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Growing concern about the sustainability of the natural environment is rapidly transforming the competitive landscape and forcing companies to explore the costs and benefits of "greening" their marketing mix. We develop and test a theoretical model that predicts (1) the role of green marketing programs in influencing firm performance, (2) the impact of slack resources and top management risk aversion on the deployment of such programs, and (3) the conditioning effects that underpin these relationships. Our analyses show that green marketing programs are being implemented by firms, and we find evidence of significant performance payoffs. Specifically the results indicate that green product and distribution programs positively affect firms' productmarket performance, while green pricing and promotion practices are directly positively related to firms' return on assets. In addition, industry-level environmental reputation moderates the links between green marketing program components and firms' product-market and financial performance. Finally, we find that slack resources and top management risk aversion are independently conducive to the adoption of green marketing programs-but operate as substitutes for each other. concern, regulatory pressure) but relatively few internal factors (e.g., top management commitment) that are conducive to this process (e.g., Banerjee et al. 2003). We identify and empirically examine two new internal factors that have largely been overlooked: slack resources and top management risk aversion (Menguc et al. 2010;Miles and Covin 2000). 1 We adopt the general and widely used term "environmentally friendly" to refer to any activity that is relatively less harmful or is even beneficial to the natural environment. 4Our study addresses these knowledge gaps and makes two primary contributions. First, we examine the product-market and return-on-assets (ROA) performance effects of environmentally friendly product, pricing, distribution, and promotion programs. We find that greening marketing programs can deliver product-market and financial performance benefits.However, we show that these benefits may vary across different green marketing program components and identify the key role of the industry's environmental reputation in conditioning some of these relationships. Our results suggest that researchers need to allow for different levels of greenness in individual marketing program components and capture industry-level variables in theorizing and empirically studying green marketing. Our findings also have important implications for managers in terms of where and how they should expect to achieve payback benefits from investments in greening marketing programs.Second, we provide evidence of the critical role of slack resources and top management risk aversion in the deployment of green marketing programs. In addition, we explore interaction effects and find that competitive intensity enhances the impact of slack resources on some components of green marketing programs. Our results al...

Consumer skepticism of corporate environmental activities is on the rise. Yet research on this timely, intriguing, and important topic is scarce for both academics and practitioners.Building on attribution theory, we develop and test a theoretically anchored model that explains the sources and consequences of green skepticism. The study findings reveal that consumers' perceptions of industry norms, corporate social responsibility, and corporate history are important factors that explain why consumers assign different motives to corporate environmental actions. In addition, the results show that while intrinsic motives exert a strong negative effect on green skepticism, extrinsic motives have no discernible effect. Furthermore, the findings indicate that green skepticism prompts consumers to seek more information about the products, sparks negative word of mouth to friends and acquaintances, and forestalls purchase intentions. The study offers several implications for corporate and public policy makers and presents fruitful research directions.

Building on the resource-based view, we develop a model of drivers and outcomes of environmentally friendly marketing strategies in the Greek hotel sector. Data collected from 152 hotels reveal that possessing sufficient physical and financial resources is instrumental in achieving effective green marketing strategies. In addition, shared vision and technology sensing/response capabilities help develop a sound environmentally friendly marketing strategy. In turn, the adoption of such a strategy is conducive to obtaining competitive advantage, which subsequently increases the potential to achieve superior market and financial performance. Furthermore, the study finds that the effect of environmental marketing strategy on competitive advantage is stronger in the case of intense competitive situations, while market dynamism has no moderating effect on this association. Several implications can be drawn from the study findings for both corporate and public policy makers and interesting directions for future research are provided.

Abstract

The study illustrates the technique by using the empirical data set in Skarmeas and Leonidou's (2013) study on consumer skepticism about corporate social responsibility (CSR). The investigation provides more nuanced coverage of the role of CSR skepticism than the conventional "net effect" symmetrical explanation and illustrates that CSR skepticism and its impact are contingent on combinations of complex antecedent conditions and several alternative paths. Specifically, the study expands on Skarmeas and Leonidou's findings by showing that the degree of CSR skepticism depends on the combination of "ingredients" in the CSR-induced consumer attribution causal "recipes." The study also shows that the deleterious influence of CSR skepticism on consumer-related outcomes, such as retailer equity, resilience to negative information about the retailer, and word of mouth, is conditional and depends on the combination of antecedent conditions that occur in the causal statements.

His current research interests are in the areas of international marketing/purchasing, relationship marketing, strategic marketing, and marketing in emerging economies. He has published extensively in these fields and his articles appeared in various journals, such as the

PurposeConsumer scepticism about the credibility of green advertising around the world is growing. The article aims to provide a comprehensive assessment and trend analysis of green advertising practices of international firms over a 20‐year period.Design/methodology/approachThe study identifies 473 international green advertisements during the 1988‐2007 period and content‐analyses them on five major axes: advertiser profile, targeting features, message aspects, copy characteristics, and situation points.FindingsThe content analysis reveals significant trends in all major areas examined and identifies important interaction effects between certain dimensions of green advertisements.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings could be augmented by combining them with changes in the external environment, input from consumers about advertising effectiveness, the views of advertisers and advertising agencies, and secondary data referring to the performance of the specific company/product advertised.Originality/valueGreen advertising research mainly focuses on domestic rather than international advertisements; examines important issues in isolation from other issues; partially analyses message, copy, and situation characteristics; and covers a short period. This study fills these gaps by systematically evaluating international green advertisements over a long period and using an integrated framework of analysis that is based on the extant literature. It also explores potential interaction effects between key dimensions describing these advertisements.