Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Industrial Marketing Management

Sustainability and branding: An integrated perspective

V. Kumar , Angeliki Christodoulopoulou 1
Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Center for Excellence in Brand & Customer Management, 35 Broad Street, Suite 400, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 15 January 2013
Received in revised form 21 May 2013
Accepted 15 June 2013
Available online 12 September 2013
Keywords:
Sustainability
Branding
Industrial marketing
Integration framework

a b s t r a c t
Sustainability is increasingly drawing the attention of scholars, policy makers, and companies, as the latter are
recognizing the necessity and opportunities of implementing sustainable practices in their operations. Marketing
plays a substantial role in both applying such initiatives and promoting them, which can be greatly supported
through brands. We suggest that rms can use their brands to promote the value of sustainability to their industrial customers, consumers, and other stakeholders. This may be achieved through branding activities that emphasize the rm's sustainability practices and their impact on stakeholders. Expressing sustainability actions as
the measurable and relatable outcomes they yield and associating them with brands have the potential to further
facilitate this integration of sustainability and branding. A framework and guidelines for sustainability practices
that may be employed in this process of integrating operations and marketing are discussed.
2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
More than 25 years ago, the Brundtland report emphasized the
importance of sustainability for future prosperity, dening it as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World
Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 8). There is
growing interest from rms in learning more about sustainability,
which has driven the formation of a great number of organizations
like the Sustainability Consortium that support such initiatives and
provide useful information. MIT Sloan Management Review also has a
dedicated section with news and advice on sustainability. In addition,
the Global Reporting Initiative assists companies in reporting their activities towards sustainability and keeps records of these reports in its
Sustainability Disclosure Database.
Despite the fact that many companies from diverse industries
like Nokia, Caterpillar, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, and Starbucks
recognize and embrace the concept of sustainability in their business,
there are plenty of social and environmental issues that still need to
be addressed. The following statistics were reported in a recent Financial Express article: The richest 1% of adults worldwide control 4% of
the world's assets, while the bottom 50% access only 2% of the assets
(Malhotra, 2012). It is important for companies to recognize that their
actions or inactions impact the future prospects and that sustainability
is a passport to a secure future. Bridging the rich-poor gap is a business

The authors thank Suraksha Gupta and Peter LaPlaca for the opportunity to work on
this study. The authors also thank Renu for copyediting the manuscript.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 404 413 7590; fax: +1 832 201 8213.
E-mail addresses: vk@gsu.edu (V. Kumar), achristodoulopoulou1@gsu.edu
(A. Christodoulopoulou).
1
Tel.: +1 404 413 7591.
0019-8501/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.06.008

imperative, and corporations and individuals who are in a position to

help should do their share. Contrary to social concerns, environmental
issues have been addressed more extensively, but the results are still
poor. For example, although products have increasingly become more
environmentally friendly and recyclable, the actual recycling that occurs
is minimal. As reported recently in the Washington Post, the plastic
being recycled in the United States amounts to only 7% of total plastic
used (Palmer, 2013).
Operating in competitive markets requires businesses to develop
contemporary, modern and state-of-the-art capabilities using enormous amounts of energy, infrastructure and resources. However, overdisplay of infrastructure, excess use of natural resources, or consumption of energy by any business raises sustainability concerns in
the minds of researchers and policy makers. While businesses rationalize their excessive use of resources based on survival reasons, careful
attention is needed to balance consumption and avoid crossing the
line to exploitation. Organizations that are driven primarily by prot
maximization will eventually suffocate to death. Prot and purpose
need to go hand in hand for an organization's survival and prosperity
(Govindarajan & Srinivas, 2012, p. 2). According to the authors, rms
should have a purpose to contribute value to the society, and therefore,
shift from shareholder capitalism to responsible capitalism. Embracing
this responsibility to the society and the environment, in addition to
the shareholders, is at the core of sustainability.
Differences in the needs of businesses and individuals require managers to focus on the core concepts of sustainability and researchers to
consider the multidimensional nature of the eld. Programs such as
The World Bank's Millennium Development Goals enable managers to
identify future business objectives while considering policy-related issues such as sustainability and inuencing the quality of life of stakeholders. The anecdotes present the managerial perspective of market
conditions and customer requirements, but their recommendations

