Sustainability, epistemology, ecocentric business and marketing strategy: ideology, reality, and vision (original) (raw)

Transformational Marketing: Linking Marketing and Sustainability

Current marketing practices promote goods and services irrespective as to what their impacts on the environment and human society are. As this often has serious negative ecological and social consequences, change in practices and better education are required. The paper argues for the need for transformational marketing which links marketing with sustainability values in order to contribute towards mitigating or reversing the environmental and other harm caused by humans because of their poor consumption choices. Such new sustainability approach to marketing would allow to: (1) change the way marketing is perceived; (2) improve its role within society and (3) emphasize the long-term responsibility of business and consumers in relation to the marketed products, services or activities. Incorporating sustainability into education for marketing would inspire marketers to develop a new business ethics that puts global human and ecological values ahead of short-term business profits. Most importantly, such ethics would build the foundations of trust and respect allowing marketing to support only moral and responsible businesses, the benefits from which would be long-term and to broader society.

Marketing’s Quest for Environmental Sustainability: Persistent Challenges and New Perspectives

Review of Marketing Research: Marketing in and for a Sustainable Society, N. Malhotra, Ed; Volume 13 (pp. 29-59), 2016

The purpose of this chapter is fivefold. First, it highlights that, despite apparent progress, business in general, and marketing in particular, has made little impact upon environmental sustainability. Second, it offers four explanations for the persistent challenges that contribute to this lack of meaningful progress. Third, it presents two theoretical lenses (i.e., assemblage theory and socio-ecological systems theory) for viewing environmental sustainability from new perspectives. Fourth, it offers a mid-range theory, biomimicry, to bridge the gap between these higher-level theories and managerial decisions on the ground. Finally, it offers implications and ideas for future research based on these persistent challenges and new perspectives.

Marketing and sustainability from the perspective of future decision makers

South African Journal of Business Management

Contemporary research on sustainability is fragmented between multiple disciplines and areas, with on-going debates about methodological as well as practical issues. The core value of sustainability is embedded in the long-term maintenance of quality of life and contains environmental, economic and social components. Business organizations have a substantial responsibility for preserving the quality of life for future generations, as a result of the role they play in transforming natural and societal resources into goods and services. The marketing function is a major force in strategic decision-making in contemporary organizations. With its arsenal of tools for influencing (managing) consumption patterns, marketing must take responsibility for sustainable behaviour of both organizations and consumers. This article discusses the role of marketing in facilitating sustainable behaviour. Contemporary marketing education may not prepare students to use marketing’s influence to support s...

Marketing and sustainability

2002

· What is 'the environment'? 10· What is ecology? 10· What do people mean by 'environmental quality'? 10· What is the concept of sustainability? 10· What is green consumerism or socially conscious consumerism? 10· What is sustainable consumption? 11· What is the stakeholder concept? 11· What is marketing? 11· What is ecological marketing? 12· What is greener marketing? 12· What is sustainable marketing? 12

Conscious Marketing: Seeds for a New Marketing Concept to Deal with the Potential Conflicts Between Consumerism and Sustainability

2020

This paper deals with a perceived conflicting paradox between consumerism and sustainability among top marketing executives of three purposely selected corporations, where each company represent a current organizational paradigm: the functional, the human radical and the interpretative. A case study methodology, based on in depth interviews, combined with a comprehensive bibliographic research, enabled to address how the planet limitations to provide resources can influence business strategies. Functional paradigm companies, for example, pursue infinite growth while we live in a finite planet. The question is if the Marketing Department of those companies in the different organizational paradigms have a role in providing inputs in the strategic long term planning. Furthermore, if the marketing discipline in the academic environment influence decision makers that participate on the companies’ business planning to shape the future in a perceived environment in 2017 where consumerism ...

