Date of Award
2015
Degree Name
Doctor of Business Administration
Schools and Centres
Business
First Supervisor
Dr. Helene de Burgh-Woodman
Abstract
Green marketing has an important role to play in supporting sustainable development. Marketers have a vital responsibility to communicate on relevant products and services, creating awareness on environmental issues among consumers. They could also play a role in promoting sustainable consumption. However, previous research has also suggested that, as yet, green marketing and indeed marketing’s broader influence on attitudes towards sustainability, are yet to be fully mobilised. Considering the important role of marketers in achieving sustainable development, this research focuses on marketers and studying what the attitude of marketers regarding sustainability and green marketing actually is. Additionally, given the extensive research on consumer markets, this research contributes to the less studied context of industrial business to business (B2B) marketing. Also, given the inadequate attention on green marketing in developing countries, this research focused on marketers from India and compared their attitudes with marketers from Australia, a developed country.
The research used Q methodology, including Q sorts, Q analysis and interpretation, to elicit and analyse the attitudes and viewpoints of marketers towards sustainability and green marketing. The research revealed B2B marketers have three predominant attitudes towards green marketing – those who show an interest in green marketing and actively use it, those who show an interest in green marketing, but are unable to use it in practice and those who are not interested in green marketing. The findings revealed several constraints which prevent marketers from using green marketing. The findings also revealed various similarities attitudes of marketers from developing and developed countries, such as the existence of highly interested marketers. At the same time, some differences were also evident where marketers with altruistic values were found only from the developing country and was absent in the marketers from the developed country
Publication Details
Arunachalam, N. (2015). Sustainability in business: A study on marketers' attitudes towards sustainable practices in the B2B environment [Doctor of Business Administration]. The University of Notre Dame Australia. https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/106