Framework for responsible (sustainable) marketing

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Abstract

Corporates and consumers are aware of the environmental consequences of consumption. However, forty per cent of environmental degradation is known to have been caused by human consumption behaviour while marketing has been blamed for promoting materialism (irresponsible consumption). Literature suggests that adopting responsible marketing strategies would not only promote responsible consumption (Abutaleb & El-Bassiouny, 2020) but also build long-term competitive advantage (Agrawal, Kumar, & Rahman, 2017) and help companies financially (Eccles, Ioannou, & Serafeim, 2011). Building responsible marketing strategies would, however, require changes at both, the organisational and the marketing level (Rudwaska, 2019). This paper, using a theory-building methodology, proposes a framework that identifies the organisational values (necessary condition) and the responsible marketer’s role (sufficient condition) for responsible marketing that ensures responsible consumer behaviour for all the different stages of the marketing planning process. Themes from papers presented in an International Conference on Responsible Marketing were analysed to suggest how corporates could develop responsible marketing strategies and promote responsible consumption. Applicability, limitations, and areas for future research are identified.

Keywords: Sustainable Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Environmental Issues, Ethics

Authors’ individual contribution: The Author is responsible for all the contributions to the paper according to CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) standards.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: M14, M31, F64, L21, I31

Received: 13.06.2020
Accepted: 17.08.2020
Published online: 19.08.2020

How to cite this paper: Pingali, V. (2020). Framework for responsible (sustainable) marketing. Corporate Governance and Sustainability Review, 4(2), 50-55. https://doi.org/10.22495/cgsrv4i2p5