Environmental orientation, sustainable behaviour at the firm-market interface and performance

Abstract

Abstract This study aims to enrich sustainability research and practice by being the first study to systematically review empirical studies from the past ten years on how corporate-level environmental orientation influences environmental marketing and firm performance and improves the understanding of the roles of environmental contingencies. A review of the extant literature describes how the investigation of this field has evolved over the past ten years, provides a managerially relevant meta-framework of variables based on previous studies and suggests areas for future research. Structural equation modelling of cross-sectional survey data from 296 firms in Hungary shows that the environmental orientation of the firm is an important driver of environmental marketing, which in turn, has a weak, positive effect on performance. Environmental contingencies have more influence on how firms profit from environmental marketing initiatives than on how firm-level environmental attitudes and visions translate into behaviour. Stringent environmental regulations and the environmental orientation of competitors reinforce the profit outcomes of environmental marketing, while the environmental norms of customers and the natural environment do not influence this effect. This study concludes with important sustainability implications for policy makers and managers.