Evolution of sustainability as marketing strategy: Beginning of new era

Time has witnessed the different phases of marketing strategy. Out of which, sustainability is the key issue which has emerged in marketing strategy over the time. In earlier phase of 1970s, ecological issues have emerged as a new paradigm in marketing strategy. Then in next decade, social issues picked up the lime light and emerged along with ecology. Reassessment of the issues resulted in evolution of green or environmental issues in marketing strategy and now the sustainability in marketing strategy has become the focus of attention of the researchers. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are, first, to review and understand concepts of marketing strategy and sustainability, secondly, to discuss evolution of sustainability in marketing strategy and lastly, to discuss the future of sustainability marketing strategy.

Green Marketing: An Ethical and Anti-Environmental Resilient Approach for Sustainable Business

Problemy Ekorozwoju

Green Marketing is not a novel concept in the field of marketing. The American Marketing Association designates green marketing as an essential tool of marketing that promotes environmentally friendly products. In line with this thought, the present study attempts to show that green marketing practices entail the core elements of sustainability i.e., social responsibility, environmental concern and economic growth that reinforce in promoting sustainable development. Besides, it also argues that though there are many overarching implications and challenges in green marketing practices yet it substantially contributes in attaining sustainable development goals by incorporating ethical standards in all of its operational antecedents. This study therefore incorporates the notion of transgenerational ethics of Kant’s Categorical Imperative in green marketing approach. In doing so, it would serve as a guiding forum to the contemporary marketers primarily to prevent the absolute anthropoce...

Sustainable Marketing: Market-Driving, Not Market-Driven

Journal of Macromarketing, 2020

Sustainability has emerged as a critical macromarketing perspective over the last five decades. Starting with the early concerns in the 1960s about the world’s finite resources that would limit economic growth, sustainability thinking has expanded to encompass societal issues and ecological and environmental considerations in economic and governance activities. Governments and businesses need to act in tandem to address myriad world problems associated with climate change, pollution, environmental degradation, depleting resources, and the socio-economic disparities that characterize persistent world hunger and poverty. A vital aspect of this challenge is to stop or reverse unsustainable production and consumption that have hitherto been pursued as part of market-driven business activity. Marketing, through its market-driven consumption-oriented practices, may have knowingly or unknowingly promoted these unsustainable production-consumption practices. Therefore, it needs to change it...

Environmental Management: Revising the Marketing Perspective

Journal of Marketing, 1984

Environmental management argues that marke ing strategies can be implemented to change th context in which the organization operates, bot in terms of constraints on the marketing functio and limits on the organization as a whole. Th current movement toward innovative, entrepre neurial management-a return to the roots c American enterprise-captures the essence of thi perspective. The absence or, at a minimum, th understatement of this perspective within thi marketing literature limits the contribution of mar keting to the management of organization-envi ronment relationships. The paper reviews thede velopment of environmental management in allie disciplines, offers a typology of strategies, dis cusses implementation issues, and presents im plications of the perspective for marketing theory

CONSUMERISM AND SUSTAINABILITY: A POINT OF VIEW BEYOND SOCIAL MARKETING

This paper deals with a perceived conflicting paradox between consumerism and sustainability based on a comprehensive bibliographic research that enabled an assessment if the planet limitations to provide resources can influence business strategies that aim the continuous company growth in a finite planet. Moreover, brings a point of view of the role of the Marketing Department in providing inputs in the strategic long term planning of those companies to shape the future of its organization as well as the trend setter group of professionals that bring and shape the sustainability drivers to the business. Part of the analysis revealed that while the Marketing Department has limited power or voice to influence business decisions, the 'greener' initiatives like Social Marketing, Sustainable Marketing and Sustainable Consumption has potential to either evolve to or incorporate a new concept, the 'Conscious Marketing'. The paper will illustrate that this innovative marketing concept has a greater opportunity to be kicked off at the academic level in Universities and Business School that will reinforce the relevance of the theme and help to build in the students, a new generation of professionals, the knowledge that this is a finite planet with limited resources and that the humanity need to revisit its consumption standards to ensure living conditions to the future generations.