Sustainable Marketing Strategy and Consumer Behavior

Dear Colleagues,

The world is witnessing unprecedented environmental challenges, such as climate change, resource depletion, and biodiversity loss (Doh et al., 2019). As these issues continue to garner global attention, consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental and social impacts of their purchasing decisions (Hosta et al., 2021). Therefore, businesses must make innovative reforms to break through resource limitations (Zhu et al., 2022). Businesses are also recognizing the need to align their marketing strategies with sustainability principles, not only to meet consumer demands but also to contribute positively to the planet and society (Grainger-Brown et al., 2019; Drempetic et al., 2020).

Sustainable marketing transcends conventional marketing practices by incorporating ethical, environmental, and social considerations at every stage of the marketing process (Trang et al., 2023; Jung et al., 2020). It entails the creation and promotion of products or services that cater to consumer needs while concurrently minimizing environmental impact, fostering social well-being, and upholding long-term sustainability objectives (Peterson et al., 2021; Liao et al., 2020; Papadas et al., 2019). Sustainable marketing strategies are founded on principles such as transparency, accountability, and the triple bottom-line approach, which evaluates the economic, social, and environmental consequences of business decisions (Trivedi et al., 2018; Hanson et al., 2020).

The growing awareness of sustainability profoundly affects consumer behavior (Boz et al., 2020). Today, consumers are more conscientious about the environmental consequences of their purchases (Ahmed et al., 2021). They seek reassurance that the companies they support are committed to minimizing their carbon footprint and advancing sustainability (Svensson et al., 2016; Qi et al., 2023). This shift in consumer mindset has been confirmed by a recent study conducted by McKinsey in 2023. The study revealed that more than 80% of consumers now prioritize a brand's sustainability practices when making purchasing decisions. Additionally, 40% of consumers reported switching brands in the past year due to concerns about their usual brand's environmental practices.

This Special Issue aims to explore relevant perspectives and developments in sustainable marketing strategies and consumer behavior including the application of artificial intelligence in sustainable marketing (Chou et al., 2022; Li et al., 2021; Huang et al, 2023), new trends and challenges in sustainable marketing (Gao et al., 2022; Qi et al, 2022), green marketing strategies (Hadi et al., 2023), consumer behavior towards eco-friendly products (Roh et al., 2022; Lan et al., 2019), and so on. Theoretically, this Special Issue will advance the research on sustainable marketing and consumer behavior by including various creative perspectives and new business developments. Furthermore, all the topics included will elucidate the influences of new opportunities and challenges, digital technologies, green strategies, and artificial intelligence on marketing and consumer behavior (Sailer et al., 2022). Therefore, this Special Issue will provide new insights for scholars and managers to conduct future research and operational business activities.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. The scope includes, but is not limited to, the following issues:

• The evolution of sustainable marketing in China;
• Marketing models and strategies for sustainable marketing in China;
• Marketing theory challenges in the new digital marketing era;
• Implementation of digital marketing issues of manufacturing, service, and commercial enterprises;
• Determinants of and changes in consumer behavior in data-driven marketing;
• Consumer attitudes, preferences, buying priorities, purchase decisions, and choices for the implementation of sustainable marketing principles;
• Corporate marketing strategies for sustainability;
• Application of artificial intelligence in sustainable marketing;
• New trends and challenges in sustainable marketing;
• Role of digital platforms in sustainable marketing;
• Sustainable labels in shaping consumer behavior;
• Impact of e-commerce live streaming on consumer behavior;
• The development of green marketing Strategies;
• Trends of consumer behavior towards eco-friendly products;
• Green supply chain and marketing development;
• Environmental regulation and green marketing;
• The role of digital technologies in green marketing and green purchasing;
• The role of AI in understanding and predicting consumer behavior;
• Ethical implications of AI in sustainable marketing;
• Leveraging AI and big data analytics to measure the effectiveness of sustainable marketing initiatives;
• AI-driven optimization of sustainable supply chain and distribution networks;
• AI-based chatbots and virtual assistants for sustainable customer engagement;
• The influence of ecological marketing on sustainable development;
• Circular economy's challenge to sustainable marketing;
• The impact of remanufactured products on consumer purchases;
• Corporate social responsibility and consumer behavior responses;
• Corporate social responsibility and international marketing;
• Corporate social responsibility and green marketing.

References

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Boz Z, Korhonen V, Koelsch Sand C. Consumer considerations for the implementation of sustainable packaging: A review[J]. Sustainability, 2020, 12(6): 2192.

Chou S F, Horng J S, Liu C H et al. Identifying the critical factors for sustainable marketing in the catering: The influence of big data applications, marketing innovation, and technology acceptance model factors[J]. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 2022, 51: 11-21.

Doh J P, Tashman P, Benischke M H. Adapting to grand environmental challenges through collective entrepreneurship[J]. Academy of Management Perspectives, 2019, 33(4): 450-468

Drempetic S, Klein C, Zwergel B. The influence of firm size on the ESG score: Corporate sustainability ratings under review[J]. Journal of Business Ethics, 2020, 167: 333-360.

Gao B, Li Z, Yan J. The influence of social commerce on eco‐friendly consumer behavior: Technological and social roles[J]. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2022, 21(4): 653-672.

Grainger-Brown J, Malekpour S. Implementing the sustainable development goals: A review of strategic tools and frameworks available to organisations[J]. Sustainability, 2019, 11(5): 1381.

Hadi R, Melumad S, Park E S. The Metaverse: A new digital frontier for consumer behavior[J]. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2023.

Hanson W A, Kalyanam K. Internet marketing and e-commerce.[M]. Thomson/South-Western, 2020.

Hosta M, Zabkar V. Antecedents of environmentally and socially responsible sustainable consumer behavior[J]. Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, 171(2): 273-293.

Huang W, Hu P, Tsai F-S, Liu Y, Huang Y. Smart Sales Empower Small Farmers: An Integrated Matching Method between Suppliers and Consumers Based on the Information Axiom. Sustainability. 2022, 14(24):16937.

Jung J, Kim S J, Kim K H. Sustainable marketing activities of traditional fashion market and brand loyalty[J]. Journal of Business Research, 2020, 120: 294-301.

Lan Li, Gang Li, Shui F Chan. Corporate responsibility for employees and service innovation performance in manufacturing transformation: The mediation role of employee innovative behavior[J]. Career Development International, 2019, 24(6): 580-595.

Liao Y K, Wu W Y, Pham T T. Examining the moderating effects of green marketing and green psychological benefits on customers’ green attitude, value and purchase intention[J]. Sustainability, 2020, 12(18): 7461.

Li Gao, Gang Li, Fusheng Tsai, Chen Gao, Mengjiao Zhu, Xiaopian Qu. The impact of artificial intelligence stimuli on customer engagement and value co-creation: the moderating role of customer ability readiness[J]. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing. Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print.

Papadas K K, Avlonitis G J, Carrigan M et al. The interplay of strategic and internal green marketing orientation on competitive advantage[J]. Journal of Business Research, 2019, 104: 632-643.

Peterson M, Minton E A, Liu R L et al. Sustainable marketing and consumer support for sustainable businsses[J]. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 2021, 27: 157-168.

Qi B, Deng T, Yang Z. The Role of User Experience in the Impact of Low-Carbon Building Characteristics on Consumer’s Housing Purchase Intention[J]. Sustainability, 2023, 15(13): 10194.

Qi B, Yang, Z. Board Group Faultlines, Slack Resource, and Corporate Carbon Performance[J]. Sustainability, 2022, 14(20): 13053.

Roh T, Noh J, Oh Y et al. Structural relationships of a firm's green strategies for environmental performance: The roles of green supply chain management and green marketing innovation[J]. Journal of cleaner production, 2022, 356: 131877.

Sailer A, Wilfing H, Straus E. Greenwashing and bluewashing in black Friday-related sustainable fashion marketing on Instagram[J]. Sustainability, 2022, 14(3): 1494.

Svensson G, Høgevold N, Ferro C et al. A triple bottom line dominant logic for business sustainability: Framework and empirical findings[J]. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 2016, 23(2): 153-188.

Trang P N T, Hanh Le A N, Tan L P et al. Sustainable Marketing Management: Using Bibliographic Coupling to Review the State-Of-The-Art and Identify Future Research Prospects[J]. Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, 2023, 30(1): 63-85.

Trivedi K, Trivedi P, Goswami V. Sustainable marketing strategies: Creating business value by meeting consumer expectation[J]. International Journal of Management, Economics, and Social Sciences, 2018, 7(2): 186-205.

Zhu H, Zhang K, Li G et al. Relationship Management Capability and Service Innovation Performance: The Joint-Effect of Relationship Learning and Competitive Intensity[J]. Sustainability, 2022, 14(19): 12308.

Prof. Dr. Zhilin Yang
Guest Editor

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• sustainable marketing
• marketing strategy
• consumer behavior
• green marketing
• digital technologies
• artificial intelligence
• green supply chain