Sustainable Marketing in China

Dear Colleagues,

The environmental burden of economic development has heightened awareness of the notion of sustainability in all relevant economies [1]. Traditionally, marketing has been centered on enhancing an organization’s financial interests, guided by the mainstream utilitarian ethic [2]. However, maximizing financial well-being has unintentionally exacerbated a slew of social and environmental problems. As commercial interests contribute to rampant consumption patterns, businesses are obligated to perform marketing in a sustainable manner [3]. Sustainable marketing is a novel marketing concept. It is committed to delivering long-term value through a combination of product innovation and customer service while minimizing environmental impact and enhancing customers’ and global stakeholders’ quality of life and well-being [4]. Since the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, it has fundamentally impacted how the world was regarded. An increasing number of people are beginning to re-examine the relationship between humans and nature, and consumer behavior has shifted to more sustainable patterns in response [5]. Businesses with sustainable patterns have been more resilient to the pandemic’s uncertainty. To acquire new competitive advantages, organizations have incorporated social and environmental issues, particularly global stakeholder well-being elements, into their operations [3,6]. Scholars advocate exploring sustainable marketing through the lens of the 4Ps of the Social and Ecological Thought (SET) paradigm—product, price, place and promotion [2]. The GREEN Framework (i.e., globalized marketplace of value exchange, responsible environmental behavior, equitable sustainable business practice, ethical sustainable consumption, necessary quality of life and well-being) has also been used to outline a course of action for sustainable marketing that is based on an exchange of values between the macro-level of society and the micro-level of consumers and businesses [4]. The value exchange is contingent upon stakeholders’ interactions with the environment [4]. Thus, examining sustainable marketing in terms of how stakeholder responsible behavior manifests itself in a globalized market context helps illuminate the deeper meaning of sustainable marketing. There is a dearth of study on the effect of sustainable marketing strategies and routines on customers’ environmental concerns and skepticism about these concerns [4].

China, as the world’s second-largest economy, has a sizable consumer base. The rapid rise of China’s market economy in the last 20 years has been accompanied by the emergence of the “brand-marketing-media” chain. According to China’s iResearch 2020 report, despite a progressive shift in Chinese consumers’ perceptions, many customers do not prioritize sustainability in their purchase decisions. Chinese consumers throughout generations exhibit a range of varying consumption attitudes and behaviors [7–8]. Generation Z, being digital natives, has markedly different consumption preferences from Generations X and Y. For instance, China is a country heavily guided by Confucianism, but it remains unknown whether Chinese Generation Z customers’ attitudes towards sustainable marketing are still influenced by traditional Chinese Confucianism [9–12]. Organizations are already aware of the value of sustainability and can choose sustainable marketing tactics to educate potential consumers who may not be concerned at the present but who may have generalized concepts that will influence their buying behavior in the near future [13–14]. Promoting sustainable marketing concepts demands a knowledge of the distinctions between Chinese consumers’ generations. Moreover, due to the huge expanse of China, studying sustainable marketing in China cannot be limited to a holistic group of Chinese consumers. Because of the unique diversity of Chinese consumers across geographies and cultures, researchers, in particular, require insights into sustainable or responsible consumer behavior to assist marketers in making decisions.

With the construction of digital platforms, e-commerce and social media marketing models have become the mainstream way of marketing in China. The practical aspects of sustainable marketing on digital platforms are a growing area of global interest. The Chinese government’s support of information technology has accelerated the growth of e-commerce for agricultural products in the country [15]. Webcasting or live streaming has established itself as the new sales model. In particular, during COVID-19, fresh produce e-commerce platforms replaced a significant proportion of offline grocery shopping and gained the opportunity to cultivate the market. The development of marketing models for fresh produce platforms has mitigated the risks of climate change for agricultural product marketing, hence boosting sustainable agricultural development. Consumers are growing increasingly concerned with the quality of their food and the environment in which it is grown. Given that fresh food is typically an ‘experience commodity’, it is a challenge to judge its quality based on its appearance. They tend to trust products that can be traced through digital platforms. Understanding the mechanisms of consumer trust in a business is a prerequisite for sustainable marketing. For some international companies, the success of sustainable marketing in China is one of the benchmarks that determine whether their products have the potential to generate worldwide expansion. In this Special Issue, we would like to explore the topic of sustainable marketing in China, which may bring innovative insight into the organizations in China. We thereby call for original research articles (conceptual or empirical) on the following illustrative (but not exhaustive) topics for the Special Issue.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• The evolution of sustainable marketing in China;
• Marketing models and strategies for sustainable marketing in China;
• The impact of responsible stakeholder behavior on sustainable marketing;
• The role of practices in the value chain, supply chain and industrial chain in sustainable marketing;
• The impact of digital platforms on sustainable marketing;
• The impact of sustainable marketing on business innovation and sustainable competitive advantage;
• Consumer behavior and psychology in sustainable marketing;
• Customer experience and sustainable marketing;
• The role of corporate branding in sustainable marketing;
• The mechanism of trust between consumers and organizations in sustainable marketing;
• The impact of artificial intelligence technology stimuli on customer-perceived value and customer stickiness in the sustainable marketing;
• The impact of artificial intelligence technology stimuli on customers in the sustainable marketing;
• The impact of relational benefits on farmers’ repurchase intention in agricultural, sustainable marketing;
• The matching methods for agricultural products sales in agricultural sustainable marketing;
• Public participation and public relationships in sustainable environmental governance;
• Chinese entrepreneurship and sustainable behaviors;
• Institutional environment and carbon disclosure in China;
• The impact of carbon disclosure on firms’ market performance;
• The join-developing manufacturing and logistics industry under a sustainable supply chain perspective;
• The role of marketing in promoting carbon disclosure and carbon reduction;
• The join-developing manufacturing and logistics industry under sustainable supply chain Perspective;
• The impact of digital platforms on logistics enterprise alliance;
• Behavioral nudges to promote sustainable consumer behavior;
• The carbon disclosure behavior of Chinese firms;
• The role of relationship management capability and service innovation in corporate, sustainable development.

References

1. Rudawska, E. Insights from the Food & Drink Industry. In The Sustainable Marketing Concept in European SMEs; Emerald Publishing Limited: Bingley, UK, 2018; pp. 53–79.
2. Dyck, B.; Manchanda, R.V. Sustainable Marketing Based on Virtue Ethics: Addressing Socio-Ecological Challenges Facing Humankind. AMS Rev. 2021, 11, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-020-00184-7.
3. Trivedi; Trivedi, K.; Goswami, P. Sustainable Marketing Strategies: Creating Business Value by Meeting Consumer Expectation. IJMESS 2018, 7, 186–205.
4. Lunde, M.B. Sustainability in Marketing: A Systematic Review Unifying 20 Years of Theoretical and Substantive Contributions (1997–2016). AMS Rev. 2018, 8, 85–110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-018-0124-0.
5. Orîndaru, A.; Popescu, M.-F.; Căescu, Ș.-C.; Botezatu, F.; Florescu, M.S.; Runceanu-Albu, C.-C. Leveraging COVID-19 Outbreak for Shaping a More Sustainable Consumer Behavior. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5762. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115762.
6. Kolk, A. The Social Responsibility of International Business: From Ethics and the Environment to CSR and Sustainable Development. J. World Bus. 2016, 51, 23–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2015.08.010.
7. Zhou, X.; van Tilburg, W.A.; Mei, D.; Wildschut, T.; Sedikides, C. Hungering For the Past: Nostalgic Food Labels Increase Purchase Intentions and Actual Consumption. Appetite 2019, 140, 151–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.05.007.
8. He, L.; Feng, C.; Liu, Y.; Zhou, X. The Pursuit of Optimal Distinctiveness and Consumer Preferences. J. Psychol. 2010, 51, 411–417. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00802.x.
9. Zhou, X.; He, L.; Yang, Q.; Lao, J.; Baumeister, R.F. Control Deprivation and Styles of Thinking. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2012, 102, 460–478. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026316.
10. Sun, Y.; Garrett, T.C.; Kim, K.H. Do Confucian Principles Enhance Sustainable Marketing and Customer Equity? J. Bus. Res. 2016, 69, 3772–3779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.069.
11. Zhou, W.; Yang, Z.; Michael; Hyman, R. Contextual Influences on Marketing and Consumerism: An East Asian Perspective. Mark. Rev. 2021, 38, 641–656.
12. Yang, Z.; Su, C. Understanding Asian Business Strategy: Modeling Institution-Based Legitimacy-embedded Efficiency. Bus. Res. 2013, 66, 2369–2374.
13. Yang, Z.; Su, C.; Fam, K.-S. Dealing with Institutional Distances in International Marketing Channels: Governance Strategies that Engender Legitimacy and Efficiency? J. Mark. 2012, 76, 41–55.
14. Sun, Y.; Weng, C.; Liao, Z. Product Innovation and Sustainable Marketing: Effects on Consumer Innovativeness. Technol. Anal. Strateg. 2018, 31, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2018.1550255.
15. Wang, Z.; Li, J.; Chen, P. Factors Influencing Chinese Flower and Seedling Family Farms’ Intention to Use Live Streaming as a Sustainable Marketing Method: An Application of Extended Theory of Planned Behavior. Environ. Dev. Sustain. 2021, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01616-5.

Prof. Dr. Zhilin Yang
Prof. Dr. Xinyue Zhou
Dr. Hiram Ting
Dr. Binyao Ning
Prof. Dr. Gang Li
Guest Editors

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• sustainable marketing in China
• responsible behavior
• digitalization
• social media
• generations
• branding trust
• innovation
• sustainable competitive advantage