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This thesis examines the extent and scope of influence of ethical and green issues on organisational decision making strategies. It further analyses companies' approach to such themes and the manner in which ethical and green marketing is implemented. Associated concepts such as corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and so forth, as well as the background to the emergence and growth of interest in environmentalism and the relevant ethical perspectives are explored. A comprehensive review of the literature carried out over almost 10 years and spread over a number of chapters is further complemented by the findings of case studies based on organisations participating in this research programme, in 1999, 2003 and 2005. The result is an invaluable insight into major ethical and green theories and concepts as well as their possible implementation by the firms in question. This compares and contrasts theory with practice and is also used for triangulation purposes. The findings indicate that, overall, organisations are either increasingly implementing green policies or are seriously considering their application to their operations and activities. Driving forces of company greening policies were also discussed in this thesis. Although the majority of organisations agree with the notion that `good ethics are good for business', there was no indication of an industry wide paradigm shift. Higher levels of consumer cynicism and suspicion of `green-washing' was also noted. Marketing managers have a major task to educate and, convince consumers and promote green products as those that are of high quality, value for money, accessible and simultaneously green. A further social responsibility of marketing managers is to move beyond product focused greening and to formulate and implement holistic marketing strategies that encompass all components of marketing and business.

Market orientation is a well-known construct in the marketing literature. One reason for the extensive research on market orientation is that it is seen as the operationalization of the marketing concept itself. Extant literature provides evidence supporting the link between market orientation and firm performance. However, most of the evidence which links market orientation with firm performance comes from studies carried out in the goods context. The few studies that have been done in the services context show either a weak link with firm performance or no link at all. Further, the studies that have been carried out in the services context have generally been limited to a single industry. In this thesis, I explore the reasons as to why market orientation might be more strongly associated with firm performance in the goods context than in the services context. I suggest that one reason could be that services are by their very nature non-standardized, and that market orientation is aimed at satisfying all the customers. Therefore, market orientation may not be the dominant driver of firm performance in the services context, where it becomes very difficult to satisfy every single customer. In the goods context, however, market orientation will be a dominant driver of firm performance. I also suggest another construct, namely customer selectivity, as a driver of firm performance in the services context. Customer selectivity, it is argued, is anchored in the customer relationship management (CRM) literature. Since services are by their nature heterogeneous, i.e. non-standardized, firms which are customer selective will do well in the services context. However, one cannot exclude the possibility that, while market orientation might not be a good driver of firm performance in the services context, it might be an antecedent of customer selectivity. Therefore I develop an alternative model in which market orientation is conceptualized as a cultural orientation, and thus acts as antecedent to customer selectivity, which then leads to firm performance. To test the hypotheses which are developed in the study, I use a pre-existing scale for market orientation, and operationalize customer selectivity using existing items. All the hypotheses are tested on a multi-industry dataset. The first set of hypotheses, relating to the first model, is tested using regression analysis. The second set, relating to the alternative model, is tested using structural equation modelling. The results are, broadly speaking, consistent with the hypotheses. It is seen that market orientation is a direct driver of firm performance in the goods context, while customer selectivity is a direct driver of firm performance in the services context. Similarly, it is also seen that market orientation is an antecedent to customer selectivity. This is consistent with the results obtained in the first model. However, it is also seen that in both models, while the first dimension of market orientation (customer orientation) is associated with firm performance according to the hypotheses derived in the thesis, the second dimension of market orientation (interfunctional coordination) is not associated with firm performance. The study clarifies and delimits the role of market orientation as a direct driver of firm performance in all contexts, and suggests it leads to firm performance primarily in the goods context. Similarly, customer selectivity leads to firm performance primarily in the services context. However, the study also suggests that market orientation is an antecedent to customer selectivity in both contexts. In other worlds, market orientation plays a role in both the goods and services context, but differentially. Managerially, market orientation and customer selectivity are proposed as a pair of strategies that marketers can help their CEOs choose between or possibly combine depending on the goods-service mix that the firm offers.

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Over the last two decades, business relationships have received considerable attention through the recognition that it is possible to increase profitability through relational exchanges (exchanges governed by norms of long-term co-operation, mutual satisfaction, trust and open communication) rather than discrete ones (exchanges that are arms-length, short-term and centred on self-interest). One of the constructs which has received considerable attention within business relationships is trust. Several studies have studied the impact of determinants of trust, with communications acknowledged as one of its main antecedents. However, related research has been found to make no distinction between different types of information (i.e. explicit/formal and tacit/informal). In addition, there are concerns regarding the adopted operationalisations and lack of research that examines the transformation process that information exchange undergoes as part of business relationships. This research attempts to redress such omissions. An approach utilising a modification of Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) model of knowledge transfer and conversion forms the starting point of this research. Four nodes representing the conversion of different types of information have been identified. These are: socialisation (tacit information converted to tacit information), externalisation (tacit information converted to explicit information), internalisation (explicit information converted to tacit information) and combination (explicit information converted to explicit information). Supplier perception of their input, their perception of their customer's input, the. difference between supplier's and customer's input, the total volume of their combined inputs and the difference between respective inputs in terms of the total volume have provided the analytical platform. These inputs are posited to determine trust which, in tum, determines long-term orientation. Such research is considered to represent the first documented effort to explicitly examine the differential impact of different types and processes of information exchange. Analysis based on the perceptions of 160 marketing managers of large UK-based organisations revealed that: 1. The respondents' perception of inputs by their customers best explains the behaviour oftrust. 2. With the exception of internalisation (explicit information converted to tacit information), all other nodes were found to significantly affect trust. 3. In addition, the investments made by customers during the conversion of tacit information into explicit information (i.e., externalisation) was found to have a direct impact on long-term orientation. The above results are considered to offer empirical support to the largely descriptive literature on the subject matter. In addition, they illustrate that any related examination should simultaneously consider the nature of information exchange and the processes involved in this exchange. The development of robust measures for socialisation, externalisation, internalisation and combination as a necessary first step and the multiple analytical platforms/perspectives are considered to represent the methodological contributions of this research.

Η εργασία αυτή παρουσιάζει πώς η Διοικητική Επιστήμη μπορεί να βοηθήσει τα στελέχη Μάρκετινγκ & Πωλήσεων. Παρουσιάζεται ένα μοντέλου γραμμικού προγραμματισμού σε ένα πρόβλημα πωλήσεων. / -

The PhD research is concerned with investigating the communication aspect of relationships. In particular, the research focuses on the impact of marketing communications on customer relationships. The communication aspect of customer relationships is an empirically under-researched area. Two disciplines which are relationship marketing research and marketing communications research were drawn together in order to present insight into the investigation, and hence to build on the limited existing knowledge. The banking sector was used as the context of the investigation. The context of the research is the UK banking sector. Adopting a primarily qualitative approach, data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with bank customers. Research participants were recruited through advertising and snowballing methods. The analysis was guided by the principles of content analysis. This research offers three main contributions. Firstly, the current research has extended the work on service provider and customer relationships by presenting an insight into the nature of customer relationships and their underlying dimensions. In particular, four relationship types were identified which can represent various types of relationships customers may establish with financial institutions: (1) faltering, (2) functional, (3) interactive and (4) affective. Secondly, the research presented empirical evidence on the potential of advertising, corporate sponsorship and direct marketing to promote various types of relationships. Thirdly, this research provides an enhanced understanding about the aspects of service encounters, that are likely to promote (or threaten) the development of certain relationship types.