The Role of Organizational Culture on Green Marketing

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND BUSINESS STUDIES Department of Business and Economics Studies Master Programme in Business Administration (MBA): Business Management 60 Credits

Lucia Gido Chuwa Ukpemeobong Usen Ibokette

June 2020

Student Thesis, Master Degree (One Year),15 Credits Business Administration Master Programme in Business Administration (MBA): Business Management 60 Credits Master Thesis in Business Administration 15 Credits

Supervisor – Dr. Daniella Fjellström Examiner - Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama

ABSTRACT

Title: The Role of Organizational Culture on Green Marketing Level: Final Thesis for Master‘s Degree Program Authors: Lucia Gido Chuwa and Ukpemeobong Usen Ibokette Supervisor: Dr. Daniella Fjellström Examiner: Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama Date: June 2020

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the influence of organizational culture on green marketing. Method: This study applies a qualitative research approach on seven selected companies in Sweden and Nigeria. We interviewed seven people using seven semi- structured interview questions and we carried out thematic data analysis by grouping the findings into common themes to guide our discussion. Result & Conclusions: This study concludes that organizational culture influence implementation of green marketing as it dictates what happens within the organization and how it happens. The organization that embraces environmental values in its culture needs to disseminate it to all employees to create common understanding and commitment towards its implementation. We also discovered a lower level of customer awareness on green marketing which requires more efforts by organizations and stakeholders to create this awareness or advocacy which will help firms investing on green marketing to sell their products. Suggestions for future research: We suggest a future study which could complement this study using a bigger sample size. We also propose a comparative future study which may help to highlight how implementation of green marketing in developed countries like Sweden differs from the developing countries like Nigeria. Furthermore, we suggest an explorative study on how best the customer awareness on green marketing can be enhanced so that to support green marketing. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to the body of knowledge about organizational culture, environmental sustainability and green marketing through highlighting how organizational culture influence implementation of different components of green marketing mix, which was an underexplored area. We also contribute that customer awareness is an important aspect to encourage green marketing Key words: Green marketing, green marketing mix, organizational culture, Sweden, Nigeria, environmental sustainability and Natural Resource Based View Theory.

Acknowledgement

We would like to extend our gratitude to all who have helped us accomplish this work in one way or another. Firstly, we would like to thank our Almighty God for giving us the strength and inspiration of writing this study. We dedicate this project to the Swedish Institute for the Funding and support provided helping us to carry out this study. We also give special thanks to our Supervisor Dr. Daniella Fjellström along with Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama and Dr. Ehsanul Huda Chowdhury for their encouragement and constructive feedbacks during the entire process. Special thanks to Michelle Rydback for her encouragement and support when we faced difficulties on finding companies. We would also like to thank our families for their love and encouragement during the process. Finally, we would like to thank all MBA students including all groups that opposed any part of our work; we thank you for your cooperation and valuable contributions to help us perfect our work.

Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Background ...... 1 1.2 Motivation ...... 3 1.3 Problematization...... 5 1.4 Aim ...... 6 1.5 Research question ...... 6 1.6 Scope and delimitation ...... 6 1.7 Disposition...... 7 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 8 2.1 Environmental sustainability ...... 8 2.2 The Natural Resource Based View (NRBV) theory ...... 10 2.3 Organizational culture ...... 13 2.4 Green marketing ...... 16 2.5 Green marketing and organizational culture ...... 19 2.6 Green marketing Mix ...... 22 2.6.1 Green Products ...... 22 2.6.2 Green promotion ...... 23 2.6.3 Green pricing ...... 26 2.6.4 Green place/ Distribution ...... 27 2.7 Conceptual framework ...... 27 3. METHODOLOGY ...... 29 3.1 Philosophical considerations ...... 29 3.1.1 Ontology ...... 29 3.1.2 Epistemology ...... 30 3.2 Research approach ...... 32 3.3 Research strategy...... 32 3.4 Research design ...... 33 3.5 Research unit ...... 34 3.5.1 Overview of Sweden on environmental Conservation ...... 35 3.5.2 Overview of Nigeria on environmental Conservation ...... 35 3.5.3 Motivation for the selected organizations ...... 36 3.6 Sampling approach ...... 37 3.7 Data collection processes ...... 38 3.7.1 The interview process ...... 39 3.8 Data analysis ...... 41 3.9 Ethical considerations ...... 43 3.10 Trustworthiness ...... 43 4. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS ...... 45

4.1 Organization culture ...... 45 4.1.1 Artifacts and Logos...... 45 4.1.2 Espoused Values and Beliefs and onboarding of new employee ...... 46 4.1.3 Underlying Assumptions ...... 47 4.2 Factors/ motives towards green marketing...... 48 4.3 Implementation of green marketing ...... 50 4.3.1 Green Product ...... 50 4.3.2 Green promotion ...... 51 4.3.3 Green Pricing ...... 52 4.3.4 Green Place/ Distribution ...... 52 4.4 Benefits for implementation ...... 53 4.5 Organization culture and green marketing ...... 54 4.6 Challenges on implementation of green marketing ...... 55 4.6.1 Customer awareness...... 56 4.7 Summary of empirical findings ...... 58 5. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ...... 59 5.1 Organizational culture ...... 59 5.1.1 Artifact ...... 59 5.1.2 Espoused values and beliefs ...... 60 5.1.3 Underlying Assumptions ...... 61 5.2 The NRBV and benefits of green marketing ...... 62 5.3 Green marketing and environmental sustainability ...... 63 5.3.1 Customer awareness ...... 64 5.4 The Green marketing mix ...... 65 5.4.1 Green Product ...... 66 5.4.2 Green promotion ...... 66 5.4.3 Green pricing ...... 67 5.4.4 Green place/ distribution ...... 68 5.5 Organization culture and green marketing ...... 69 5.6 Summary of the analysis ...... 71 5.7 Proposed theoretical framework ...... 73 6. CONCLUSIONS ...... 74 6.1 Answering of the research question ...... 74 6.2 Theoretical contributions ...... 74 6.3 Managerial implications ...... 75 6.4 Societal contributions ...... 76 6.5 Limitation for the study...... 76 6.6 Suggestions for future studies ...... 77 REFERENCES ...... 78 APPENDIX 1 – LETTER TO COMPANIES ...... 85 APPENDIX 2 – INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT...... 86

List of figures Figure 1: Components of organizational culture …………………………………….15 Figure 2: organizational culture and green marketing construct …………………… 28 Figure 3: Research design of the study…………………………………………….. ..34 Figure 4: Organizational culture and green marketing construct with customer awareness……………………………………………………………………………...73

List of tables Table 1: The NRBV strategies ……………………………………………………..12 Table 2 – Interview questions ………………………………………………………40 Table 3: Operationalization of interview …………………………………………...41 Table 4: Codes and Thematic Analysis …………………………………………….42 Table 5: Summary of empirical findings …………………………………………...58 Table 6: Summary of the analysis ………………………………………………….72

List of abbreviations

RBV – Resources Based View

NRBV – Natural Resources Based View

SDG - Sustainable Development Goals

OC - Organizational culture

GMM – Green Marketing mix

1. INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the general background of the research subject, motivating its importance and relevance followed by description of the research purpose and the research question. The chapter ends by highlighting certain limitations of the study and disposition of the structure of the study.

1.1 Background

Over the past few decades there have been increasing environmental concerns which push organizations to consider environmental issues in their business strategies (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017). The significance of green marketing is increasing due to increasing concerns about environmental degradation and climate change specifically due to air pollution, water pollution, depletion of Ozone layer and global warming (Mishra, 2014). Such factors cause firms to reconsider their behavior and approaches and seek to run their businesses in more sustainable ways (Kardos, et al., 2019).

The concept of green marketing can be defined as a way of managing exchange relationships and marketing approaches which simultaneously satisfies customer‘s needs and business objectives while minimizing negative impact to the natural environment (Chamorro & Bañegil, 2006). Green marketing thus seeks to develop ways to run businesses in a manner that maximizes both customers and business objectives while minimizing negative consequences to the environment (Kardos et al., 2019). This concept can be traced as far back as in 1970s where it was first defined, initially addressing those industries that caused much environmental hazards (Baker, 2012) and (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017). Since then the subject has attracted great attention among scholars and stakeholders. Governments and Intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations play moderating roles to encourage environmental sustainability and green marketing. For example the Earth summit held in Brazil in 1992, provided a platform for developing a plan of action to tackle and overcome the most pressing environmental health and social problems facing the planet (Sitarz, 1993). Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were agreed in 2015 by the United Nations includes a global commitment towards environmental sustainability which pushes firms to operate more sustainably (Pimonenko, et al., 2020). Over the years this subject has advanced and new related concepts like environmental marketing and 1

sustainability marketing have emerged and are being used interchangeably in the literature.

Given that environmental issues influence all human activities, there has been increased advocacy and reorientation on the need to ―go green‖ in virtually all aspect of human endeavor Polonsky, (1994). Among the factors that drive green marketing is the need for global environmental sustainability. Global sustainability refers to the ability to meet current needs without compromising the capability of meeting the future generation‘s needs. There is increasing tendency for companies to adopt environmental friendly approaches through popular mottos of ―reduce, reuse, and recycle‖ (Wild & Wild, 2016, pp 36). Fraj, et al., (2013) support that sustainability is the main driver towards environmental oriented strategies. Mahamuni & Tambe, (2014) mention other factors as uncontrollable and controllable factors. They describe uncontrollable factors as rules and regulations while controllable factors as business opportunities and moral obligations towards corporate social responsibilities. Furthermore, Junsheng, et al., (2020) discuss about institutional theory and explain how institutional environment such as legal frameworks, cultural values and ethics influence firms to adopt green marketing. Papadas, et al., (2019) also assert that pressure from environmental stakeholder and the need to gain competitive advantage influences adoption of green marketing. Dabija, et al., (2018) also supports the increasing pressure from stakeholders especially customers, causes firms to rethink their business strategies and seek to integrate eco-friendly approaches.

Green marketing emphasizes on developing products that satisfy customers‘ needs in an environmental friendly way. Camino, (2002) states that green marketing can be operationalized though adjusting of the marketing mix to adopt green approaches through green products development, packaging redesigning, distribution, pricing and green promotion. Kardos et al., (2019) also explains that firms are increasingly adopting green marketing strategies through developing green products, repackaging of their products in environmental friendly packages, green promotion through the use of ecolabels etc.

Based on the Natural Resource Based View (NRBV) theory, implementation of green marketing requires firms to possess unique resources and capabilities that are highly valuable, rare to find, difficult to imitate and not substitutable Barney, (1991). The organizational culture which incorporates environmental aspect is considered an important resource that can provide competitive advantage to the firm in accordance to NRBV theory (Srivastava, et al 2013). Chen et al., (2020) describes organizational culture as a set of shared collective behavior and assumptions guiding the organization‘s perception, thinking and feeling and it comprise; values, beliefs, principles, vision, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions and habits. Wang, (2019) further confirms that organisational culture that integrates green values is a valuable asset that can translate into significant competitive advantage of the firm. Papadas, et al., (2019) also support that enhanced corporate environmental culture is considered as among valuable resources with the potential to provide competitive advantage and sustainable development. Fraj, et al., (2013) asserts that the ability of the organization to respond to the environmental concerns and come up with innovative solutions is influenced by green orientated organizational culture.

Management and employees values can enhance green marketing through social accountability and environmental stewardship (Leonidou, et al., 2015). Manager‘s values plays a big role in decision making processes and can impact the environmental orientation of the organization. Top managements plays greater role on encouraging green organizational culture through implementing environmental recognizant policies, programs, reward mechanisms and proper communication and addressing of environmental related matters. Employees involvement in eco-friendly initiatives is positively correlated with effective support and implementation of such initiatives (Fraj, et al., 2013). Awareness of environmental values to internal stakeholders is very important as they are the ones that plays the role to implement the relevant strategies (Papadas, et al., 2019).

1.2 Motivation We consider issues bothering with environmental sustainability of utmost importance as all human activities are centered on the environment. Yeshodhara (2005) describes that humans are responsible for altering almost all the other elements of the environment. We have personally witnessed and experienced the effects of unsustainable business 3

practices and over exploitation of resources at different levels. This is an alert that something needs to be done on running operations sustainably, thus meeting current demands without harming the environment for future generations. These issues together with the knowledge from our academic courses such as Marketing Theories, International Business Strategy and Comparative Management Culture ignited our passion to carry out this study. Wild and Wild, (2016, pp 37) provide insights on the issues of global environmental sustainability and green marketing and explain that the quest for natural resources draws many companies into the international market. We also considered ideas from cultural studies to explore how culture can be observed in the organizational setting. This is consistent with Baumgartner, (2009) who discusses that organizational culture is deduced from incorporating cultural values, beliefs, attitude and logical processes to an organizational setting. This triggered us to explore the realities of such cultural values in the organizations.

Studies show that in addition to preserving the environment, green marketing is associated with a number of advantages and opportunities for the business. As discussed by Leonidou, et al., (2015) green marketing presents lucrative business opportunities which may lead to cost efficiencies and product differentiation possibilities. They discuss that green marketing can help firms to come up with innovative technologies and offer differentiated eco-friendly products. Dangelico and Pujari (2010) acknowledges that organizations engaging in green product innovation are at advantage as is a key factor to achieve growth, environmental sustainability and a better quality of life. Papadas et al., (2019) also support that green marketing enables firms to offer differentiated products and achieve cost efficiencies due to decreased resource consumption and recycling opportunities. Green marketing is increasingly becoming the means to provide competitive advantage and enhancing corporate image of firms globally (Dabija, et al., 2018). It is also generally observed that integrating marketing strategies with environmental aspects leads to society‘s wellbeing and improved quality of life (Kardos et al., 2019). Kemper and Ballantine, (2019) also asserts that there is a possibility to influence sustainable lifestyles through implementation of green marketing. Based on the above we became interested to study this phenomena on how organizational culture influences green marketing. We intend to become experts and

consultants on the implementation of sustainable business practices where activities of organizations today will not negatively impact the environment and future generations.

1.3 Problematization Despite the volume of researches on green marketing, studies show that they are not exhaustive. Kemper & Ballantine, (2019, pp 277) provide detailed analysis of the meaning and trend of sustainability marketing researches and specifically states that the subject is ―still overwhelmingly understudied‖ (Kemper & Ballantine, 2019, pp 281). This provides room for further studies in this subject. Leonidou, et al., (2015) also suggest further studies on green marketing strategies especially from the perspective of international organizations as fewer studies have addressed that context.

Existing studies pay little attention on the role of organizational culture on implementation of green marketing. Fraj, et al., (2013) studies this relationship from a perspective of business to business (B2B) and concludes that strong environmental culture is required for effective implementation of green marketing strategies. However, they recognize the need for further studies as they proposed more case studies to explore how the intra-organizational shared vision and knowledge influence proactive green marketing approaches. The study by Papadas, et al., (2019) explored the strategic perspective of green marketing and concludes that internal organizational green values moderates a positive relationship between strategic green marketing orientation and competitive advantage. In this case green organizational culture was studied as a moderating variable and the authors propose further studies from different perspective or firm types or industrial sector.

In addition, the existing studies show varying findings; some show a positive relationship as seen above while others show negative relationship between organizational culture and green marketing. Bae & Grant, (2018) provide that organizational culture has no impact on environmental collaborations either internally or with customers or with suppliers. The relationship in this study was also indirect hence the authors propose further studies to get more understanding of the variables. More recent studies such as Wang, (2019) also demonstrate significant lacking on researches in relation to the effectiveness of organization green culture and related strategies.

The above studies demonstrate the research gap that exists on the subject. This study intends to fill that gap through studying the influence of organizational culture to the implementation of green marketing through the four marketing mix.

1.4 Aim The aim of this study is to explore the influence of organizational culture on green marketing.

1.5 Research question We have developed the following research question in order to fulfill our aim of study. RQ1 – How does organizational culture influence green marketing strategies?

1.6 Scope and delimitation Extant researches have proven that achieving environmental sustainability is filled with intricacies. This study specifically explores the unique role of organizational culture in influencing green marketing. This study was conducted on selected Swedish and Nigerian companies which had demonstrated some aspects of green marketing mix as highlighted under Section 3.6 of this report. We carried out a case study using seven companies from both Sweden and Nigeria as sources of evidence to understand the realities of this phenomenon in those organizations. We used semi-structured interviews on the selected participants.

Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, (2009) assert that a research project is not without limitations. The first challenge was on getting organizations to cooperate with us due to Covid-19 virus outbreak and high sensitivity of the subject. These factors stalled our access to most organizations and thus we were able to get only seven companies and only one person in each organization. We think more respondents could help in substantiating our findings. Furthermore, due to prevailing social distancing we were not able to carry out face to face interviews rather we carried out zoom interview in which we faced some technical challenges along the process. We believe the process could have been smooth if we could get opportunity to carry out personal face to face interviews.

1.7 Disposition This study is made up of 6 (six) chapters and it will assume the following order: Chapter 1 - Introduction; This chapter describes in details the background of the study, the motivation, gap identified, the research question, and the limitation of the study. Chapter 2 - Literature Review: This chapter captures previous theories and studies done on the subject and from there builds a framework for this study. Chapter 3 - Methodology: This chapter, houses explanation of philosophical perspectives of researchers and further describes research approaches, strategies, design and methodology adapted and reasons behind such adoption. Chapter 4 - Empirical Finding: This chapter is dedicated to the presentation of data gathered from the field. Chapter 5 - Findings and discussion: On this chapter, inferences are drawn from the data collected in relations to the theories. Chapter 6 - Conclusion: This chapter houses the answers to the research question, contributions of the study, limitation of the study as well as recommendations for future studies.

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Theoretical framework describes the main theories used in our work in line with our research purpose and research question. This chapter majorly presents the theoretical and critical discussion on relevant concepts bothering on green marketing and organizational culture. At the end of this chapter a conceptual framework is developed to guide our study.

2.1 Environmental sustainability Goodland (1995), exhaustively describes the atmosphere, water, and soil as the components of the environment which humans live, affirming that the environment houses the life support system without which neither production nor humanity could exist. According to Yeshodhara (2005), humans are the most adventurous and dynamic elements in the eco-system, they literally are responsible for altering almost all the other elements of the environment. Dangelico and Vocalelli (2017) explains further that the quest for accomplishing economic and industrial development over the ages has revolved around the elements of the earth‘s environment leading to unparalleled scientific and technological revolutions which have brought about disastrous changes in the environment. The man induced changes in the environment have culminated to a series of environmental degradation of global magnitude, comprising of population explosion and exploitation of raw materials and environmental pollution (Dangelico and Pujari, 2010). This environmental degradation has become a serious issue as it threatens the serenity of people‘s existence as well as their health, this has led to substantial attempt by policy makers, NGO‘s, companies and consumers to enhance environmental sustainability Yeshodhara (2005), Morren and Grinstein (2016).

From the above analogy, it can be deduced that there is need for advocacy for environmental sustainability, being aware that over exploitation of one component in the eco-system will lead the malfunctioning of another component. Morelli (2011) defines environmental sustainability as the condition of equilibrium, flexibility and interconnectedness that permits human society to satisfy its needs while neither exceeding the capacity of its supporting eco-system to keep on regenerating the services necessary to meet those needs nor by our actions diminishing biological diversity.

Sutton (2004) simply defines environmental sustainability as the ability to maintain elements or qualities that are of value in the physical environment. He further stresses that environmental sustainability programs comprise of intentional acts to reduce the use of physical resources, the redesign of production processes and products to abolish the creation of toxic materials and the production and refurbishment of natural habitats and environments valued for their livability and beauty. Environmental sustainability strives to sustain global life support systems for the foreseeable future principally maintaining human life Goodland (1995). It stands for the ability to meet current needs without compromising the capability of meeting the future generation‘s needs (Wild & Wild, 2016). It is on this notion and with increased awareness of consumers and advocacies from intergovernmental agencies that organizations have integrated concepts of environmental sustainability to its functional units.

