Aiming for a greener future : A study within green marketing strategy and subjective performance

Abstract: As society’s concern for the natural environment has increased during the last decades, organizations worldwide have been forced to become more environmentally conscious. Just as it is considered important for organizations to take responsibility for the environmental consequences of their actions, sustainability has become a concept that is expected to become a moral obligation in the future. Consequently, green marketing strategy, also known as GMS, has appeared more in academia in recent years. The strategy in itself is referred to as the firm’s desire for developing actions aimed to align corporate and marketing objectives, while at the same time protecting the natural environment. Basically, it is a strategy that can be seen as a way of conducting business while avoiding harm to people and the planet. Previously conducted studies show that the strategy in itself led firms to improve their profitability by improving marketing performance and reducing costs. However, after conducting a literature review on GMS, firm performance, and subjective performance, a research gap was identified as previous studies focused on objective measures. More knowledge was therefore considered needed regarding the relationship between GMS and subjective performance, hence the purpose of the study has been to assess the relationship between the two. In order to answer the purpose of the study, a quantitative approach using questionnaires was chosen as the most appropriate method. CEOs, and environmental managers of 183 manufacturing companies in Sweden participated in the study and the findings indicated that there is in fact a relationship between the concepts measured, and that this relationship is medium positive.