SUSTAINABILITY AS CONTEXTUALIZED MEANING AND MARKETING NARRATIVE: A QUALITATIVE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF OLIVE OIL SMES IN PALESTINE AND GREECE

Abstract

This study examines how olive oil SMEs in Palestine and Greece construct and communicate sustainability as a marketing narrative, addressing four research questions: how sustainability is defined by producers, how these meanings translate into marketing narratives, what ethical logics underpin communication practices, and how macro-contextual factors shape narrative convergences and divergences. Conceptualizing sustainability as a contextually embedded system of meaning shaped by socio-political, institutional, and moral conditions, the research adopts a qualitative comparative multiple-case study design. Data were collected through 60 semi-structured interviews with SME owners, production managers, and marketing coordinators (30 per context), complemented by marketing materials analysis and exploratory consumer feedback (n=16). Thematic analysis with a structured coding hierarchy was employed, achieving saturation after the 25th interview per context. Findings reveal that sustainability functions as a narrative mechanism for articulating legitimacy, authenticity, and continuity. Greek SMEs frame sustainability through heritage, certification, and market legitimacy, reflecting integration into European institutional regimes. Palestinian SMEs construct sustainability through moral responsibility, resilience, and place attachment, shaped by political constraints and economic precarity. Exploratory consumer insights suggest that narrative reception is context-dependent: certification-based claims resonate in regulated markets, while moral narratives gain traction among culturally proximate audiences. The study contributes a conceptual framework positioning sustainability as a dynamic, relational narrative construction process, advancing sustainability marketing literature through a moral economy perspective. This shifts analytical attention from predefined sustainability indicators to producer-driven sensemaking and provides five testable propositions for future cross-context research on sustainability communication in agri-food systems.