Eco-friendly marketing strategy and performance outcome: the role of learning

Amid growing concerns about environmental issues that focus on bringing the ecosystem back to its full functionality, firms must develop and utilize eco-friendly marketing competency to achieve performance outcomes, including marketing, financial, and environmental performance indicators. Despite the substantial research and tremendous development in eco-friendly marketing practices, empirical research on eco-friendly marketing strategies that examines the complexities of eco-friendly marketing strategies and the relationship between performance outcomes remains inconclusive. Yet little is known about the process of the performance impact of an eco-friendly marketing strategy. Consequently, marketing managers lack the guidance to understand the complexities and nature of the implications of an eco-friendly marketing strategy. Many scholars also argue that an implemented marketing strategy can generate new knowledge, utilize existing knowledge, and reduce the anxiety for developing marketing competency. Therefore, this thesis examined how eco-friendly exploratory learning, eco-friendly exploitative learning, and eco-friendly learning anxiety as eco-friendly marketing competencies can enhance the performance outcome of manufacturing firms. Drawing on the achievement goal theory and stakeholder theory, a comprehensive model outlining the underlying mechanism in the relationship between eco-friendly marketing strategy and performance outcomes and the effectiveness of eco-friendly marketing strategy for the mechanisms was developed. A quasi-longitudinal survey design with 3 waves of data collection from 296 manufacturing firms was used to test the model. The direct, mediating, and moderating effects were examined using structural equation modelling. The results support the positive relationship of eco-friendly marketing strategy with eco-friendly exploratory learning and eco-friendly exploitative learning. Further, the study also shows a negative relationship between eco-friendly marketing strategy and eco-friendly learning anxiety. Eco-friendly marketing competencies are found to impact performance outcomes positively. Further, the study also provides evidence for the mediating effects of eco-friendly exploratory learning, eco-friendly exploitative learning, and eco-friendly learning anxiety. Results also show that competitive intensity and customers’ environmental sensitivity negatively moderate the eco-friendly marketing strategy-eco-friendly marketing competency link, whereas coordination flexibility and ties with intermediaries moderate the link positively. These findings have important implications for marketing theory and practice. Stating the limitations of the study, future research avenues are also highlighted.