Starting from an overview of academic perceptions of the likely changes in behaviour of business, with respect to environmental issues in the marketing area from the early 1990s onwards, we bring together in this paper some results from a number of our own primary research studies in the field. The intention is to compare theory with recent empirical information from the field. The field studies reported on herein include two significant surveys of business conducted in different parts of the East Midlands of the UK, together reaching nearly 350 companies in the region. The other study is a research project that looked closely at a small number of very large companies.
The two East Midlands surveys were carried out using similar telephone-based questionnaires aimed primarily at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), plus a small number of in-depth personal interviews with respondents from some larger companies The final survey used personal interviews only, with senior respondents from six major organizations.
Taking all the studies together we feel that, whilst there is good evidence that larger companies show a marked awareness of the impact of the environment on their business, or potential business, the majority of smaller businesses are still generally unaware of the impact upon them of green issues, or of their impact upon the environment.