Szabo and Webster (2020) explains that majority of organizations try as much as they can to improve their environmental positions by showcasing its environmental efforts to the public, they get this done by applying green marketing strategies to help gain competitive advantage as well as appeal to ecologically conscious consumers. Danso et al., (2019) affirms that environmental sustainability awareness has a positive influence on performance outcome of organizations. According to Dangelico and Vocalelli (2017), in order for consumers to understand a firms input in ensuring environmental sustainability, marketing plays a vital role since activities from marketing are essential and geared towards defining product concept and design. Efforts of the business will be hampered if after engaging in environmental sustainability it fails to get widespread in the market. Dangelico and Pujari (2010) acknowledges that organizations engaging in green product innovation are at advantage as is a key factor to achieve growth, environmental sustainability and a better quality of life. However Szabo and Webster (2020) point out that some firm‘s claims on green marketing are not a true portrait of their environmental conduct. While some companies genuinely decreased their environmental footprints, others simply claim to be environmentally responsible when they not. But despite this, businesses are faced with increasing demand to actively reduce environmental burden effectively and to help achieve environmental sustainability (Figge and Hahn, 2012).

2.2 The Natural Resource Based View (NRBV) theory The natural resource based view theory is an offshoot of the Resource Based View theory. We will henceforth address them as NRBV and RBV respectively. The RBV best describes matters concerning with competitive advantage of firms where major emphasizes is placed on the organizational resources (Cucciella, et al., 2012). This concept was originally championed by Wernerfelt, (1984) who asserted that an organization is made up of resources which are derived from its activities over a long period of time, and that not necessarily its products determines its competitive advantage. However, Barney, (1991) states that the organizational resources that may lead to sustained competitive advantage are those that are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and non-substitutable. This is in line with the assertion of Hitt et al., (2016), that strategic management requires an organization to try as much as they can to differentiate themselves as well as its processes from rivals to earn a sustained competitive advantage.

According to Song et al., (2015), natural resources are described as being advanced for millions of years before humans considered exploring and maximizing them, those resources were ably endowed in rich bio-diversity and geo- diversity. They further explains that the explosive growth of human population, industrialization processes, huge consumption of natural resources is predicted to adversely affect the global eco- system, industry and commerce. This is in tandem with Brundtland, (1985) that many current approaches to environment are not working and are unsustainable. However Cuerva et al., (2014) explains that in recent times, in order to achieve environmental sustainability, there have been increased concerns and pressure on firm‘s innovative activity which has led in some way to innovations in product, processes or business models, leading the company to higher levels of environmental sustainability. Despite the wide acceptability and operationalization of the RBV, which mainly focused on the internal capability of the organization, it failed to integrate components of the physical environment, and this led to the development of the NRBV by Hart (1995).

According to Hart, (1995), the NRBV is described as a theory of competitive advantage which centers on a firm‘s relationship to the natural environment. Given the ever increasing, multi-dimensional magnitude of ecological problems, The NRBV serves as an answer to how businesses could integrate the natural environment to its processes 10

leading to a firm‘s sustained competitive advantage. Hart (1995) further explains that the NRBV requires organizations to be sensitive to environmental challenges through the development of new resources and that the challenges posed by the bio-physical environment serves as drivers of new resources and capability. It can then be deduced that NRBV of the firm is an adaptation of RBV of the firm made possible by the demands imposed by the natural environment (Menguc and Ozanne, 2005). Hart (1995) describes that the NRBV consists of 3 interconnected strategies which are pollution prevention, product stewardship and sustainable development.

 Pollution prevention strategy: This strategy is aimed at reducing emissions using continuous improvement methods; it is viewed as a casually complex pattern that can make an organization‘s unique cost reduction its competitive advantage (McDougall et al., 2019).

 Product Stewardship: Hart (1995) postulates that a firm‘s engagement with the environmental staff as well as its marketing staff is of utmost importance. Activities under this category is believed to bring about green product development and external stakeholders validation. Miemczyk et al., (2016) and McDougall et al., (2019) agrees that firms become sensitive by assuming an environmentally proactive stance towards its usage of raw materials and its ultimate suppliers, this according to them is targeted at minimizing the environmental impact of the entire system.

 Sustainable development: This strategy postulates the need for organizations to envision its future through minimizing its environmental footprint and developing a shared vision as well as demonstrating sound leadership with its external stakeholders which according to Cucciella et al. (2012), will open up future opportunities and gains for long term competitiveness. In the course of time, extant literature had failed to ascertain how the sustainable development dimension of the NRBV can be measured. This led to the Hart and Dowell (2011) splitting the sustainable development dimension into Clean technology and base of the pyramid dimension.  Clean technology is operationalized as a means an organization adapts new competencies for competitive advantage as their industries evolve (Hart and

Dowell, 2011). McDougall et al., (2019) further buttress this component as seeking to achieve reduced material and energy consumption. The firm is believed to have the responsibility of understanding which resources and capabilities are linked with effective clean technologies (Hart and Dowell, 2011). In the nutshell clean technology deals with production processes of organizations and further advocates for greener approaches in product development.  Base of the pyramid component in the newly conceptualized NRBV in Hart and Dowell (2011), takes into consideration the role an organization plays in alleviating poverty for the poorest of the citizen. The base of the pyramid components advocates against firms in developed worlds exploiting the environment in emerging markets. It promotes avenues firms could maximize the opportunities at the base of pyramid. McDougall et al., (2019) concludes that the NRBV responds to the growing need for ecological and sustainable development in business operation. The new NRBV is further explained in table 1 below.

Societal Strategic Key Competitive State of Research Driving Capability Resource Advantage Development Force Minimize Pollution emissions, Continuous Strong empirical evidence in Lower costs prevention effluents, and improvement favor of NRBV waste Lower Growing area of research Product Stakeholder Reputation/ product life but much to be stewardship integration legitimacy cycle cost Accomplished Make Clean Disruptive Future quantum-leap Little research to date technology change position improvement Growing body of Meet unmet Base of the Embedded Long-term practitioner-oriented needs of the pyramid innovation growth research, but academic poor attention needed

Table 1: The NRBV strategies Source: Hart and Dowell, 2011, pp 1472

Aken (2010) explains that the NRBV suggest that top management sensitivity to the environment and their corresponding investment in indoctrinating its human capital to support environmental initiative can lead to improved financial performance. However 12

McDougall et al., (2019) views the NRBV of the firm as responding to the growing need for ecological and societal development in business operation. Alsaifi et al., (2020) puts it holistically by portraying the NRBV as a theoretical lens on how environmental practices are associated with financial performance of firms. They imply that a firm‘s capability ought to be conveyed to its stakeholders in manner that is open, consistent and accessible in order for it to have an overall impact on competitive advantage.

2.3 Organizational culture Culture has been described by many researchers as a complex phenomenon which stem from anthropology, sociology and psychology discipline and which till date has no consensus on its definition (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010). Tung et al., (2008) define culture as an ever progressing set of shared beliefs, values, logical processes and attitudes that provide cognitive maps for people to perceive, reason, think, act, react and interact. Hofstede et al., (2010 pp.6) tends to offer a more holistic view of culture to be the collective programming of the mind that differentiates the member of one group or class of people from others. With this in mind cultural perspectives and patterns can be drawn and analyzed wherever there are humans distributed in groups, organizations or by location, as culture helps to give an insight into factors distinguishing one person or group from the other.

Organizational culture can be deduced as incorporating the components of beliefs, values, attitude and logical processes to an organizational setting for the purpose of achieving a distinguished status in its overall operations (Baumgartner, 2009). Organizational culture as a concept in the field of management has witnessed constant debate as to which direction is most appropriate for a firm to engage. Kotter and Heskett, (1992 Pp. 4) describes organizational culture as values that are shared by the people in a group and that tend to persist overtime even when there is alteration on group membership. They explain further that it represent the visible behavior and style of an organization which without much effort new entrant (employees) can automatically acclimatize to the laid down settings. For the purpose of our study we consider and adopt the definition postulated by Schein, (2010 pp. 17) that organizational culture is a pattern of basic assumption invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and 13

therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and relate to those problems. According to Schein, (2010, pp 1), once culture is deduced to an organizational setting, it becomes crystal clear how culture is created, embedded, evolved or misconstrued. They explain how culture provides structure and meaning to the group members and how it constrains or stabilizes.

Balmer and Wilson, (2001) explained three major perspective of culture as; 1. The integrative perspective: This represents a dimension where the cultural values are strongly shared within the organization as there is a wide consensus and consistence among the organizational members. 2. The Differentiation perspective; under this dimension, the organization is pictured as having the possibility of a differentiated subculture which may co- exist in harmony within organization. 3. The fragmented perspective is observed when the consensus and dissension of the above explained dimensions co-exist constantly in a fluctuating pattern as influenced by certain events or decisions.

Schein (2010, pp. 25-36) identifies levels or degrees of culture to which a cultural phenomenon of a group is visible to the observer as ranging from the very tangible, deeply embedded to the unconscious. He names these three levels as artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions respectively.

 The artifact – According to Schein (2010) artifacts represent visible organizational structures, processes and logos. These are explained as phenomenon that can be seen, felt or heard when one has access to a group of people and could be depicted by the building or language (Baumgartner, 2009). Schein, (2010) further argues that regardless of the easiness to see these artifacts it is not always easy to conclusively decipher them.

 The espoused beliefs and values - Schein, (2010, pp 28) describes espoused values as original values which demonstrate ―what ought to be‖ in the organization, they include; business strategies, goals and philosophies of the organization. He explains that espoused values and beliefs have to do with top management‘s role in ensuring its proposed beliefs and values are followed through by organizational members. Davis & Boulet, (2016) and Baumgartner, (2009) further assert that all group 14

learning always reflect an individual‘s original belief, values, their idea of what ought to be different from what is.

 The underlying assumptions - According to Schein, (2010, pp 31) the underlying assumptions comprise of beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and feelings that form the ultimate source of values and conduct within the organization. He further provides that managements deliberately emphasize certain beliefs to its employees to achieve unconscious conformity by people overtime which makes any conducts against such beliefs as “inconceivable‖. Thus this is considered as the unconscious level of organizational culture which results when a solution to a problem works well repeatedly such that it becomes common (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010).

The figure below gives an overview of the levels of culture.

Figure 1: Components of organizational culture Source: Schein, 2010, pp. 26.

The above analysis of literature emphasizes the unique role of organizational culture. Balmer and Wilson, (2001) affirm that organizational culture plays a key role for a

successful corporate marketing process. Fregidou-Malama and Hyder, (2015) further confirm that culture plays a pivotal role, especially when decisions on how services are to be presented to a local market are in perspective. Taking it further, Linnenluecke and Griffiths, (2010) argue that for an organization to respond and integrate environmental and social issues, they have to undergo significant cultural change and transformation, emphasizing that organizational culture which harbors the underlying values and ideology of management, helps in hindering or fostering the implementation of managerial innovations. Firms with open systems culture place more emphasis on innovation for achieving ecological sustainability (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010). Junsheng et al. (2020) affirm that a firm‘s organizational culture plays an enabling role of environmental collaboration.

2.4 Green marketing Over the past few decades the world has experienced serious environmental concerns such as air pollution, water pollution, depletion of Ozone layer and global warming (Mishra, 2014). Ariffin, et al., (2019) state that about 70% of the pollution is caused by manufacturing firms. This has triggered global commitments to preserve the environment and promote sustainable development (Junsheng, et al., (2020). There have been several initiatives to encourage global sustainable behaviors and conducts such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed in 2015 include strong commitments towards that path (Pimonenko, et al. 2020).

The concept of green marketing can be traced as far back as in the 1970s. Back to that time it was referred as ecological marketing which was firstly defined in 1976 as a marketing approach that is “concerned with all marketing activities that have served to help cause environmental problems and that may serve to provide a remedy for environmental problems” (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017 pp. 1274). The concept was initially triggered by the concerns on the industries which caused severe environmental damages. The interest was to find technologies that could solve such environmental challenges which also triggered marketers to integrate environmental aspect into marketing theories (Baker, 2012). Over the years this subject has advanced and new related concepts such as environmental marketing and sustainable marketing are observed in the literatures (Kardos et al., 2019).

The evolution of green marketing can be explained in three phases. The first phase was called ecological marketing which occurred from 1970s to late 1980s followed by second phase called environmental marketing up to early 1990s. The third phase was referred as sustainable marketing and was prominent from late 1990s (Mishra, 2014) and (Baker, 2012). All these concepts can be used interchangeably as they refer to the same phenomena (Kardos et al., 2019). Over the years, several scholars have attempted to provide definitions for green marketing. We provide below the definitions that we have applied in this study mainly because they include basic variables that we want to investigate in a sense that they integrate values, management actions, planning, policies, procedures and approaches that facilitate exchange of products and services in attempt to maximize both customers‘ needs and company‘s objectives while minimizing negative impacts to the environment.

“a way of understanding exchange relationships consisting of planning, implementing and controlling a policy of product, price, promotion and distribution that simultaneously satisfies customer needs and the objectives of the organization, minimising any negative effects caused to the natural environment‖ (Chamorro & Bañegil, 2006 pp. 12).

―degree of integration of environmental values within the strategic management process and marketing activities‖ (Fraj, et al., 2013 pp. 398).

“the holistic management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying the requirements of customers and society, in a profitable and sustainable way” (Papadas et al., 2019 pp. 5).

―policies, practices, and procedures that are aligned with ecological responsiveness and/or that eliminate or reduce adverse impacts on the planet and people‖ (Khan, et al., 2020 pp. 5).

All of the above definitions demonstrate the fact that green marketing involves integration of environmental values into marketing practices, management efforts, values, strategic plans, policies, processes and procedures in a manner that satisfies

customer‘s needs and business‘s objectives while minimizing negative consequences to the environment.

The need for global sustainability has been the main driver towards environmental friendly business approaches. There is increasing tendencies for companies to adopt environmental friendly approaches through the popular mottos of reduce, reuse, and recycle (Wild and Wild, 2016). Global commitment on implementation of SDGs pushes firms to operate more sustainably (Pimonenko, et al. 2020). Fraj, et al., (2013) and Mishra, (2014) discusses this assertion by describing that there is increased sensitivity and awareness among business firms and customers to switch to non-toxic, recyclable and environmentally friendly products. Martin and Schouten, (2014) opined that as members of society becomes more interested and concerned with the natural environment, organizations have equally begun to upgrade and modify its behavior in an attempt to address society‘s new concern and run their businesses in more sustainable ways (Kardos et al., 2019).

Some other factors for green marketing have been discussed in the literature. Mahamuni & Tambe, (2014) demonstrate how pressure from both controllable and uncontrollable factors pushes firms to adopt environmentally friendly strategies. Uncontrollable factors arise from government rules and regulation while controllable factors are driven by firm‘s economic motives and moral obligations on corporate social responsibilities. Papadas et al., (2018) affirm that pressure from environmental stakeholder and opportunities for competitive advantage are among factors influencing adoption of green marketing. Dabija, Chebeň, & Lančarič, (2018) agrees that there is increasing pressure from customers for firms to integrate sustainability and green thinking in their business strategies. Mishra, (2014) asserts this as he mentions factors for firms to adopt green marketing to include; competitive advantage, government pressure, competitor‘s pressure, moral obligation for social responsibility and cost saving potentials. Junsheng, et al., (2020) discuss about the institutional theory and explain how institutional environment such as legal frameworks, cultural values and ethics influences firms to adopt green marketing approaches.

Green marketing can serve as a means through which the company can add value to the products and hence offer differentiated products. Also efficient use of resources and

recycling techniques could lead to cost efficiencies thus enable a cost leadership business strategy (Leonidou, et al., 2015). Mishra, (2014) affirms that green marketing provides opportunity for firms to have competitive advantage and can help achieve cost savings. Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) agrees with this understanding as they mention that green marketing offers competitive advantage and can translate into increased corporate reputation. Ariffin, et al., (2019) further discusses about a growing demand for green products which provides opportunities for firms to increase their market share.

2.5 Green marketing and organizational culture Several researchers have attempted to explore the relationship between organizational culture and green marketing but the subject is still understudied. Chen et al., (2020) describes organizational culture as a set of shared collective behavior and assumptions guiding the organization‘s perception, thinking and feelings. They explain that organizational culture includes; vision, values, beliefs, principles, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions and habits. Fraj, Martínez, & Matute, (2011) affirm that the extent to which the organization has incorporated environmental values within the organization can be demonstrated by formal and informal norms and values that govern firms routines such as by mission statements, policies, procedures, training, communication and knowledge sharing.

According to Pham, et al., (2018) environmental focused mission, vision, policies, top managerial support and priorities help to influence the willingness of employees to adopt eco-friendly behavior and activities. Fraj et al., (2013) affirms the fact that environmental culture as demonstrated by shared vision, mission, policies and procedural statements encourages value learning, creativity and employees support to environmental friendly strategies. Papadas, et al., (2019) further provide that green marketing orientation arises from incorporating environmental values in the organizational or corporate values. They states that environmental friendly ethics represents superior corporate culture which helps firms to improve their environmental marketing strategies. They further describe that incorporating green initiatives as part of organizational culture is important in achieving green performance.

Junsheng, et al., (2020) provides that green environmental ethics relates to regular customs that establishes moral obligations for individuals to act in a manner that is 19

environmentally friendly. They describe that the ethical frameworks with environmental friendly policies and ethics need to be implemented at all levels of the organization from top to lower level as it creates responsible behavior in protecting the environment. This helps employees to be environmentally sensitive and enhance green performance as they perform their activities. Chen, et al., (2020) discusses that corporate environmental concepts, values, plans, processes, strategies and approaches enhance firms to achieve its environmental goals and innovative technologies while reducing waste and pollution. They further linked green shared vision and environmental organizational culture with green approaches such as green absorption capacity and green product development.

In accordance to Junsheng, et al., (2020) concerns for environment by top management has been part of organizational culture in many organizations. Cultural values of top management in an organization, influences adoption of pro-environmental values and behaviors. They propose that leader‘s descriptive norms, leadership values and pro- environmental behavior has significant role in adoption of green marketing. Fraj et al., (2013) affirm that manager‘s ethical values, ideas, knowledge, personal characteristics and lifestyle influence their behavior and decision making and thus determine the extent of implementation of environmental orientation. They describe that individual commitments of managers, owners or founders influence green practices in the organization. They describe this managerial support as a catalyst for integration of green values in the organization and that, it positively correlate to employee‘s willingness to implement environmental friendly approaches. They describe that organization green culture is highly determined by the values of those managers. However, they alert that it depend on the level of influence those managers can exert. Papadas, et al., (2019) also affirm that top management plays significant roles in promoting environmental friendly policies, promotion, rewards and other eco-friendly mechanisms.

Pham, et al., (2018) provides that an organization with cultural values that supports environmental friendly practices, needs to train its employees in order to instill these values in them. This motivates employees to voluntarily participate into green initiatives and practices. Junsheng, et al., (2020) also provide that green values need to be shared with other employees as well in order to shape their behaviors towards organizational green goals and objectives. Papadas, et al., (2019) also support this view that green organizational cultural values need to be disseminated and understood by employees for

successful implementation. They suggest that these values can be shared through trainings, knowledge sharing and other internal communications. They thus emphasize that corporate environmental values need to be understood and assimilated effectively within the organization. According to Pham, et al., (2018) green organizational climate increases employee‘s commitment encouraging them to voluntarily participate in pro- environmental behavior. Fraj et al., (2013) also discusses that dissemination of knowledge on green organizational culture across the organization allow firms to have coordinated implementation of environmental practices. Fraj, et al., (2011) also supports that strong environmental oriented culture disseminated and shared across all levels and departments‘ influences consistent routines and capabilities.

