INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING AND SOCIETY
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals

Author: Galina Biedenbach

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Special issue

Baltic Journal of Management

Sustainability marketing and sustainability management: Exploring new perspectives on sustainable development

Call for papers

Guest editors:

Assoc. Prof. Galina Biedenbach, Umeå University, Sweden

Professor Johan Jansson, Umeå University, Sweden

Assoc. Prof. Virginija Poškutė, ISM University of Management and Economics, Lithuania

The main aim of this special issue is to explore new perspectives on sustainability and sustainable development by inviting studies focusing on sustainability-related topics in marketing and management, as well as encouraging interdisciplinary research in these areas.

Historically, the global attention to sustainable development arose when the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in their report “Our common future” proposed the concept of sustainable development, that is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, and called for international efforts needed for addressing sustainability challenges (WCED 1987). More than three decades later, in 2022, the agenda of achieving sustainable development is far from being attained in our contemporary society that faces a deepening ecological crisis and widening social and economic inequalities. In the challenging times of the global pandemic, researchers across different disciplines continue the debate on how to achieve a better and more sustainable future, as well as explore novel approaches to attaining this vision. For example, green recovery, a perspective viewing economic recovery after the pandemic as an enabler of sustainability transition, represents an important new impetus for sustainable development (Gusheva and de Gooyert 2021; Lahcen et al. 2020). Although green recovery and other emerging perspectives on sustainable development (e.g. social-ecological systems (Reyers et al. 2018); systems of sustainable consumption and production (Schröder et al. 2019); social-ecological networks (Felipe-Lucia et al. 2021)) provide critical insights and can potentially serve as catalysts for establishing sustainable organizations and transforming current business practices, they are still under-investigated in extant research.

In the disciplines of marketing and management, the interest towards research on sustainability and sustainable development has remarkably increased over the years. Prior research on sustainability marketing evolved from focusing on sustainable products and other elements of the marketing mix to addressing sustainable lifestyles and behavioral changes, and consequently to exploring transformative actions in relation to norms and institutions, among other topics (Kemper and Ballantine 2019). Management and organization studies on sustainability progressed from examining the impact of organizations on the natural environment to considering managerial issues in relation to environmental concerns, then to assessing corporate sustainability and sustainable organizations, and consequently to investigating socio-ecological wellbeing, the nature–human ecosystem, and alternative approaches to organizing for sustainability, among other topics (Ergene et al. 2021). Despite a continuously growing number of studies addressing sustainability-related topics in marketing and management, both disciplines still provide limited insights, which would have a transformational nature required for achieving a global agenda of a sustainable future (Davies et al. 2020; Ferns and Amaeshi, 2021; Nyberg and Wright 2020).

This special issue aims to advance the current state of research on sustainability and sustainable development in marketing and management by calling for contributions across the disciplines of marketing and management, and also interdisciplinary research including marketing and/or management perspectives. The special issue invites manuscripts based on empirical studies (utilizing quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods) or literature reviews. The manuscripts are expected to have strong conceptual and methodological rigor, and make both theoretical and practical contributions. Examples of possible topics of relevance for this special issue include, but are not limited to the list below. If in any doubt about a manuscript fit with this special issue, do not hesitate to contact the Corresponding Guest Editor Galina Biedenbach at galina.biedenbach@umu.se.

Individual level

• Anti-consumption
• Consumer citizenship
• Consumer communities and sustainability
• Consumer movements for sustainable development
• Consumer perceptions and purchasing of sustainable brands
• Green, responsible and sustainable consumer behavior
• Individual values, attitudes, norms in relation to sustainable consumption
• Sustainable lifestyles

Organizational level

• Brand activism for sustainable development
• Conscientious corporate branding
• Corporate sustainability and marketing/management
• CSR and marketing/management
• Green recovery strategies and practices in organizations
• HRM and leadership for sustainability
• Purpose-driven marketing/management
• Strategies and practices of sustainability marketing/management
• Sustainability management and sustainability accounting and reporting
• Sustainability performance and marketing/management
• Sustainable supply/value chain management

Societal level

• Circular economy and the role of marketing/management
• Critical perspectives on sustainability marketing/management
• Digitalization and sustainability marketing/management
• Gender equality and the role of marketing/management
• Green recovery and the role of marketing/management
• Marketing/management of artificial intelligence (AI) and technological innovations for sustainability
• Marketing/management of social innovation
• Sharing economy and the role of marketing/management
• Social justice and the role of marketing/management
• Social-ecological networks/systems and the role of marketing/management
• Socio-ecological well-being and the role marketing/management
• Sustainable development goals (SDG) and the role of marketing/management

Submission deadline. To be considered for publication in the special, full manuscripts should be submitted between September 1, 2022 – October, 15, 2022. Anticipated publication date of the special issue is 2023.

Manuscript submission. Manuscripts should be prepared following the author guidelines

http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=bjm and submitted through ScholarOne Manuscripts http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bjom.

References

Clark, W. C., & Harley, A. G. (2020). Sustainability science: Toward a synthesis. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 45, 331-386.

Davies, I., Oates, C. J., Tynan, C., Carrigan, M., Casey, K., Heath, T., Henninger, C.E., Lichrou, M., McDonagh, P., McDonald, S., McKechnie, S., McLeay, F., O’Malley, L., & Wells, V. (2020). Seeking sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research. European Journal of Marketing, 54(11), 2911-2939.

Ergene, S., Banerjee, S. B., & Hoffman, A. J. (2021). (Un) sustainability and organization studies: Towards a radical engagement. Organization Studies, 42(8), 1319-1335.

Felipe-Lucia, M. R., Guerrero, A. M., Alexander, S. M., Ashander, J., Baggio, J. A., Barnes, M. L., Bodin, Ö., Bonn., A., Fortin, M.-J., Friedman, R. S., Gephart., J. A., Helmstedt, K. J., Keyes, A. A., Kroetz, K., Massol, F., Pocock, M. J. O., Sayles, J., Thompson, R., M., Wood, S. A., & Dee, L. E. (2021). Conceptualizing ecosystem services using social–ecological networks. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 211-222.

Ferns, G., & Amaeshi, K. (2021). Fueling climate (in) action: How organizations engage in hegemonization to avoid transformational action on climate change. Organization Studies, 42(7), 1005-1029.

Gusheva, E., & de Gooyert, V. (2021). Can we have our cake and eat it? A review of the debate on green recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Sustainability, 13(2), 874.

Kemper, J. A., & Ballantine, P. W. (2019). What do we mean by sustainability marketing? Journal of Marketing Management, 35(3-4), 277-309.

Lahcen, B., Brusselaers, J., Vrancken, K., Dams, Y., Da Silva Paes, C., Eyckmans, J., & Rousseau, S. (2020). Green recovery policies for the COVID-19 crisis: Modelling the impact on the economy and greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental and Resource Economics, 76(4), 731-750.

Nyberg, D., & Wright, C. (2020). Climate-proofing management research. Academy of Management Perspectives, In press.

Reyers, B., Folke, C., Moore, M. L., Biggs, R., & Galaz, V. (2018). Social-ecological systems insights for navigating the dynamics of the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 43, 267-289.

Schröder, P., Vergragt, P., Brown, H. S., Dendler, L., Gorenflo, N., Matus, K., Quist, J., Rupprecht, C. D. D., Tukker, A. & Wennersten, R. (2019). Advancing sustainable consumption and production in cities – A transdisciplinary research and stakeholder engagement framework to address consumption-based emissions and impacts. Journal of Cleaner Production, 213, 114-125.

WCED (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf

The authoritative version of this call is here.