Using neo-animism to revisit actors for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in S-D logic

Abstract

To achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a marketing ecosystem composed only of human producers, customers/consumers, and economic stakeholders is inadequate. Instead, foundational rethinking is required. The study's purpose is to analyze some of the constraints inherent in dominant marketing ontologies for reaching the SDGs. One such foundational constraint in the dominant market ontology is human-centricity, ignoring relationships between humans, animals, and other members of the natural biotic community. Neo-animism rejects the culture (humans)-nature dichotomy. We present three contributions that we call ontological enablers to pursue the SDGs. These contributions bridge a neo-animist approach to resource integration and value cocreation in service-dominant (S-D) logic, which entails implications for researchers and managers. Future research avenues elaborate a relational resource integration and cocreation approach between people and diverse members of the entire biotic community.