Next Article in Journal
The Elimination of Pharmaceutical Agents with Microbiological Treatment from Municipal Sewage
Previous Article in Journal
Can the Reform of the Transfer Tax System Affect Corporate Green Innovation—Evidence from China’s “BT to VAT” Reform
 
 
Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
Sustainability
Volume 15
Issue 4
10.3390/su15042988
sustainability-logo
Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue
► Article Menu

Article Menu

share Share announcement Help format_quote Cite question_answer Discuss in SciProfiles thumb_up
...
Endorse textsms
...
Comment
first_page
settings
Order Article Reprints
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Review

The State of Research in Green Marketing: A Bibliometric Review from 2005 to 2022

by
Seema Bhardwaj
1,
Kiran Nair
2,*,
Muhammad Usman Tariq
2,
Asad Ahmad
3 and
Asmita Chitnis
4
1
Management Department, Symbiosis International University, Pune 412115, India
2
College of Business, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi 59911, United Arab Emirates
3
School of Management and Business Studies, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi 110062, India
4
Symbiosis Institute of International Business, SIU, Pune 412115, India
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 2988; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15042988
Submission received: 23 December 2022 / Revised: 25 January 2023 / Accepted: 1 February 2023 / Published: 7 February 2023
Browse Figures
Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Green products are composed of renewable resources and aim to minimize waste by maximizing resource efficiency. Some examples of green products are recycled paper, herbal products, and energy-saving bulbs, which are easily recycled and benefit the environment by reducing waste during manufacturing. Consumers and organizations are becoming more environmentally conscious. Consumer adoption of green products, environmental activism, and stringent regulations can significantly reduce environmental degradation. The main focus of this paper is to consolidate findings on green marketing through a bibliometric study of articles published from 2011 to 23 May 2022 and present the results in a meaningful manner. In this study, we used VOSviewer software to map crucial current trends. It was observed that the key words sustainable, ethical, green, ecological, and eco-friendly marketing have received considerable attention in green marketing during the last decade.

1. Introduction

Meeting human needs in an appropriate manner that does not negatively impact the environment: green marketing involves all marketing activities that accomplish this [1]. Marketing is not simply sales or advertisement. In addition, product idea generation, manufacturing, packaging, marketing, and distribution can involve various green activities. Consequently, the term refers to marketing any activity intended to minimize a product’s harmful effects on the environment, such as product redesign, manufacturing, and integrated marketing communication campaigns [2]. Green marketing can also be referred to as sustainable or ecological marketing [3], eco-marketing [4], and environmental marketing [5,6]. Although sustainability is controversial, sustainable marketing is synonymous with green marketing. Companies and governments face political, technological, and economic constraints, making it difficult to interpret and implement green marketing meaningfully [7,8]. As green marketing is primarily concerned with the environment, environmental, social, and economic sustainability are integral to sustainable marketing. Innovative thinking in this field is driven by the needs of consumers, involves extensive use of the company’s resources, and starts with consumers [9,10].
In a green market, consumers recognize that they are responsible for the environment, representing the responsibility of humans [11]. An increasing number of companies are taking green measures to cope with growing consumer concerns about the environmental impact of corporations. An organization’s green marketing strategy becomes part of its overall strategy to better satisfy its clients, investors, regulators, and stakeholders [12]. Furthermore, green marketing can improve competitive advantage [13,14], customer satisfaction [15], and company performance [16]. A study by [17] showed that people prefer to purchase environmentally friendly products in accordance with their awareness of environmental concerns.

