Mehdi Taghian

An empirical study on the influence of environmental labels on consumers

Purpose – Despite research studies indicating strong support for labelling information, uncertainty remains with respect to how labels influence consumers. This paper attempts to empirically investigate how consumers who differ in terms of environmentalism respond to labels.Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected on an Australian sample using a structured questionnaire administered on the phone using quantum research (CATI) data collection services. A total of 155 questionnaires were completed and used for data analysis. The data were analysed using both descriptive measures and correlations between variables.Findings – There appears to be a proportion of consumers that find product labels hard to understand. The research found that there are consumers who will buy green products even if they are lower in quality in comparison to alternative products, but would look for environmental information on labels. With respect to price sensitive green consumers, there appears to be a relationship be...

Green decisions: demographics and consumer understanding of environmental labels

This research examined the demographic profiles of Australian green consumers in relation to their satisfaction of environmental labelling. It examined consumers’ understanding of labelling and empirically investigated the association of demographic profile of consumers with their attitudes towards such labels. The results indicated that some of the demographic variables were significant, which is largely consistent with earlier findings by other researchers in this area. Label dissatisfaction was higher in the older and middle age respondents. However, some respondents disagreed that labels were accurate while commenting that labels were easy to understand. The key issue arising from the findings is that in order to provide perception of accuracy in labels, it is an option to use Type I or Type III labelling on products. These labels are, arguably, more credible because they are endorsed by third party labelling experts. This would come at a cost and for green products that use third party labelling, they will also have to bear in mind to keep the prices competitive.

Green advertising effects on attitude and choice of advertising themes

The aims of this article is to analyse whether there are differences in green advertisement attitudes between high involved and low involved consumers, to compare high and low involvement consumer’s cognitive responses and affective responses towards advertisements and examine the extent of the importance on certain themes that both high involvement and low involvement consumers consider. Themes such as company image, environmental labels, and product recycling symbols. A random sample of 207 consumers was taken from Victoria (Australia). The study shows that there are differences between the two groups in terms of their attitude towards green advertising with respect to all the dimensions and the low involved customers appear to have a stronger disregard for the green advertising across all the perceptive measures towards green advertising. The findings provide useful insights to practitioners as to the type of themes preferred for green advertising.

Marketing planning: Operationalising the market orientation strategy

Abstract Despite strong empirical validation of the relationship between market orientation and business performance, the literature is inconclusive on the implementation of the strategy. This paper reviews the implementation of market orientation, and investigates the associations between market orientation and marketing planning and their associations with business performance. A survey of 216 Australian larger business organisations was conducted to find evidence of these relationships. The results highlight a close association between market orientation and marketing planning, with virtually the same level of association between them, and the business performance measures used. This evidence suggests that they arguably represent the same domain. The results suggest that marketing practitioners may use the marketing planning technique as an intangible productive resource to operationalise the market orientation strategy, and use it to design a specific style and magnitude of market orientation suitable for an organisation.

A stakeholder approach to corporate social responsibility, reputation and business performance

Purpose - – This paper aims to investigate business managers’ assessment of stakeholders’ influence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The key stakeholders included “employees” and “unions” as internal and “public”, the “media” and the “government” as external stakeholders. The purpose was to estimate the influence of stakeholders that managers perceive as important. Moreover, the study sought to identify association between the CSR construct and corporate reputation and in turn whether this influences business performance. Design/methodology/approach - – This study uses a mail survey with a random sampling of senior managers sourced from Dun & Bradstreet’s Australian business database, focusing on large organizations (i.e. minimum

The Marketing Audit and Organizational Performance: An Empirical Profiling

10 million p.a. reported sales and minimum 100 employees) as the selection criteria. A conceptual model was developed and tested using structural equation modeling. Findings - – The results identified that “employees” and the “public” are perceived to be the influential stakeholder groups in CSR decision-making. There was evidence of a positive relationship between the CSR construct and reputation, which in turn influenced market share, but not profitability. Research limitations/implications - – This study examined a cross-section of organizations using Dun & Bradstreet’s database of Australian businesses and may not fully represent the Australian business mix. The effective response rate of 7.2 per cent appears to be low, even though it is comparable with other research in the CSR area. There may have been some self-selection by the respondents, although there were no statistically significant differences identified in the corporate characteristics of those invited to participate and those responding with usable questionnaires. Practical implications - – Managers can adopt a stakeholder-influenced CSR strategy to generate strong corporate reputation to improve business performance. It is important to ensure that the interests of “employees” and “public” stakeholders are addressed within organizational strategy. Respondents were less concerned about government stakeholders and thus government involvement in organizational CSR may need to be revisited. Social implications - – The major concern that emerges from these findings is the absence of the perceived importance of regulatory stakeholders on firms’ CSR activities. Regulatory controls of CSR messages could reduce or eliminate inaccurate and misleading information to the public. Originality/value - – The analysis explains the perceived relative influence of stakeholders on CSR decisions. It also provides an understanding of the link between organizational CSR reputation and organization’s performance.