Organizational culture plays significant role in influencing green business behavior and approaches as affirmed by several scholars. Fraj, et al., (2013) concludes that employees green values supports effective implementation of eco-friendly approaches. Leonidou, et al., (2015) asserts that management and employees values can enhance social accountability, environmental stewardship, sustainability and green marketing approaches. Papadas, et al., (2019) further provides that environmental values for both top management and employees plays important role in implementation of eco-friendly strategies. Wang, (2019) also confirms a positive relationship between organization green cultures with green performance as it instill environmental sensitivity on manager‘s values on efficient use of resources, energy consumption and minimization of waste. Junsheng et al., (2020) affirms that a firm‘s organizational culture plays an enabling role of environmental collaboration.

Generally, existing researches have based only on some components of organizational culture and green business strategy in general with little focus on implementation through the green marketing mix. There are limited studies on how organizational culture influences adoption of green marketing through the fundamentals marketing mix. Therefore, this study explores how organizational culture with environmentally friendly values (green organizational culture) influences implementation of green marketing through the green marketing mix.

2.6 Green marketing Mix Implementation of green marketing is enhanced through restructuring of the four marketing mix; product, promotion, place and price to incorporate environmental agenda (Kardos et al., 2019). Madeira, (2019) describes that firms that promote green marketing seek to restructure the fundamental elements of the marketing mix to focus on sustainability pillars of reduce, reuse, recycle and a circular economy. We were not able to find the composed definition of green marketing mix but based on the descriptions on what it entails we can define green marketing mix as the approach to reconceptualize the fundamental marketing mix of product, price, promotion and place in a way that integrate environmental sustainability.

According to Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) the level of adoption of green marketing Ps depends on the sustainability orientation of the firms which can be categorized into four groups; lean green, defensive green, shade green and extreme green. Lean green adopt only green products while defensive green adopt both green products and promotion. Shade green adopts the marketing elements except the ―place‖ while the extreme green adopts all the marketing elements. They further mention that the most adopted elements are green products and promotion.

2.6.1 Green Products

Green product advocates the need to reconsider product designs, models and production processes to create environmentally friendly products and technologies; the concept named ―design for environment‖ by Baker, (2012). Several researchers have attempted to define green products. Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017 pp. 1271) defines green product as a product that ―strives to protect or enhance the natural environment by conserving energy and/or resources and reducing or eliminating use of toxic agents, pollution, and waste‖. They provide attributes of green products to include; reusability, reduced resources, recycling, efficiency, durability, reparability, compostability, safe shipment and health benefits. Mishra, (2014) provides that green products are products that are grown naturally with natural ingredients, eco-friendly packaging, can be reused, recycled or biodegradable and do not result into toxic materials that can pollute environment. Madeira, (2019) affirms that green product is the product that can be reused or recycled, uses effective production processes, is biodegradable, minimizes usage of natural resources and have minimum environmental impact. Ariffin et al., 22

(2019) further describes that green product is the one that is being produced with fewer resources, less energy and reduced emissions. Leonidou et al., (2015) provides that green product involves adding ecological dimension to the products through the use of recyclable packaging, biodegradable and toxic free materials. Siti Jahroh, (2019) also discusses that green product is a product that can be recycled and does not contain ingredients hazardous to the environment.

Redesigning the products requires greater coordination and communication across the organization; cross-functional units, employees and top managements (Siti Jahroh, 2019). It involves reconsideration of the product from the two dimensions, the first one being physical attributes such as durability, recyclability, reusability and efficiency. The second dimension is the processes of creation and delivering of both the core product and augmented products (Baker, 2012). Green products needs not only be valuable but also be perceived so by customers. Any gap between perceived qualities and the actual qualities of green products need to be resolved through marketing communications (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017).

Green packaging is part of green product (Siti Jahroh, 2019). The need for sustainable packaging has been highly demanded consistent with green products. Packaging has for long been the starting point for green marketing approaches as the piling up of non- degradable packaging materials have devastating impact to the environment. It is also considered easier and more convenient to redesign the packaging materials as it does not necessarily need the redesigning of the entire product (Baker, 2012). Green packaging involves effective and efficient use of environmental friendly materials which are; renewable, recyclable, non-toxic and non-polluting materials in a way that leaves minimum impact to the environment (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017). Green packaging requires effective communication to assure the customers that the reused or recycled packaging does not impact product qualities (Baker, 2012).

2.6.2 Green promotion

Green promotion includes ways firm communicate with customers on its efforts, commitments and performances with regard to environmental preservation. It communicates to customers that the products are sustainable and environmentally friendly and encourage them to purchase (Ariffin et al., 2019). It involves various forms

such as personal selling, emails, advertisement and publicity campaigns aimed at presenting the green image for the company and its products. Personal selling can be very effective but requires the sales-force to be well knowledgeable of the products benefits so that they can explain to customers. Eco-branding is highly effective as it enables customers to associate with brands which symbolize green attributes (Baker, 2012). Madeira, (2019) also discusses that promotional messages can be conveyed through advertisement, signage, public relations or coupons which reflect green values of the product or the company. Another strategy used by firms is developing alliances and collaborations with non-profit organizations that promote environmental conservations in their publicity campaigns as these are more appealing to customer (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017). Sponsorship on environmental related causes is also seen to be an effective strategy (Baker, 2012). Kumar, (2019) provides that loyalty promotional programs linked to environmental cause is likely to become more effective as about 87% of people would buy from companies that promote issues which they care, including environmental issues.

Green advertisement is a big aspect of green promotion. It helps to offer descriptions of product‘s benefits and minimize information asymmetry and thus promote brand image and sustainable lifestyle (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017). Companies need to ensure that the products has real environmental benefits and such benefits are well described with specific data, well defined technical terms and sufficient information to help customer make informed purchase decisions (Baker, 2012). The messages need to be clear and easy to understand and should not be confusing to customers (Ariffin et al., 2019). Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) also affirm that green advertisement need to provide; detailed, complete, easy, understandable and clear information of the green product.

Mishra, (2014) asserts that green promotional messages need to be educative, interesting, entertaining and compelling to customers. Poor or incorrect communication can result into information asymmetry, ambiguity and confusion to customers (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017). Studies show that some companies are not trustworthy as they tend to portray green image which they do not possess, a tendency called greenwashing or green hype (Baker, 2012). Madeira, (2019) also discusses about the danger of misleading information through greenwashing. He provides that it is important that the company lives the brand image it portrays and the expectations it

creates. Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) asserts that green advertisement can result into negative consequences for companies with negative environmental reputation. They thus emphasize that the promotional activities need to be in synergy with the products being promoted and the messages need to be transparent, honest, credible and trustworthy to stakeholders.

Green labeling or eco-labeling is an important aspect of green promotion as it provides a signal to the customer about the trustworthiness of the product in relation to its environmental orientation (Baker, 2012). European Union defines eco-label as ―a voluntary scheme that delivers information about the ecological advantage of the presented products and services using a single symbol and/or sign at the point of sale‖. Eco-labeling conveys information that the products in question are environmental friendly and they cause minimum environmental damage in its production, consumption or disposal. Eco labeling provides assurance on benefits of eco-friendly products such as durability, health benefits, energy efficiencies etc and thus influence customer‘s purchase decisions (Khan, et al., 2020). Siti Jahroh, (2019) describes that eco-labeling is an important tool in green promotion as it reflects product‘s technical capabilities, communicates company‘s green marketing philosophy, offers differentiation opportunity, promote brand image and provides assurance to customers. He asserts that about 70% of customers were influenced to purchase the products through eco-friendly labeling.

Siti Jahroh, (2019) further provides that green labeling is a certification system by the authorized institutions which confirms that the product is green. Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) discusses that eco-labels can fall in either of the following categories;  ISO Type I which is based on third party confirmation of green products meeting specific standards,  ISO Type II which is based on firms own claims about the green superiority of the product,  ISO Type III which is based on independent scientific opinion

Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) declare that type I and III can be costly but play an important role in promotion and offering assurance to customers. They describe Type II as not highly favored by customers as it may create confusion, vague claims, or unsupported attributes. 25

2.6.3 Green pricing

Green pricing seeks to incorporate both economic and environmental costs to offer value to customers and allowing the business to earn fair profits (Ariffin et al., 2019). Green pricing is defined as ―setting prices for green products that offset consumers' sensitivity to price against their willingness to pay more for products' environmental performance‖ (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017 pp. 1271). Madeira, (2019) discusses that pricing policy need to take both economic and environmental considerations and should reflect a fair value of products or services. Cost can be a determinant of prices especially when prices are on cost plus basis. Innovative technologies to create green products can be costly (Baker, 2012). Ariffin et al., (2019) also discusses that the cost of producing green products can be higher than that of conventional products due to value added in terms of functionality, design and performance which may require customers to pay premium price. Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) also provides that production costs, costs for materials and increased taxation can lead to higher prices for green products. Nevertheless, green marketing can lead to cost efficiencies through reduced raw material consumption, energy saving, reused packaging, waste minimization and value of by-products (Baker, 2012). Mishra, (2014) and Leonidou, et al., (2015) also affirms that opportunities to reuse, reduce and recycle can lead to cost savings.

Since prices are closely linked to customer‘s willingness to pay it follows that the ability to effectively communicate value and desirable green qualities provides opportunities for companies to charge premium prices. Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) discusses that price sensitivity among customers is related to their ethical characteristics but generally consumers have greater willingness to purchase products which are linked to societal or environmental benefits. They further describe that green pricing needs not only focus on the absolute price but also on benefits that the product can offer so that to offset customer‘s price sensitivity. For example customers may be willing to pay premium price for a light bulb which leads to notable energy savings and running cost (Baker, 2012). The higher the perceived value for green products due to strong marketing communications, the higher the customer‘s willingness to pay premium prices (Madeira, 2019). Marketers can also influence green pricing policies through offering rebates on customer‘s returns of reusable or recyclable items (Ariffin et al., 2019)

2.6.4 Green place/ Distribution

Green distribution involves all aspects of transportation, warehousing, logistics and energy sources (Siti Jahroh, 2019). It involves strategies on how green products reach final consumers and customer‘s returns are handled. Green place can be defined as the ―management tactics related to distribution, from production to consumption, and reverse logistics‖ (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017 pp. 1271). The business place and distribution systems need to be eco-friendly, easily accessible and utilize renewable energy sources. They should be able to influence customer‘s returns of the used items for reuse or recycling or creation of new raw materials (Madeira, 2019). Baker, (2012) recommends that a green distribution network may consider implementing these strategies;  Enhancement of centralized packaging to minimize vehicle movements,  Policies to minimize vehicle emissions,  Reduced in-transit packaging,  Enhancing store based collection and recycling techniques  Promoting environmental awareness both across the logistic department and subcontractors.

(Ariffin et al., 2019) suggests a redesigning of green distribution network to incorporate secondary markets for by-products or recycled products. They state that the system needs to be user friendly to encourage customer returns of the used products or packaging for recycling. Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) further provides that internet, information communication systems and advanced technologies enable integrated and coordinated transport systems which play significant role on green distribution.

2.7 Conceptual framework Based on our review of literature we develop our conceptual framework which shows how organizational culture influence implementation of green marketing through the green marketing mix. From the below framework it is observed that the artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions together form the organizational culture. When environmental sustainability is instilled in this organizational culture it leads to implementation of green marketing which is observed to occur through green marketing mix – green products, green promotion, green price and green place. Environmental sustainability also does have a direct positive relationship with green marketing. 27

Consequently, the organizational culture which has internalized environmental sustainability and is implementing green marketing strategies is considered to have a valuable resource which could bring competitive advantage to the firm as per the NRBV.

Items under OC: Environmental Organizational  Artifacts sustainability Culture  Espoused values (OC)  Underlying assumptions

Items under GMM: Green Green  Green products Marketing Marketing  Green promotion  Mix (GMM) Green pricing  Green place

Natural

Resource Based View (NRBV)

Figure 2: Organizational culture and green marketing construct Source: Own

3. METHODOLOGY This chapter shows the entire process of how the research is being carried out from the philosophical point of view of epistemology and ontology to methodology adopted. We describe the nature of the research being the qualitative research and we provide the research approach, research design, data collection techniques, data analysis approach as well as ethical considerations.

3.1 Philosophical considerations According to Uzun (2016) research is described as a systematic inquiry or investigation, where the necessary or required data is collected, examined and interpreted with the sole purpose of understanding, describing, forecasting or controlling a phenomenon. From the definition above it can be deduced that inferences are drawn from a research activity and as such it is imperative that the research philosophy of any researcher be clearly spelt out in order to give credence to the research work (Allison and Pomeroy, 2000). Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2019 P. 130) posited that a researcher, in the course of carrying out a research, consciously and unconsciously makes a number of assumptions. They further define a research philosophy as a system of belief and suppositions about knowledge development. After reflectively thinking about what reality means, a researcher adopts a research philosophy that reflects their convictions, this consequently informs which methodology to adopt. Bryman, (2012) determines that in pursuit to understand the nature of reality and knowledge researchers are influenced by philosophical positions relating to ontology and epistemology.

3.1.1 Ontology

Ontology is the philosophical point of views that seek to understand the nature of reality (Bleiker, et al., 2019). Bleiker, et al., (2019) state that the concept of truth is debatable, some people see it as objective reality while others see it as subjective. Bryman, (2012, pp 33) explains that ontological aspect can be considered from two dimensions being objectivism and constructivism. Objectivists view a social phenomenon and their meaning as having existence that is independent from the social actors inhabiting them. Objectivism advocates that social phenomena is an absolute fact and is beyond human control or influence. For example realities within organization and culture can be

considered to pressure members to conform to those established approaches which they cannot control (Bryman, 2012).

Constructivists on the other hand, see truth as a subjective reality arising from social construction (Bleiker, et al., 2019). This point of view dictates that social phenomena and their meanings are not pre-determine but continually being constructed by the social actors. It is a result of continuous state of social constructions based on common understanding, social interactions, mutual agreements and consensus decision making. This concept provides that truth can be challenged, influenced, reformed, reviewed, repealed or revised. For example realities about organization and culture can be considered as something that can be modified based on circumstances. This perspective considers the relevant social actors as active participants in determining and defining such realities. Under this point of view the social environment is not considered as external to the individual. The individuals are considered as constantly interacting with their environments to develop new realities (Bryman, 2012).

In understanding that ontological considerations drive the research approach we have taken the approach of constructivism in which we believe that reality is a result of social construction. In our qualitative research we have applied this standing through relying on knowledge and experience of the managers and employees of the companies we explored as we believe they are active participants in making those realities. We believe that organizations are dynamic as they tend to change constantly in accommodation of the requirements of the new world and new business environments. The issues of environmental sustainability and green marketing requires reconsideration of the way of doing business and this involves a constant state of seeking better ways, technologies and materials that are environmentally friendly.

3.1.2 Epistemology

According to Saunders, et al., (2019 Pp.133), epistemology refers to supposition about knowledge, what represents acceptable, well founded and justifiable knowledge and how we can communicate it to others. Also Berryman (2019), view epistemology as being used to describe ways of knowing how we know, what we know, and summarily a way of describing the world view of the researcher. However, Dieronitou, (2014), operationalized epistemology as revolving around the very basis of knowledge, which

may be considered as hard, real, transmittable in a concrete form or whether it is malleable and more subjective, based on an individual‘s experience and insight. We consider this definition highly relevant and all encompassing. From the definitions above, one underlying theme is that no given approach is considered ideal (Moalusi, 2020) and with the nature of management and its multidisciplinary perspectives, it can be said that different types of knowledge ranging from numerical data, textual data, visual data ranging from facts to opinions, etc. can be considered valid (Dieronitou, 2014) and hence different researchers adopt different epistemologies in their research (Saunders, et al., 2019 Pp. 133).

Charlesworth and Foex (2016) describe two elementary epistemology position to include positivism and interpretivism. They assert that the positivism position is regarded as the normal and widely accepted approach in which objective measurements are taken to examine a working hypothesis about the world around us. Berryman (2019) further explains that what is considered as truth is separate from the human consciousness, there is a disconnection of the knower from the known and invariably discover the cause and effect relationships between a given phenomenon. Interpretivism on the other hand accepts the views that the world is constantly changing and with an unstable definitions of meanings (Charlesworth and Foex 2016). They seek to find multiple truths and the interaction of the knower with the known seeking for understanding rather than cause and effect ( Saunders et al. 2019 pp. 134).

Our research on the influence of organizational culture on green marketing adopts the Interpretivism paradigm of epistemology. In this study we have developed knowledge through the subjective experiences of people. With due consideration to the components of our research, which is organizational culture and green marketing a qualitative research study was considered appropriate as we understand that no two organizations are the same, even in the same industry. Organizational mission, vision and objectives often portrays where an organization is headed and as such informs the behavior of the employees (Schein 2010 pp. 14). We understand that people from different cultural backgrounds, different circumstances make different meanings. We consider the interpretativism epistemology appropriate because we aimed at getting rich insight from the respondents we interviewed.

3.2 Research approach This study aims to explore the influence of organizational culture on green marketing where components like shared beliefs and values, and general norms of an organization influences the implementation of green marketing strategies. On that notion, this study adopted a qualitative method using the inductive approach of theory development. Creswell (2009 pp. 5) describes the qualitative research approach as a means of investigating and gaining an understanding to the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. It entails the process of collecting data in the participant settings, and the analysis of the data inductively built from particular to general themes and the researcher making interpretations of the meaning of data (Babbie, 2010, Pp. 297). Saunders et al., (2019) explain the inductive approach as beginning with the collection of data to explore a phenomenon leading to the development of a conceptual framework. We consider this approach appropriate and thus applied in our study giving us extensive understanding of the phenomena as we were carrying this systematic process.

3.3 Research strategy Saunders, et al., (2009) identify that a research project can be carried out through various research strategies including; experiment, survey, action research, grounded theory, ethnography and case study. They define case study as a “strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence” Saunders, et al., (2009 pp. 145-146). They explain that a case study approach helps to get more understanding of the underlying context and process through its effectiveness to generate answers on how and why questions.

Baxter and Jack (2008) explain that the qualitative case study offers means for researchers to investigate complex phenomenon within their context. Narrowing down, they elucidated the multiple case study as allowing the researcher analyze a given phenomenon within each setting and across setting, using multiple sources of evidence leading to reliable findings. This study adopted exploratory multiple case study strategy as it helps to explore a phenomena which has no single set of outcomes; but rather it could lead to discovery of new knowledge or theories (Saunders, et al., 2009). We consider this multiple case study to be an appropriate strategy to study the phenomena 32

in question. We thus carried out this study, by examining seven organizations in both Sweden and Nigeria, to find out how their internal practices or culture aids in the implementation of green marketing.

3.4 Research design Research is planned out in relation to a question that needs to be answered and a problem that needs to be solved respectively (Saunders et al., 2019 pp. 128). For the goal of any given research work to be achieved, the research aim and questions must be clearly enunciated which ultimately informs the research design. Abutabenjeh and Jaradat (2018) comprehensively describe a research design as a plan, which has to do with sets of decisions regarding what topic to be explored, the required respondent and consequently the appropriate research method it will adopt based on the adopted research philosophy of the researcher. However, Saunders, et al., (2019 pp. 132) further explains that our beliefs and assumptions informs our research philosophies which chiefly influences the decision on a research design. We further reiterate that our research philosophy is that of constructivist and interpretivism respectively, on that note we decided to adopt the qualitative research approach, and with reference to the components of our research topic, we adopt the phenomenology qualitative design.