2. Literature Review

Green marketing is worth investigating because of its relevance and the relative novelty of how businesses interact with natural environments [18]. Green marketing has grown significantly over the past two decades, and knowledge on green marketing across different continents and diverse topics has grown proportionally. According to Kotler [19], green marketers seek to change marketing practices, and at the foundation of green marketing (strategic and functional) lies the search for opportunities and decisions that can be harnessed by adopting green marketing practices. McDonagh and Prothero [20] carried out a literature review of articles published from 1998 to 2013. A review study by [21] categorized earlier literature reviews into thematic categories: green marketing functions, co-orientation, green marketing strategy, and consequences. These chapters summarized the literature on green marketing and key concepts and themes for future research. In [22], the author conducted a bibliometric study of Web of Science (WOS) articles published from 1977 to 2020, investigated with the primary objective of summarizing the current state of green marketing research and analyzing and presenting the results of the search after applying selected keywords.
Over the past few years, green marketing has received much attention from scholars worldwide [23], and as a result, various literature reviews on this topic have been published. For instance, Kar and Harichandan [24] focused on the Scopus and Web of Science databases comprising data from 1121 articles published between 1990 and 2021 in 462 journals. The results suggest that green marketing techniques, eco-tourism, and sustainable marketing techniques [25] are increasingly important. Despite the attention of scholars, a thorough bibliometric analysis of the green marketing literature still needs to be completed. The concept of bibliometric analysis can be defined as a statistical analysis of scientific articles, book chapters, or books [26] that have been published in the past and is a practical approach to gauge the impact of publications on the scientific community. Biometric research reviews can be used to visualize a topic’s framework, identify emerging and current research topics, and summarize the most influential publications and academics.
As part of our bibliometric review process, we created mind maps to organize our literature review, mapped the study’s structural area, and compiled a bibliography to provide a complete picture of the literature [27,28]. By analyzing the facts mentioned earlier, this bibliometric review attempts to draw attention to the numerous attributions related to “green marketing, sustainability, eco, and environmental marketing”. Based on the bibliometric analysis of 1348 articles published between 2011 and 2022, this analysis provides the first factual and statistical insight into research trends concerning green marketing and eco-marketing of green products. Furthermore, based on citations and an article’s impact, a review of the research on this topic is presented.
Moreover, a green marketing practitioner must comprehend the types of literature developed and how they have grown, focusing on essential authors, distribution of articles, high-profile journal articles, and prominent publication outlets. To accomplish this, in this paper, we will review peer-reviewed journal articles published in SCOPUS from 2011 to 2022 with the keywords “Green marketing” OR “eco* marketing” OR “sustainable marketing” OR “Enviro* Marketing” OR “Ethical marketing” to analyze the published literature related to green marketing; group articles by dominant themes; determine how it has evolved; and determine which publication outlets, articles, and authors have impacted the field based on citations and number of pieces. This contribution complements earlier literature reviews that emphasized a context-specific approach and contributes to providing an explicit understanding of developments in green marketing literature.
This study aims to address five research objectives (ROs).
These are as follows:
RO1:
To develop a research profile of the selected studies in terms of journals, countries, and data analysis techniques.
RO2:
To synthesize key trends and uncover additional aspects.
RO3:
To appraise the research methods used by extant studies in terms of design and theories to identify open gaps.
RO4:
To assess the findings and inferences of the selected studies to provide better insights.
RO5:
To highlight areas of concern and opportunities for marketers, policymakers, and potential service providers.

3. Research Methodology

3.1. Method

In this study, we used bibliometric statistical methods to identify, better understand, and evaluate recent patterns, techniques, findings, and improvements in green marketing research [29]. Bibliometrics is a statistical method that helps provide a transparent vision to better understand publication trends in research papers, articles, and documents [30].

3.2. Data Selection

Numerous databases are available for indexing and abstraction. Databases can be classified into two different categories: multidisciplinary databases, including Scopus and Web of Science, and subject-specific databases, such as MEDLINE, PubMed, AGRICOLA, and ERIC [31]. Our study used data from SCOPUS, which abstracts scientific databases, provides accurate indexing, and contains high-quality articles [32] There might be a possibility that Google Scholar may show a difference in the number of citations. Google Scholar is a search engine and hence has much broader coverage than Scopus, including theses, conference papers, reviews, books, book chapters, letters, data papers, and even unpublished materials. Since Scopus does not index these types of content, they do not contribute to the number of citations; therefore, when compared with Google Scholar, the number of citations for articles indexed in Scopus will always be lower. This difference does not influence the finding’s credibility.
We covered both qualitative and quantitative aspects in our study [33]. During the data retrieval process, some papers were missed from other subject-specific databases, as the Scopus database might have used synonyms in such cases and returned identical records.

3.3. Search Query

We conducted a study using the Scopus database for the following search terms: “Green marketing” OR “eco* marketing” OR “sustainable marketing” OR “Enviro* Marketing” OR “Ethical marketing” as shown in Figure 1. The search query for the collection was performed on 23 May 2022, at Symbiosis International University, Pune.

3.4. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

A systematic review should adhere to the standard requirements outlined in PRISMA [34]. According to the PRISMA guidelines, publications must be screened successively but are treated equally after the first screening step. We considered publications from 2011 to 23 May 2022, from a total of records that were extracted from the Scopus database against the keywords. A three-step process was used to review the identified papers.
  • Identifying, eliminating, and correcting duplicate records [35].
  • Analyzing the articles according to inclusion and exclusion criteria.
  • Reading and checking the content based on title, abstract, and keyword criteria.
We excluded publications from conference proceedings, book chapters, and publications in languages other than English.
We evaluated the selected studies against a set of quality evaluations (QE) [36]. Quality scores must be considered to obtain relevant and unbiased results [37]. This study used different quality evaluation questions to calculate the quality evaluation scores, as suggested by [38] (see Figure 2). The set of quality evaluation scores used to evaluate the selected studies is aligned with the current systematic literature review. Two independent authors undertook the study selection process to ensure robustness and the selection of an unbiased sample. The selection was based on studies achieving at least 4.5 QEs out of a total of 868 studies considered for further synthesis after evaluating the quality scores of all identified studies.

