Marketing – Environment Sustainability Alignment: an Exploratory and Propositional Study

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a model of alignment between marketing and the environment in the sustainable operations context. The model is generated from the literature review of Environmental Marketing and Sustainable Products and Operations. A database is used to test the proposed alignment model. Marketing and environment variables are extracted from the database and are included in the Social Responsibility Ethos Institute's Indicators. The answers correspond to respondents' perceptions of their enterprises social accountability level. As a result, the marketing-environment alignment model is validated, partially. Additionally, the data analysis revealed two groups of enterprises in the sample, according to Kärnä, Hansen and Juslin (2003): (1) the smallest, formed by proactive enterprises with the highest environmental consciousness score, and (2) the largest, formed by reactive and consumption enterprises with the lowest environmental consciousness score.