Research design and empirical settings

1.5.1 Case study and action research as methodological choices

This research is qualitative (Silverman 2002) using case study and action research as methodological choices (Zuber-Skerritt 2001). Case study can also be realized as a multi-case study including many enterprises (Perry & Gummesson 2004). Perry (2001) and Perry and Gummesson (2004) have used action research in case studies in the field of marketing, so the idea to use action research in case studies is not new (Cooper in Schendel & Hofer 1979:317).

Cooper (in Schendel & Hofer 1979:317) describes four strategic data typologies in small business research. First is discursive writing, which based upon wisdom, observation, and general experience, is usually prescriptive in character. Case studies are based on intensive study of selected cases; data can be from secondary sources or field studies. Third are field surveys – data gathered from many respondents through survey techniques, and finally is field research – includes comparative case studies, longitudinal studies, and field experiments.

I used this basis when I made methodological choices in this research and I used action learning as a part of action research.

Case study is one of the most used qualitative research methods in business research (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008) and this study is the strategic management of historical research roots (Schendel & Hofer 1979:515-530). This multiple case study sets the frames for the ecoproductization phenomena studied and action research is used in studying it (Zuber-Skerritt 2001), which is important because this research builds up qualitative strategic analyses similar to analyses used by Zuber-Skerritt (2001) and Zuber-Skerritt & Perry (2002). This action research in marketing creates new practical marketing management system and can be used to verify the theory in the present and in the future (Perry & Gummesson 2004). This is a multiple case study and cases A-D apply action research, and cases E and F help understand

the empirical results of cases A-D. Thus the context of sustainable green marketing develops with cases A-D and finds a connection with environmental policy and the challenges and opportunities for the marketing of ecoproducts of small companies.

Action research is collaboration, actively engaging with and working within businesses in order to help them solve specific problems, developing business and organizational activities, giving insight to strategic questions and making business more efficient (Eriksson and Kovalainen 2008). Also, action research can be considered as a sort of disobedient method, because it uses all possible available methods that the researcher finds relevant and business research is very often related to practical questions and issues of marketing (Eriksson &

Kovalainen 2008:193). I use action research and action learning because these are a part of this study and my role is as an active actor the same way as Skerritt 2001, Zuber-Skerritt & Perry 2002. Furthermore, this study included action learning because sustainable green marketing language is not established, which causes confusion and even creates the image of, for instance, green washing. This was to eliminate or minimize or at least reduce the risk of misunderstanding.

Case study is a research approach where I focus on the ecoproductization phenomenon, which can also be functional, for example, certain process or structural characteristics of an enterprise. Case study is not purely a method, it is more likely a research approach where the core is to collect cases and to analyse them. The number of examined cases is usually rather small, which enables more specific estimation of the selected case(s). (Koskinen et al. 2005:154).

Because environmental marketing is value–focused thinking and decisions (Keeney 1992), I evaluated research results of the ecodesign model with researchers (appendix 3). Ecodesign model results are a part of decision-making theory and analyses. Also, according to Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008), cases are seen as instruments that can be used in exploring specific business-related phenomena, and in developing theoretical propositions that could be tested and generalized to other business contexts or to theory. The research questions and answers are more explanatory.

1.5.2 Context of the data collection

The SMEs were chosen because ecoproductization plays an important role in their marketing practices and decision making is conducted by SMEs owner/managers or group of individuals.

The decision-making process is quicker than with large companies. Moreover, the enterprises differ in the nature of the initiation of the rural area business and all six companies operate in local markets. Sustainable thinking is included in collected empirical data by interviewing the owner/manager of the enterprises. I reflected mode of speaking in the empirical data.

The research data consists of interviews of six cases. Four cases A-D are conventional business and two cases E and F are organic businesses. The chosen cases E and F well reflect the business of a countryside small enterprise and officially verified ecoproducts. Moreover, cases A-D are located in the same area in the Häme Region in the Finland (http://www.

hameenliitto.fi/default.asp?docId=23804) and case E is in North Finland and case F is located near the city of Vienna in Austria. The data on cases A-D was collected in the rural life project (Kurppa 2004, Pesonen & Voutilainen 2003, Pesonen et al. 2003). I collected the data for all

cases A-F and one case included in description of the enterprise and one product. These cases make four different small enterprises and their product stories (cases A-D) and six different ecoproducts marketing cases (A-F) reopen new business possibilities of context of sustainable green marketing. Themed interviewing was used in all of the interviews.