3.5. Bibliometric Analysis

This section shows the bibliometric analysis result of green marketing literature published from 2011 to May 2022. For bibliometric analysis, several software packages are commonly used, including CiteSpace, RStudio (bibliometrics package), BibExcel, VOSviewer, Gephi, and Histcite [39]. We used VOSviewer to conduct this study for various purposes. VOSviewer [40] was used to illustrate the clusters and cross-disciplinary mapping of the field so that readers across different fields could more easily understand our findings. Furthermore, cluster analysis facilitates the identification and characterization of samples into smaller groups for more straightforward analysis [41].
Through the Scopus database, it is observed that the history of studies based on sustainable product-related areas stretches back more than 50 years. Although researchers have been working on the topic since 1964, there has been an increase in the number of studies related to the topic since 2006 [42].

4. Results: Systematic Analysis of the Research Field

The impact of research can be gauged from the level of citations it has received [43]. The 868 relevant research works related to sustainable marketing since 2011 have seen a remarkable growth in the number of citations. As can be seen in Figure 3, the collection of relevant works produced a total of 38 citations in 2011, whereas in 2021, it was 7956 citations, representing a growth rate of more than 200%. Since 2011, the average number of citations per paper, determined by dividing the total number of citations by the total number of publications, is 45.
To analyze the progress of a research area, the number of published articles related to that topic must be considered [44]. Figure 4 indicates an increase in publications since 2011. The growth is almost stable until 2018. Three waves are observed on Figure 4. The first wave achieved its peak in 2013 with 67 publications; the next wave peaked in 2016 with 75 publications. However, there was a tsunami in research publications (147 documents) in 2020. The trend continued in 2021 with 142 relevant documents being published.

4.1. Prominent Topics

The elements and terminologies involved in research are crucial to understanding it. There are numerous keywords used related to green, ethical, and sustainable marketing. A key objective of this study is to identify the keywords and then check for keywords associated with the concept. Keywords associated with authors and indices are included in this list. The author’s keywords represent the contents of their manuscript. Journals suggest controlled index keywords that capture the topic’s essence and are chosen by authors.
Knowledge of terminologies frequently used in a research field helps researchers better understand that particular field. Figure 5 below displays the keywords repetitively used by researchers in the area of green marketing. The clusters in the figure suggest the multidimensionality of green/sustainable marketing. The “green clusters” signify the keywords related to green marketing. The clusters suggest several researchers have used phrases linked to green marketing, such as environmental marketing, sustainability marketing, digital marketing, and international marketing. Similarly, several keywords were linked to other clusters, such as green products, environment, ethical marketing, corporate social responsibility, and green economy. These phrases have been widely used by researchers worldwide, representing the multidimensionality of green marketing.

4.2. Prominent Articles

There were only 25 articles with more than 50 citations out of 868 documents with a maximum of 15 links. An interrelated cluster of articles is shown in Figure 6, which suggests that the research domain was in the development phase. Table 1 depicts the most cited articles. This section discusses the authors’ productivity in terms of citations. The table contains the top 15 research works in terms of citations. Similar to the findings of [40], the present study supports Lotka’s law; that is, the research works published comprise smaller teams. The top five authors in terms of citations are [45] Paul and Ashwin (2016) [46], Delmas and Burbano (2011), Peloza and Shang (2011), [47] Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2012), and [48] Chen and Chang (2012), with 691, 584, 524, 484, and 470 citations, respectively. An interesting finding regarding the top five authors in terms of citations per year suggests that Paul and Ashwin (2016), Hong and Guo (2019), Delmas and Burbano (2011), Romieu et al. (2017), and Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2012) have 115, 86, 53, 52, and 48 citations per year, respectively.
Recent publications have seen a large number of citations of their work. According to literature review articles included in this study, except for Chamorro et al. 2009, [49], all dealt with marketing and sustainability issues from a macro perspective. Furthermore, articles in the category of specialized literature reviews investigating green marketing from a micro perspective covered a more extended period of articles in their review [50].

4.3. Prominent Authors

As is evident from Figure 7, in the blue cluster, one of the most prominent authors is Chen Y.S. from the National Taipei University of Taiwan, with 9 documents and 1199 citations. His most collaborative works are with Chang C.H., from the same institute. In the purple cluster, Leonidou C.N. is the new leading author with 8 articles and 846 citations. Other prominent researchers are Wang Y., with 6 documents and 327 citations, and Testa F., with 5 documents and 273 citations. Several authors have published 4 papers, but Paul J. in the red cluster has emerged as the most cited author, with 826 citations from 4 documents. Following them, there are several authors with 3 documents: Zhang in the blue cluster and Kim in the red cluster are among the top-cited authors with 262 and 261 citations, respectively.

4.4. Top 15 Influential Countries in Green Marketing Research (2011–2022)

The graph in Figure 8 shows highly productive countries in terms of research works published between 2011 and April 2022. We considered the top 15 countries regarding research work productivity concerning green marketing. The top three countries (United States, India, and China) have published more than 120 documents in the past years, and the top five productive countries have produced more than 75 documents during the study period. The high growth of research in a developing country such as India (187) and the low productivity of countries such as Germany and Canada, with 29 publications each, are exciting findings.