V. Kumar, A. Christodoulopoulou / Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

lack academic rigor. This area of research is still gaining momentum and
practitioners are looking at academics for strategic directions to manage
sustainability while considering businesses on a global slant. As rms
race towards sustainability, the concerted efforts of operations and marketing can provide substantial benets and secure the external support
of customers and other stakeholders. Therefore, we propose that such
support and increased rm performance can be achieved by integrating
the sustainability-geared actions of operations with a rm's branding
efforts, focusing in the business-to-business (B2B) context.
2. Current research on sustainability
Sustainability has been extensively researched by academics from
many business disciplines, including management, marketing, and
operations. The multidisciplinary nature of scientically established
knowledge on sustainability has generated a number of different
terms to describe some or all of its components, including sustainable development, triple bottom line, green business, environmental management, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and corporate citizenship.
Responding to the need for sustainable practices, the International Organization for Standardization has developed the ISO 14000 family, a group
of standards that provides guidance regarding environmental management (International Organization for Standardization, 2004). ISO 26000
was also introduced in 2010 with an aim of offering guidance to companies that want to implement social responsibility initiatives. It describes
the main elements of social responsibility, which include: organizational
governance, human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development (International Organization for Standardization, 2010). These
components can be summarized as pertaining to the society and the
environment. The theory of triple bottom line includes an additional
focus on the economy, in order to emphasize the nancial benets that
result from sustainability. According to the triple bottom line, companies
should conduct their business in a way that respects the environment
and the society, while being protable (Elkington, 1998; Savitz &
Weber, 2006). In this paper, we refer to sustainability in accordance to
the theory of triple bottom line, with social, environmental, and economic dimensions.
A large body of literature revolves around the environmental aspect
of sustainability, as it relates to corporate environmental policies, i.e.,
actions of businesses to mitigate their negative inuence on the environment, and the motivations behind them. For example, according
to Gonzlez-Benito and Gonzlez-Benito (2005), a transformation towards environmental sustainability can be done by implementing practices in three areas of an organization: planning and organizational
practices in the management area, operational practices in the operations area, and communicational practices in the marketing area. They
show that the areas of environmental transformation have different
determinants: ethical, competitive (operational or commercial), and relational motivations. Alternatively, Bansal and Roth (2000) identied
three reasons why rms implement environmental initiatives as a response to ecological concerns, namely competitiveness, legitimation,
and ecological responsibility.
Researchers have also studied the impact of environmental sustainability on rm performance. Research by Russo and Fouts (1997) revealed that rms that exhibit high environmental performance enjoy
higher protability, as expressed through their higher return on assets,
and this effect is stronger for those operating in fast-growing industries.
Furthermore, Bansal and Clelland (2004) found that rms that have
high environmental legitimacy that is, rms that meet stakeholders'
expectations for corporate environmental performance show less
unsystematic risk, compared to rms with low environmental legitimacy. In addition, the latter rms can actually lower this risk component by
publicly expressing their environmental commitment, as supported by
their ndings about rms that operate in industries with high environmental impact (like chemical and paper industries). Porter and Van der

Linde (1995) explain how environmental practices can be very benecial for rms, as they enhance resource productivity and foster innovation, and thus, lead to improved competitiveness. Furthermore,
stakeholders have been shown to play an important role in shaping
sustainability actions of rms. The characteristics and environmental
attitudes of communities where rms operate have an impact on environmental performance (Kassinis & Vafeas, 2006), while pressures by
external stakeholders can even affect environmental policy decisions
about global standardization in multinational companies (Christmann,
2004). In addition, different environmental commitment levels termed
as proactive, accommodative, defensive, and reactive are associated
with different relative importance of stakeholder groups (Henriques &
Sadorsky, 1999).
Further, extant research has focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR), which closely relates to sustainability, but to a greater extent
to the social component than to the environmental component. Carroll
(1979) described CSR as the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary
duty of companies towards society. He also introduced a corporate
social performance model that incorporates dening CSR, identifying
the related issues, and specifying a response. Another relevant theory,
corporate citizenship, views the social involvement of companies in a
more holistic way, conceptualized as the role of the corporation in administering citizenship rights for individuals (Matten & Crane, 2005,
p. 173). CSR practices are becoming commonplace, even for small and
medium enterprises (Hsu & Cheng, 2012), as they are associated with
positive outcomes. For example, CSR has an impact on multiple stakeholder relationships, as research has shown that CSR initiatives are related with positive company associations and increased willingness to
purchase from, work for, and invest in the rm (Sen, Bhattacharya, &
Korschun, 2006). CSR is also related to better nancial results; for example, it was found to be positively related to market capitalization value
(Ptri et al., 2012). In addition, corporate social performance (CSP),
which is the performance of a company in CSR initiatives relative to
the competition, has a negative effect on rm-idiosyncratic risk (Luo &
Bhattacharya, 2009). Furthermore, a recent study found that the quality
of CSR reporting is negatively related to the cost of equity capital
(Reverte, 2012), especially for companies operating in industries that
face environmental issues. These results indicate that both superior
CSP and comprehensive disclosure of CSR activities can further boost
rm value, by reducing the risk associated with the rm as assessed
by the investor community.
2.1. Sustainability and operations
Extant work on sustainability in operations is aimed at including environmental practices as a part of the overall operations strategy, to better address issues like pollution control, waste minimization, reusing,
and recycling (Angell & Klassen, 1999). Research has shown that
reporting of environmental management practices (recycling, waste
reduction, remanufacturing, environmental design, and surveillance
of the markets) has a positive impact on rm performance, mainly
through improving product and process innovation indicators
(Montabon, Sroufe, & Narasimhan, 2007). Further, Jacobs, Singhal, and
Subramanian (2010) nd evidence that environmental performance is
associated with rm value. Specically, they nd that the stock market
exhibits varied reactions following specic announcements of Corporate Environmental Initiatives, which are self-reported, and Environmental Awards and Certications, which are granted by third parties.
While, increases in rm value result from environmental philanthropy
announcements and ISO 14001 certications, there are decreases in
rm value when rms publicize their actions pertaining to voluntary
emission reductions. Sarkis, Gonzalez-Torre, and Adenso-Diaz (2010)
found that there is a relationship between stakeholder pressures and
environmental practices, and it is mediated by employee environmental
training, as seen in the context of environmentally oriented reverse logistics practices in the automotive industry.

