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).