Creswell (2009 pp. 13) defines phenomenology as a strategy of inquiry in which the researcher identifies the essence of human experiences about a phenomenon as described by participants. Creswell (2013 pp. 122) explains that phenomenology study focuses not on the life of participants in the research, but rather on understanding the lived experience of individuals around a phenomenon. Participants in this form of research are selected based on their experience in the phenomenon understudied. For our unique scenario, the influence of organizational culture on green marketing, participants are asked to describe their lived experiences in their organizations and how it influences the implementation of green marketing. We carried out our study using seven individuals from seven companies from both Sweden and Nigeria based on our access in the respective countries. We understand that access to organizations for research purposes can be challenging (Fjellstrom and Guttermsen, 2015), and with the ravaging effect of covid-19, settling for these two countries became imperative. Our research design is depicted in the figure below.

Research Design

Research Unit Research Analysis and Approach Data

Qualitative Inductive Approach Sweden Nigeria

Figure 2: 3 4 Companies Companies

3 Interviews 4 Interviews

Figure 3: Research design of the study.

Source: Own, 2020.

3.5 Research unit Research unit could be described as the focal point or area of concentration by a researcher. However Grunbaum, (2007) defines a research unit as the central issues for the case study method. In a nutshell, it is the specified bounds any given researcher depends on to generate valid data for its findings, it could be an individual, an organization or any given geographical location. Saunder et al., (2019) emphasize that the research aim plays a pivotal role in guiding the researcher on deciding on the research unit, this is in line with the assertion of Fjellstrom and Guttermsen (2016) that researcher seeking access into organization must take into consideration their research design. With consideration to the concepts of our study, which is organizational culture and green marketing, we used seven organizations in both Sweden and Nigeria.

3.5.1 Overview of Sweden on environmental Conservation

Sweden is a Scandinavian country with a population averaging 10.3 million people, a GDP of SEK 5,026,469 million and GDP per capita of SEK 489,000 in 2019 (Statistics Sweden, 2020). Sweden is a strong economy operating close to full capacity and the GDP has been steadily growing at an average rate of about 3% for the previous five years. The main export commodities from Sweden are industrial machinery, road vehicles, electronics, petroleum products, food and beverage, paper products and pharmaceutical products. The OECD report as of March 2019 describes Sweden as the strong knowledge based economy with high living standards, employment rate, income level, gender equality, well integrated in global value chain and well preserved environment (OECD, 2019).

The OECD report describes Sweden as ―a frontrunner in the fight against climate change and in greening the economy” (OECD, 2019, pp 7). Sweden has given priority to matters concerning environmental protection through clear objectives and policies that minimize carbon footprints; it is described as having good air quality due to reduced CO2 emissions which is lower below the OECD average. This reflects high investment in clean technologies for example cleaner and renewable energy from fossil- free fuels. The Government has put in place incentives to subsidize and provide support to companies and municipalities implementing strategies that reduce environmental impact (OECD, 2019).

Based on the above facts it is clear that Sweden is among the countries doing great job in environmental preservation. This saves as a learning point to understand how these efforts are translated from company‘s practical perspective. These facts motivated us to explore the realities about green marketing and organizational culture from Swedish companies.

3.5.2 Overview of Nigeria on environmental Conservation

Nigeria is democratic secular state located in the west of Africa, with a population of 206 million people (AFDB, 2020). The federation is made up of 36 states with Abuja the capital. Due to its large population, Nigeria is often referred as the ―giant of Africa‖. Nigeria is the 7th most populous country in the world and it houses the third largest youth population under the age of eighteen (World Bank group, 2020). According to the 35

World Bank group (2020), Nigeria is the world‘s 20th largest economy as of 2015, worth more than $ 500, billion and $ 1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and Purchasing power parity.

Nigeria is considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank and a regional power on the African continent. Nigeria is listed among the ―Next Eleven‖ economies set expected to become among the biggest in the world (Energy Education 2018). Environmental education and reorientation drive is something regarded as unnecessary in Nigeria. According to Ogunleye (2003), environmental issues in Nigeria manifest itself in three major degrees, which are, water problems, forest degradation and solid waste management. He illustrates that much of the environmental malaise is a result of industrialization and indiscriminate gathering of fuel wood, which decimate forest and incessant bush burning. To promote environmental sustainability the Government clearly puts up an environmental policy to control issues on forestry, biodiversity, pollution control, land degradation, water management, climate change, marine and coastal environment and clean energy (UNDP 2013,). Nigeria has the drive to engage in sustainable practices, but however it largely based on paper work and its lacking on implementation.

3.5.3 Motivation for the selected organizations

Understanding that all organizations have underlying belief systems that can be classified as organizational culture, (Schein, 2010), we decided to carry out a phenomenology study, by analyzing responses gotten from participants from seven organizations in both Sweden and Nigeria. The chosen organizations are from diverse operations including, renewable fuels, transportation, paper companies, sustainable farming, advertising firms, printing companies and online stores. In getting the participating companies we contacted sixteen companies both in Sweden and Nigeria. Some of these companies responded that they were not able to participate which made us proceed with the seven companies that agreed to participate. Within the organizations under study we selected participants majorly from management, marketing and other employees in the organizations who in our opinion are considered knowledgeable with regards to our area of study.

3.6 Sampling approach Saunders et al., (2009) describe sampling as a technique of selecting participants from a full set of cases known as the population and describe two types of sampling being probability and non-probability sampling. They describe that in probability sampling each case within the population has equal chance of being selected while the non- probability sampling is considered as judgmental sampling in which cases can be selected based on certain criteria. According to Bryman, (2012) sampling techniques revolve around the approaches to get research participants being, organizations, departments, individuals or documents. He further describes that a qualitative research emphasizes on purposeful non-probability sampling which guides research on which category of people and organizations will be able to provide relevant responses to the interview questions. It is a strategic sampling approach that provides justification of the organizations, units or individuals used and the reason for their inclusion with reference to the research purposes.

We thus applied purposeful non-probability sampling technique which helped us to select companies and individuals who understand environmental sustainability and who could inform us on how it is reflected in their operations. The companies included, and the reasons of their inclusion are provided below:  One company is a service organization promoting sustainable agriculture and agribusiness through their strategy of climate smart agriculture,  Another company is a paper and packaging company which produces fiber based products which are considered as environmental friendly products  Two of the companies are involved in green energy promoting fossil free fuels which are environmentally friendly energy sources with less harmful emissions, in which one is also the customer of the other.  Other companies are industrial, printing and digital advertisement which considers environmental sustainability through their waste disposals processes where some have partnerships with waste recycling companies.  The other company is online store that promotes and financially supports the suppliers of ecological products.

3.7 Data collection processes Bryman and Bell, (2011) describe data collection as the process of gathering information from the participants, which can be operationalized through either systematic planned approach or emergent spontaneous approach. Contrary to emergent spontaneous approach, the planned systematic approach, which we have used, requires that the researcher has reasonable understanding of the subject and the process of data collection is planned with the ultimately goal of producing notes and interview transcripts which can be meaningfully analyzed. Saunders et al., (2009) describe that data can be collected from either primary sources or secondary sources. They describe sources of secondary data to include organization‘s documentary sources, industrial statistics and government statistics. We collected secondary data from relevant websites such as OECD and UNDP for country statistics and also we used internal company‘s documents provided by respondents such as the brand book.

Saunders et al., (2009) describe various primary data collection methods such as questionnaires, focus groups, observations and interviews. Bleiker, et al., (2019) describe the primary data collection methods commonly applied in qualitative research as interviews, focus groups and observation. They suggest that the more appropriate approach for a researcher who aims at getting in-depth detailed information is interviews. Bryman, (2012) also describes the interview as widely used data collection method in qualitative research as it is considered effective and attractive. For this reason we have collected our primary data through interviews.

Ataro, (2020) provides that although face to face interviews are more preferable, other means such as written responses, blogs, research diaries and online interviews can be applied in data collection. It was not possible to carry out face to face interviews due to several reasons such as corona pandemic outbreak and the distance with participants from Nigeria. Therefore, we chose to collect our empirical data through zoom interviews as this was considered as more appropriate and convenient approach. This is in line with postulation of Hanna Paul (2012), that the use of video interviews such as Skype or zoom encourages a more equal relationship between the researcher and the researched, hence offering the participants a degree of control over the research process. Lo lacono et al., (2016) further confirms that Skype and other voice over internet protocol technologies such as Zoom, google hangout and facetime opens up new 38

dimensions of possibilities by allowing researchers contact participants worldwide in a time efficient and cost effective manner thus spicing up the variety of our samples.

3.7.1 The interview process In a qualitative study, there are two types of interviews, unstructured interviews and semi-structured interviews (Bryman, 2012). Bleiker, et al., (2019) explain that semi- structured interview with open ended questions allow the researcher to discuss the phenomena widely. We thus applied semi-structured interviews in our research as we wanted detailed answers and were flexible to allow participants share their knowledge, perspectives and experiences. This helps in getting relevant answers with the flexibility to expand on answers as appropriate which help in answering the research question. This approach also allows getting back to the interviewee for further clarification or following up questions where necessary (Bryman, 2012). In carrying out semi structured interviews we prepared seven open ended interview questions which saved as the interview guide. The process was fairly flexible allowing interviewee to expand on the subject and discuss other issues they consider relevant and important but not included in the interview guide.

Operationalization of interview questions;

Interview questions Theories applicable Authors

Q1.Can you tell us about the nature of your Green Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017), Kardos et al., 2019), Fraj, et al., products or services? marketing/ green (2013), (Leonidou, et al., 2015), Baker, 2012), Madeira, (2019), products Mishra, (2014), Ariffin et al., (2019), Siti Jahroh, (2019), Khan, et al., 2020)

Q2.What are your Green marketing/ Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017), Kardos et al., 2019), Fraj, et al., marketing strategies? green promotion, (2013), (Leonidou, et al., 2015), Baker, 2012), Madeira, (2019), green pricing and Mishra, (2014), Ariffin et al., (2019), Siti Jahroh, (2019), Khan, et other others like al., 2020) distribution etc

Q3. What motivated Environmental Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017), Kardos et al., 2019), Leonidou, et you to develop sustainability/ green al., 2015), Morelli (2011), Sutton (2004), Goo Szabo and Webster environmentally marketing (2020), Danso et al., (2019), Goodland (1995), Dangelico and friendly strategies? Pujari (2010),Figge and Hahn, 2012).

Q4. Tell us about your Organisation Schein (2010),Chen et al., (2020), Pham, et al., (2018), Fraj, core values. culture Martínez, & Matute, (2011)

Q5. How are your core Organisational Fraj, et al., (2013), Chen et al., (2020), Pham, et al., (2018), Fraj, organizational values cultureand green Martínez, & Matute, (2011), Papadas, et al., (2019), Junsheng, et influence marketing al., (2020), Leonidou, et al., (2015), Wang, (2019) environmental friendly business strategies?

Q6. How do you NRBV Song et al., (2015), Brundtland, (1985), Cuerva et al., benefit from the (2014),Hart, (1995), McDougall et al. 2019), Miemczyk et al., marketing approaches (2016), Cucciella et al., (2012), Hart and Dowell (2011), Aken you implement? (2010), Alsaifi et al., (2020)

Q7. Are there any Critical Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017), Kardos et al., 2019), Mishra, challenges in the discussion on 2014). implementation of your green marketing marketing strategies? approaches How do you overcome such challenges?

Table 2 – Interview questions; Sources: own

As already mentioned in previous sections, we managed to interview seven individuals from seven different companies, in which four were from Nigeria and three were from Sweden. During the interview process we asked their consent to record so that we can concentrate on monitoring the process and capturing all aspect of answers as we are 40

interested not only with the answers but also how the answers are provided, the enthusiasm etc. (Bryman, 2012). Given that anonymity was requested during the process we provide the list of respondents without disclosing their identity.

Respondents Country Industry Years within Interview dates and time a company

R1 Sweden Paper products 3 years 20th April 2020 (Written response) R2 Sweden Renewable energy 7 years 17th April 2020 48 minutes R3 Nigeria Sustainable agribusiness 1 year 13th April 2020 services 32 minutes R4 Sweden Marine transport using 10 years 9th April 2020 renewable energy 38 minutes R5 Nigeria Advertisement Agency and 8 years 20th April 2020 marketing 45 minutes R6 Nigeria Online Printing Press 5 years 22nd April 2020 37 minutes R7 Nigeria Online Store for all products 7 years 25th April 2020 33 minutes

Table 3: Operationalization of interviews Source: own

3.8 Data analysis According to Bryman, (2016) data analysis refers to the process of reducing the collected information into manageable forms that makes sense and help interpretation and discussion, it involves breaking down of the information into meaningful categories called themes. Creswel, (2013) mentions that thematic data analysis is the popular method used in explorative studies and describe it as a process of summarizing and organizing the collected information in form of transcribed texts, field notes etc through coding into themes to aid interpretation, presentation and discussion. Saunders, et al., (2009) describe a qualitative data analysis as a process of summarizing and categorizing the responses obtained from interview questions. They describe the process to involve preparation of data through transcription of the recorded interviews and categorization 41

in a way that helps to identify themes, patterns and relationship between variables. This categorization helps the researcher to interpret and discuss the research findings. Consistent with the literature above, the analysis of our findings involved transcription of the recorded zoom interviews and summarization of the transcribed text data into meaningful themes. We then extracted related themes from each participant and grouped them together in a manner that could be related to our theoretical framework. This helped us to interpret and discuss the findings in light with our research aim, research question and theoretical framework (Creswel, (2013); Saunders, et al., (2009) and (Bryman, 2016). We did not have access to the data analysis software and thus this process was done manually. The table below displays our devised thematic analysis.

S/N Codes Significant Themes Discussion Caption 1. Policies(2) Organizational culture Organizational culture Policy(2) . Artifact Vision(2) . Espoused values and beliefs Core(5) . Underlying assumptions Values(8)

Practices(3) Organisational culture Organisational culture and green marketing Sustainability(6) and green marketing Environmental (7) Work ethics (2) 2. Budget(6) Challenges for the Green marketing and environmental Cost(4) Implementation of green sustainability Behavioral change(5) marketing including; Government (7) Regulations(3) Customer awareness Awareness (8) 3. Customers(10) Factors/ motives Environment (9) towards green Consumers(4) marketing Recycled(3) Waste (3) Earth (4) 4. Advertising(14) Implementation of The Green marketing mix Products (8) Green marketing . Green product Services (6) . Green promotion Marketing(7) . Green pricing Design(10) . Green place/ distribution Delivery(3) 5. Responsibility (2) Benefit for The NRBV and benefit of green marketing Social (2) Implementation of green Advantage (2) marketing Trust (6) Environmental friendly (3 Table 4: Codes and Thematic Analysis; Source: own

3.9 Ethical considerations Bryman and Belly, (2011) explain ethical issues to be considered by the researcher as not to harm participants, not to deceive, invade privacy or forge uniformed consent to the participants. Not harming the participants refers to the requirement of not carrying out an action or speak words that could potentially to physical harm, harm self-esteem, cause stress or threat to the employment of the participants. The information disclosed by participants needs to be handled with confidentiality. Informed consent requires that the participants are well informed on the nature and purpose of the research so that they can make informed decision of whether to participate or not. Invasion of privacy requires the researcher to respect the participant‘s privacy, values and considerations when discussing sensitive issues that the respondents may not be confortable to discuss or may provide some conditions such as anonymity. Deception is not allowed and researchers should not provide misleading information to the respondents.

Throughout the process we have observed the ethical issues as required. We explained the nature and purpose of the research making participants aware that it is purely for academic purposes and the information collected will be treated with confidentiality. We requested permission to record them and have their consent. During the process some companies requested anonymity which we had to assure them and also for the purpose of consistence we decided to anonymous all other participants (Bryman, 2012).

3.10 Trustworthiness Trustworthiness refers to the criteria used to evaluate how good a qualitative research is. It is reflected through four aspects; credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability (Byman and Bell, 2011). We describe how we have observed these criteria throughout the process.  Credibility seeks to determine whether the information collected can be relied upon to substantiate the findings and conclusions (Bleiker, et al., 2019). Williams & Morrow, (2009) describes credibility as adequacy of the data. To achieve this we applied triangulation approach, we careful transcribed the recorded interview, replayed the recording to confirm what we have written as well as comparing with notes taken and member checking to ensure that we have captured the information well.

 Transferability is related to detailed disclosure of information that can help users evaluate the applicability of the findings to other situations (Bleiker, et al., 2019). In order to fulfill this, we have provided detailed description of the context of our study to guide readers and users to form reasonable judgments on the transferability of the work.  Dependability requires proper record keeping of all the files involved in the research in the accessible manner. It refers to the need to keep track of the whole process and documents in manner consistent with the audit trail (Byman and Bell, 2011). To fulfill this we maintained proper records throughout the process and all the relevant information such as interview questions, details of participants, interview recordings, interview transcripts and other documents obtained during the process are readily available when needed.  Confirmability requires that the information presented is true and can be verified as the authors have acted in good faith without biasness (Byman and Bell, 2011). This was achieved through transparent and proper record keeping of transcripts and recordings to help verification of any information that may be required. .

4. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS This section intends to portray the findings that were obtained from the participants during our research. For easy of presentation of these findings we divide the findings into different parts. Firstly, we present the underlying organizational culture observed. We then present green marketing mix observed, factors or motivating factors and benefits obtained. This is followed by our findings on how organizational culture influences green marketing. We finally present our observations on challenges faced which would help us in critical analysis of the phenomena and we also provide a table which summarizes our findings.

4.1 Organization culture Organizational culture serves as a driving force, philosophy, ideology, and values of people in an organization, it communicates what they represent. Under this theme respondent focused on describing their experiences of their unique organizational culture in relationship to green marketing drawing inferences from its core values, organizational logos, write ups or signage and the overall ongoing communication of these concepts within the organization and how it impacts the implementation of green marketing. We present our findings through organizational cultural components being Artifacts, espoused values and beliefs and underlying assumptions.

4.1.1 Artifacts and Logos One of the key components that distinguish one organization from the other are logos, and peculiar affinity to write-ups or artifact that in a way informs the behavior of organization members in a way, which is a key aspect of its culture. Respondents were asked questions bothering on this, and how it impacts on their culture and invariably green marketing implementation. Respondents affirmed that its organization logo informed them about environmental sustainability and further described the logo to be.

―…… one of the most vital elements of the brand is our logotype. It consists of a symbol and the company name, and we always use them together, in full. We created the symbol from three elements: the Crown – is the forest, our heart and soul that has given us success….” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

Another respondent acknowledged the power of a business name and further clarified the meaning of its business name which clearly pointed to sustainability.

―…. Eh the name itself is …… and it means renewable…” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

Other respondents confirmed having writes-up strategically positioned in their organization depicting environmental sustainability which to certain level informs their behavior within the organization.

Strikingly, we observed that most organization are not upfront about green marketing approaches but however, its internal practices which forms part of its culture captures some aspect of internal green marketing approaches.

―….. Yeah like we said Its something ongoing, in terms of having official sustainability policy charter, non -exist for now , ……. so officially having a sustainability policy, no. what we are working towards is understanding what it will entail before we start, but in terms communicating that, we have been doing that ….” (Nigerian, respondent, 2020).

Our empirical shows identifiable organizational logos to brand name and strategically placed write-ups.

4.1.2 Espoused Values and Beliefs and onboarding of new employee Top management, always thrives to give a sense of direction to the organization, through the vision, mission and objectives for the organization, this was inquired from respondents. On core values, most respondent depicted expressly its stands on environmental sustainability viz a viz green marketing.

―…. It is our vision and mission, it is to be a main contributor to sustainable society, this is done by producing and providing the market with renewable fossil free products and services and we do this by focusing on benefits to the environment, business and customers…” (Swedish Respondent, 2020)

People make up the organization and in order to make them align to the core organizational culture efforts on the part of management has to be put in place to indoctrinate the employees on the key business processes of the organization. 46

Respondents were further probed on how they go about their onboarding to new employees and how that impact implementation of green marketing. A respondent explained that new employees are made to have an experience of all the teams in the organization and hence the core values instilled in them.

