The impact of sustainability on marketing strategy and business performance: The case of Italian fisheries

In the last years, sustainability has become a successful, relevant, critical factor in several food industries. The adoption of a sustainable marketing strategy contributes positively to changes in society in terms of environmental, social and economic development. The relationship between sustainability and business performance has been widely debated in management and organisational studies. However, despite its importance and relevance, fishery sustainability has not been systematically considered by scientific studies. This paper identifies and analyses the critical factors that describe the propensity towards sustainable development for large companies within the Italian fishery sector. For this purpose, the relationships among the following latent variables were analysed: sustainable social behaviour, sustainable environmental behaviour, sustainable marketing, and return on investment. A theoretical research model has been proposed and empirically tested using a methodology based on structural equation modelling.