ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY: A TYPOLOGY OF COMPANIES BASED ON MANAGERIAL PERCEPTIONS OF CUSTOMERS’ ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVENESS AND DETERRENTS

When discussing environmental strategies, previous studies almost completely neglected the importance of companies’ perceptions of their customers’ eco-characteristics. This study aims to address this gap, first, by proposing a typology of companies based on their perceptions of customers’ environmental activeness and deterrents and, second, by analyzing the differences among the obtained groups of companies in their environmental strategies and the motives for and results of these strategies. The paper covers a conceptual background of environmental strategies, the motives for and results of these strategies, and managerial perceptions of customers’ environmental activeness and deterrents. The study included all manufacturing companies with more than 50 employees from a business directory in Slovenia. It was administered via mail to 434 CEOs, out of which 153 returned the questionnaires (a 35.3 % response rate). The sample is representative of a population of medium sized and large manufacturing companies from 22 different manufacturing industries, including practically all large polluters in the country. Factor analysis was used for the data reduction/summarization and cluster analysis was performed to identify company segments according to their perceptions of customers’ environmental activeness and deterrents. The typology of companies based on managerial perceptions of customers’ environmental activeness and deterrents is proposed, and the differences among the obtained clusters in their environmental strategies, motives and results are analyzed. The findings show that three clusters of companies exist, namely eco-believers, eco-disbelievers and eco-hampered companies. These clusters significantly differ in their perceptions of customers’ eco-characteristics as well as in their corporate and marketing environmental strategies and the motives and results of these strategies.