―... Yes okay, so basically, we have like an onboarding program right, so for every new staff that is employed ideally the person is required to go through like an onboarding program, for some it may take like the whole month, so what that implies is that, yes I just got employed in my company, I spend may be an hour or two with every team in the company …..” (Nigerian Respondent, 2020).

An important perspective noticed was a respondent elaborating on the importance of bringing new staff members to the knowledge of the organization, he noted that failure to adhere or be knowledgeable about the history, the aim, and why the business exist could cost the employees its job.

―….. Yes of cause we have code of conduct and so on but also we also educate everyone that starts to works with us and also let them know and be aware of the not maybe long history that we have but we established the company 7 years ago so they need to know the history about the company and what we have done so far and the reason why we are at the position we are now so without the history and the background we don’t know how we ended up in this position and why, so that is of cause very important so eh that is part of the introduction package we have when we employ new people ….” (Swedish respondent 2020).

Our findings shows that top management plays a vital role in ensuring organizational vision and mission and ensuring new organizational entrant are aware of what it entails to work for the organization.

4.1.3 Underlying Assumptions We noted that most organizations have not expressly captured ideals bothering on green marketing on its core values but has however offered significant awareness which shape their behavior and invariably becoming a norm in the organization. A respondent in describing their core practices though not captured on their core values stated that;

―…. for example waste, there is a team incharge of waste and maintenance of the entire facility their job ofcourse is to ensure, 1. Cleanliness of the press, ensuring waste removed, ensuring these practices in terms of what people should adhere to, so in the way we’ve done it was simply to say, if you throw a piece of paper on where is not meant to be right, for us , it is you spoiling the chain of production flow xyz xyz..” (Nigerian respondent, 2020).

4.2 Factors/ motives towards green marketing In order to understand the basis for firms to develop green marketing we sought to ask the participants what motivates them to implement green marketing approaches. This was to gauge all the participating firm‘s level of adaptation with regards to the NRBV, which comprises components such as, Pollution prevention, product stewardship, sustainable development, clean technology, and the base of the pyramid. The participants explained several motives related to both economic objectives as well as environmental aspect. They explained that businesses need not only focus on financial goals rather they should consider environmental sustainability if they aim for sustainable business. They mentioned that there is increasing awareness among different nations on the need to run businesses in a more sustainable way. Some respondents mentioned that there is increasing awareness among customers which makes eco- friendly businesses to be appealing to them.

Most respondents said that the great motive towards green marketing was the moral obligation towards environmental sustainability. They explained that they believe on the importance of preserving the environment for the heritage of future generation which includes their children. They consider it important to run businesses in ways that help meet current objectives without compromising the future generations.

“….. but the main part is that we only have eh one earth and we have to take care of it because we have to have the idea that we leave the better world for our children than what we grow up in and if we don’t do anything drastically we are destroying the earth, eh and …… we have to be eh eh eh look at the future for ourselves and our kids and all the future people to come and we have to take responsibility for what we are doing and how we are living..”(Swedish respondent, 2020).

Respondents mentioned their desire to maintain the legacy left from previous generations of taking care of the community and the environment which we live. They say; “.. It’s more like a commitment on our part to better the environment..” (Nigerian respondent, 2020).

Some respondents mentioned the role of innovative technologies. One respondent operating digital advertisement mentioned that advanced technologies of digital platforms such as LED board is environmental friendly and attractive to customers. One responded said that they have a scalable technology on renewable gas that they can license to other companies or countries. Other respondent mentioned that in their marine transport services they aspire to operate hygienically so they consider environmental sustainability in many ways including technologies to filter water onboard and offer free safe water to passengers and thus minimize usage of bottled water. The presence of such technologies makes it easy to implement green marketing and hence motivates them to implement them.

“…so the LED which is a new technology it makes it easy, though its quite expensive, but the materials you use, the nature of advertising, the experience the feeling, the user experience generally is different, and it can even operate in a remote location…….. it is a technology advancement and of course the ability to work from a remote location and the user experience….” (Nigerian respondent, 2020)

Some companies especially those which are funded by donors or the Government mentions that pressure from these stakeholders have an influence on them. When the funding institutions are committed to environmental sustainability it puts pressure for firms to adopt green marketing.

“….. it is being funded by the Dutch government and they are very keen to see that we have all this implemented in terms of how environmental sustainable have our intervention been because again we are working towards the SDGs goals of the 2030 and in no way do we want to work against those goals we want to work towards them not far from them….” (Nigerian respondent, 2020)

Based on the responses obtained, the role of the Government was observed to apply in three ways: 1. Setting laws and regulations that mandate compliance towards environment protection practices, 2. Financially supporting operations which are environmental friendly, making firms proactive so as to comply with financing terms or winning future contracts 3. Providing incentives to motivate green marketing for example through providing awards to companies well noted for their environment protection efforts,

―…we are contractual we have for example two years contracts ….. we know that the industry in 10 yrs will ask for this fossil free …. because we think that this is the future so we are doing that…… we are always ahead of what they will ask us … ” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

4.3 Implementation of green marketing Organizations are known via the products, services or approach it under takes for its sustenance, profitability and competitive advantage. Under this theme, we identified that our targeted organizations, had in their own unique way implemented green marketing, and it was approached using the green marketing mix which are the green product, green promotion, green pricing and green place.

4.3.1 Green Product

Products and services that champion‘s environmental sustainability was considered in this category. Two organizations deliberately are involved in green product. One is a renewable fuel and the other is making eco-friendly fiber packaging.

―…..it is great to be part of the journey to reduce the use of plastic and using renewable materials from the Swedish forest, our eco-friendly fiber packaging is the natural choice for the future….” (Swedish Respondent, 2020).

“….. The whole purpose of our company is to make transition from fossil to renewable fuels and energy so we have a few business areas eh but all of them is based on the transition to renewable fuels….” (Swedish Respondent, 2020).

It is also worthy of note that, an eco-friendly approach to service delivery was discovered.

“….for an LED screen now, it’s a digital board, what we do is just to upload from your computer and its showing so there is no waste coming out from there.(and that is environmentally sustainable) and then again some of the LED boards we are using now, they are well advanced not like the ones we used ten years ago, those ones that emit heat, the heat they emit is quite high and the energy consumption is also high, these ones we have now, you can have them under the sun and under the rain, they do not emit heat…” (Nigerian respondent, 2020).

Findings indicate that concern for the preservation of the environment and its resources has caused organizations to adapt product to fit this purpose.

4.3.2 Green promotion

Under this component of the green marketing mix, an organization communicates its values and most especially its support for environmental sustainability. Various respondents gave their perspective on how this communication is carried out by them. Most respondents acknowledged that, they have not really considered communicating their green values to the public. Also, we observed respondents affirming that their organizations provides financial support to organizations involved in sensitizing the public on the need for purchasing green product, they considered this a win- win approach for them, due to the fact that as the organization is carrying out the sensitization exercise its business name is being registered on the minds of the people.

“……we actually encourage people who produce items such as that to also be on our platform and then on the marketing aspect of it we’ve also been able to support campaigns for sustainability … So we are not really on the fore front like that, but we try to support businesses and also we try to support organizations that, you know, that push sustainability …. that way its mutually beneficial right, so while we support those organizations, will also make our presence felt ..”(Nigerian Respondent, 2020).

We noted that organizations that develop green products, did not have an issue in promoting its products compared to other organizations. Respondents explained their

green promotion includes; personal selling, green advertising and sponsoring events. A respondent explained an approach it promotes to farmers which seeks to reduce carbon foot print, and leading to greater yield.

“…climate smart agriculture it looks at innovations that will be adopted by mostly on farms by farmers that will also reduce the carbon footprint, or maybe that will lead to less loss of environmental assets….” (Nigerian respondent, 2020).

Our empirical shows that organizations in one way or the other make it known to the public or stakeholders its stands on environmental sustainability either by its product or other measures as indicated from our findings.

4.3.3 Green Pricing

This component of the green marketing mix, inquired about the cost of green product. All respondent acknowledge that green products are costly, which may eventually deter consumers. However, most respondent explained that despite the high cost, they still consider an environmentally sustainable product ideal for its customers, in years to come these green approaches will be the norm due to its benefits to environment.

“….We are using fossil free fuel, bio diesel which is a little bit it is almost double the price than the regular fuel but we are using that because we feel it is good for the environment….” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

The cost of acquiring green products, was showed to be costly compared to other product category in the market.

4.3.4 Green Place/ Distribution This component, sought to explore the green approaches adopted by organizations in the distribution of its products and services to the final consumers. The organization involved in producing renewable gas, stood out, as the founder described key characteristics of the production facility.

4.4 Benefits for implementation In understanding that organizational values that promote green marketing are valuable assets that need to be embraced for sustainable business we sought to get respondents‘ views on this. This was to demonstrate the NRBV which serves as an answer to how businesses could integrate the natural environment to its processes leading to a firm‘s sustained competitive advantage. Respondents, mostly those who extensively demonstrated green marketing mentioned that they consider it as an important aspect that depicts their core of existence. They also mention that green marketing helps in building trust with customers and provide competitive advantage. They view green marketing as a means to achieve the overall growth of the business. They describe that green marketing attracts customers to them due to benefits associated with their products.

“….Yes that is the way you are getting more and more clients and growing in the market, that is the only reason of cause we have to provide a good services, we have to be able to offer them attractive prices and goods products and delivery of cause, but without the renewable products we wouldn’t be where we are today” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

Some respondent mention that they have been able to win awards as they practice eco- friendly operations and they mention that this is good for them and their corporate image as people speak about them in a good way and spread a positive word of mouth. This they consider very important as they said a positive word of mouth by their customers helps to attract more customers to them and therefore it is a marketing tool for them. “…our company like two days ago has been awarded as the shipping company of the year here in Sweden (congratulations) thank you thank you yah because they see that even a small company can do environmental things…. they are spreading the world and word of mouth I think is our advantage because people talk about us and talk about going to this highland…” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

From our findings, green marketing is depicted as distinguishing one organization from the other and in business parlance competitive advantage.

4.5 Organization culture and green marketing Our findings in relation to ways in which organizational culture influences green marketing show that the extent in which environmental sustainability values are reflected in the organizational culture determine the extent of green marketing implemented. Organizations with core values which reflect environmental sustainability are observed to have higher level of implementation of green marketing. These organizations have green marketing values rooted in their beliefs for their core existence. Respondents mentioned that organizational culture influence green marketing because it dictates everything going on in the organization.

“Your culture influences your everyday decisions.” (Swedish respondent, 2020)

Such companies reflected these values through their formal company‘s documentations such as mission and vision statements, strategic plans, objectives, business strategies, policies, websites, company‘s reports, code of conducts, procedural statements and other internal communications. These values provided the basis of their established routines in their operations.

“Our sustainable approach does not only focus on the environmental benefits of paper products, but rather an overall responsibility for anything that we can influence in a better direction. Its our everyday life and mission…” (Swedish respondent, 2020)

These organizations ensured that their employees understand these values through trainings, induction causes and internal communications. Management ensured the shared understanding of these values so that to encourage behaviors that are consistent with green marketing within the organization.

“everyone working with us knows what is sustainability and why we are doing what we are doing because this is the core of the business so if you don’t understand the reason why we exist in this market then you cannot do your job well so…” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

On the other hands some other company‘s values did not incorporate environmental sustainability. Such companies demonstrated lower level of implementation of green

marketing. These companies had not formalized these values but rather they were partially practicing certain aspects of environmental sustainability based on management opinions. Given that these values were not official, no training to employees were provided specifically to encourage green marketing behavior and practices. This pattern was particularly observed in some companies from Nigeria.

“…Yeah like we said Its something ongoing, in terms of having official sustainability policy charter, non -exist for now……. so officially having a sustainability policy, no..” (Nigerian respondent, 2020).

Our empirical indicates that the degree to which an organization incorporates green marketing values in its structures also determines the extent of green marketing implementation.

4.6 Challenges on implementation of green marketing Upon critically analyzing the implementation of green marketing we noted that the companies face various challenges. Our findings show that major challenges faced are unclear government policies, high costs associated with green products and less awareness among customers on green products.

In relation to unclear Government policies the participants mentioned that the tax laws and policies are not supportive to green marketing initiatives as for example a person buying fossil fuels enjoys some incentives and subsidy which are not available to those buying renewable fuels. They mentioned this to be a result of procedural difficulties of getting certifications that the product is really environmentally friendly. They mentioned that their competitors whose products are not eco-friendly manage do lobby the Government as they have comparatively more resources and capacity. They mentioned that unclear policies make it difficult for the investors to make long term investment commitments on green products.

“….legislation around for example recycling, composting is not crystal clear, not harmonized over Europe. Environmental laws are of changing nature as well, making strategies and investments more difficult to plan. The plastic industry is also lobbying for their case. There is an abundance of information available to consumers nowadays, 55

sometimes contradictory as well, making it more difficult to prove your case” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

Some respondents using green products mentioned the green pricing challenge saying that it is costly to use green product. They declared that it could be even cheaper to run their operations using fossil fuels but they opt for renewable fuels because they believe it is good for the environment. Another example was given that digital advertisement solutions are environmental friendly but are also expensive that not all customers can afford such a high price.

“…….,We are using fossil free fuel , bio diesel which is a little bit it is almost double the price than the regular diesel…..of cause the cost of the diesel is also one thing that eh really hinder us you know..” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

Findings indicates that despite the huge benefit for organizations that engage in green marketing, there however exist challenges faced by the organization and they are multidimensional in nature.

4.6.1 Customer awareness

Our findings show lower level of customer awareness on the presence and benefits of green products or initiatives. Most respondents mentioned this concern as a setback for them. This was mentioned by respondents from both Nigeria and Sweden. Respondents proposed that more efforts are needed to increase the level of awareness among customers about the presence of eco-friendly products in the market. It was discussed that the level of awareness would enhance behavioral changes among them which will help effective implementation of green marketing.

“…making the awareness that it is option available, a lot of people don’t know that there is even an option to make a choice, eh people don’t know what is available in the market so that is of cause a challenge …… there is various products that you can choose from and then you need to know what product is the best for the environment…” (Swedish respondent, 2020).

Consumers are very important stakeholders of any business venture, thus the respondents described that when the consumer awareness of the green marketing initiatives taken by organizations who attempt to offer eco-friendly products or services is critical to encourage such companies to promote such strategies. The customers who aware of such practices and product they become supportive to such firms and their products and thus encourage their commitment towards green marketing.

“…this awareness that bottles should be recycled, you know, so that is the kind of the most important thing I will say, it all starts from the consumers, if the consumers can actually advocate, if they are actually aware of the environmental issues that we face, then they will have a higher power to advocate for change in the practices….” (Nigerian respondent, 2020)

Respondents mentioned that one way to increase this awareness is through educative programs and promotional initiatives which may involve different stakeholders as this is considered as an issue even at a society level.

“…so for us the education is important, we need a whole lot of other people to be aware…… for people in marketing to partner more with organizations that pushes these education to people in the rural and urban communities..” (Nigerian respondent, 2020).

4.7 Summary of empirical findings

Empirical finding Themes . Artifacts and logos, write ups and business names standing for aspects of green marketing Organizational . Espoused values through mission statements, vision, business strategies and policies culture - artifacts, covering green values espoused values, . Underlying assumptions noted in form of established routines and practices internalized, underlying becoming as norms inside the organization assumptions . Organization culture influences everyday decisions Organization . Some companies had formalized green values through mission, vision, strategic plans, culture and green internal policies etc and they demonstrated more commitment to green marketing marketing . Other companies did not have formalized these values as part of their commitments and these had relatively lower level of implementation . Employee awareness is necessary to ensure effective implementation of green marketing

. Moral obligation towards environmental sustainability is the main drive Factors/ motives . Stakeholders influence; including the Government and donor funding agencies. towards green . Presence of supportive technologies was found to make it easy for firms to practice green marketing marketing . Green products observed are fiber based pulp paper products and renewable fossil free Implementation fuels of green . Green promotion observed through personal selling, green advertising, sponsoring events marketing; Green and financial supports towards ecological products. products . Green pricing – green products were described as costly but some respondents still opted Green promotion for them due to their benefits Green pricing . Green place/ distribution was demonstrated through the use of renewable fuels Green place . Promote positive corporate image Benefits for . Brings competitive advantage to the firms implementation of . Helps to build trust with customers green marketing . Help to get more customers and increase market share . Winning awards . Enhance positive word of mouth as a marketing tool . Unclear/ unsupportive Government policies Challenges for . High costs for green products implementation of . Less awareness among customers on the presence or benefits of green products green marketing

. Low customer awareness on presence of green marketing products, initiatives, or their Customer benefits such that to motivate and support firms to implement green marketing. awareness

Table 5: Summary of empirical findings Source: Own

5. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter critically analyses our findings with reference to our theoretical framework. We start by analyzing the organizational culture observed, followed by the Natural Resources Based Views. We then have a combined discussion on green marketing and environmental sustainability, ultimately breaking down to the green marketing mix. Finally, we have a linking discussion on how organizational culture influences green marketing.

5.1 Organizational culture According to Schein, (2010) organizational culture provides meaning and structure to the group members and can be observed on different degrees ranging from very tangible, deeply embedded to unconscious. Pham, et al., (2018), provide that environmental focused mission, vision, policies, top managerial support and priorities influence the willingness of employees to adopt eco-friendly behavior and activities at work. Fraj et al., (2011) emphasize that the extent to which the organization has incorporated environmental values within the organization can be demonstrated by its mission statement, policies, procedures, training, communication and knowledge sharing within the organization. To effectively analyze our findings, we structure our discussion based on three levels of culture being artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions as postulated by Schein, (2010).

5.1.1 Artifact

According to Schein, (2010) artifacts represent visible organizational structures including processes and logos. From the empirical study, respondents described various visual identities appearing on their website displays, logos and business names which demonstrate that the company adopts eco-friendly business processes. For example, we understood that part of one company‘s name stands for ―renewable‖. Another respondent described the crown being a component of its logo, as the forest, which according to them, has over the years, granted the organization success. These concepts technically inform the prevailing culture as confirmed by Pham, et al., (2018) that green organization climate which could be communicated through logo‘s write-ups and signage, encourages employees to voluntarily participate in pro- environmental behavior and commitment to support the green objective and strategies of the organization.

The artifacts shapes the way people behave as they are expected to behave and act consistent with what they claim to be. Nevertheless, Schein, (2010) argues that regardless of the easiness to see these artifacts it is not easy to conclusively decipher them as they can be more meaningfully translated parallel with espoused values and underlying assumptions, thus our next discussion.

5.1.2 Espoused values and beliefs

Schein, (2010, pp 28) describes espoused values as original values which demonstrate ―what ought to be‖ and they include business strategies, goals and philosophies of the organization. Espoused values and beliefs have to do with top management‘s role in ensuring its proposed beliefs and values are followed through by organizational members. Schein, (2010) determine that all groups or organizational learning ultimately reflect someone‘s original belief and values. This was clearly identified by respondents who were founders, co- owner, or partners in their various organizations, they in one way or another influenced the beliefs and values of organizational members through the implementation of green values, standards and rituals, leading to its formalization. This clearly resonate with Junsheng, et al., (2020), that cultural values of top management support in an organization influences adoption of pro- environmental values and behaviors. On probing further, we found out that some organizations have not captured upfront environmental values but have however according to Fraj, et al., (2011) demonstrated its stance through its trainings for the employees and knowledge sharing within the organization.