4.5. Top 15 High-Research-Producing Institutions

Figure 9 shows the top 15 research institutes. These 15 institutes produced 151 publications (22%) out of the 681 publications considered in the study. All the institutes produced seven or more publications, with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania, having the greatest number of publications [21] and University Kebangsaan Malaysia and University Sains Malaysia having seven publications at the bottom of the top 15 productive institutes around the world. One of the interesting findings that the graph suggests is that 9 among the 15 institutes are from Asia and only 3 institutes are from the West.

4.6. Documents by Subject Areas

Figure 10 shows a pie chart that reflects the research publications by subject areas. The pie chart comprises the top five research domains related to green marketing. The chart suggests that most of the research works (i.e., approximately 30%) published in green marketing during the study period relate to the business, management, and finance domains. Around 16% of the research works concern the domain of social sciences, but it is interesting to find out that 27% of the published work on green marketing is from other domains.

5. Discussion

Green marketing and sustainable consumption are crucial prerequisites for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [51]. Governments seek to reduce the ecological damage caused by environmentally inappropriate industrial manufacturing processes through taxation and regulation. It is crucial to promote ethical and sustainable consumption to mitigate negative environmental consequences and create markets for green products [52]. Since green marketing and sustainability have become increasingly focused on social aspects, researchers have placed more emphasis on the marketing process, thereby driving green and ecological marketing [53]. Environmental concerns are becoming increasingly important to consumers of products, as are production processes, such as the disposal of raw and waste materials. Therefore, regulations and efforts related to green marketing are expanding to include processes, products, goods, and services [54].
As awareness of environmental concerns has intensified in governments, the public, and companies over the last few decades, management research and environmental marketing have experienced exceptional growth [55]. Despite this, they have been criticized for being highly diverse, non-programmatic, and fragmented, making it difficult to obtain an overall picture of trends in the field. This study attempts to evaluate existing research in the field by systematically identifying, consolidating, and evaluating it. It therefore serves as a reference point for both stimulating and guiding future research, helping the discipline to gain theoretical and practical advances.
Figure 11 shows journals that have been publishing research related to green marketing. The number of publications from the top 15 most influential journals portrayed in Figure 11 is given in Table 2. The journals in green blocks are the Journal of Cleaner Production, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, Environmental Engineering and Science, and The Amfiteatru Journal, with 42, 8, 5, and 10 documents, respectively. Journals such as Quality-Access to Success with 14 documents, Sustainability with 94 documents, Journal of Critical Reviews with 5 documents, and Journal of Business Research with 26 documents published in green marketing have been portrayed in purple blocks. The yellow, red, and brown blocks comprise 1 journal each, with the Journal of Marketing Management with 14 documents, the Journal of Environment Development and Sustainability with 8 documents, and the International Journal of Consumer Behavior with 12 documents, respectively. The journals in the orange blocks are Corporate Social Responsibility, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, with five, six, and ten documents, respectively. The blue blocks indicate three other prominent journals that publish research papers in green marketing: Indian Journal of Marketing with nine published documents, European Journal of Social Sciences with five documents, and International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation with eight documents published in green marketing.
The next step was to examine prominent journals (sources) in the field of “green marketing and sustainable marketing” and “ethical marketing”. To accomplish this, we used VOSviewer to couple the bibliographic sources.
Out of the 868 research works considered for this study, the top 15 journals contained 312 (35%) of all the publications, as shown in Table 2. It can be observed that Sustainability (MDPI) has published 94 documents, the Journal of Cleaner Production has published 42 studies, and the Journal of Business Research has published 26 research papers since 2011. The top publishers who have continuously supported research publications based on green marketing are MDPI, Elsevier, Emerald, Springer, Routledge, and Wiley. These findings are consistent with those of Saleem et al., 2021 and Bhardwaj et al., 2020.

6. Implications and Future Research

The research presented here has contributed significantly to the field of green marketing, by analyzing 868 published articles in peer-reviewed journals from Scopus to identify the key role players and most influential key words (topics). As evidenced by the results from studying relevant peer-reviewed English publications from 2011 to 2022, there has been gradual progress in academic interest in this area.
We want to suggest some research prospects based on the present study’s findings and our review and make recommendations for the future. The data visualizations in this study show that green marketing researchers can drive and participate in design strategies on the themes that are currently being developed in the green marketing area [56]. Educating students on environmental values and handling the relationship between humans and nature correctly is one way policymakers can encourage green marketing, sustainability, and the consumption of environmentally friendly products. Managers can use this perspective to develop green marketing strategies that reduce consumers’ price sensitivity. Eco-friendly products are well known to consumers, but they are not concerned about green marketing. Their interest increases when they become aware that green marketing covers eco-friendly products.
Five significant predictions and trends from this report pertain to green marketing research trends and future insights: low-carbon economies, green consumerism, greenwashing, and eco-innovation research in emerging and developing economies [57].