V. Kumar, A. Christodoulopoulou / Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

Green supply chain management (GSCM) has also received considerable attention in the operations literature. It has been shown
that GSCM practices have a positive inuence on both environmental
and economic performance expectations of managers of Chinese
manufacturing and processing rms (Zhu & Sarkis, 2004). Moreover,
Rao and Holt (2005) nd evidence that green supply chains are positively related to both competitiveness and economic performance.
Their concept of GSCM includes environmental initiatives in inbound
logistics, production or the internal supply chain, outbound logistics,
and reverse logistics, in a rm's interactions with materials suppliers,
service contractors, vendors, distributors, and end users (Rao & Holt,
2005, p. 899). Further evidence of the positive impact of GSCM activities
(green purchase, investment recovery, and customer cooperation) on
performance was evidenced by Chan, He, Chan, and Wang (2012).
The authors found that this effect is driven by internal and external
environmental orientation, which highlights the role of managerial
support in fostering pro-environmental corporate culture. Greener supply chain operations can also be supported by incorporating sustainability criteria into inventory models for reducing carbon emissions
(Bouchery, Ghaffari, Jemai, & Dallery, 2012), and into life-cycle assessment tools, used in optimization of closed-loop supply chains, that can
guide decision making while considering environmental, social, and
economic concerns (Matos & Hall, 2007).
2.2. Sustainability and marketing
Marketing research on sustainability has largely been related to either the environmental or the social aspect of sustainability, which is
sometimes referred to as green marketing and social or cause-related
marketing, respectively. In addition to sustainable practices in general,
marketing literature has also focused on sustainable products, which
include environmentally friendly or green products, and socially conscious or ethical products. A list of organizational theories that may
be applied in marketing sustainability research was proposed by
Connelly, Ketchen, and Slater (2011), which include transaction cost
economics, agency theory, institutional theory, population ecology, resource dependence theory, the resource-based view of the rm, upper
echelons theory, social network theory, and signaling theory.
An extensive review of sustainability-related issues and research
streams in marketing is provided by Chabowski, Mena, and GonzalezPadron (2011). They develop a typology of sustainability capabilities
that categorizes such resources based on their focus (internal vs. external), emphasis (social vs. environmental), and intent (discretionary,
ethical, or legal), and suggest that sustainability initiatives can have an
inuence on marketing assets. Indeed, research has indicated that CSR
can have an inuence on consumer responses and rm value. Through
a series of experiments, Brown and Dacin (1997) found that CSR associations have an inuence on the evaluation of new products. Moreover, a
study by Luo and Bhattacharya (2006) on the nancial impact of CSR revealed that CSR initiatives have a positive effect on customer satisfaction
and, through it, on rm market value. In addition, they found that
returns on CSR depend on product quality (Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006).
In subsequent research, they further showed that higher CSP reduces
rm risk, especially for rms with higher investments in advertising
(Luo & Bhattacharya, 2009).
Another camp of researchers has discussed the role of marketing
in addressing sustainability through the environmental dimension
(Cronin, Smith, Gleim, Ramirez, & Martinez, 2011; Sharma, Iyer,
Mehrotra, & Krishnan, 2010), and through challenges such as responsible consumption (Huang & Rust, 2011; Sheth, Sethia, & Srinivas, 2011).
Recognizing the need for restructuring marketing in response to
environmental concerns, Kotler (2011) predicts that the number of consumers preferring to purchase from companies that care about sustainability is growing. We expect that B2B rms are also subject to pressures
from their distributors and customers, driven by this trend in consumer
preferences.

Consumer environmental and social concerns are posited to drive

preference for sustainable products and companies. In contrast to favorable consumer preferences for sustainable products, another stream of
research suggests that their perceptions about them are not equally
positive, which is usually due to certain trade-offs (Barone, Miyazaki,
& Taylor, 2000; Olson, 2013). Lin and Chang (2012) found that environmentally friendly products are perceived as less effective than regular
products, and this leads to their increased usage as a means to compensate for their perceived lack in efcacy. The effect is stronger for environmentally conscious consumers, but it disappears when the green
product is supported by a credible endorsement. Similar perceptions
seem to hold for ethical products. Specically, ethical products are not
preferred when consumers place a higher importance in strengthrelated attributes, but this effect can be countered by explicitly promoting the product's effectiveness (Luchs, Naylor, Irwin, & Raghunathan,
2010). In addition, promoting a product through its ethical attributes
can be benecial in situations when self-accountability is entailed, as
evidenced in research by Peloza, White, and Shang (2013). Their ndings demonstrate how ethical benets can enhance product preference
in situations where buyers are accountable for their purchases, such as
in public settings. We expect that this nding should hold to a great extent in organizational buying too.
3. Current research on branding for business-to-business rms
The dynamic environment of industrial markets indicates that a
powerful brand, when supported by smooth operations, can drive success in competitive markets. Research by Mudambi (2002) showed
that branding may not be important for all industrial purchases, but it
can be more than traditionally credited for. Specically, branding was
found to be important for buyers who are large and complex, and
make purchases of high importance and risk. Further research in the
area indicates that B2B rms can benet more from branding.
Bendixen, Bukasa, and Abratt (2004) found that, although brand is considered less important than delivery, price, and technology, it still has a
relative importance of 16%, which is a considerable amount. In addition,
the authors found that the presence of a strong brand can yield a price
premium, positively affect new product introductions, and boost willingness to recommend among B2B customers. The relationship between price premium and brand image was also studied by Persson
(2010), who investigated brand image dimensions (like service and
company associations) as drivers of price premium.
In a related study, Backhaus, Steiner, and Lgger (2011) found that
brand relevance, or the relative importance of the brand in the
decision-making process, is positively related to the perceived risk of
the purchase and information search costs in B2B settings. In addition,
their study, which spanned across 20 industries, showed that brand relevance is slightly higher when the exchange requires high specic investments from the buyer. Therefore, industrial customers place more
importance in brands in order to reduce the information costs and
risks associated with the purchase, especially in important situations
that require higher dedicated investments, and they are willing to pay
a premium for it.
4. Integration of sustainability and branding
4.1. The need for integration
Being characterized as the new business megatrend (Lubin & Esty,
2010), sustainability is clearly a matter of strategic importance. Therefore, implementing sustainability practices should be guided by a comprehensive plan in the form of a sustainability strategy. This strategy is
the response of the rm to sustainability issues and a part of the company strategy. The strategy, structure, and performance (SSP) model can
be applied to show how a sustainability strategy can lead to desirable
outcomes. Specically, according to the SSP paradigm, strategy should