Fraj et al., (2011) emphasizes that the extent to which the organization has incorporated environmental values can range from informal to formal. They argue that these values, beliefs and philosophies can be formalized through company‘s mission statement, policies, procedures, codes of conducts etc. within the organization. These claims are confirmed by our respondents who clearly described their vision and mission statements, business strategies, policies etc, some of which have clearly captured environmental values. We noted that the organizations with deeply embedded green values had formalized such values in their company‘s documentations which resulted to greater level of implementation of green marketing. However, some respondents declared that they did not have any documentation showing that they have these values

and consequently we noted lower level of their involvement or commitment to green marketing. These results are consistent with Papadas, et al., (2019) who provides that incorporating green initiatives as part of organizational culture is important in achieving green performance.

5.1.3 Underlying Assumptions

According to Schein, (2010) the underlying assumptions of a given firm comprise of beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and feelings that form the ultimate source of values and conduct within the organization. He describes this as the degree of consensus resulting from repeated success of certain beliefs and values. Management of organizations deliberately emphasize certain beliefs to its employees in order to achieve unconscious conformity by the people overtime. Our empirical also points to the fact that organizations strategically places write-up‘s in the organization to influence the behavior of employees leading to what Schein, (2010) described as the underlying assumptions in its levels or degrees of culture within an organizational setting. Under these components employees actions becomes patterned due to repetitions of a given behavior. Respondents indicated that communications from management aided in influencing their behavior with regards to environmental sustainability, most tagged such communications as green values within the organization. This conforms to Junsheng, et al., (2020) assertion that green environmental ethics relates to regular customs that establishes moral obligations for individuals to act in a manner that is environmentally friendly and also it tallies with Fraj, et al., (2013) postulation that employees green values support effective implementation of eco-friendly approaches.

Our study further shows varying levels of these values and beliefs. We noted that some companies have practiced these green values since their inception and hence deeply embedded these values. For example one company was founded over 100 years ago and the other over 7 years ago with their original philosophies incorporating green values. Some adopted these values some years after their inception and have practiced them for about 5 years now. In these cases it was observed that the extent on how the values have been practiced over the history of the company have an impact on how strongly those values would be held in the organization. Consistent with Schein, (2010, pp 31) views when such values are strongly held within the organization, it makes behaviors contrary

to such values as “inconceivable‖. Where these values are deeply embedded they can be demonstrated more naturally or even unconsciously.

Instilling green cultural values to employees can be challenging and at the same time rewarding for the organization. Pham, et al., (2018) explains that organization with cultural values that supports environmental friendly practices, needs to train its employees in order to instill these values in them. They assert that green organization climate increase commitment and encourage employees to voluntarily participate in pro- environmental behavior. The organization values which promote green marketing thus need to be disseminated and shared to all levels within the organization as suggested by Fraj et al., (2013). This helps to create awareness and enhance their commitment. The employees are the ones implementing organization objectives therefore this commitment shapes their behavior and approaches as it influence not only their actions but also how they do such actions. Our study discovered that the organizations with green values were ensuring that their employees understand these values through induction courses, trainings and various internal communications. The situation was different for companies with relatively lower level of implementation as their employees were not well trained.

5.2 The NRBV and benefits of green marketing Hart, (1995) and Hart and Dowell, (2011) provides detailed discussion of the NRBV. They state that organizations which has accumulated strategic capabilities towards environmental sustainability attributes such as pollution prevention, product stewardship, clean technology and base of pyramid is considered to possess valuable resources which are rare, difficult to imitate and non-substitutable. They describe that such resources could provide competitive advantage to the business. From our empirical study the companies that had embedded environmental sustainability values deeply within their organization explained that they enjoy this competitive advantage.

The respondents described their practices and technologies which had several environmental benefits such as; pollution prevention, clean technologies and renewable energy sources. They describe that eco-friendly approaches are appealing to customers which makes companies to seek ways to identify themselves with such attributes. This provides opportunities for companies to differentiate themselves against competitors 62

which build up their competitive advantage. It is observed that companies were able to attract more customers and grow their business. These finding are supported by Ariffin, et al., (2019) who attest that green marketing helps to build customers trust through presenting a superior corporate image. These findings also are consistent with Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) who provides that green marketing offers competitive advantages to the business which leads to growth and increase of market share.

5.3 Green marketing and environmental sustainability Our findings suggest that companies engage in green marketing strategies mainly driven by the need for environmental sustainability. This finding is consistence with discussions by Fraj, et al., (2013); Kardos et al., (2019) and Pimonenko, et al., (2020). Environmental sustainability has become the main drive for businesses to adopt green marketing mainly because of the need to preserve the world and resources for future generations. The respondents mentioned that they were doing so as it is the future for their children as well. This shows a moral obligation to preserve environment and also as a means to demonstrate their corporate social responsibility. This finding was observed in nearly all participants indicating greater sensitivity to run their businesses in a sustainable way. This is in accordance with Sutton, (2004) who asserts that environmental sustainability comprise of actions and processes towards preservation of natural resources and environment. Also this agrees with Cuerva et al., (2014), who suggests that organizations have upped their game, by coming up with innovative product, processes or business models leading the organization to higher levels of environmental sustainability. Based on previous studies and results of this study it shows how crucial the issue of environmental sustainability is. Its importance cannot be overemphasized as it is the key to human existence and therefore it should be something to always think about in the business operations of whatever kind.

Our study shows that another factor which drives green marketing is commitment towards stakeholders. Governments, International organizations, customers and donor funding agencies all have a role to play influencing firms to adopt green marketing, consistent with studies by Mahamuni & Tambe, (2014); Mishra, (2014) and Junsheng, et al., (2020). Donor funds have been observed to have a role to play in promoting green marketing. Organizations which are donor funded are committed to meet terms of the investors. This can encourage green behavior especially when these terms incorporate 63

environmental aspects such as commitments towards SDGs. Organizations that receive funds from the Government are also observed to be proactive in doing businesses sustainably so that to sustain their contracts by meeting or exceeding expectation. The study shows that generally, the Government influences this through three different perspectives; setting laws and regulations, providing incentives and financially supporting operations which are environmental friendly. These are consistent with the institutional theory explained by Junsheng, et al., (2020) on how various institutions can influence firms to adopt green marketing.

This study also shows that successful implementation of green marketing is not without challenges. Such challenges include unclear and unsupportive government policies, financial resources and poor awareness among customers. The government is an important stakeholder therefore needs to provide conducive environment to promote green marketing as also discussed by (Mahamuni & Tambe, 2014). The respondents urged the Government to streamline their tax and other policies to support green marketing initiatives. The issue of financial constraints was also mentioned that due to unclear government policies the firms practicing green marketing face difficulties in getting investors for their business.

5.3.1 Customer awareness

Fraj et al., (2013) and Mishra, (2014) discusses that there is increased sensitivity and awareness among customers to switch to non-toxic, recyclable and environmentally friendly products. Furthermore, Schouten, (2014) opined that members of society are becoming more interested and concerned with the natural environment pushing organizations to work more sustainably. Our findings however, show that the level of customer awareness on the presence and benefits of green products is still low. As much as our focus was on the influence of internal factors within the organizational culture, the issue of lower customer awareness kept on popping up among respondents indicating that it is an important aspect. Respondents mentioned that, customers need to understand about the environmental friendly options in the market. They argued that this understanding will stimulate behavioral change and influence their purchase decisions. Although this outcome is contrary to some previous studies, it is supported by some researchers who insist on the importance of marketing communications to increase

customer awareness. Customers are very important stakeholders of a business venture and hence their awareness and support for green marketing cannot be undermined. Madeira, (2019) provides that this communication can increase the perceived value for green products which also increase customer‘s willingness to buy even at premium prices. This is a very important aspect because green products can be costly as asserted by Ariffin et al., (2019) that the cost of producing green products can be higher than the conventional product due to value added in terms of functionality, design and performance. Increased awareness can thus help dilute the customer‘s price sensitivity and help such firms realize returns on their investments.

It can also be argued that the level of awareness may vary among customers based on the nature of product. The more technical the product is, the more promotional efforts may be needed to create the awareness as suggested by Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) that the promotional messages need to be well descriptive to remove any information asymmetry. However, this communication goes beyond the company‘s promotional activities as the respondents proposed further measures like educative programs to be carries out with other stakeholders such as Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations. Increased awareness on characteristics, benefit and impact of green products, services or practices to the society and ultimately the biosphere is key to support eco-friendly efforts such as reduce, reuse and recycle.

5.4 The Green marketing mix This study shows that the green marketing mix has been implemented differently in different organizations. This study shows that companies with green products have greater tendency of having the other marketing mix as well. For example one participant mentioned that their goal is not only on offering renewable fuels but to handle the entire process; materials used, production processes and how the fuels are distributed in an environmental sustainable way. This fact is consistent with the discussed by Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) who asserts that the mostly implemented green marketing mix is green product and green promotion while those who practice all the marketing mix can be referred to as extreme green. We provide categorical analysis of these aspects below;

5.4.1 Green Product

Baker (2012), advocates the concept of design for environment which emphasizes for product designs, models and production processes that lead to the development of product and technologies that are environmentally friendly. Consistent to this view, we noted various categories of green products “designed for environment”. One was fiber based paper products which were described to be compostable and recyclable demonstrating an aspect described by Madeira, (2019) who mentions these qualities for green products. The other green product observed was renewable fossil free fuels with reduced carbon emission which is described as environmental friendly as also defined by Ariffin et al., (2019) who mentions an aspect of less emission in describing a green product. Another instance was found in the deployment of an LED screen for advertising, our respondent described this technology as environmentally sustainable, as it does not emit heat or cause pollution this as strongly supported by Ariffin et al., (2019) which provide that a green product is the one that is being produced with fewer resource, less energy and reduced energy. Also the assertion by Siti Jahroh, (2019) in relation to green packaging as part of green product was observed. A Nigerian respondent, 2020, confirms that in their own little way of being sustainable they have been pushing to use biodegradable cartons in shipping their products to consumers, this motive resonate with Cuerva et al., (2014).

5.4.2 Green promotion

Ariffin et al., (2019) explain that green promotion is characterized by way a firm communicate with customers on its efforts, commitment and performances with regard to environmental preservation. It literally communicates to customers that the products are environmentally friendly and encourage them to purchase. From our empirical findings we have discovered that while most organizations are out-rightly carrying out green promotion as a result of its products offering, other organizations are also involved in sponsoring and supporting organizations involved in green promotion. The latter is in tandem with the assertion of Baker, (2012) that sponsorship on environmental related causes is seen to be an effective strategy.

Examples of green promotions observed include; a company which had sponsored various events such as the world cup rally and also had a campaign called ―environmental car of the year‖ to create awareness to people that it is not necessary to

buy a new car as they can still use their old cars but be environmental if they put renewable fuels. The logos and brand names for some companies reflected their eco- friendly way thus saving as a marketing tool as asserted by Baker, (2012) who mentions the importance of eco-branding. Also some companies provided capacity building, technical support and financial supports to firms producing ecological products. These are consistent with discussions by Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) who confirms that organizations may develop alliances and collaborations in their publicity campaigns as it is considered to be more appealing to customers.

Promotional messages need to be well descriptive and understandable to make it easy for the customers to understand and guide their purchase decisions (Ariffin et al., 2019). In cases where green products are technical and require specific specialty more personalized approaches can be taken such as personal selling as observed with one of our respondents and also discussed by Baker, (2012) who mentions personal selling to be very effective marketing approach. Some respondents indicated that most consumers really don‘t pay attention to the green promotion carried but those organizations keep engaging in such promotion with the intent that in no distant time consumers will become aware. Based on the above analysis it is our considered view that green promotion is a very important aspect which helps to create awareness among customers on the presence and benefits of green products available in the market and therefore need to be given required attention.

5.4.3 Green pricing

Our empirical findings show strong resonance with the theories covered in the theoretical framework about green pricing. Ariffin et al., (2019) discusses that green pricing seeks to incorporate both economic and environmental cost; Madeira, (2019) further explains that pricing policy need to take both economic and environmental considerations and should reflect a fair value of product and services. Respondents acknowledged that the cost of green products are high but nonetheless, with due considerations to conserving the environment, they were not deterred. This confirms the postulations brought forth by Ariffin et al., (2019) that the cost of producing green products can be higher than the conventional product due to value added in terms of functionality, design and performance which may require customers to pay premium prices.

The study also prove that, stringent government policies can lead to increase in prices for green product and this tallies with the Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017), that the production costs, cost for materials and increased taxation can lead to higher prices for green products. From our empirical we also gathered that despite the high prices of green product most organizations unapologetically stick to using it. This action resonate with Baker, (2012) who claims that customers may be willing to pay premium price for a light bulb which leads to notable energy savings and running cost. This was typically exemplified by the Marine transport company, who despite the fact that its competitors stick to fossil fuels, they have over the years been consistent in using bio-gas which is considered safe for the environment. Therefore, as also mentioned by one respondents that there should be increased awareness among customers on the environmental benefits associated with eco-friendly products to influence them go for environmental friendly products regardless of the costs. This is consistent with assertions by Dangelico & Vocalelli, (2017) who proclaim that green pricing is the one that offsets customers sensitivity of high costs that maybe associated with green products. This is proved to be true as the respondents recognize that they could run their businesses cheaply by using other products but they still opt for renewable fuels because they are aware that it is good for the environment.

5.4.4 Green place/ distribution

This component takes into consideration how green products gets to its final consumers. Siti Jahroh, (2019), explained that green distribution and place involves all aspect of transportation, warehousing, logistics and energy sources. We could exemplify this through a respondent involved in marine transportation by using renewable energy from fossil free fuels and the use of eco-friendly facilities in their boat like filtrated water safe to drink which minimized the usage of bottled water. Some companies also manage processes for proper wastes disposal through partnering with recycling companies, these are consistent with discussions by Madeira, (2019) who describes facilities and infrastructure to influence reuse or recycling of materials as part of green distribution. However, the presence of eco-friendly facilities needs to go together with customer awareness so that to maximize the usage of such facilities.

5.5 Organization culture and green marketing This study show that the core values within the organization reflect what is happening there. It determine whether green marketing will be implemented or not and to what extent when implemented. Organizational culture provides routines for the organization which shapes the way members of that organization think and behave as asserted by (Fraj, et al., 2011). organizational culture influences the total way of conduct and business operation like products creation processes, logistics, supply chains and the marketing approaches adopted as also discussed by (Leonidou, et al., 2015). They describe that organizational culture which reflects strong commitment towards environmental sustainability is an important aspect for implementation of green marketing as it determines the actions to be taken within the organization (Mahamuni And Tambe, 2014). Our personal view is that, what is considered as important in an organizational culture is what is given priority and implemented (Mishra, 2014). Based on the above background, we can analyze our findings from two perspectives. The first group includes those organizations whose core values incorporate formally the aspect of environmental sustainability and the second group being those who did not do so.

The first group comprises of companies whose core values reflect environmental sustainability. These companies were observed to implement green marketing extensively like implementing all or more than one of the green marketing mix. The respondents under this category mentioned that they have organizational values on environmental sustainability which they reflect in their internal documentations such as; mission, vision, business strategies, code of conducts, brand books and policies. This is consistent with Fraj et al., (2011), Chen et al., (2020) and Pham, et al., (2018) who explain how the behavior and conducts within the organization is controlled through incorporation of green values in internal documentations such as mission statements, vision, strategic plans, objectives and codes of conducts. In these organizations the issue of environmental sustainability is given priority at all levels of the organization. As also mentioned by Fraj, et al., (2011) such formalization creates a moral obligation for employees to adhere. This was asserted by one of respondents in this study who mentioned that an employee who does not understand the philosophies behind the existence of the company cannot do their job well.

Also in this category of companies, the employees are well informed on the importance of the environmental sustainability through, induction courses, trainings and internal communications. The respondents mentioned that they create this awareness at all levels of organizations, for the new employees it is part of their induction causes, for other employees there are periodic trainings as well as internal mechanisms to share knowledge. Through these practices the employees becomes more committed and they are shaped to behave in environmental friendly way. These aspects are consistent with discussions by (Pham, et al., 2018; Papadas, et al., 2019; Junsheng, et al., 2020; and Schein, 2010) who emphasize that green marketing values need to be widely shared among employees for awareness which helps in commitment and effective implementation. For example, with other factors constant, when designing or deciding for a package for a new product, an employee who is sensitive to environmental sustainability will tend to go for eco-friendly packaging solutions.

On the other hand, the situation was different for respondents who had not formalized such environmental sustainability values in their company‘s documentations (Linnenelueke and Griffiths, 2010). Our study revealed that those company‘s values are more focused on economic objectives with no or little reflection on environmental sustainability. Some respondents mentioned that they had no official documentations within their organizations which reflect their desire or commitment to work in eco- friendly way. These companies demonstrated lower level of implementation in which only certain aspect of green marketing mix was implemented and in some cases the approach was indirect for example through partnerships with recycling companies. In these companies only few employees understand any effort done by their organizations as they are not officially trained. According to Fraj et al., (2013) it is important to reflect green values in policies and procedural statements if one is committed to achieve eco- friendly practices. Based on this, it can be argued that in absence of such, it is less likely to implement green marketing approaches as these values are not internalized as part of their culture.

Our study also shows that the sensitivity to engage in green marketing varies across countries; some have more drive compared to others. We noted that companies in Sweden show greater sensitivity to the issue of environmental sustainability compared to those in Nigeria. This could be probably based on the fact that Sweden is well

advanced in matters of environmental sustainability compared to developing countries like Nigeria. Sweden being described by the OECD as a front runner on environmental preservation has cultural values of, tidiness, sorting of wastes and technologies to facilitate recycling. These values are part of the Swedish daily life. Therefore, it is arguable that these values can be transmitted to the organizational level and influence the total way of life and implementation of the four green marketing mix.

5.6 Summary of the analysis

Below is the table giving summaries of the analysis of our findings.

Table 6: Summary of the analysis; Source: Own Analysis Themes Theories Analysis summary heading

5.1 Organizational Schein (2010), Pham, et Visible features such as logos, business names and write ups Organizational culture; al.,(2018) Fraj et al.,(2011), agrees with what the literature describe as artifacts culture; Junsheng, et al., (2020), Artifacts Papadas, et al., (2019), Fraj et Artifacts, al.,(2013)

Espoused values Espoused values Respondents described their values embedded the mission and beliefs and beliefs statements, strategic plans, policies and procedural statements and top management influence. These agrees with the literature that they influence people‘s behavior and action in the organization.

Underlying Underlying Respondents agree with the literature that when the values are assumptions assumptions extensively embedded in the organization they become norms, making any conduct contrary to such values as inconceivable.

5.2 The NRBV Benefit of Hart, (1995), Hart and Consistent with previous literature respondents affirmed various and benefits of Implementation of Dowell (2011), Ariffin, et al., NRBV strategies they consider which has resulted into green marketing green marketing (2019), Dangelico & competitive advantage for the firm. Vocalelli, (2017)

5.3 Green Factors/motive Fraj, et al. (2013); Kardos et Environmental sustainability is strongly supported by the study marketing and towards green al., (2019), Pimonenko, et al. as the key motive towards green marketing. Other factors environmental marketing (2020), Sutton (2004), described by respondents include stakeholders influence such as sustainability Cuerva et al., (2014), Government, Investors and customers. These are consistent with Mahamuni & Tambe, (2014); previous literature. Mishra, (2014) and Challenges for Junsheng, et al., (2020), Key challenges of unsupportive government policies, financial implementation of Dangelico & Vocalelli, constraints and low customer awareness. These factors agree Green marketing (2017) with previous studies.

