1st International Conference on Agrifood SCM & Green Logistics FP7 REGPOT Project: GREEN-AgriChains Web-based green marketing and consumer behavior trends in agrifood firms and the green challenge Dr. Georgios Tsekouropoulos, Researcher (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) Dr. Zacharoula Andreopoulou, Assoc. professor (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) M.Sc. Stilianos-Eustratios Vatis, Researcher (University of Macedonia, Greece)

The Internet’s effect on firms The Internet is a powerful tool within the competitive business environment. The Internet provides an additional opportunity to the business sector to promote their products and services to potential customers globally. Firms become members of the Internet society since the profits are high while the relative cost keeps lessening.

Firms are “going green” There is an increased demand for green products and services, and contemporary firms tend to become greener and they have shifted their interest in offering greener products and services. Environmental problems concern the active citizens, businesses and organizations worldwide much more, and consumers concerned about the environment are gradually changing their behavior. Social responsibility, green marketing and environmental sustainability are becoming important practices for modern firms influencing the formulation of different types of corporate environmental practices within a green firm strategy.

Green marketing Green marketing includes a series of activities, the most important of which relate to changes in planning, production process and packaging of products, in a way to sustain that the concepts of marketing and ecology can successfully coexist and cooperate. Green marketing represents the idea of the improvement of the quality of life and well-being of the people, in a sustainable development prospect, now and in the future, through the coexistence of economic, social and environmental development.

The situation of the Greek agrifood sector The Greek agrifood sector so far seems to gradually follow organizational changes and practices towards internet adoption and efficient internet presence. Sales, supply chain, procurement, customer service and marketing, is less than the global average, for example, the European economic sectors. However, for most firms the cost required for the implementation of e- business is normally not forbidding.

Aim of the paper is to study the websites of 30 large agrifood firms in the prefecture of Attica, Greece. The websites are analyzed and their features, such as CSR, advertising, marketing, consumer’s behavior, green marketing etc and classified according to their green trend.

Materials and Methods The research was performed using search engines such as Google, Altavista and Yahoo, in order to locate specific characteristics and features. These characteristics and features are then used to describe variables.

Features studied in a firm’s website Variable Feature Description in a firm’s website X1 e-advertising X2 Corporate Social Responsibility Programs, Sponsorships X3 Customer Relations and Behavior programs X4 Green marketing

Cluster analysis Websites are classified into clusters. Data was first classified with hierarchical cluster analysis in order to identify the number of common groups for every given set of variables. In order to determine the final number of the clusters (stopping rule) large increases in the average within-cluster distance are identified. K-means (quick) cluster analysis is then conducted in order to identify the cases of the websites that are finally included in each cluster and create groups with common features among websites.

Results and Discussion Features’ incorporation in the firms’ websites Variable Frequency/percentage X1 X2 X3 X4 Exist 26 86.7 16 53.3 15 50.0 13 43.3 Does not exist 4 13.3 14 46.7 17 56.7 Total 30 100

Classification results Cluster analysis resulted in the classification of websites into two clusters, which constitute two different profiles; Group-1 of “greener trend” and Group-2 of “no green trend” presenting the agrifood firms and their representation in their websites. The hierarchical cluster analysis that was conducted showed that there are two main groups of websites that share common features. Further, the implementation of K-means cluster analysis shows that Group 1 includes 14 websites, that is 46.7% of the sample websites, while Group 2 includes 16 websites (53.3% of the sample). The two groups that are formulated exhibit high internal homogeneity (within cluster) and high external (between clusters) heterogeneity (Figure 1). In the greener group are classified large agrifood firms in dairy production, fresh refreshments and frozen vegetables.

Conclusion The Internet search that was conducted in thirty large firms that operate in agrifood in the prefecture of Attica, Greece described the green challenge incorporation and the green trend rate. Findings in our research reveals that the green trend has been adopted in firms’s websites in the agrifood sector, yet, there is still a lot of space for improvement. Large agrifood firms can be distinguished in two groups “greener trend” agrifood firms and “no green trend” firms. Websites classified in “greener trend” group and the features they incorporate in their online presentation can be used as model for the improvement of the websites in the “nogreen trend” group.

Conclusion-2 Agrifood sector websites are used to promote products and services, and, given the environmental awareness of the public, business have started to follow the green trend. The contemporary consumer cares for the quality of products and services and for the green mentality of a firm and sensitivity towards the community.

Conclusion-3 The development of green products on the level operations or marketing demands innovative ideas, which relate to further restrictions of environmental or consumer pressures. Green innovative strategies have become critical in order to persuade the anticipation of a large percentage of customers with often-contradictory demands.

Thank you!