Green Marketing in the Oil and Gas Industry: Sustainability Challenges for Oil and Gas Companies in Pakistan

Abstract

The research focuses on the role of green marketing in sustainability and examines the situation in the oil and gas industry in Pakistan, which currently faces enormous environmental problems. Grounded in the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Stakeholder Theory, the research examines five key strategies: The green product strategies include choices about what products to design, manufacture, and market, the green pricing strategies relate to decisions about how the company should price its products, the green promotion strategies refer to how it communicates with consumers, the company’s green environment strategies concern where and how it conducts its operations and the green logistics strategies refer to decisions made with regard to moving its products from a company to a consumer. Questionnaires distributed to 248 respondents via structured questionnaires administered through a quantitative research design where the targets were professionals working in various capacities within the oil and gas industry. Consequently, the study establishes that sustainable marketing approaches significantly enhance all green marketing strategies with the high impact of Green Environment Strategies and Green Logistics Strategies. Regarding green products, pricing as well as promotion strategies, they have not only a positive effect but also a moderate effect. These findings imply the uniqueness of developmental strategies and their interdependence with each other in the management of environmental issues through green marketing. Based on the findings of the study, the following practical implications for policymakers and industry practitioners are presented: the focus should be placed on the development of the organization and environmental measures along with the simultaneous implementation of the green integrated marketing communication. Furthermore, the study focuses on the potential and existing problems to provide regional solutions that meet international obligations on sustainable development. This research makes an additional contribution to theory and knowledge by proposing a holistic model of green marketing and the overall effect of its various strategies on sustainable development. It underscores the permanency in investment necessary for sustainable change, the need to improve the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement and the development of new structures based on the use of advanced technologies that would deliver sustainable goals.