In the past few decades, much attention has been focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Dahlrud, 2008; McWilliams & Siegel, 2001; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; Montiel, 2008), consumer responses to CSR initiatives (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001) and more recently, employee attitudes towards CSR (Kim et al., 2010; Michailides & Lipsett, 2012; Rupp et al., 2006; Zhu et al., 2012). Although awareness of environmental sustainability has increased over the past few decades, the current market share of sustainable products remains low. Because of their market position, large-scale and high- volume customer interactions (Vella et al., 2009), supermarkets appear to be appropriate venues for investigating perceived sustainability initiatives (Hampl & Loock, 2013). Our study examined the extent to which supermarkets are perceived to have embedded sustainability initiatives in their marketing strategies and to have taken sustainable tactical measures on the store floor. In addition, the study considered the roles played by social identification (as an indicator for intrinsic motives) and by perceived external prestige (as an indicator for extrinsic motives). Based on a literature review and semi-structured qualitative interviews with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Dutch supermarkets (n = 8), we conducted an online panel survey among the managers of these supermarkets (n = 99). The results of the qualitative study show that although CEOs’ opinions differed regarding the relevance of sustainability, the majority of CEOs indicated that the implementation of a sustainability strategy is strongly dependent on the intrinsic motivation of board members, the family business in general or local entrepreneurs (supermarket managers). Specifically, the role of the supermarket manager was recognized as important concerning sustainability initiatives on the shop floor. The results of the quantitative study show the positive impacts of managers’ social identification with a sustainable consumer group and managers’ perceived external prestige on the perceived environmental sustainability initiatives of Dutch supermarkets. The study finds that managers’ social identifications are powerful ways to engender employee loyalty. Moreover, organizations that are perceived to have more external prestige are perceived as being more capable of developing sustainability policies.

• Jos Bartels(VU University Amsterdam)
• Machiel J. Reinders(Wageningen University)
• Mariët A. van Haaster-de Winter(Agricultural Economics Research Institute)