Eco-marketing & Eco-management. Exploring the eco-orientation - performance link in food retailing

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis was to develop a conceptual framework of food retailers’ ecological orientation that considers the interaction between ecological marketing and ecological management. In this context, the relationship was examined between ecological orientation and sales of ecological food products and the overall store performance of Swedish food retailers. To fulfil this purpose eco-orientation was conceptualised into two dimensions: eco-marketing and eco-management based on indications in the greening literature that companies’ responses to ecological issues have often been skewed to the marketing side rather than integrated into strategic and operative substantive actions. The study contributes to the theoretical fields of green and retail marketing. In the empirical data, (based on a standardised questionnaire administered to a random sample of Swedish storekeepers) I found three distinct groups of stores. The three groups were positioned along the diagonal of the two dimensions of eco-orientation; thus the stores differed in the degree of eco-orientation and not by having skewed eco-orientations. In fact, the data showed consistency in the integration of eco-aspects in marketing and management over a wide area of functions and activities. The findings from the study indicated that there was a positive relationship between ecological orientation and sales of ecological food products as well as overall store performance. However, eco-orientation seems to contribute more to the explanation of the sales of the ecological range rather than to overall sales. This study not only supports the notions of the important role of the store for the sales and market development of ecological food products, but also indicates that the more a store integrates ecological aspects into both marketing and management the better the development of its sales of ecological food products. Moreover, the study indicated that those storekeepers who considered it possible to combine eco-concern with good business were more likely to integrate eco-issues into their store operations than storekeepers who only had a general positive attitude to eco-issues.