V. Kumar, A. Christodoulopoulou / Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

be supported by a suitable structure so as to drive performance

(Chandler, 1962). For example, Miller (1988) showed how different
competitive strategies are related to specic organizational structures
and environment conditions, especially for companies that perform
well. Chandler (1962) explains how changes in the environment of a
rm create the need for changes in strategy which, in turn, requires
changes in the rm structure. Consequently, in order to respond to the
sustainability megatrend, rms need to include sustainability in their
strategy and support this strategy with an appropriate, improved structure; thus, they can reap the benets of superior performance.
Developing a sustainability-capable structure requires making radical changes across all of the departments of a rm, including researchand-development, production, nance, and marketing (Kotler, 2011).
Firms need to coordinate the implementation of sustainable practices
across these units in order to trigger synergistic effects and, thus, maximize returns. Moreover, they can gain a competitive advantage by publishing information about these practices, regardless of whether they
involve activities implemented in the rm's operations (production,
supply chain, etc.) or activities performed outside of the rm (community, stakeholder groups, etc.). Communicating these activities and their
outcomes to stakeholders is a function of marketing, whether it is realized through sustainability or CSR reports (Nikolaeva & Bicho, 2011) or
other communication devices. Therefore, it is suitable to support a sustainability strategy with a structure established on the integration of operations and marketing.
Indeed, current research indicates that integrating operations with
the marketing activities of a company enables businesses to be, and be
seen as, more sustainable (Sharma et al., 2010), although this is a complex issue for managers. One of the main reasons of this complexity for
B2B rms regards the organizational objectives of intermediaries. In
other words, apart from managing the adaptation and standardization
of the marketing mix based on suppliers' functional requirements, intermediaries need to consider their own rational requirements. Functional integration can facilitate this. Coordinating sustainable supply
chain management and green marketing has been discussed by Liu,
Kasturiratne, and Moizer (2012). In their proposed hub-and-spoke
model, marketing and supply chain are integrated though six points,
called the 6P's, which include product, promotion, planning, process,
people, and project (Liu et al., 2012, p. 583).
Still, businesses are struggling to clearly understand ways to
operationalize the integration of marketing and operations for becoming sustainable. We propose that such integration can be achieved
through branding. Various research studies that reect on the operation
of brands in competitive industrial markets are available, including
those previously cited. However, there is very little research that identies and discusses this gap in academic research and managerial
practices from the perspective of business sustainability. Associating sustainability to the brand is how marketing can support and promote
sustainability-oriented activities in operations, as illustrated in the framework in Fig. 1 and further explained in the following section. Table 1 also
provides a brief overview of past literature related to our framework.

Sustainability structure
Operations
Sustainability
strategy

Marketing

Sustainability
performance

Branding

Fig. 1. Integration for sustainability framework.

