Scale development study on the green marketing implementation culture and problems faced by SMEs

Green marketing enables businesses to satisfy consumer demand for environmentally responsible products and services, thereby fostering a sustainable future. Increasing environmental concerns and growing consumer awareness have driven businesses towards green marketing practices. While SMEs in Turkey are trying to adapt to the global green transformation trend, there are differences between sectors and regions. Barriers like cost, knowledge gaps, and insufficient infrastructure hinder the adoption of green marketing practices, particularly among SMEs in rural areas and the manufacturing sector. While most of the research on green marketing focuses on consumer behaviour, there is a scarcity of scales measuring marketers' perceptions of green marketing. The significance of green marketing for SMEs in developing countries is highlighted. The complex and dynamic nature of green marketing has necessitated the development of standardized scales to evaluate the practices of SMEs across different sectors. The scales developed to evaluate the green marketing practices of SMEs will make significant contributions to research in this field, enabling a better understanding of SMEs' green transformation processes. Primarily descriptive, this study also has an exploratory nature. The study tests hypotheses related to whether attitudes towards environmental performance and social performance vary according to demographic characteristics (gender, age, etc.). The research population consists of the authorized personnel of enterprises operating in the Ankara Ostim Organized Industrial Zone. A questionnaire was administered to collect primary data, and 387 completed questionnaires were analysed SPSS and AMOS were used for statistical analysis and the scale development process. The research results showed that SMEs are most sensitive to environmental sustainability in areas such as product design, production processes, supply chain, marketing, and logistics. In addition, SMEs demonstrated a strong commitment to environmentally friendly products, waste minimization, and the efficient utilization of natural resources. However, they showed less sensitivity to environmental factors in areas such as packaging and pricing. Companies believe there are many obstacles to sustainable transportation. Factors such as the inadequacy of electric vehicles, low consumer environmental awareness and purchasing power, and high costs of green packaging and logistics operations significantly impede companies from reaching their sustainability goals. Additionally, there are challenges in creating a green supply chain. This study developed two scales: the Green Marketing Practices Scale (GMPS) and the Green Marketing Problems (GMP) scale. The GMPS comprises 12 items divided into three dimensions: Environmental Promotion (5 items), Green Packaging (3 items), and Green Distribution (4 items). The GMP scale includes 11 items across two dimensions: Insufficiency of Consumer Environmental Awareness (5 items) and High Cost of Green Products (6 items). Neither scale contains reverse-coded items, and item scores can be averaged." These scales can contribute to strengthening the theoretical framework in the field of green marketing and lay the groundwork for the development of new hypotheses and theories. These scales will contribute to scientific research by measuring the effectiveness of green marketing implementations. This study investigates the challenges faced by SMEs in various sectors during their green transformation journeys and develops a scale that can be utilized in this domain. By providing a solid methodological foundation supported by comprehensive validity and reliability studies, The GMPS and YPM scales have the potential to make a substantial contribution to the theoretical underpinnings of green marketing. In so doing, it can facilitate a substantial increase in the quantity and rigor of green marketing research within the Turkish context. For instance, it can enable clearer definition and measurement of concepts such as "GMPS" and "YMP". These scales will enable quantitative investigations into green marketing practices. Researchers can use these scales to conduct comparative studies between different sectors, countries, or companies and measure the effectiveness of green marketing practices. Keywords: Sustainability Marketing, Green Marketing SMEs, Green Marketing Implementation Culture, Green Marketing Problems, Scale development and Validation, Ostim Organised Industrial Zone, Ankara.