Marketing and Sustainable Development: A Predictive Empirical Insight

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development is a response to ecological and moral imperatives requiring equity among the present inhabitants of Earth as well as intergenerational equity (Varey, 2010). At the micro-level, firms and consumers have witnessed the transition from a production orientation to a market orientation to, more recently, a sustainable market orientation, which integrates economic, social and ecological dimensions as a holistic approach to business. The conceptualisation of sustainability marketing in the literature shows clear differences in sustainability views and the role of marketing in contributing to sustainable development (Kemper and Ballantine, 2019). For instance, sustainable marketing orientation is modeled as a formative multidimensional measure of three elements: strategic integration, societal engagement and ethical capabilities (Lucic, 2020). Moreover, Kelleci and Yıldız (2021) propose a guiding framework for levels of sustainability in marketing in a distinction of positive (growth-oriented) and normative (well-being oriented) scopes of marketing, such as mass marketing, green marketing, circular marketing, sustainable marketing and sufficiency marketing.

Consumers are strongly recognised as leaders for change, and thus, consumer demand is seen as a reason to engage in sustainable activities, so the problem of unsustainable consumption lies in a lack of information and knowledge by the consumer (Rakic and Rakic, 2015). Firms can co-create sustainability by facilitating value for the consumer through sustainable products and services and promoting sustainability by engaging consumers with the brand’s core values (Palakshappa and Dodd, 2020). Therefore, the role of the brand is to facilitate the consumer’s brand experience, creating a transformational shift towards sustainable consumption. In this vein, firms consider the importance of digital and social media platforms and initiate incremental changes towards more sustainability activities through shared values, knowledge and resources (Arnold, 2017). In addition, transformative marketing opens a new stream of sustainability research (Kumar, 2018). Transformations in the marketing function reflect changes in the immediate business environment. While the impact of transformations can be identified through companies’ financial results, a deeper meaning for such a transformation exists in societal changes. 

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue entitled "Marketing and sustainable development: A predictive empirical insight”. We encourage researchers to provide relevant empirical manuscripts on greater predictability of the results of firms and/or customer outcomes. Prediction modelling is a different purpose in the research methodology due to holdout samples. Researchers estimate the scores of the two parts of the sample (formative and holdout sample) to confirm prediction validity. We recommend test hypotheses using the partial least squares (PLS) technique and its predictive quality evaluation considering a holdout sample to cross-validate the final sample (Shmueli et al., 2019). Additionally, researchers using regression methodology instead of PLS will be required to use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in a cross-validation of the divided sample (Monferrer et al., 2019).

References

Arnold M. Fostering sustainability by linking co-creation and relationship management concepts. J Clean Prod [Internet]. 2017;140:179-88. 

Monferrer D, Segarra JR, Estrada M, Moliner MA. Service quality and customer loyalty in a post-crisis context. prediction-oriented modeling to enhance the particular importance of a social and sustainable approach. Sustainability [Internet]. 2019;11(18)

Lučić A. Measuring sustainable marketing orientation-scale development process. Sustainability [Internet]. 2020;12(5).

Kelleci A, Yıldız O. A guiding framework for levels of sustainability in marketing. Sustainability [Internet]. 2021;13(4):1-14.

Kemper JA, Ballantine PW. What do we mean by sustainability marketing? J Mark Manage [Internet]. 2019;35(3-4):277-309.  

Kumar V. Transformative marketing: The next 20 years. J Mark [Internet]. 2018;82(4):1-12

Palakshappa N, Dodds S. Mobilising SDG 12: Co-creating sustainability through brands. Mark Intell Plann [Internet]. 2021;39(2):265-83.

Rakic B, Rakic M. Holistic management of marketing sustainability in the process of sustainable development. Environ Eng Manage J [Internet]. 2015;14(4):887-900 

Shmueli G, Sarstedt M, Hair JF, Cheah J-, Ting H, Vaithilingam S, Ringle CM. Predictive model assessment in PLS-SEM: Guidelines for using PLSpredict. Eur J Mark [Internet]. 2019;53(11):2322-47.

Varey RJ. Marketing means and ends for a sustainable society: A welfare agenda for transformative change.

Dr. José Ramon Segarra-Moliner
Dr. Inmaculada Bel-Oms
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• sustainable development
• sustainable marketing orientation
• transformative marketing
• prediction relevance
• partial least squares (PLS)