An evaluation of the role of green marketing and a firm’s internal practices for environmental sustainability

This study investigates the use of strategy to address changes in business performance. It suggests the use of the marketing audit as a facility that can assist with the establishment, maintenance, and management of a market orientation strategy. The practice of the marketing audit and its perceived benefits are examined, and their relationships with change in business performance are investigated. The results indicate a positive association between the usage of the marketing audit and increase in market share, and a stronger increase in market share than increase in overall financial performance.

Integrating Precautionary Principle Approach in Sustainable Decision-Making Process: A Proposal for a Conceptual Framework:

The management of a firms green operations is increasingly important for marketing strategists. The purpose of this study is to investigate the cross-influences of green marketing strategy and the key internal green functional areas in a firm. We use the antecedents of marketing strategy and identify relationships between green marketing strategy and key supporting internal environmental operations of firms with respect to (1) green suppliers, (2) environmental resource management, (3) green research and development, and (4) environmental manufacturing processes and procedures. The statistical techniques of parallel analysis, factor analysis and multiple regressions are used to analyze data collected from 332 firms. The results identify that among the four functional areas of firms adopting green marketing strategy. Two are more likely to influence green marketing strategy – supplier selection and research and development. Implications are discussed. The findings contribute to the theory of green marketing strategy. Future research is recommended.

Market fit and business performance : an empirical investigation

Environmental sustainability, climate change, and environmental risks have become a growing concern for policy makers in terms of their content, implementation, and implications. Policy makers are concerned about the social and economic costs and benefits, especially in areas where hard and indisputable scientific evidence is lacking. The intention of this article is to review the approach referred as the precautionary principle and suggests a framework for a methodical approach that would be practical in making complex environmental decisions. This framework will be useful to implement decision making at the policy level for governments. The article has three broad objectives; first, it addresses the importance and the requirement of the precautionary principle. Second, it discusses the widespread relevance of its application. Despite the existing limitations of its definition, the article attempts to shed some light on its scope for application assuming that regulatory and other environmental protection instruments do not prejudice its application. Finally, it demonstrates a conceptual framework that will, potentially, perform a directive function by providing discourse and deliberation when applied to circumstances based on each project, activity, or case. Pollution, over consumption, environmental degradation, and global warming are issues that demand policy initiatives and decision making at the macro as well as the micro level to sustain development. As indicated by the United Nations (UN), societies’ consumption disparities are so stark that the world’s wealthiest 20 percent consume a massive 86 percent of the world’s resources (Shah 2001). This puts most of the developed world in the spotlight to become more conscientious about the consequences of their behavior. The solutions to environmental degradation not only require urgent changes in human behavior and cultural practices to reduce consumption, but since there will be some amount of consumption there would also be a need for advances in cleaner and more efficient technologies by industry and businesses (Oskamp 2000). While economic growth has contributed, in a large measure, to the rising of the average standard of living, it can also be seen as a source of accelerating pollution and degradation of the environment. Clearly, this need to strike a balance between economic development and environmental protection has been strongly debated. This is a multifaceted task and it demands the attention of policy makers to search for appropriate and innovative environmentally sound solutions. In initiating new projects, activities, or products, the question that generally needs to be addressed is on how much damage or pollution might they inflict on the environment? To address this issue, the article attempts to provide a framework for the process of making decisions within an environmental context. The proposed model uses the precautionary principle as a framework that could assist with the methodical process of investigation, analysis, and cost and benefit estimates that presents a decision rule and provide guidelines in this process. Basically, it attempts to operationalize the precautionary principle approach.

Cross-cultural comparison of consumer pre-purchase decision-making: Anti-aging products

This paper argues that an organisation needs to be managed for its fit to its intended target market. Market fit is defined as the capability configuration of a firm moderated by the relevant factors in the external environment. It is conceptualised within the integrated dynamic resource-based view of the firm. The study is based on survey data collected from 216 larger Australian businesses. Drawing on the existing literature on the resource-based view of the firm (RBV), a model of market fit has been developed and tested empirically. The results of the study suggest that the intangible internal assets of marketing planning, decision-making process, and marketing strategy form the core capability configuration of an organisation and that the market fit measure associates positively with business performance indicators. The assertion is that while the internal intangible assets form the core capability of an organisation, this capability is influenced by the market dynamics that may alter its character, intensity, and effectiveness in relation to its intended business performance objectives.