The impact of marketing innovation on companies’ environmental orientation
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
ISSN: 0885-8624
Article publication date: 25 September 2019
Issue publication date: 8 January 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between companies’ marketing innovation and environmental orientation and to determine how this relationship differs between manufacturing and service companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses secondary data from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) to look at 6,435 Spanish companies during the 2013-2015 period. To examine the contingency effect of the activity sector, the sample is divided into two subsamples: manufacturing companies and service companies. Partial least squares path modeling is used to test and validate the research model and proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results show there is a statistically significant negative relationship between marketing innovation and environmental orientation. Significant differences were also found between manufacturing and service companies depending on the companies’ activity sector and size.
Practical implications
The analyzed manufacturing and service companies still use traditional marketing and have yet to embrace the “green marketing” or “marketing 3.0” concept. The marketing innovations a company undertakes should be positively, rather than negatively, related to its environmental orientation. In today’s companies, the two actions must go hand in hand.
Originality/value
Most studies on environmental orientation have focused on its relationship with technological innovation. In this sense, it is important to analyze its relationship with marketing innovation as well, as nowadays, when consumers are deciding between different companies’ products, they look for “companies with values.” Companies thus need to engage in environmentally oriented marketing innovation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Chair in Commerce at the University of La Rioja (Spain) for its financial support. The authors would also like to acknowledge the bridging grants for research projects awarded by the University of La Rioja (2017 call), subsidized by Banco Santander (reference: APPI17/05) and the COBEMADE research group at the University of La Rioja. This research was carried out as part of the research project “Economic Inequality in Contemporary Spain and Its Effects on Markets, Businesses, and Access to Natural Resources and Land” (HAR2016-75010-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, at the University of Salamanca.
Citation
Medrano, N., Cornejo-Cañamares, M. and Olarte-Pascual, C. (2020), "The impact of marketing innovation on companies’ environmental orientation", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-10-2018-0319
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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