Customer Fraj, et al., (2013), Mishra, Disagree with some literature as it reveals lower level of awareness (2014), Schouten, (2014), customer awareness which lead to less customers support for Madeira, (2019), Ariffin et green products. More awareness initiatives and more al., (2019), Dangelico & promotional efforts are recommended. Vocalelli, (2017)

5.4 Green Implementation of Dangelico & Vocalelli, Consistent with previous literature, the marketing mix marketing mix – green marketing; (2017), Baker (2012), implemented include eco-packaging, eco-products, renewable Green products, Green products, Madeira, (2019), Ariffin et fuels , eco- climate smart agriculture consultancy services, green promotion, green promotion, al., (2019), Siti Jahroh, transport services using renewable fuels etc. green place, green place, green (2019), Dangelico & green pricing pricing Vocalelli, (2017)

5.5 Organizational Fraj, et al., (2011),Leonidou, Two categories of companies analyzed in light with supporting Organizational culture and green et al., (2015), Mahamuni And literature; culture and green marketing Tambe, 2014), Mishra, marketing 2014), Chen et al., (2020) 1)Those who have formalize environmental friendly values in and Pham, et al., (2018), their routines through mission statements, plans, policies, Papadas, et al., (2019); strategies and other procedural statements – demonstrated high Junsheng, et al., (2020); and level of green marketing implementation and also trained their Schein, (2010), Linnenelueke employees and Griffiths, (2010), Fraj et 2)Those who did not have any formal commitments towards al., (2013) environmental sustainability demonstrated lower level of green marketing and did not have formal trainings to employees on these.

5.7 Proposed theoretical framework Based on our findings and with due consideration to the already proposed conceptual framework in our theoretical chapter we develop the figure below to depict our theoretical contribution. Our model initially showed how the drive for environmental sustainability led organizations to integrate green values into its culture leading to the implementation of green marketing. Additionally, our findings have deduced the need to alter this model to incorporate an aspect of customer‘s awareness. This was the common thread between the two countries we conducted the research. The respondents, affirms that their competitive advantage would have been top notch if the consumers understood the characteristics, benefits and impact of its product and services to, first the consumers and ultimately the biosphere.

Items under OC: Environmental Organizational  Artifacts sustainability Culture  Espoused values (OC)  Underlying assumptions

Items under GMM: Customer Green Green  Green products awareness on Marketing Marketing  Green promotion  green marketing Mix (GMM) Green pricing  Green place

Natural

Resource Based View (NRBV)

Figure 4: Organizational culture and green marketing construct with customer awareness

Source: Own.

6. CONCLUSIONS

This chapter provides a description on how our research question has been answered by the study and also provides managerial implications and limitations of the study.

6.1 Answering of the research question This study systematically shows how organizational culture influences green marketing and thus provides answer to our research question. We demonstrate that organizational culture influences green marketing as it dictates what happens within the organization and how it happens. Organizational culture governs behavior and actions in the organization and therefore influences the implementation of green marketing. We show that when an organization is concerned about environmental preservation it incorporates in its routines values that promote environmental sustainability. It also reflects such values in its internal documentations such as mission statements, strategic plans, policies, code of conducts and other procedural documents. Our study also shows the need for these values to be shared among all members of the organization for effective implementation.

The organizational culture which reflects a commitment towards environmental sustainability is imperative on the implementation of green marketing mix. Through this culture the total way of life within the organization is shaped to promote green marketing. The organization with such culture is considered to possess a unique, valuable, rare and non-substitutable resource that can bring competitive advantage consistent to the Natural Resource Based View. Our study also supports that there is lower level of customer awareness on green marketing. The study provides that more customer awareness is required as this could act as a catalyst to encourage firms to invest their resources on green marketing.

6.2 Theoretical contributions This study contributes to the body of knowledge of environmental sustainability, green marketing, green marketing mix and organizational culture. Regardless of a number of studies on green marketing and environmental sustainability, fewer studies had touched the influence of organizational culture on green marketing and green marketing mix. This study complements the existing body of knowledge on the subject but also offers

specific contribution with reference to the gap in the literature. Existing literatures determine that organizational resources are drivers of proactive environmental management and they further determine that a strong environmental culture is required for effective implementation of green marketing strategies. This study demonstrates how organizational culture influences green marketing through different components of green marketing mix based on the selected companies in both Sweden and Nigeria.

We show that green marketing is implemented differently by different organizations, with the main drive being the moral obligation towards environmental sustainability. We describe how each component of organizational culture being artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions influence green marketing. We illustrate that these values differ among organizations depending on the level of commitment manifested by those organizations. The study shows a greater extent of implementation of green marketing on companies that have formalized and documented the organizational culture which promotes environmental sustainability than those who do not do so. Furthermore, the study shows the perspective of both customers and suppliers of green products thus enhancing understanding of common issues facing them such as pricing and challenges with the Government policies.

Additionally, the study has revealed that there is still low level of customer awareness on green marketing such that companies that have invested in green marketing are realizing lower support from customers. This study shows customer‘s awareness on green marketing is required to encourage firms to implement green marketing. It enhances customer‘s willingness to buy green products and can dilute their price sensitivity. Based on this fact, we propose a model which includes an aspect of customer awareness as an important external force that encourage firms to implement green marketing.

6.3 Managerial implications This study offers several managerial implications. We demonstrate that if a company seeks to identify themselves with environmental sustainability it is best to formalize their cultural values to reflect this. Such values provide ethical obligation for people in the organization to comply. Not only top management should have this understanding but the information needs to be disseminated to all people in the organization. 75

Management may have understanding of the environmental sustainability but their influence may be limited if these values are not integrated within the organization as part of their culture. Proper internal communication is necessary as when these values are shared and understood, they enhance employees commitment and support.

Furthermore, the study still finds information gap among customers on the awareness of green marketing. It appears that not all customers understand the eco-friendly options available in the market. This implies that managers implementing green products need to strengthen their green promotion in order to create this awareness. The promotional messages need to describe the importance of the green marketing adopted in a clear, easy and understandable manner. This awareness is important as it can even dilute customer‘s price sensitivity on green products. Customers may be willing to pay higher prices as long as they understand and believe on the benefits of green products.

6.4 Societal contributions This study has significant societal implications. The issue of environmental sustainability should be a concern of every member of the society. It requires behavioral change that incorporates this aspect in one‘s daily activities and operations so as to optimize the usage of resources without compromising the resources needed for the future generations. As demonstrated in this study, green marketing not only focus on meeting business objectives, but also on maximizing customers‘ needs while preserving the biodiversity. The society, being the ultimate consumer and benefactor of green marketing has a big part to play in supporting the execution of the pillars of sustainability such as reduce, reuse and recycling systems. The society also includes decision makers and policy makers at different levels and it is important for all these stakeholders to be supportive of green marketing initiatives. The success of green marketing endeavor requires society‘s support otherwise the firm‘s efforts may be in vain. Therefore, it is imperative for all stakeholders to maximize the capacity of their influence to support businesses investing in green marketing and create awareness in the society.

6.5 Limitation for the study In carrying out this study we got opportunity to interview seven individuals from selected companies in both Nigeria and Sweden. We used seven semi-structured 76

interview questions to guide our discussions via zoom. We managed to get the participants who demonstrated good understanding of green marketing who were willing to share their knowledge and experiences. The respondents demonstrated their organizational culture and approaches on green marketing and it was very informative. We managed to get respondents from different perspectives, for example customers and suppliers of green products as well as those who fully practice green marketing and those who partially do so. We consider that this combination of respondents helped us to get good knowledge of realities of the phenomenon in different organizations.

Nevertheless, the study has a number of limitations. Firstly, we were able to access only 7 companies in both Sweden and Nigeria and within these organizations we were able to get only one respondent per company. We think a larger sample size could help substantiate our findings but we could not get more participants due to the issues related to the outbreak of Covid-19 and social distancing. Due to same reasons we were not able to carry out face to face interviews rather we carried out zoom interview in which we faced some technical challenges along the process. We believe the process could have been smooth if we had opportunity to carry out personal face to face interviews.

6.6 Suggestions for future studies This study revealed the influence of organizational culture on green marketing through the green marketing mix. In this study, the results from both Sweden and Nigeria were aggregated. We suggest a future study which could complement this study using a larger sample size. We also propose a comparative future study to compare results from the countries which may help to highlight how implementation of green marketing in developed countries such as Sweden differs from the developing countries such as Nigeria. Furthermore, we suggest an explorative study on how best the customer awareness on green marketing can be enhanced invariably leading to their support of green marketing.

REFERENCES Abutabenjeh, S. and Jaradat, R., (2018). Clarification of research design, research methods, and research methodology: A guide for public administration researchers and practitioners. Teaching Public Administration, 36(3), pp.237-258.

Aken, A. (2010). How an organization's environmental orientation impacts environmental performance and its resultant financial performance through green computing hiring practices: An empirical investigation of the Natural Resource- Based View of the Firm. Unpublished PhD. Dissertation, Southern Illinois University Carbondale. pp.1-133

Allison, P. and Pomeroy, E., (2000). How shall we ―know?‖ Epistemological concerns in research in experiential education. Journal of Experiential Education, 23(2), pp.91-98.

Alsaifi, K., Elnahass, M., & Salama, A. (2020). Carbon disclosure and financial performance: UK environmental policy. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(2), 711-726.

Ariffin, S. K., Salamzadeh, Y., Goh, Y. N., & Goh, W. H. (2019). How green marketing mix strategies affects the firm‘s performance: a Malaysian perspective. International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 7(1/2), 113. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijssm.2019.10020496

Ataro, G. (2020). Methods, methodological challenges and lesson learned from phenomenological study about OSCE experience: Overview of paradigm-driven qualitative approach in medical education. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 49(November 2019), 19–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2019.11.013

Babbie, E.R., (2010). The Practice of Social Research. 12th edition. Belmont.

Bae, H. S., & Grant, D. B. (2018). Investigating effects of organisational culture and learning on environmental collaboration and performance of Korean exporting firms. International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 21(6), 614– 630. https://doi.org/10.1080/13675567.2018.1470232

Baker, M. (2012). The marketing book. Routledge.

Balmer, J.M. and Wilson, A.M., (2001). Understanding organisational culture and the implications for corporate marketing. European Journal of Marketing. 35(3/4) PP. 353-367

Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of management, 17(1), 99-120.

Baxter, P. and Jack, S., (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers. The qualitative report, 13(4), pp.544- 559.

Berryman, D.R., (2019). Ontology, Epistemology, Methodology, and Methods: Information for Librarian Researchers. Medical reference services quarterly, 38(3), pp.271-279.

Bleiker, J., Morgan-Trimmer, S., Knapp, K., & Hopkins, S. (2019). Navigating the maze: Qualitative research methodologies and their philosophical foundations. Radiography, 25, S4–S8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radi.2019.06.008

Bryman, A. and Bell, E., (2011). Ethics in business research. Business Research Methods, 7(5), pp.23-56.

Bryman, A., (2012). Social research methods: OUP Oxford.

Bryman, A., (2016). Social research methods. Oxford university press.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E., (2011). Business Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 3rd edition

Baumgartner, R.J., (2009). Organizational culture and leadership: Preconditions for the development of a sustainable corporation. Sustainable development, 17(2), pp.102-113.

Brundtland, G. H. (1985). World commission on environment and development. Environmental policy and law, 14(1), 26-30.

Camino, J. R. (2002). Re-evaluating green marketing strategy : a stakeholder perspective. European Journal of Marketing, 41(11/12), 1328–1358.

Chamorro, A., & Bañegil, T. M. (2006). Green marketing philosophy: A study of Spanish firms with ecolabels. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 13(1), 11–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.83

Charlesworth, M. and A Foëx, B., (2016). Qualitative research in critical care: Has its time finally come?. Journal of the Intensive Care Society, 17(2), pp.146-153.

Chen, Y. S., Lin, S. H., Lin, C. Y., Hung, S. T., Chang, C. W., & Huang, C. W. (2020). Improving green product development performance from green vision and organizational culture perspectives. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(1), 222–231. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1794

Creswell, J.W., (2009). Research design: Qualitative and mixed methods approaches. London and Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J.W.,(2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks. CA.

Cucciella, F., Koh, L., Shi, V. G., Koh, S. L., Baldwin, J., & Cucchiella, F. (2012). Natural resource based green supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. 17(1), 54-67.

Cuerva, M. C., Triguero-Cano, Á., & Córcoles, D. (2014). Drivers of green and non- green innovation: empirical evidence in Low-Tech SMEs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 68, 104-113.

Dabija, D.-C., Chebeň, J., & Lančarič, D. (2018). Cross-Cultural Investigation of Consumers‘ Generations Attitudes Towards Purchase of Environmentally Friendly Products in Apparel Retail. Studies in Business and Economics, 12(3), 27–42. 79

https://doi.org/10.1515/sbe-2017-0034

Dangelico, R. M., & Pujari, D. (2010). Mainstreaming green product innovation: Why and how companies integrate environmental sustainability. Journal of business ethics, 95(3), 471-486.

Dangelico, R. M., & Vocalelli, D. (2017). ―Green Marketing‖: An analysis of definitions, strategy steps, and tools through a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Cleaner Production, 165, 1263–1279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.184

Danso, A., Adomako, S., Amankwah‐Amoah, J., Owusu‐Agyei, S., & Konadu, R. (2019). Environmental sustainability orientation, competitive strategy and financial performance. Business Strategy and the Environment, 28(5), 885-895.

Davis, K. and Boulet, M., (2016). Transformations? Skilled change agents influencing organisational sustainability culture. Australian. Journal of Environmental Education, 32(1), pp.109-123.

Dieronitou, I., (2014). The ontological and epistemological foundations of qualitative and quantitative approaches to research. International journal of economics, commerce and management, 2(10), pp.1-17.

Figge, F., & Hahn, T. (2012). Is green and profitable sustainable? Assessing the trade-off between economic and environmental aspects. International Journal of Production Economics, 140(1), 92-102.

Fjellström, D. and Guttormsen, D.S., (2016). A critical exploration of ―access‖ in qualitative international business field research: Towards a concept of socio-cultural and multidimensional research practice. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 11(2), pp.110-126.

Fraj, E., Martínez, E., & Matute, J. (2011). Green marketing strategy and the firm‘s performance: The moderating role of environmental culture. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 19(4), 339–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2011.581382

Fraj, E., Martínez, E., & Matute, J. (2013). Green marketing in B2B organisations: An empirical analysis from the natural-resource-based view of the firm. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 28(5), 396–410. https://doi.org/10.1108/08858621311330245

Goodland, R. (1995). The concept of environmental sustainability. Annual review of ecology and systematics, 26(1), 1-24.

Grünbaum, N.N., 2007. Identification of ambiguity in the case study research typology: what is a unit of analysis? Qualitative Market Research: an international journal, 10(1), pp.78-97.

Hart, S. L. (1995). A natural-resource-based view of the firm. Academy of management review, 20(4), 986-1014.

Hart, S. L., & Dowell, G. (2011). Invited editorial: A natural-resource-based view of the firm: Fifteen years after. Journal of management, 37(5), 1464-1479.

Heskett, J.L. and Kotter, J.P., (1992). Corporate culture and performance. Business Review. Vol, 2(5), pp.83-93.

Hitt, M. A., Xu, K., & Carnes, C. M. (2016). Resource based theory in operations management research. Journal of Operations Management, 41, 77-94.

Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G.J. and Minkov, M., (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Revised and expanded 3rd Edition. N.-Y.: McGraw-Hill.

Junsheng, H., Masud, M. M., Akhtar, R., & Rana, M. S. (2020). The mediating role of employees‘ green motivation between exploratory factors and green behaviour in the malaysian food industry. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020509

Kalavathy, S. (2004). The Multidisciplinary nature of environmental studies: In Fundamental of Environmental studies.Cambridge University Press. pp. 1-10

Kardos, M., Gabor, M. R., & Cristache, N. (2019). Green marketing‘s roles in sustainability and ecopreneurship. Case study: Green packaging‘s impact on Romanian young consumers‘ environmental responsibility. Sustainability (Switzerland), 11(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030873

Kemper, J. A., & Ballantine, P. W. (2019). What do we mean by sustainability marketing? Journal of Marketing Management, 35(3–4), 277–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1573845

Khan, E. A., Royhan, P., Rahman, M. A., Rahman, M. M., & Mostafa, A. (2020). The impact of enviropreneurial orientation on small firms‘ business performance: The mediation of green marketing mix and eco-labeling strategies. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(1), 0–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12010221

Kumar, V. (2019). Global implications of cause-related loyalty marketing. International Marketing Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMR-06-2019-0160

Larsson, M. L. (2009). Legal definitions of the environment and of environmental damage. Stockholm Institute for Scandinavian Law, 157.

Leonidou, L. C., Fotiadis, T. A., Christodoulides, P., Spyropoulou, S., & Katsikeas, C. S. (2015). Environmentally friendly export business strategy: Its determinants and effects on competitive advantage and performance. International Business Review, 24(5), 798–811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2015.02.001

Linnenluecke, M.K. and Griffiths, A., (2010). Corporate sustainability and organizational culture. Journal of world business, 45(4), pp.357-366.

Madeira, A. B. (2019). Green marketing mix: A case study of Brazilian retail enterprises. Environmental Quality Management, 28(3), 111–116. https://doi.org/10.1002/tqem.21608

Mahamuni, A., & Tambe, M. (2014). Green Marketing in Automobile and Ancillary 81

Industry: Issues and Implications. Journal of Commerce and Management Thought, 5(3), 363. https://doi.org/10.5958/0976-478x.2014.00328.0

McDougall, N., Wagner, B., & MacBryde, J. (2019). An empirical explanation of the natural-resource-based view of the firm. Production Planning & Control, 30(16), 1366-1382.

Martin, D.M. and Schouten, J.W., (2014). The answer is sustainable marketing, when the question is: What can we do?. Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), 29(3), pp.107-109.

Menguc, B., & Ozanne, L. K. (2005). Challenges of the ―green imperative‖: A natural resource-based approach to the environmental orientation–business performance relationship. Journal of Business Research, 58(4), 430-438.

Miemczyk, J., Howard, M., & Johnsen, T. E. (2016). Dynamic development and execution of closed-loop supply chains: a natural resource-based view. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 21(4) Pp. 453-469.

Mishra, P. (2014). Green marketing challenges and opportunities. BVIMR Management Edge, 7(1), 78–86.

Moalusi, K., 2020. Numbers conceal the intricacies in categorising qualitative research in organisational studies: What lies beneath the surface?. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 46, p.12.

Morelli, J. (2011). Environmental sustainability: A definition for environmental professionals. Journal of environmental sustainability, 1(1), 2.

Morren, M., & Grinstein, A. (2016). Explaining environmental behavior across borders: A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 47, 91-106.

OECD, (2019) OECD Economic Survey: Sweden. http://www.oecd.org/economy/surveys/OECD-economic-surveys-sweden-2019- overview.pdf

Ogunleye, F., (2003). Environmental sustainability in Nigeria: The ―awareness‖ imperative. African issues, 32(1-2), pp.41-52.

Padmanabhamurthy, B., Kanjilal, U., Sharma, C. B., Kumar, P., Shigh, B. K., & Koul, M. L. (2017). Unit-1 Fundamental Concepts of the Environment , In Fundamental of Environmental studies.Cambridge University Press. Pp. 7-21

Papadas, K.K., Avlonitis, G.J., Carrigan, M. and Piha, L., (2019). The interplay of strategic and internal green marketing orientation on competitive advantage. Journal of Business Research, 104, pp.632-643.

Pham, N. T., Phan, Q. P. T., Tučková, Z., Vo, N., & Nguyen, L. H. L. (2018). Enhancing the organizational citizenship behavior for the environment: The roles of green training and organizational culture. Management and Marketing, 13(4), 1174– 1189. https://doi.org/10.2478/mmcks-2018-0030

Pimonenko, T., Bilan, Y., Horák, J., Starchenko, L., & Gajda, W. (2020). Green brand of companies and greenwashing under sustainable development goals. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(4), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041679

Polonsky, M. J. (1994). An introduction to green marketing. Electronic green journal, 1(2).

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., (2009). Research methods for business students. Prentice Hall: London.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., (2019). Research Methods for Business Students. 8th Edition, New York. Pearson Education.