4.2. Integration through branding

Integrating sustainability into branding can enable rms to appeal to
clients that are concerned about sustainability, and thus, grant a competitive advantage. Research shows that CSR initiatives inuence new
product evaluation through their impact on company evaluations
(Brown & Dacin, 1997). We believe that this should impact the corporate brand as well. Similarly, sustainability initiatives, which may
include social or environmental practices, can have an impact on the
corporate brand by creating sustainability associations. Such associations are typically related to values of responsibility, social and environmental stewardship, and morality. Therefore, industrial rms can have
a better appeal to sustainability-oriented customers by implementing
sustainability practices in their operations, communicating these practices to their customers, and transforming them to associations that become a part of their brand image.
Ensuring that sustainability becomes an integral part of the brand
can be realized through several marketing applications. For example,
it may involve communication of sustainability efforts and their outcomes in advertisements, product packaging, and other promotional
material. Also, these efforts may be translated into sustainability attributes of products, when possible. These tactics should certainly be
complemented with disclosure of sustainability efforts, including their
outcomes, in both company reports and dedicated sustainability reports. Through this process, rms can create sustainability-oriented
brands and enjoy the recognition that follows them. Indeed, sustainable
brands are increasingly being acknowledged. For example, Interbrand
recently published its second annual report of the Best Global Green
Brands. These rankings feature the top brands based on their environmental sustainability performance and the associated consumer perceptions. Such advantages further enhance the importance of employing the
brand to support the sustainability efforts of the rm.
As demonstrated earlier, research shows how the sustainability
practices adopted by a company for managing its operations become
determinants of its strength, being positively related to indicators of
competitiveness and performance (Bansal & Clelland, 2004; Jacobs
et al., 2010; Porter & Van der Linde, 1995; Rao & Holt, 2005; Sen et al.,
2006). Firms can enjoy additional advantages by enabling their customers to understand these sustainability practices as brand-related
values that have an inuence on their lives. Brands should assess the
ecological and social requirements of customers and other stakeholders,
and communicate the methods they adopt to create value through their
effort to create a sustainable environment for people to live in. Intermediaries of brands that operate through industrial markets also engage
themselves in co-creation and delivery of brand value to consumers,
by participating in sustainable practices adopted by the company.
4.3. Branding to the skeptics
It is clear that most companies are starting to appreciate the value of
focusing on sustainability and have increasingly embraced it. Consumers, on the other hand, are not always interested in such initiatives.
They may report caring about the environment, but they do not use information regarding sustainability policies of companies in their actual
purchase behavior regularly because they perceive them as irrelevant
to them (Stafford & Hartman, 2013). This notion can be extended to industrial customers as well; that is, sustainable actions of suppliers are
not always perceived as having an impact on business customers' and
intermediaries' bottom line and sustainability efforts. This can partly explain why green practices in B2B supply chains are not as widespread as
in B2C supply chains (Hoejmose, Brammer, & Millington, 2012).
Companies operating in B2B settings need to transform this indifference of their clients into positive attitudes toward sustainability and
promote socially responsible organizational buying. This purchasing behavior is dened as one that attempts to take into account the public
consequences of organizational buying or bring about positive social

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V. Kumar, A. Christodoulopoulou / Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

Table 1
Integration for sustainability past literature.
Framework principles

Relevant literature

Key ndings

Strategy, Structure, and

Chandler (1962)
Performance (SSP) paradigm Lenz (1980)
Miller (1987)

Sustainability in operations

Sustainability in marketing

Sustainability in branding

When changes in strategy are required, changes in structure are needed in order to be protable.
Environmentstrategystructure combinations are different between high vs. low performing rms.
Organizational structure and formation of strategy are dependent and complimentary, and they contribute
to performance.
Wasserman (2008)
The SSP paradigm can still be applied and explain rm performance in contemporary business settings.
Angell and Klassen (1999)
Overview of the research in environmental practices in operations management and proposal of a research
agenda.
Dekker, Bloemhof, and Mallidis (2012) Comprehensive review of operations research focused on the area of green logistics.
Tang and Zhou (2012)
Overview and classication of recent sustainability research in operations, with a focus on quantitative
models studies.
Achrol and Kotler (2012)
The sustainable marketing concept adopts a biocentric approach to balance consumption and resources
throughout the product life cycle.
Chabowski et al. (2011)
Overview and classication of sustainability research in marketing and proposal of a research agenda.
Hunt (2011)
Sustainable marketing from the perspective of economic growth and its intersection with resourceadvantage theory.
Menon and Menon (1997)
Marketing can address entrepreneurship and environmental and social issues through an enviropreneurial
marketing strategy.
Ellen et al. (2006)
CSR efforts that t with the company's activities are perceived more positively by consumers, and lead to
higher purchase intentions.
Henderson and Arora (2010)
Social cause programs enhance brand preference, especially in corporate brand vs. house-of-brands settings.

change through organizational buying behavior (Drumwright, 1994,

p. 1). Sustainable organizational buying is being implemented slowly,
with public procurement being one of few such occasions, as evidenced
by Oruezabala and Rico (2012) in a public hospital setting. Promotion
efforts that publicize manufacturers' sustainability activities can help
build a sustainability-oriented brand. In turn, this can enable the
focal rm to be a part of their clients' socially responsible organizational
buying.
Applying the suggestions by Stafford and Hartman (2013) on popularizing green activities, marketing can also focus on positioning
sustainability-implied characteristics into valued benets, which may
even be unrelated to environmental or social concerns. Some examples
of such benets include: cost and energy savings, health and safety,
better performance, status and prestige, convenience, bundling or
adding consumer value (Stafford & Hartman, 2013, p. 32). Combining
such associations with sustainability associations has the potential to
further improve the brand.

4.5. Framework and implementation guidelines

In order to implement our framework of integration for sustainability, we propose following the process outlined in Fig. 2. Table 2 also indicates some of the past literature that has discussed these elements
and how they are related that can provide further recommendations.
We explain how to apply this implementation in the following steps.
Step 1 The rst step includes assessing the issues the rm plans to address through its sustainability actions and creating a sustainability strategy based on them. Both the industry in which the
company operates and the social and environmental concerns
of all stakeholders should be taken into consideration when

Identify

Sustainability Issues

Form

Sustainability Strategy

Apply

Sustainability Initiatives

Measure

Sustainability Outcomes

Communicate

Sustainability Initiatives
and Outcomes

Create

Brand Sustainability
Associations

Build

Brand Value

Strategy
4.4. Reporting measurable sustainability outcomes
Companies should respect and preserve the communities, cultures,
and environments in which they operate through sustainability actions.
In addition, they should publicize these actions, as research suggests
that reporting environmental activities (Jacobs et al., 2010; Montabon
et al., 2007) and CSR activities (Reverte, 2012) improves rm performance. When announcing these activities, companies traditionally report the amount of money they have devoted towards improving a
cause. However, we suggest that it is better to report the specic results
of their sustainability endeavors, instead of the monetary investment.
For example, in one of the states in India, 65% of the schools do not
have electricity, 95% of the schools have shared toilets for boys and
girls, and only 36% of the toilets have water (Pandey, 2012). A company
that has contributed in improving these conditions should communicate its actions by focusing on the outcomes, using messages like
now X schools have electricity, we built X toilets in local schools,
or we provided water in toilets that serve X students. Focusing on
measurable and relatable outcomes can convert the sustainability
activities of a rm into values that are more familiar and relevant for
stakeholders. Thus, reporting sustainability outcomes can provide additional value to the brand. Incentivizing outcomes rather than just expenditures is a key to driving business innovations for a societal value
creation.

