PONE-D-25-48491 Examining the Impact of Green Marketing Practices on Business Performance: A Synergistic Application of Resource-Based View and Triple Bottom Line Theory PLOS ONE

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Based on reviewers' comment, hope you can revise your manuscript to improve the quality. Thanks.

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Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study investigates the impact of green marketing practices (GMP) on business performance (BP), as mediated by perceived competitive advantage (PCA) and green innovation marketing strategy (GIMS). There are several revisions are required to improve clarity, theoretical rigour and practical applicability.

1.Although the manuscript references RBV and TBL, it lacks an explicit justification for selecting these frameworks over alternatives . The theoretical background should be expanded to contrast RBV and TBL, and their suitability for the context of the study should be justified.

2. The sample is predominantly male (82.51%) and comprises a high proportion of manufacturing-sector employees (43.56%), which could limit its generalisability.

3.Although convergent (AVE > 0.50) and discriminant (HTMT < 0.90) validity are confirmed, reliance on self-reported Likert-scale data risks common method bias. The paper could include robustness checks (e.g. a single-factor test) to validate the findings.

4.The paper could expand the discussion of the policy recommendations by providing specific examples from emerging economies.

Reviewer #2: This manuscript investigation is to assess the influence of green marketing practices and their potential effects on organizations' operational performance. While the topic is timely and practically relevant, the manuscript faces several critical issues.

1. In the introduction section, please supplement the overview of relevant research on green marketing. The manuscript only seems to extract the importance of research from the practical background, ignoring the research gap, the necessity of unanswered research questions, how the research questions are solved in the existing research, and the unsolved problems that the manuscript intends to solve from what perspective.

2. Although the manuscript mentions that "business performance is indicated by environmental, economic and social performance as per the triple bottom line (TBL) theory”, environmental, economic and social performance should be taken as the three dimensions of business performance rather than as the outcome variables of business performance.

3. In the description of the data collection section, the authors mention that " We disseminated 400 questionnaires across various enterprises (manufacturing, nonmanufacturing, and service sectors)", whether the "various enterprises" mentioned here have implemented green marketing? In addition, whether the subjects understand the enterprise performance also needs to be considered, and usually the middle and senior managers are familiar with the enterprise performance.

4. In the theoretical contribution section, it is suggested to elaborate the theoretical contribution in sections and echo the existing theories.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Xinjian Liang

Reviewer #2: No

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Submitted filename: PONE-D-25-48491_reviewer.docx

PONE-D-25-48491R1 Examining the Impact of Green Marketing Practices on Business Performance: A Synergistic Application of Resource-Based View and Triple Bottom Line Theory PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Babu,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised by the reviewers.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Dec 31 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Jibril Adewale Bamgbade

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Thanks for inviting me to evaluate Manuscript entitled “Examining the Impact of Green Marketing Practices on Business Performance: A Synergistic Application of Resource-Based View and Triple Bottom Line Theory”

This study investigates the relationship between green marketing practices (GMP) and business performance (BP), employing the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theories. Although I think the goal of the paper is clear and is well motivated, the manuscript could be improved from the following aspects.

1.The paper operationalizes environmental, economic, and social performance as outcomes of BP. However, prior literature often treats these as dimensions of BP itself. More destailed Clarification of this distinction are needed. The authors can revise the conceptual framework to explicitly show whether BP is a higher-order construct with three dimensions or a precursor to these outcomes.

2. While PCA and GIMS are positioned as mediators, the rationale for their selection over other potential mediators (e.g., stakeholder pressure, institutional support) is underdeveloped. The theoretical justification should be strengthened on green marketing mediators.

3.The study claims to include firms engaged in GMP but lacks details on how green status was verified. More description about the criteria for selecting green enterprises should be added.

4.Although VIF scores (<3.3) suggest minimal CMB [9], the reliance on self-reported data from managers raises concerns about social desirability bias.

5.The path coefficients (e.g., GMP → BP: β= 0.326; BP → ENP: β= 0.653) are statistically significant but modest. The authors should discuss practical significance to contextualize findings .

6.Firm size, industry sector, and regulatory environment may confound the GMP-BP relationship.

7. In the Discussion part, the theoretical contributions is fragmented. The theoretical grounding need to be enhenced.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed, and made modifications to the manuscript. I feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: Yes: xinjian liang

Reviewer #2: No

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Examining the Impact of Green Marketing Practices on Business Performance: A Synergistic Application of Resource-Based View and Triple Bottom Line Theory

PONE-D-25-48491R2

Dear Dr. Md. Asaduzzaman Babu,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Jibril Adewale Bamgbade

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: