Macromarketing Pedagogy: Empowering Students to Achieve a Sustainable World

Abstract

The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are challenging the world to work towards a more sustainable future. Its 17 goals are ambitious, requiring concerted and system-based efforts driven by critical and socially aware thinking. However, marketing education is largely falling short of teaching students to think that way. Given macromarketing’s unique perspective on the interactions among markets, marketing, and society, macromarketers are poised to contribute to marketing pedagogy and to commit students to realizing the SDGs. This article first looks back at the previous 40 years of macromarketing pedagogy, before offering contemporary approaches to teaching macromarketing through four illustrative case studies found in an online repository called Pedagogy Place. It then looks forward, setting an aspiring vision for macro-oriented classrooms in the coming years.

Using Macromarketing to Teach Business Sustainability

“…Constructivist Learning. Given the complexity of learning macro and micro concepts of marketing, and the messy results of tensions arising for firms pursuing responsible marketing, new students in classes integrating macromarketing and sustainability will have many concepts to learn and much about which to decide for themselves because macromarketing and sustainability remain contested areas (Kalamas Hedden et al, 2017;Shapiro et al, 2020). Accordingly, a constructivist learning approach requiring the active involvement of learners in constructing knowledge for themselves will be useful for learning macromarketing and sustainability (Seatter & Ceulemans, 2017).…”

“…To boost abductive reasoning, students should develop a firm grasp on the major concepts of macromarketing to evaluate specific beliefs, claims, or actions (Bailin & Siegel, 2003) related to managerial macromarketing. Accordingly, content about marketing systems and their role (positive and negative) in society would be essential for marketing students moving into the study of sustainability for firms (Shapiro et al, 2020). Other essential content knowledge to boost abductive reasoning would be the current and possible roles in society for (a) marketing, (b) stakeholders, (c) business, and (d) the state, as well as controversies related to globalization and consumer behavior.…”

Experiencing the Macromarketing Dimensions of Sustainability: Lessons Learned From Field Trips to the Ultra Novel

“…Macro" by critically evaluating the consequences of organizations' and individuals' actions on the environment (Peterson, 2016;Shapiro et al, 2021):…”

“…Giving students knowledge of consequences, issues, and attitudes regarding the environment can empower personal and societal change (Wooliscroft, 2020;Shapiro et al, 2021). examples of core concepts (Schaller, 2020).…”

Introducing the Macromarketing Pedagogy Section of the Journal of Macromarketing

“…In Radford, Hunt, and Andrus (2015), the value of experiential learning is explored as a complement to traditional case-oriented teaching, with critical thinking skills and systems-based awareness as key benefits. Separately, Shapiro et al (2021) summarize the challenge of imbuing marketing education with macromarketing and offer four distinct examples of how it can be done. This work led to the establishment of Pedagogy Place, an online repository of macromarketing-oriented teaching materials open to all who are interested.…”