Operation

Marketing

Branding

Firm Performance
Fig. 2. Integration for sustainability implementation.

V. Kumar, A. Christodoulopoulou / Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

11

Table 2
Integration for sustainability implementation past literature.
Implementation steps

Relevant literature

Sustainability strategy functions

(identifying issues)

Henriques and Sadorsky (1999)

Sustainability strategy functions

(forming strategy)

Sustainability operations functions

(applying initiatives)

Sustainability operations functions

(measuring outcomes)
Sustainability marketing functions
(communication)

Sustainability branding functions

(creating brand associations)

Sustainability branding functions

(building brand value)

Brand value and rm performance

Sustainability initiatives and rm

performance

Key ndings

The intensity and nature of environmental practices undertaken by rms is associated with the
relative importance of their stakeholders.
Kassinis and Vafeas (2006)
Environmental performance is inuenced by the characteristics and environmental attitudes of the
communities where rms operate.
Zimmer, Stafford, and Stafford (1994) A summary and typology of consumer environmental concerns that can facilitate the formation of
green strategies.
Cronin et al. (2011)
Firms can follow one of the following green strategies: green innovation, green alliances, and greening
the organization.
Lubin and Esty (2010)
Forming a sustainability strategy is one of the ve critical areas that rms need to address so as to
succeed in the sustainability megatrend.
Beard et al. (2011)
Sustainability initiatives may be applied to many areas in a rm, as illustrated by some successful
company examples.
Merad, Dechy, Serir, Grabisch,
Selecting the optimal sustainability initiatives for a rm can be facilitated through multi-criteria
and Marcel (2013)
decision aid methodology.
Unruh (2008)
The Earth's biosphere is a model for sustainable operations, providing three simple rules to guide
sustainability implementation.
Keeble, Topiol, and Berkeley (2003)
Measuring sustainability performance may be facilitated through the use of specialized indicators.
Montabon et al. (2007)
Measuring environmental performance is not uniform, and as such, it is challenging; MEPI project.
Maignan and Ferrell (2004)
Marketing communications are important in enhancing the positive effects of CSR efforts on
stakeholder-rm identication.
Nikolaeva and Bicho (2011)
Voluntary reporting of CSR activities is inuenced by institutional pressures and communicators of
corporate identity.
Pomering and Dolnicar (2009)
Firms should educate their customers about the CSR issues they are tackling, as consumer awareness
of CSR issues and initiatives are low.
Brown and Dacin (1997)
CSR initiatives create corporate CSR associations that can inuence new product evaluation through
their impact on company evaluation.
Ellen et al. (2006)
CSR efforts that t with the company's overall activities lead to the formation of desirable corporate
associations.
Henderson and Arora (2010)
Social cause programs yield increased ROI compared to traditional promotions, especially in corporate
brand vs. house-of-brands settings.
Simmons and Becker-Olsen (2006)
Social sponsorships that align with a rm's current associations have the potential to reinforce its
brand positioning and equity.
Madden, Fehle, and Fournier (2006) High-value brands create shareholder value through increased nancial returns and with lower risk.
Simon and Sullivan (1993)
Brand equity accounts for a large portion of the market value of many rms.
Srivastava, Shervani, and Fahey (1998) Brand value, as a market-based asset, can increase shareholder value through its positive inuence on
cash ows.
Chan et al. (2012)
GSCM activities have a positive impact on rm performance, especially for rms operating in highly
competitive markets.
Luo and Bhattacharya (2006)
CSR efforts have a positive effect on customer satisfaction and, through it, on rm market value.
Montabon et al. (2007)
Reporting of environmental management practices has a positive impact on indicators of product and
process innovation.

dening these issues. It is important to address issues that are

relevant to all stakeholder groups including customers, employees, investors, suppliers, and communities in order to be
truly market-focused (Hult, 2011; Smith, Drumwright, &
Gentile, 2010). After obtaining this information, managers can
form a strategy that outlines the principles around which their
sustainability practices should be centered. Table 3 offers some
examples of sustainability principles and relevant literature.
Step 2 As the subsequent step, rms need to plan, implement, and measure the results of their sustainability actions. First, specic environmental and social initiatives need to be employed. For
companies in B2B settings, sustainability can be implemented
through various practices, both in their operations and as separate activities. Some examples that include sustainability in operations and literature that has examined them are listed in
Table 4. This list is not exhaustive and new business practices
that are geared towards sustainability are constantly invented.
Potential activities should be evaluated based on their integrated
viability and impact regarding operations, marketing, and sustainability. Thus, selecting the most appropriate practices to support sustainability should consider their total impact to the rm.
For example, research has shown that CSR efforts that t with
the rm's overall activities lead to higher purchase intentions
(Ellen, Webb, & Mohr, 2006), while social sponsorships that do
not align with a rm's current associations dilute its positioning
(Simmons & Becker-Olsen, 2006). Therefore, all sustainability

