49
The selected companies should be listed in Nasdaq quotation, either the stocks are traded in NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, or other over-the-counter OTC
market from June 2008 to January 2010. Other than NASDAQ listing, the companies will not be observed.
C. Data Collection Technique 1. Types of Data
Generally, data are classified into two -qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data are not characterized by numbers, but rather are textual, visual, or oral; while
quantitative represents phenomena by assigning numbers in an ordered and meaningful way Babin and Griffin, 2010. Qualitative data relies on stories, visual
portrayals, meaningful characterizations, interpretations, and other expressive descriptions Babin and Griffin, 2010. Qualitative research is an exploratory nature,
while quantitative is more descriptive and conclusive.
2. Sources of Data
The data used in this research are secondary data. It is data gathered from an organization or firms in terms of ready-made form of publications or releases
Paramita, 2011: 49. Data used in this study were gathered from Greenpeaces quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics and Nasdaqs quarterly quotation of stock
price in electronics sector from June 2008 to January 2010.
50
3. Data Collection
Since there is no commonly accepted of green marketing concept, either the definition, activities, or strategies, thus the researcher collected ample journals, books,
and other articles to strengthen the fundamentals of green marketing. Beside, the terms economic sustainability may vary from one researcher to other. That is why the
same way goes for economic sustainability to build clear principles. Another challenging matter is measurement of green marketing strategy. The
researcher collected some data either in index format, report, or environmental performance. Fortunately, Greenpeace provides quarterly Guide to Greener
Electronics which scales and ranks electronics companies on policies and practices. Then this guide is justified with a conceptual framework of previous research,
For the purpose of building fundamental concept, the researcher did literary search in internet by using keyword “green marketing”, “environmental marketing”,
“sustainable marketing”, “green strategy”, “environmental strategy”, “stakeholder engagement”, “sustainability”, and “triple bottom line”. The results show plenty of
journals, books, and articles. More than three hundred articles were gathered. Then the researcher classified the sources based on characteristics, such as green marketing
definition, green marketing strategy, sustainability, triple bottom line, sustainability performance measurement, and stakeholder engagement.
In effort to gather suitable references, five-time review of each article was conducted, resulting around fifty journals related to the research object. Then these
journals are compared and encountered to gain holistic view that lies the fundamental blocks of green marketing and economic sustainability concept. In effort of gaining
51
high quality articles, the researcher collected top tier journals from Emerald, JStor, Google Scholar, Elsevier, Interscience Wiley, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan
Management Review, Sage, and the likes. The data collection method was conducted by tracking data of environmental
or sustainable or green marketing index in some publication. Unfortunately, some of the published information point to environmental or green performance, unlike green
marketing strategies. In search of the data that contain elements of green marketing strategies, the choice fell into Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics. The
rationale is the NGO provides publication that assessed companies’ strategies and policy aiming at greening their products, policies, and systems. It is quite different
from other publicly indexes which rather contain companies’ performance output of the strategies than companies’ strategies.
Greenpeace has been campaigning for electronic companies to reduce toxic chemicals usage and improve take back recycling for the past seven years. It involves
regular meetings or calls with the majority of the electronic companies to exchange information and discuss company progress and relevant industry developments
Greenpeace.org. It means that Greenpeace deal with direct contact with the insiders of the companies, as well as monitoring the improvement that companies made.
Nevertheless, Greenpeace only rank companies on their public information and practice, not private information to make sure that the ranking is transparent and
companies can remain publicly accountable Greenpeace.org. The goal is clear that Greenpeace aims to encourage companies to transparently and accountably publish its
progress in greening effort to the society. That is why beside the primary sources by
