Influence of Green Marketing Strategies on Performance of the Kenyan Tea Sector

Abstract

Purpose: The study sought to explore the influence of green marketing strategies on performance of the Kenya tea firms. The performance measure being net income generated over a period of five years. The study was guided by specific objectives which included establishing the extent of adoption of green marketing by the Kenya tea firms; and to assess the influence of green marketing strategies on performance of the Kenya tea firms. Consequently, one hypothesis was tested: adoption of green marketing is positively related to performance of the Kenya tea firms. Methods: A descriptive survey was undertaken, the population of study being all tea factories in Kenya operating under East Africa Tea Traders Association, whose number stood at 73 as at June 30^th 2010. A sample of 63 tea factories was selected to participate in the study and primary data was collected with the aid of a self-administered questionnaire, targeting environmental management representatives of the selected factories. Data analysis was undertaken using Statistical Package for Social Sciences package version 19.0. Factor analysis was undertaken to explore the underlying variance structure of a set of correlation coefficients. Confirmatory Factor Analyses was used to determine the ability of the adopted conceptual model in fitting the observed set of data. In order to determine the relationship between the adoption of green marketing strategies and performance of the Kenya tea firms, correlation and regression analyses were undertaken. Hypothesis testing, the process of using statistics to determine the probability that a specific hypothesis is true was undertaken. The findings are presented with the aid of bar charts, frequency tables, percentages, standard deviations and mean scores. The information was presented and discussed as per the objectives. Results: The findings show that adoption of green marketing is positively related to performance of the Kenya tea firms. It is hopes that findings of the study will contribute several practical tools for the tea sector in order to ensure environmental sustainability.

Keywords: Green marketing, Performance, Tea sector