7. Conclusions

This study focuses on an overview of the research published on green marketing. Developing and developed countries must conduct green marketing research to promote sustainable consumption [58]. However, no bibliometric analysis has been performed from 2011 to 2022 for the Scopus database with the keywords mentioned above that summarize and provide a comprehensive analysis of the literature’s advances. The study’s data visualization illustrates that green marketing researchers can contribute to design strategies focused on topics that are currently being developed in the green marketing area [59]. Moreover, we have also determined the most influential authors, published papers, and journals within this area to identify research gaps and insights that could lead to discoveries.
For future research, there is potential for several avenues to be explored. These include focusing on narrower topics, such as consumer green attitudes, green marketing mix, green consumerism, green satisfaction, etc. From a business-to-business or business-to-consumer perspective, the 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) of green marketing can be examined using more comprehensive demographic and psychographic variables and comparing green consumerism among developed and developing countries.
Similarly, based on the results, we can assume and suggest that journals such as Sustainability Switzerland, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Strategic Marketing are possible outlets for scholarly work in green marketing.
The research presented here has significantly contributed to the body of knowledge on green marketing. By analyzing 2432 published articles in peer-reviewed journals from Scopus, the green marketing research area has gained new insights.

Author Contributions

S.B.: writing—original draft, review, and editing, methodology, data curation, conceptualization; K.N.: writing—review and editing, data curation; M.U.T.: detailed analysis, formal analysis; A.A.: original draft, supervision, software, visualization; A.C.: writing—review and editing, supervision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

All relevant data are within the paper.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the reviewers for their professional comments, which contributed to the quality of the paper.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