efforts should be aligned with the rm's activities in order to reinforce current and desirable corporate associations. Next, managers should measure the outcomes of the sustainability
initiatives they apply. Besides providing a record to keep track
of these actions, this information can be used for reporting and
facilitate the function of the brand, as outlined in the following
step.
Step 3 The nal step focuses on communication and managing the
brand in order to connect the sustainability strategy of the
rm to superior performance. First, research has shown that
consumers' personal support of a CSR domain appears to be a
key determinant of their sensitivity to a company's CSR efforts
(Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001, p. 238). This implies that marketers
should identify the sustainability outcomes that are relevant to
stakeholders, based on their social and environmental concerns.
This information should ideally be at their disposal in the rst
step of this framework, as it is useful for guiding the sustainability strategy formation. After the important sustainability practices and outcomes are specied, they need to be consistently
reported in all communications, such as company reports, special sustainability and CSR reports, advertisements, product
packaging, etc. Thus, customers and other stakeholders can be
informed about the sustainability outcomes of the rm and connect them to the brand, thereby creating brand associations of
sustainability, responsibility, and consideration. These associations have the potential to enhance the brand image and build

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V. Kumar, A. Christodoulopoulou / Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

Table 3
Sustainability principles past literature.
Sustainability principles

Relevant literature

Treating employees well

Beard et al. (2011)

Key ndings

Incorporating labor relations practices as part of a sustainability strategy is a valuable endeavor, as showcased by
Southwest Airlines.
Berger, Cunningham, and
Employees of rms that form social alliances identify more closely with their employers and develop positive
Drumwright (2006)
feelings.
Preserving the environment
Hart (1995)
The natural-resource-based view of the rm shows how environmental commitment can yield a competitive
advantage.
Kotler (2011)
Firms should change their marketing strategies and practices in order to respond to the environmental and
sustainability issues.
Shrivastava (1995)
Companies should embrace sustainability to address the environmental problems that have resulted from their
own activities.
Supporting philanthropy
Porter and Kramer (2002)
Focused and planned strategic philanthropy can grant a competitive advantage, by improving the rm's
competitive context.
Sen et al. (2006)
Corporate philanthropy efforts are related with positive company associations for customers, employees and
investors of the rm.
Varadarajan and Menon (1988) Supporting philanthropy may be integrated with corporate performance through the use of cause-related
marketing programs.
Fostering human rights and
Huang and Rust (2011)
Sustainability has the potential to improve consumers' well-being by balancing consumption and increasing
well-being
charitable aid to poor countries.
Sheth et al. (2011)
Sustainability, as environmental, personal and economic well-being of the consumer, can result from exercising
mindful consumption.
Resolving societal and
Crittenden, Crittenden, Ferrell,
Societal engagement enables rms to both give back to the society and enjoy a competitive advantage.
community issues
Ferrell, and Pinney (2011)
White and Lee (2009)
The social dimension of sustainability can be addressed through operations, as shown in the case of designing a
sustainable city.
Respecting cultural differences Strizhakova and Coulter (2013) Global cultural identity moderates the effect of materialism on green tendencies of consumers in both emerging
and developed markets.

Table 4
Sustainability practices for B2B rms past literature.
Sustainability practices

Relevant literature

Adopting a green supply chain

Hoejmose et al. (2012)

Key ndings

Adopting GSCM is not as common in B2B as in B2C supply chains, as it requires greater
partner trust and top management support.
Zhu and Sarkis (2004)
Implementing GSCM has a positive inuence on both environmental and economic
performance expectations of managers.
Advocacy of green products for driving demand Lin and Chang (2012)
Supporting environmentally friendly products with a credible endorsement reduces their
perceived lack in effectiveness.
Stafford and Hartman (2013)
Green characteristics should be positioned as valued benets, which may even be
unrelated to sustainability, so as to appeal to consumers.
Participation of B2B customers in sustainability Dekker et al. (2012)
The impact of products on the environment throughout their life cycle involves their
initiatives life cycle management
transportation and storage as well.
Matos and Hall (2007)
Incorporating sustainability criteria into life cycle assessment for optimization of closedloop supply chains, can aid decision making.
Participation of B2B customers in sustainability Chouinard, Ellison, and Ridgeway (2011) Developing value chain indices in the supply chain can help lower the impact of products
initiatives value chain management
throughout their life cycle.
Hartman and Stafford (1998)
Enviropreneurial value chain strategies can be successfully implemented through
green alliances.
Collaborative efforts for optimum usage
Cheng and Sheu (2012)
The desire to develop and maintain relationships with green supply chain partners is
of resources
positively related with collaborative strategy quality.
Gold, Seuring, and Beske (2010)
Sustainable supply chains have the potential to grant a competitive advantage by
developing inter-rm resources.
Innovation using less resources
Martin and Kemper (2012)
Solving the environmental crisis requires both restraint and innovation.
Porter and Van der Linde (1995)
Innovation through enhanced resource productivity can improve competitiveness while
protecting the environment.
Sharma and Iyer (2012)
Resource-constrained product development reduces the impact of the supply chain
while contributing to green marketing efforts.
Sustainable product design
Chen, Zhu, Yu, and Noori (2012)
Evaluating sustainable product designs through Data Envelopment Analysis can reduce
trade-offs related to environmental attributes.
Dangelico and Pujari (2010)
Developing green products can be achieved through energy minimization, materials
reduction, and/or pollution prevention.
Remanufacturing and recycling
Sarkis (2001)
Description of recycling, remanufacturing and reuse practice examples and required
manufacturing capabilities.
Sharma et al. (2010)
The role of marketing in supporting recycling, remanufacturing, and build-to-order
manufacturing sustainability strategies.
Risk management through engagement
Bansal and Clelland (2004)
Firms that report environmental performance and meet stakeholders' expectations show
and reporting
less unsystematic risk.
Luo and Bhattacharya (2009)
Corporate social performance has a negative effect on rm risk, especially for rms with
higher investments in advertising.
Reverte (2012)
The quality of CSR reporting is negatively associated to the cost of equity capital,
especially in industries with environmental issues.
Comprehensive review focused on research in green logistics, which also involves ecoEfcient and eco-friendly transportation
Dekker et al. (2012)
friendly transportation.
networks

