos, & Mattas, 2008).

مقاله سال 2016

The history of environmental degradation awareness in China dates back to the late 4th century BCE; Taoist philosophy portrays a harmonious man-nature relationship (Ip, 1983). As China industrialized Taoism’s philosophy was veiled. China’s economy soared after its opening to the world through its open-door policy in late 1978. This growth caused significant social change and placed extraordinary pressure on the natural environment and the wellbeing of its citizens. China is in early sustainable development and green management stages, but the future will see a maturing perspective on the social well-being of the average Chinese citizen. Given China’s large population, it represents the world’s largest consumer market and is the third largest waste producer in the world (Chan, 2008). Adopting green management and sustainable development practices in China should have a positive impact on its own environment and global green economy expansion.

Green marketing is the context of this study. Green marketing is meant to cover the whole marketing field, serving as an overarching topic. Green marketing strategies and green consumerism are both under this green marketing umbrella. Green marketing issues in China show an integration of efforts from government, organizations and individual citizens. Initiatives from government establish a favorable social environment for the implementation and development of green marketing efforts. Industrial organizations and consumers both play a large supply-demand role in decoupling consumption and affluence from environmental degradation and a green economy (Gouvea, et al., 2013). Green marketing efforts from lower levels of analysis can be either initiatives from organizations or consumers. These two players impact and interact with each other. On the one hand, organizations select and introduce green marketing strategies to consumers, with consumers responding to green marketing strategies in their purchase behaviors.

Alternatively, consumers present a market demand for green products. Accordingly, green marketing organizational strategies seek to fill the gap in the market. This China study shows a significant research and literature gap both from green marketing strategies at the social and organizational level and green consumerism from the individual level analysis.

مقاله سال 2017

Last century’s accelerated demographic, technological and industrial development intensified the magnitude of human activity’s effects in the environment [1]. In fact, environmental consequences such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, climate changes, biodiversity loss, acid rain, ground, water and air pollution became a global problem for humanity and life in general [2, 3]. For Costanza and colleagues [4] there are five clear evidences that our Planet is at the breaking point in terms of supportability: (1) human´s biomass appropriation, (2) climate changes, (3) ozone layer depletion, (4) planet degradation and (5) loss of biodiversity. These current and future environmental impacts rendered sustainability issues as one of contemporary societies’ most striking and worrying problems. Although the signals are not recent, environmental and sustainability questions only got into the international agenda in the 1970s. This global environmental awareness resulted from the disclosure and seriousness of various environmental accidents, the organization of events (and reports) with worldwide impact and the interest of organizations and governments as far as environmental issues are concerned. From then forward, the concern with the environment transcended frontiers and became global, attracting academic, business and social attention.

In this context, the concept of “sustainable development” emerges. This concept became widely known in 1987, through the publication of a United Nations document, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development entitled “Our Common Future” [5]. Sustainable development was defined as the development that is able to satisfy the needs of current generations, without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs. One thing to notice is that sustainability is seen within three pillars, (a) the environment, (b) the economy, and (c) the society, being organizations’ social responsibility included in this trilogy [6]. In this regard, if a large part of the environmental disasters are related with firms’ activities, then firms need to be part of the solution. Therefore, it’s also up to firms’ management to contribute to this goal. The challenge is to discover sustainable methods of manufacturing, consuming and living.

Marketing emerges as one of the strategic areas firms can use to make current and future social wellbeing and respect for the environment compatible with their operations. Green marketing focuses on developing and marketing products and services that satisfy customer needs while taking into account environmental sustainability [7]. It allows to build a bridge between what the markets and customers want and the firms’ environmental-friendly engagements and technological offerings [8]. Firms can focus on developing new and “cleaner” products. Yet, if those products are perceived as of lower quality, overpriced, or fail to deliver on the environmental benefits, they will not attract customers, and result in a negative turn on firms’ performance [9, 10]. Hence, firms with green marketing try to look for specific customer needs, environmental aware customer profiles and ways of incorporating these insights into its offerings [11]. While doing so firms can find ways to differentiate their products and even assist the foundation of known green brands.