Measuring Sustainable Marketing Orientation—Scale Development Process

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainable marketing orientation (SMO) should be properly implemented in an organization built on the theoretical model of market-oriented sustainability. The aim of the paper is to explore and confirm the elements of sustainable marketing orientation and to develop a measurement tool with a mixed method approach. First, the construct was conceptualized through a literature review and qualitative research of in-depth interviews on a purposive sample of 20 experts, who generated items. The next stage included collection of data from 112 respondents that resulted the item purification and exploratory factor analysis, which confirmed the three dimensions of SMO: strategic integration, societal engagement and ethical capabilities. The main study consisted of 174 respondents and confirmed the measurement instrument, which contains three subscales proposed by the theoretical model, each containing six, five and four items, respectively, with high degrees of proven reliability and validity. The paper confirmed and further explored the framework of multidimensional SMO; the measurement tool captured the actual implementation of the construct in practice, allowing it to be investigated across industries.