References

  1. Polonsky, M.J. An Introduction to Green Marketing. Electron. Green J. 1994, 1, 1–11. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  2. Dahhan, A.; Arenkov, I. Green marketing as a trend towards achieving sustainable development. J. Econ. Entrep. Law 2021, 11, 2497–2512. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  3. Martin, D.M.; Schouten, J. Sustainable Marketing; Pearson: Noida, UP, India, 2015. [Google Scholar]
  4. Milanović, T.; Popović, V.M.; Vučković, S.; Rakaščan, N.; Popović, S.; Petković, Z. Analysis of soybean production and biogas yield to improve eco-marketing and circular economy. Econ. Agric. 2020, 67, 141–156. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  5. Baker, W.E.; Sinkula, J.M. Environmental Marketing Strategy and Firm Performance: Effects on New Product Performance and Market Share. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 2005, 33, 461–475. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  6. Leonidou, C.N.; Leonidou, L. Research into environmental marketing/management: A bibliographic analysis. Eur. J. Mark. 2011, 45, 68–103. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  7. Galaz, V.; Centeno, M.A.; Callahan, P.W.; Causevic, A.; Patterson, T.; Brass, I.; Baum, S.; Farber, D.; Fischer, J.; Garcia, D.; et al. Artificial intelligence, systemic risks, and sustainability. Technol. Soc. 2021, 67, 101741. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  8. Peattie, K.; Charter, M. Green Marketing. In The Marketing Book, 5th ed.; Baker, M.J., Ed.; Butterworth-Heinemann: New York, NY, USA, 2003; pp. 726–755. [Google Scholar]
  9. Ruggiero, S.; Kangas, H.-L.; Annala, S.; Lazarevic, D. Business model innovation in demand response firms: Beyond the niche-regime dichotomy. Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit. 2021, 39, 1–17. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  10. Dennis, C.; Harris, L.; Peattie, K.; Crane, A. Green marketing: Legend, myth, farce or prophesy? Qual. Mark. Res. Int. J. 2005, 8, 357–370. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  11. Widyastuti, S.; Santoso, B. Green marketing: A study of the factors influencing the repurchase decision for Javanony Herbal Products. ASEAN Mark. J. 2021, 8, 4. [Google Scholar]
  12. Dangelico, R.M.; Vocalelli, D. “Green Marketing”: An analysis of definitions, strategy steps, and tools through a systematic review of the literature. J. Clean. Prod. 2017, 165, 1263–1279. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  13. Prakash, A. Green marketing, public policy and managerial strategies. Bus. Strat. Environ. 2002, 11, 285–297. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  14. Chen, T.B.; Chai, L.T. Attitude towards the environment and green products: Consumers’ perspective. Manag. Sci. Eng. 2010, 4, 27–39. [Google Scholar]
  15. Gelderman, C.J.; Schijns, J.; Lambrechts, W.; Vijgen, S. Green marketing as an environmental practice: The impact on green satisfaction and green loyalty in a business-to-business context. Bus. Strat. Environ. 2021, 30, 2061–2076. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  16. Hasan, Z.; Ali, N.A. The impact of green marketing strategy on the firm’s performance in Malaysia. Procedia-Soc. Behav. Sci. 2015, 172, 463–470. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  17. Govender, J.P.; Govender, T.L. The influence of green marketing on consumer purchase behavior. Environ. Econ. 2016, 7, 77–85. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  18. Riva, F.; Magrizos, S.; Rubel, M.R.B. Investigating the link between managers’ green knowledge and leadership style, and their firms’ environmental performance: The mediation role of green creativity. Bus. Strat. Environ. 2021, 30, 3228–3240. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  19. Kotler, P. Reinventing Marketing to Manage the Environmental Imperative. J. Mark. 2011, 75, 132–135. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  20. McDonagh, P.; Prothero, A. Sustainability marketing research: Past, present and future. J. Mark. Manag. 2014, 30, 1186–1219. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  21. Kumar, P. State of green marketing research over 25 years (1990–2014): Literature survey and classification. Mark. Intell. Plan. 2016, 34, 137–158. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  22. Saleem, F.; Khattak, A.; Ur Rehman, S.; Ashiq, M. Bibliometric analysis of green marketing research from 1977 to 2020. Publications 2021, 9, 1. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  23. Ho, C.-Y.; Tsai, B.-H.; Chen, C.-S.; Lu, M.-T. Exploring Green Marketing Orientations toward Sustainability the Hospitality Industry in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4348. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  24. Kar, S.K.; Harichandan, S. Green marketing innovation and sustainable consumption: A bibliometric analysis. J. Clean. Prod. 2022, 361, 132290. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  25. Vaja, J. A Study on Kerala Ecotourism and role of Marketing Strategies in the promotion of Ecotourism sites. Rev. Rev. Index J. Multidiscip. 2021, 1, 21–26. [Google Scholar]
  26. Liang, D.; De Jong, M.; Schraven, D.; Wang, L. Mapping key features and dimensions of the inclusive city: A systematic bibliometric analysis and literature study. Int. J. Sustain. Dev. World Ecol. 2022, 29, 60–79. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  27. de Ries, K.E.; Schaap, H.; van Loon, A.-M.M.J.A.P.; Kral, M.M.H.; Meijer, P.C. A literature review of open-ended concept maps as a research instrument to study knowledge and learning. Qual. Quant. 2022, 56, 73–107. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  28. Mariani, M.M.; Perez-Vega, R.; Wirtz, J. AI in marketing, consumer research and psychology: A systematic literature review and research agenda. Psychol. Mark. 2022, 39, 755–776. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  29. Kumar, S.; Sureka, R.; Lim, W.M.; Mangla, S.K.; Goyal, N. What do we know about business strategy and environmental research? Insights from Business Strategy and the Environment. Bus. Strat. Environ. 2021, 30, 3454–3469. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  30. Rashmi, K.; Kataria, A. Work–life balance: A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. Int. J. Sociol. Soc. Policy 2021, 42, 1028–1065. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  31. Thomas, C.G. Academic Databases. In Research Methodology and Scientific Writing; Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2021; pp. 227–261. [Google Scholar]