The research process consists of know-how as experience-based learning (Zubert-Schkeritt 1999) linked in part of the action research process. Action research has been described as “a group of people who use spiralling cycles of activities that involve planning, acting, observing and reflecting upon what had happened to try to improve workgroup processes of action;

that help to solve complex, practical problems about what was found” (Perry & Gummesson 2004:311, Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008:193). The action research philosophy democratises research, calling for collaborative inquiry. The researcher’s role evolves from detached observer (and leader), to active participant or coach itself or/and other actors (Reissner 2008). Members of the participating organization are also active participants, evolving their role from passive respondent to active participant. It has the dual aim of improvement in both theory and practice (Greenwood & Levin 1998, Zuber-Skerritt & Perry 2002). Science-based cooperation, together with the theory of decision making provides an opportunity to develop context of the sustainable green marketing and its connected marketing management in team-based new product development (Kotler et al. 2008:567).

1.5.3 The analysis structure of the empirical research

In the empirical study, first I used action research narrative analysis and storytelling (cases A-D) and the action learning result is combined with first action analysis and performance, and narrative-based stories. In this research, the first action learning goal is to find the ecoproductization phenomenon and describe the language used in ecoproductization. The same method is also used by Reissner (2004 & 2008). In addition, the first action result is environmental language divided into two messages, production–oriented, which is based on technology society (& environmental policy and law), and the weakness-identifiable product marketing arguments, which is based on ecomarketing (& ecophilosophy, process, action).

The results are performance in the value-based model of the ecodesign.

The second action was concentrating on the product’s marketing message and I used narration to turn into strategic choice. The action study findings strengthen the confirmation of the view of the product’s key role and I found that it is possible to have synergic benefit narrative analysis and storytelling, thereby enabling changing people’s thinking towards the positive. When values that cannot be evaluated in monetary terms focus on cultural and social dimensions, through storytelling these can be verified and illustrated and used in commercial activities in the marketing measures. This same message is clear in the performance McKee storytelling article of 2003. The action learning outcome is the challenges and possibilities SMEs face in sustainable green marketing.

In the first level of analysis (figure 4), original data is used; the interviews of four case enterprises form the basic empirical material. As a result of the analysis, the narrative enterprise and product stories were created and it became obvious that the production-oriented language and marketing-production-oriented language are not connected. This was also apparent in the marketing material of the case enterprise.

In the second level of analysis, the results from the interviews were checked by interviewing two organic farmers that have official status as ecoentrepreneurs. The second interviews were focused on the issues of ecoproductization and environmental marketing. This verified the theoretical and practical problems. Because of the complexity of the ecoentrepreneurs’

environment, the results were also fragmented. On this level of analysis, the need of multi-criteria decision-making tools for environmental marketing management was clear.

On the action learning level, the analysis was taken into a based group. A science-based group means that these help evaluation actions results. I used the know-how of academic people and I called this a science-based group. This group of researchers helps operations to understand deeper general and practical knowledge of the field and prior theoretical and more empirical knowledge are needed. The research frame is triangulation.

The action learning aim was to build the environmental marketing management system which is offered as a solution for the problems and help writing a multi-voiced environmental marketing thesis. Many action researchers emphasised that action learning is an important part of action research and on the other hand, some decision maker(s) is/are part of utility value analyses methods.

Figure 4. Frame of the empirical research design

I focus on the context of the sustainable green marketing. According to Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008:193-209) and also this research, the most central elements of action research are problem focusing, directing to practices and attempting to change. Generally speaking, action research aims to produce new information and to change the present situation as soon as possible by promoting other possibilities or by improving the situation in one way or another (Kuula 2001:11). The goals usually relate to solving a practical problem and creating new knowledge and understanding phenomena (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008:193).

The aim was to build the analytical part, in a way that the development concept creates space for the intuitive idea of power, find a place for small business entrepreneurs and the visionary potential of new insights and innovations. I left the action research deliberately loose enough for new information and solutions, and because research has a philosophical dimension, so the whole empirical evidence could be interpreted in the context of sustainable green marketing.

This in turn enabled the practical action-oriented analysis to be a basis for the study, including a description of the ecoproductization phenomenon. This empirical stage can be part of environmental management applied research areas such as, for example, economical sciences and research into marketing (Perry & Gummesson 2004, Kotler et al. 2008).