May the Force Be with You: Expanding the Scope for Marketing Research as a Force for Good in a Sustainable World

Abstract

It has been an honor and inspiration to serve as coeditors for this special issue of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPP&M) on Transformative Consumer Research (TCR). In this editorial, we aim to provide some background on the TCR movement and position it within a broader emerging theme that envisions "Marketing as a Force for Good" in a more sustainable world. To operationalize this vision of sustainability, we propose that marketing scholars pay (more) attention to the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We conclude by illustrating how the articles in this special issue, as well as the work in JPP&M in general, are directly related to these truly essential goals.

Service Research Priorities: Designing Sustainable Service Ecosystems

“…Recent research has added a service lens to the extant public policy literature on disadvantaged populations, such as research on consumers in low-access subsistence marketplaces (Viswanathan et al 2021), consumers experiencing natural disasters (Cheung, McColl-Kennedy and Coote 2017), refugees (Cheung and McColl-Kennedy 2019), elderly consumers (Khaksar et al 2017), and those in prison (Hill et al 2015), with special issues devoted to vulnerable consumers and communities (Rosenbaum, Seger-Guttmann and Giraldo 2017; Sandberg et al 2021). Several reviews, research agendas (e.g., Anderson et al 2013; Boenigk et al 2020; Bolton 2020; Fisk et al 2016, 2018; Grier et al 2019), and new frameworks (Boenigk Silke et al, 2021; Poole Sonja Martin et al, 2021) have been proposed to guide this important stream of research and bring to the forefront questions of social justice, inequalities, and inequitable treatment related to “race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, and intersectionality” in the marketplace (Mende and Scott 2021; Scott et al 2011; Wiener, Ellen and Burton 2020, 373). Notably, Fisk et al (2018) spotlighted the need to create inclusive service systems and design services so that they meet the needs of all consumers, including not just service access but also choice, fair treatment during the service experience, and services that reduce suffering and increase happiness and well-being for all.…”

How are consumer behavior and marketing strategy researchers incorporating the SDGs? A review and opportunities for future research

“…First, we address the gap in the marketing literature relating to how marketing strategy and consumer behavior scholars are engaging with the SDGs and respond to calls for marketing academics to address the SDGs (e.g. de Ruyter et al, 2022;Mende & Scott, 2021). Second, we build on Voola et al (2022) that focused on B2B marketing and the SDGs to conduct a SLR of how the broader marketing literature has engaged with SDGs from 2015 to 2021 (March).…”

“…Echoing other marketing academics, we argue that the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework that marketing academics can use to frame their sustainability responses as well as address critiques of the relevance of marketing literature to practice and policy (e.g. de Ruyter et al, 2022;Mende & Scott, 2021;Voola et al, 2022).…”

Marketing and Public Policy in a “Runaway World”: A Commentary

“…JPP&M has taken a leadership role in understanding the interplay of markets, policies, and consumers within natural ecosystems. A recent JPP&M issue focusing on Transformative Consumer Research was grounded in the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which are intended to serve as a compass for locally addressing the world's ecological, social, and economic challenges (Mende and Scott 2021). For example, due to climate change, more local communities face disasters, which are most difficult for the most vulnerable.…”