  32. Pranckutė, R. Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus: The Titans of Bibliographic Information in Today’s Academic World. Publications 2021, 9, 12. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  33. Ryser, G.R. Qualitative and quantitative approaches to assessment. In Identifying Gifted Students; Routledge: Oxfordshire, UK, 2021; pp. 33–57. [Google Scholar]
  34. Page, M.J.; McKenzie, J.E.; Bossuyt, P.M.; Boutron, I.; Hoffmann, T.C.; Mulrow, C.D.; Shamseer, L.; Tetzlaff, J.M.; Moher, D. Updating guidance for reporting systematic reviews: Development of the PRISMA 2020 statement. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 2021, 134, 103–112. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  35. Chistov, V.; Aramburu, N.; Carrillo-Hermosilla, J. Open eco-innovation: A bibliometric review of emerging research. J. Clean. Prod. 2021, 311, 127627. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  36. Behera, R.K.; Bala, P.K.; Dhir, A. The emerging role of cognitive computing in healthcare: A systematic literature review. Int. J. Med. Inform. 2019, 129, 154–166. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  37. Ouhbi, S.; Idri, A.; Fernández-Alemán, J.L.; Toval, A. Requirements engineering education: A systematic mapping study. Requir. Eng. 2015, 20, 119–138. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  38. Idri, A.; Amazal, F.A.; Abran, A. Analogy-based software development effort estimation: A systematic mapping and review. Inf. Softw. Technol. 2015, 58, 206–230. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  39. Ampah, J.D.; Yusuf, A.A.; Afrane, S.; Jin, C.; Liu, H. Reviewing two decades of cleaner alternative marine fuels: Towards IMO’s decarbonization of the maritime transport sector. J. Clean. Prod. 2021, 320, 128871. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  40. Van Eck, N.J.; Waltman, L. Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics 2010, 84, 523–538. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  41. Caruso, G.; Gattone, S.; Fortuna, F.; Di Battista, T. Cluster Analysis for mixed data: An application to credit risk evaluation. Socio-Econ. Plan. Sci. 2021, 73, 100850. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  42. Bhardwaj, A.K.; Garg, A.; Ram, S.; Gajpal, Y.; Zheng, C. Research Trends in Green Product for Environment: A Bibliometric Perspective. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8469. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  43. Agarwal, A.; Durairajanayagam, D.; Tatagari, S.; Esteves, S.C.; Harlev, A.; Henkel, R.; Roychoudhury, S.; Homa, S.; Puchalt, N.G.; Ramasamy, R.; et al. Bibliometrics: Tracking research impact by selecting the appropriate metrics. Asian J. Androl. 2016, 18, 296–309. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  44. Khan, I.S.; Ahmad, M.O.; Majava, J. Industry 4.0 and sustainable development: A systematic mapping of triple bottom line, Circular Economy and Sustainable Business Models perspectives. J. Clean. Prod. 2021, 297, 126655. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  45. Paul, J.; Modi, A.; Patel, J. Predicting green product consumption using theory of planned behavior and reasoned action. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 2016, 29, 123–134. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  46. Delmas, M.A.; Burbano, V.C. The Drivers of Greenwashing. Calif. Manag. Rev. 2011, 54, 64–87. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  47. Hartmann, P.; Apaolaza-Ibáñez, V. Consumer attitude and purchase intention toward green energy brands: The roles of psychological benefits and environmental concern. J. Bus. Res. 2012, 65, 1254–1263. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  48. Chen, Y.S.; Chang, C.H. Enhance green purchase intentions: The roles of green perceived value, green perceived risk, and green trust. Manag. Decis. 2012, 50, 502–520. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  49. Chamorro, A.; Rubio, S.; Miranda, F.J. Characteristics of research on green marketing. Bus. Strat. Environ. 2009, 18, 223–239. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  50. Hong, Z.; Guo, X. Green product supply chain contracts considering environmental responsibilities. Omega 2019, 83, 155–166. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  51. Moon, C.J. Contributions to the SDGs through Social and Eco entrepreneurship: New Mindsets for Sustainable Solutions. In Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals; Emerald Group Publishing: Bingley, UK, 2018; pp. 47–68. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  52. Han, M.; Xu, B. Distance with Customers Effects on Green Product Innovation in SMEs: A Way through Green Value Co-creation. SAGE Open 2021, 11, 21582440211061539. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  53. Nozari, H.; Szmelter-Jarosz, A.; Ghahremani-Nahr, J. The Ideas of Sustainable and Green Marketing Based on the Internet of Everything—The Case of the Dairy Industry. Futur. Internet 2021, 13, 266. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  54. Usharani, M.; Gopinath, R. A Study on Consumer Behaviour on Green Marketing with reference to Organic Food Products in Tiruchirappalli District. Int. J. Adv. Res. Eng. Technol. 2021, 11, 1235–1244. [Google Scholar]
  55. Williams, A.E. Is general collective intelligence a reliable path towards achieving green growth. Int. J. Glob. Environ. Issues 2022, 21, 357. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  56. Gustavo, J.U., Jr.; Trento, L.R.; de Souza, M.; Pereira, G.M.; de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L.; Ndubisi, N.O.; Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, C.; Borchardt, B.; Zvirtes, L. Green marketing in supermarkets: Conventional and digitized marketing alternatives to reduce waste. J. Clean. Prod. 2021, 296, 126531. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  57. Yang, X.; Liao, S.; Li, R. The evolution of new ventures’ behavioral strategies and the role played by governments in the green entrepreneurship context: An evolutionary game theory perspective. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2021, 28, 31479–31496. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  58. Hosta, M.; Zabkar, V. Antecedents of Environmentally and Socially Responsible Sustainable Consumer Behavior. J. Bus. Ethic 2021, 171, 273–293. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  59. Fraisl, D.; Hager, G.; Bedessem, B.; Gold, M.; Hsing, P.-Y.; Danielsen, F.; Hitchcock, C.B.; Hulbert, J.M.; Piera, J.; Spiers, H.; et al. Citizen science in environmental and ecological sciences. Nat. Rev. Methods Prim. 2022, 2, 64. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Sustainability 15 02988 g001 550