Schein, E.H., (2010). Organizational culture and leadership. John Wiley & Sons. Vol 2

Sitarz, D. (1993). Agenda 21: The earth summit strategy to save our planet. 1st ed. United States.

Siti Jahroh, S. S. C. I. F. (2019). How Important Is Green Marketing Mix For Consumer? Lesson From The Body Shop. Jurnal Manajemen, 23(2), 321. https://doi.org/10.24912/jm.v23i2.504

Song, M., Cen, L., Zheng, Z., Fisher, R., Liang, X., Wang, Y., & Huisingh, D. (2015). Improving natural resource management and human health to ensure sustainable societal development based upon insights gained from working within ‗Big Data Environments‘. Journal of Cleaner Production, 94(1), 1-4.

Srivastava, M., Franklin, A., & Martinette, L. (2013). Building a sustainable competitive advantage. Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, 8(2), 47–60. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-27242013000200004

Statistics Sweden, (2020). National Accounts. https://www.scb.se/en/finding- statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/national-accounts/national-accounts/national- accounts-quarterly-and-annual-estimates/

Sutton, P. (2004). A perspective on environmental sustainability. Paper on the Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, 1-32.

Szabo, S., & Webster, J. (2020). Perceived Greenwashing: The Effects of Green Marketing on Environmental and Product Perceptions. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-21.

Tung, R.L., Worm, V. and Fang, T., (2008). Sino-Western business negotiations revisited—30 years after China's open door policy. Organizational Dynamics, 37(1), pp.60-74.

Uzun, K., (2016). Critical investigation of a qualitative research article from ontological and epistemological perspectives. International Journal of Social Sciences and Education Research, 2(3), pp.836-842.

UNDP, (2013): Nigeria‘s path to sustainable development Through green economy https://www.ng.undp.org/content/nigeria/en/home/library/environment_energy/RioR eport.html

Wang, C. H. (2019). How organizational green culture influences green performance and competitive advantage: The mediating role of green innovation. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 30(4), 666–683. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-09-2018-0314

Wernerfelt, B. (1984). A resource‐based view of the firm. Strategic management journal, 5(2), 171-180.

Wild, J.J. and Wild, K.L., (2016). International Business: The challenges of globalization, 8th Edition. Pearson Education.

Williams, E. N., & Morrow, S. L. (2009). Achieving trustworthiness in qualitative research: A pan-paradigmatic perspective. Psychotherapy Research, 19(4–5), 576– 582. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503300802702113

Yeshodhara, K.(2005). Promoting the role of NGO's in social and economic change monograph. The institute for social and economic change Bangalore, Vol 1(1), pp. 1 -144.

APPENDIX 1 – LETTER TO COMPANIES

Date To: The Director,

Request to conduct a Master‘s Thesis at ………..

We are Lucia Chuwa and Ukpemeobong Usen Ibokette, Master‘s students undertaking an MBA in Business Management at the University of Gävle. We are doing our Master‘s Thesis on ―The Influence of Organisational cultureon Green Marketing‖.

……… is a reputable Company for its notable efforts in promoting sustainability through their environmental friendly paper products. Due to this reason we are interested in doing our research in the company. We hereby seek your permission to carry this study in your company. Kindly note that this is purely for academic purposes and be rest assured of our compliance with any of your policies with regards to this. Upon approval we can agree the schedule and arrange for interviews. Please note that we are flexible for any means of interviews such as skype, zoom or any other means that may be convenient to you. We also attach our questions indicating the main areas we will be interested to know.

We believe our request will receive a favourable consideration so that we get the opportunity to perform the assignment.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Sincerely yours

Lucia Gido Chuwa – Email: [email protected] , Phone: +46 722794582 Ukpemeobong Usen Ibokette – Email: [email protected]; Phone: +46720497662

CC: Maria Fregidou-Malama, Assistant Professor, Department of Business and Economics Studies, [email protected], Phone: 0046-26-64 86 87, Mobile: 0046-70-6201601

APPENDIX 2 – INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Question 1 Tell us about the nature of your products and services. The whole purpose of our company is to make a transition from fossil to renewable fuels and energy so we have a few business areas eh but all of them is based on the transition to renewable fuels. And we are building up a production facility here where we going to produce eh renewable fuels and meanwhile we are building also the organization and infrastructure to organize and supply and building the infrastructure to to enable the customers and buyers to to get our products. Some of the buyers have their own fuel tanks but we also have a network of fuel stations so anyone can bring their cars there and and refill with a renewable fuels so our idea is that eh we should make eh available for everyone so it is only the matter of choice if you are choosing to fuel with renewable fuels or the traditional fossil fuels but it takes a lot of works to make it available for the market but it should only be a matter of choice to the consumers. AH SO YOU HAVE BOTH? Yes yes in some stations we have both for various reasons because today we have eh some tax rules for example so one kind of customer can only fuel with fossil fuels because they get tax reductions so the system is is not up-to-date with the current market situation, but we also get help from eh from new laws and regulations where we go more and more towards renewable fuels so we are happy with the current development, and today we have any fuel you got to put in your car today had some part of it renewable eh and we have a lower since about two years ago Where we have a certain amount of CO2 reduction that need to be achieved in all the products for diesel example now this year we have minimum CO2 reduction of 21% that means that all diesels that is sold have to have some part of the diesel renewable to make a blending and mix and that is continuing increasing every year so last year was 20%, now is 21% and then it will continue to increase to slowly fade out the fossil parts. And then we have the customers wanting to buy 100% renewable fuels and also this is provided by us, you can have this option of buying this fossil fuels with certain percentage of renewable fuels or the pure 100% renewable fuels so our entire business is based on eh the transition into renewable energy. OK AND WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO, THE 100% AND LOWER PERCENT OF RENEWABLE FUEL, IS IT ON PRICE OR WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE THAT WILL MAKE CUSTOMER CHOOSE ONE OVER THE OTHER? 86

Yah it is slightly difference okay of course if you have big company with few thousands as buses it makes a difference of course a small price difference but for normal consumer the price difference is so small so it does not really matter. WAO THAT IS GREAT SO WE WOULD LIKE NOW TO UNDERSTAND WHAT ARE YOUR MARKETING STRATEGIES IN YOUR BUSINESS? Ehh yah we of course we have different business areas but the the business we are talking about in sweden to consumer is that we eh want people to be aware that there is an available option in the market when people talk about in general eh environmental cars and so on, everyone is thinking about electric cars and you have to buy new cars in order to be environmental friendly but that is not true, all these diesel cars we have available is in fact an environmental car if you put the right fuel into the car. Eeh and the for the environment It is the absolute best to use the existing cars and put the renewable fuels into the car, because then you are 100% sustainable, it is actually big environmental impact to build a new car of course so you should eh use that is already produced as long as possible but make sure that you put the right fuel into the car. So we even have campaign where we market the environmental car of the year and then we only brought the picture of very old cars and that is just to raise awareness that all the cars can be environmental friendly if you put the right fuel in the cars. MH THAT IS VERY NICE VERY GREATE YES TO RAISE AWARENESS TO THE PEOPLE THAT THEY NEED TO SHIFT TO CHOOSE THE ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY FUELS WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT AND NOW THIS IS THE TREND WE CAN SAY AS THESE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ARE CHALLENGING SO IT IS VERY NICE. SO WE WOULD LIKE TO UNDERSTAND NOW WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO DEVELOP SUCH ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY STRATEGIES? WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION TO COME UP WITH THOSE IDEAS AND EVERYTHING IF YOU CAN TELL US. Ehh is many parts, but the main part is that we only have eh one earth and we have to take care of it because we have to have the idea that we leave the better world for our children than what we grow up in and if we don’t do anything drastically we are destroying the earth, eh and the earth is just another but we have to be eh eh eh look at the future for ourselves and our kids and all the future people to come and we have to take responsibility for what we are doing and how we are living and there is very good opportunities to create the sustainable business with eh the sustainability is can be financially and it can be environmental and so on and it is also right in time because

now awareness in many countries is talking to increase eh but it not only the energy we have to work with it is also, the pollution and handling of plastic and waste and everything but we have to make a circular economy where we reduce, everything in large extent as possible and lower the impact on our way of life on earth and of course it has to be sustainable financially otherwise what we are doing now is just short but this has to last in long term as well and also of course to create work opportunities for people and the basic idea is that eh we should produce locally with local feeds stock for the local market that means we should not transport more than necessary and we have to find the technologies to be able to produce with eh let say for example in Sweden we have a lot of biomass and vudess and so on and we should try to take advantage of that and use that a feedstock to produce locally in Sweden for the local market. If we locate other countries in Africa or in south America or whatever maybe we use different feedstock but we would like to offer technology to that market so they can produce locally in let say brazil for example maybe they will use the waste products from their sugar industry and ethanol and ethanol can be used as a feedstock to produce jet fuel and petrol and diesel for example. and using local feedstock, they produce locally, they employ people locally and they consume locally, that is basic idea, so we don’t ship feedstock and products across the world back and forth, we have a production technology which is scalable so you can scale it up and down depending on how big the market is the local market and we can also adjust the feedstock so that you can produce a sustainable product for the local market with the local feedstock that is the basic idea for the production part of the business area. OK OK AND HAVE YOU EXPANDED OPERATION TO HOW MANY COUNTRIES? ARE YOU ONLY OPERATING ONLY HERE IN SWEDEN OR HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO EXTEND THE TECHNOLOGY TO OTHER COUNTRIES LIKE HOW MANY COUNTRIES OR AREAS We are still very small company, so we have only our own operations in Sweden but since we have developed our own technology now and we are not able to build production facilities all around the world ehh so what we are doing we are now working on licensing the technology so we are offering our technology to other companies around the world so they can use our technology to produce sustainable products in a sustainable way for their local market. They are making the investments and they building the factory and everything and they are operating the business but based on our technology.

WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE CORE VALUES OF YOUR ORGANIZATIONS SIR? I don’t know if you have received any company presentation I can maybe send that to you I can maybe show you from here , yes I open the presentation can I share my screen …..YES YES, You see the presentation now, YES YES WE CAN It is our vision and mission it is to be a main contributor to sustainable society, and this is done by producing and providing the market with renewable fossil free products and services and we do this by focusing on benefits to the environment, business and customers. And by uniting the benefits of client customers and owners we get climate benefits, to be a part of the solution to make the planet fossil free with renewable fuels, and we also have customer benefit so you make it easy for the customers to operate a sustainable business and if it is available in the market we make it a matter of a choice for the customer and the business also have to be sustainable in a financial way and we built it by focus in Social, economic and environmental responsibility and this is our values we think and act as market leader even if we are a small company so we should be responsible so operate in the market with strong focus on the market people and the economics and to be able to be successful we need to be challenging and since we are new company entering into the traditional market we need to challenge the market and also be able to let the market know the benefit and the profit with the renewable fuels ehh we create innovative solutions to make the product eh available and may be the most important is that we should be proud if you are proud of what you are doing in general you make a very good job, if you are proud of the services you providing, you proud of the products and the company then in general you make a very good job. If you are not proud of what you are doing I don’t think you make a good job. And this is our business areas we have sales and distribution and that is everything with logistics and sales everything and then we have production producing renewable fuels, we have licensing where we offer other companies to produce using our technologies and then we have a trading business. So for the sales and distribution it includes all the sales we have in Sweden fuel stations eh logistics and all the marketing activities, eh and this is one example of the product it is renewable diesel HV0100 and it is a diesel product almost identical chemically with normal traditional fossil diesels but it is actually even better product if you look at specification eh eh and this is from the local authorities where they make a lifecycle perspective from various energy sources and here we can see petrol, diesels L&G , LPD and electricity and so on and the only green option really

green option HVO is the renewable diesel and this is not done by us it is done by the local authority in Sweden , and by using this you can have about 90% reduction of the CO2 emissions and we have our own fuel trucks where we supply the market in their own fuel stations with fuels and we have various eh layout and designs of fuel stations this one is one located in Gavle and this is market campaign with as I mentioned before a new generation environmental cars make your diesel car climate smart eh fuel 100% fossil free diesel and we were nominated with Swedish the design price for this marketing activities and we also take part in many activities, last year we were sponsor and exclusive supplier for the world cup in skees and the first world cup arrangement that were 100% fossil free. So everything around the competition were renewable so all the transportation of people of the food and competitors and everything around the competition were renewable and we were the supplier for all the fuels in the competition, and also for the world cup biathlon a few weeks later we were also the official supplier and we also have corporation with the world cup rally in Sweden so we were supplier for fuel there and have them to make a transition to be eh fossil free. that is part of the marketing activities we are doing yes and for the second business area is production and we have two different companies production Sweden and production Germany. Eh so we have set up company for Germany as well but first one will be production facility in Sweden, and all the research and development is also being handled within the production business area. And here is our site at north of Gavle where we intent to build our first full scale production area, we have build a several pilot plans where we have made all the research and development and try to optimize the process just to find the best way to produce the renewable fuels, We have also performed the technical due diligence from a third party which is very known in this business with verified the technology and all the calculations and everything is verified and audited and I don’t think I can record a film here but it is a film showing the prince of Sweden is the first one in the world running on our renewable petrol that is the first one in the world that was done last year in the world cup rally but that is only produced in large scale not in full production scale that is next step to make it in a larger scale. So licensing here we have two parts two kinds of licenses we can offer to the market one is the production technology, how to produce a renewable fuels and also we have some very very interesting ways how to eh produce feedstock’s example is using microbes eh to breakdown biomass and make it to free fat acids which can be used to produce HVO for example , eh and then we have a little bit about the licensing we have worldwide

patent and the right to issue sublicense so we can issues sublicense all over the world and trading is just basically trading of products. That is the short version of presentation IF I MAY ASK HOW DO THE STAFF KNOW ABOUT IT, DO YOU CARRY OUT ORIENTATION TO THE STAFF CONCERNING YOUR BUSINESS AREA? DO YOU CARRY ORIENTATION TO UNDERSTAND THIS BUSINESS AREA FOR THEM TO BE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABLE DO THEY HAVE AN IDEA ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY Yah it si eh of cause very very important that everyone working with us knows what is sustainability and why are we doing what we are doing because this is the core of the business so if you don’t understand the reason why we exist in this market then you cannot do your job well so BASED ON THE YOUR CORE VALUES, BASED ON YOUR SUSTAINABILITY PER YOUR EXPERIENCE DO YOU CONSIDER IT MORE ADVANTAGE TO YOU LIKE IT GIVES YOU COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE FOR EXAMPLE OR WHAT BENEFIT DO YOU GET Let us put it this way, if we didn’t work sustainable we would not exist today, so since we are building the company on sustainability on renewable products and services so if we were not able to provide that we would not able to exist today DO YOU THINK YOUR YOU CUSTOMERS BEING ATTRACTED TO YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR VALUES AND YOUR SERVICES? Yes that is the way you are getting more and more clients and growing in the market that is the only the reason of cause we have to provide a good services we have to be able to offer them attractive prices and goods products and delivery of cause but without the renewable products we wouldn’t be where we are today. IN RELATION TO YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGIES DO YOU FACE ANY CHALLENGES? Of cause it is a lot of challenges for example eh of a certain government tax it is very unclear in the long term how the different tax regulations will be and this can affect the willingness for investors to fund projects Yah we talked about eh challenges yah since we don’t have any eh long term strategy for taxes and tips and so on from the government it is of cause the challenge to get finance and investors on board for a long term commitment since eh regulations it is not eh built in long term but everyone knows of cause sustainability is the future but it has

also line up with the tax regulations and so on how to be able to handle it in a cost efficient way. and another challenge is to cause the availability of eh operating finance because if you are growing quickly eh it takes a lot of money yes to operate the business of cause eh to be able to handle it financially even if eh the business is good you need a lot of money to grow quickly to build fuel stations, and to build a storage capacity and also you have a lot of eh funding build up in the different storage and handling and so on and also you have credit time for buyers before it get paid and so it takes a lot of money eh to grow the business even if you are growing it organically. and of cause eh we are competing with very large eh companies that have been in the business for a long long time and they are financially strong and of cause we are a threat to their business because we would like to sell 100% renewable product and they don’t want that products in the market because that is of cause threat against their business. So we have very strong competitors but the market is in our favor. But of cause we have a lot of challenges but so far we then I think a very good job so it is not without challenges of cause. YAH YAH AND FOR EXAMPLE FOR THESE BIG COMPANIES AS COMPETITORS, YOU HAVING THESE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY IS A THREAT TO THEM SO IT GIVES YOU COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THAT YOU CAN OUTWIN THEM RIGHT? Yes so so in other way round we are a bigger threat to them than they are to us but they are very concerned about their development because the old traditional fuel companies they are build up based on fossil products everything from drilling for the oil and refining the product and everything is build up for fossil products and that is a challenge now SO IN RELATION TO HOW YOU HAVE MANAGED TO OVERCOME, HOW HAVE YOU OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES? We have to think long term and we always try to build long term relationship and cooperation with the all the customers and cooperation partners that we have because we we know that we will end up in the world that we have bigger and bigger part of renewable fuels and everyone knows that that is future, eh But also all traditional fossil companies they are also dependent on renewable fuels as well because the government is are regulating and saying that we have to have certain co2 reduction even if it is fossil products so they are dependent on buying renewable fuels but not 100% distribute to the buyer but they are blending so they maybe blend 20% 25% 30% of renewable

fuels in their fossil products so they eh only want to buy the absolute minimum of renewable fuels to blend in their products to meet the government regulation but they are not so interested to sell 100% renewable products and that is our main focus. but we will of cause in future when we have our own production capacity also be a supplier to the traditional fossil companies so we are a threat but we are also a solution for them to be able to continue their fossil business even if it is slowly are fading out but without us they cannot provide any fossil products as well so that makes it a bit complicated situation hehe YAH YES IT IS IN YOUR OPINION DO YOU CONSIDER HAVING ALL YOUR EMPLOYEES KNOWING ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IS VERY IMPORTANT? Oh yes of cause because otherwise they don’t know the basic foundation of why we established this company and why the customers or cooperation partners should choose to team up with us so that is the basic in everything what we do and you need to know why we do it SO DO YOU CARRY OUT ORIENTATION FOR THEM ARE THERE LIKE ANY KIND OF THE WAY OF BEHAVING THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BEHAVE? Yes of cause we have code of conduct and so on but also we also educate everyone that starts to works with us and also let them know and be aware of the not maybe long history that we have but we established the company 7 years ago and they need to know the history about the company and what we have done so far and the reason why we are at the position we are now so without the history and the background we don’t know how we ended up in this position and why, so that is of cause very important so eh that is part of the introduction package we have when we employ new people OK OK IF I MAY ALSO ASK IN YOUR ORGANISATION DO YOU HAVE ANY WRITE UPS LOGO THAT COMMUNICATE THAT YOU ARE GREEN? Eh the name itself its latin ….. and it means renewable , so even when we decided the name for the company it is an idea about it and the long term idea is that we should take away oil and only shorten the company to ……, because oil may be making reflection to the traditional oil business, and ,but to be able to get into the market and making the awareness we are …… but in the future I think we will shorten down the name and only have ……. because it is not only providing oils it is all kind of energy and we also look at how to produce it and how to get the correct feedstock and the whole process from, eh not only looking at refining product we are looking at the entire way from how we

handle the feedstock how we can recycle waste and make that into an asset and create additional value and also how we distribute the products to the buyer and the consumer it also has to be done in a sustainable way so it is a whole chain WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU THINK IN THE FUTURE CONSIDERING GREEN MARKETING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY? Eh I think for now it is making the awareness that it is option available a lot of people don’t know that there is even an option to make a choice, eh people don’t know what is available in the market so that is of cause a challenge to get the general knowledge in a different level so they know it is possible to make another choice, now people are used to fuel up the car with diesel but there is various products that you can choose from and then you need to know what product is the best for the environment. Good luck for your Oh that is great We thank you so much