Framework for responsible (sustainable) marketing

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.