V. Kumar, A. Christodoulopoulou / Industrial Marketing Management 43 (2014) 615

brand value, as they are relevant to customers. It should

be noted that these branding efforts are pertinent mainly to corporate brands, as it is more feasible to translate sustainability
practices employed at a company-wide level into brand associations of a corporate brand than into brand associations of many
different product brands. Still, this approach can be applied to
companies with more diverse branding strategies, like houseof-brands, though the impact on brand value is expected to be
quite lower, due to the lack of synergistic effects among the
different brands. Indeed, research in social cause donation
programs shows that the brand associations created by these
programs in one product category carry over to other product
categories of the same corporate brand (Henderson & Arora,
2010).
This framework illustrates how implementing sustainability practices can improve rm performance through two different paths. First,
some sustainability initiatives can provide direct benets, when they
are applied to optimize operations and lower costs. Moreover, most sustainability practices and their outcomes can provide indirect benets,
when they are communicated to the company's stakeholders and,
thus, enhance brand value.
5. Discussion and future research
Successful implementation of sustainability initiatives requires that
rms set sustainability as a high priority goal. In other words, sustainability has to become part of the core mission of the company. This
line of research has the potential to address the concerns of stakeholders and equip managers with tools to tackle their business requirements and the sustainability challenges that are making our societies
and ecosystems vulnerable. We propose that managers can build their
brands by explaining the impact of their sustainability actions for helping the planet and mankind. Therefore, rms should expect to generate
value from implementing the sustainability framework suggested.
Governments have a role to play as well, by offering differential incentives to reward companies that exhibit exceptional sustainability
performance. Only then will sustainability move from a realm of conscientious philanthropy to one that is driven by a competitive value
proposition (Malhotra, 2012, p. 2).
Operations, management, and marketing should continue to advance the theories that discuss the contributions and criticality of their
domains in managing a long-term business plan focused around sustainability. Apart from these domains, the use of new technologies in
implementation and management of sustainability initiatives, while adhering to ethical issues in business practices, also needs attention. The
inability of current academic knowledge to satisfactorily explain these
reections presents ample opportunities for future research. In addition,
the proposed framework offers directions for future investigation, to
understand how businesses can further develop while adhering to the
triple bottom line of people, planet, and prot. Specically, future research should examine how different sustainability initiatives and outcomes succeed in creating sustainability associations. Furthermore,
one of the avenues for future exploration includes determining the
most effective communication formats and media for creating such sustainability associations. Additional research should investigate whether
sustainability can be incorporated as another dimension of B2B brand
personality, expanding the work of Herbst and Merz (2011) on the Industrial Brand Personality Scale. Moreover, researchers should explore
how different sustainability initiatives and outcomes affect brand equity. Finally, future research should study the direct and indirect effect of
sustainability initiatives on rm performance, and assess the relative
importance of a sustainability-oriented brand. Managerial practices
look forward to using ndings from the inquiries made by researchers
to unwind the complexity of development and growth on the intersection of the social, environmental, and economic aspects of business.

13

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V. Kumar (VK) is the Regents' Professor, Lenny Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing, Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Brand & Customer Management,
and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Marketing at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business
of Georgia State University. He has been recognized with seven lifetime achievement
awards in Marketing, the Paul D Converse Award, the Sheth Foundation/JM Long Term Impact Award, and the Gary L Lilien ISMS-MSI Practice Prize Award. He has published over
200 articles and books in many scholarly journals in marketing including the Harvard
Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing
Research, Marketing Science, Management Science and Operations Research. VK leads
the marketing science to marketing practice initiative at the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science and has worked with Global Fortune 1000 rms to maximize their prots. Finally, VK has been chosen as a Legend in Marketing where Dr. Kumar's work is published
in a 10 volume encyclopedia with commentaries from scholars worldwide.

Angeliki Christodoulopoulou is a Ph.D. candidate in Marketing at the Center for Excellence in Brand & Customer Management at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business of
Georgia State University. She has earned an MSc (with distinction) in Marketing Management from the Rotterdam School of Management of Erasmus University Rotterdam and a
BSc in Marketing and Communication from the Athens University of Economics and Business. Her current research interests include sustainability, customer referrals, and branding.