Figure 1. Conceptualization of keywords.
Figure 1. Conceptualization of keywords.
Sustainability 15 02988 g001
Sustainability 15 02988 g002 550
Figure 2. Study selection-criteria.
Figure 2. Study selection-criteria.
Sustainability 15 02988 g002
Sustainability 15 02988 g003 550
Figure 3. Citations by year.
Figure 3. Citations by year.
Sustainability 15 02988 g003
Sustainability 15 02988 g004 550
Figure 4. Articles by year.
Figure 4. Articles by year.
Sustainability 15 02988 g004
Sustainability 15 02988 g005 550
Figure 5. Network visualization map of keywords.
Figure 5. Network visualization map of keywords.
Sustainability 15 02988 g005
Sustainability 15 02988 g006 550
Figure 6. Density visualization map of article on keywords.
Figure 6. Density visualization map of article on keywords.
Sustainability 15 02988 g006
Sustainability 15 02988 g007 550
Figure 7. Density visualization clusters of prominent authors (minimum 3 documents) with more than 50 citations over the years.
Figure 7. Density visualization clusters of prominent authors (minimum 3 documents) with more than 50 citations over the years.
Sustainability 15 02988 g007
Sustainability 15 02988 g008 550
Figure 8. Top 15 Influential countries in Green Marketing Research (2011–2022).
Figure 8. Top 15 Influential countries in Green Marketing Research (2011–2022).
Sustainability 15 02988 g008
Sustainability 15 02988 g009 550
Figure 9. Top 15 High–Research Producing Institutions.
Figure 9. Top 15 High–Research Producing Institutions.
Sustainability 15 02988 g009
Sustainability 15 02988 g010 550
Figure 10. Documents by Subject areas.
Figure 10. Documents by Subject areas.
Sustainability 15 02988 g010
Sustainability 15 02988 g011 550
Figure 11. Network visualization of journal active.
Figure 11. Network visualization of journal active.
Sustainability 15 02988 g011
Table
Table 1. Top 15 most cited documents.
Table 1. Top 15 most cited documents.
No.Paper NameJournalAuthorYear Total
1Predicting green product consumption using theory of planned behavior and reasoned actionJournal of Retailing and Consumer StudiesJustin Paul
Modi Ashwin		2016691
2The drivers of green washingCalifornia Management ReviewDelmas Magali
A. Burbano
Vanessa Cuerel		2011584
3How can corporate social responsibility activities create value for stakeholders? A systematic reviewJournal of the Academy of Marketing SciencesPeloza, John
Shang, Jingzhi		2011524
4Consumer attitude and purchase intention towards green energy brands: The roles of psychological benefits and environmental concernJournal of Business ResearchHartmann
Patrick, Apalazaibanez Vanessa		2012484
5Enhance green purchase intention: The roles of green perceived value, green perceived risk and green trust Management DecisionsChen, Yu–Shan Chang,
Ching–Hsun		2012470
6Green marketing strategies: An examination of stakeholders and the opportunities they presentJournal of the Academy of Marketing ScienceCronin Jr, J. Joseph Smith, Jeffery S. Gleim2011365
7Green wash and Green Trust: The Mediation effects of green consumer confusion and green perceived riskJournal of Business EthicsChen, Yu–Shan Chang, Ching–Hsum2013318
8Seeing the world through GREEN—tinted glasses: green consumption values and responses to environmentally friendly productsJournal of Consumer PsychologyHaws, Kelly L. Winterich, Karen Page Naylor2014314
9Re- examining green purchase behavior and the green consumer profile: new evidencesManagement DecisionAkehurst, Gary Afonso, Carolina Gonclaves2012264
10Energy Balance and obesity: what are the main drivers?Cancer Causes and ControlRomieu, Isabelle Dossus, Laure2017260
11Green product supply chain contracts considering environmental responsibilities OmegaHong, Zhaofu Guo, Xiaolong2019258
12Environmentally responsible behavior in ecotourism: Antecedents and implicationsTourism ManagementChiu, Yen–Ting Helena Lee, Wan–I chen, Tsung–Hsiung2014244
13Anticipated emotion in consumers intentions to select eco-friendly restaurants: Augmenting the theory of planned behavior International Journal of Hospitality ManagementKim, Yong Joong Njite, David Hancer, Murat2013226
14Investigation of green marketing tools effect on consumers purchase behaviorBusiness Strategy SeriesRahbar, Elham Wahid, Nabsiah, Abdul2011224
15The service resolution and the transformation of marketing scienceMarketing ScienceRust, Roland T. Huang, Ming–Hui2014219
Table
Table 2. Ranking of journals with maximum published articles.
Table 2. Ranking of journals with maximum published articles.
RankingSourcesDocumentsPublisherCountry
1Sustainability94MDPISwitzerland
2Journal of Cleaner Production42ElsevierThe Netherlands
3Journal of Business Research26ElsevierThe Netherlands
4Marketing Intelligence and Planning16EmeraldUK
5Journal of Business Ethics15SpringerThe Netherlands
6Journal of Strategic Marketing15Taylor and FrancisUK
7Journal of Marketing Management14Taylor and FrancisUK
8Quality Access to Success14SRACRomania
9Industrial Marketing Management13ElsevierThe Netherlands
10International Journal of Consumer Studies12Wiley UK
11Business strategy and the environment11Wiley UK
12Amfiteatru Economics10Bucharest University of Economic StudiesRomania
13International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management10EmeraldUK
14Journal of consumer marketing10EmeraldUK
15Journal of macro marketing10Sage PublicationUnited States
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Bhardwaj, S.; Nair, K.; Tariq, M.U.; Ahmad, A.; Chitnis, A. The State of Research in Green Marketing: A Bibliometric Review from 2005 to 2022. Sustainability 2023, 15, 2988. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15042988

AMA Style

Bhardwaj S, Nair K, Tariq MU, Ahmad A, Chitnis A. The State of Research in Green Marketing: A Bibliometric Review from 2005 to 2022. Sustainability. 2023; 15(4):2988. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15042988

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bhardwaj, Seema, Kiran Nair, Muhammad Usman Tariq, Asad Ahmad, and Asmita Chitnis. 2023. "The State of Research in Green Marketing: A Bibliometric Review from 2005 to 2022" Sustainability 15, no. 4: 2988. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15042988

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop