What do we mean by sustainability marketing?

Subverting sustainability: market maintenance work and the reproduction of corporate irresponsibility

“…Previous marketing research tends to focus on how sustainability is legitimised in the marketplace (Gollnhofer, 2017a(Gollnhofer, , 2017bHumphreys, 2014) and the role of marketing therein (Fuentes, 2015;Kemper & Ballantine, 2019;Lim, 2016). Indeed, the sustainability marketing scholarship has substantially acknowledged the diffusion of sustainability discourses in the marketplace, for instance, through the notions of 'green marketing' (Kilbourne, 1998), 'green' or reduced consumption (Cherrier et al, 2012;McDonald et al, 2012;Rettie et al, 2012), corporate social responsibility (Carlini et al, 2019;Garcia-Rosell et al, 2011), alternative forms of materialism in marketing (Scott et al, 2014), and the corporate trend of 'greening' products, services and organisations (Fuentes, 2015;Harris & Crane, 2002;Pane Haden et al, 2009).…”

“…Lubin & Esty, 2010). In marketing theory, the relationship between marketing thinking and the natural environment represents a recurrent theme in sustainability marketing studies (Burgh-Woodman & King, 2013;Geysmans, de Krom, & Hustinx, 2017;Gordon, Carrigan, & Hastings, 2011;Kemper & Ballantine, 2019;Kilbourne, 2010;McDonagh & Prothero, 2014). Marketing's potential to promote sustainability in the marketplace has been substantially acknowledged (e.g.…”

“…Notwithstanding the aforementioned important contributions, marketing theory has devoted surprisingly little attention to the reproduction of corporate irresponsibility in the marketplace, which refers to what Mena et al (2016) describe as the 'organizational actions that cause harm to stakeholders' (p. 720) or, as discussed by Armstrong and Green (2013), the efforts engaged in by firms that benefit a few but cause substantive harm when considering all (indirect) stakeholders. While recent marketing research tends to examine how sustainability is legitimised in the marketplace (Gollnhofer, 2017a(Gollnhofer, , 2017bHumphreys, 2014), and the role of marketing therein (Fuentes, 2015;Kemper & Ballantine, 2019;Lim, 2016), the aim of the present article is to examine how sustainability may also be undermined in organisations.…”

Marketing and Sustainability: Business as Usual or Changing Worldviews?

“…Nevertheless, the expansion of the marketing concept [4] has reached a stage where there is much interest, especially in the sub-fields of macromarketing, transformative and social marketing, in ensuring that marketing is a force for good [5]. Undoubtedly, there has been a substantial growth in "green", "environmental", and "sustainable" marketing, much of which has been focussed on promoting "green" products, understanding market segments and consumer's preferences for environmentally friendly products, and the role of the environment in branding [6][7][8]. However, the extent to which the growth of apparent interest in the environment and sustainability among marketing researchers has either transformed the field of marketing, or actually contributed to improved sustainability at the global scale appears highly debatable [9,10].…”

“…Despite criticism of the embeddedness of marketing in contemporary neoliberal capitalism and its contribution to the marketisation and commoditisation of the environment [17][18][19], Achrol and Kotler argued that in the third millennium, the super phenomena of marketing will be characterised by sustainable marketing [20]. Sustainable marketing is broadly characterised by a number of elements [8] including: the recognition of resource limits of growth [21], sustainable consumption [22], a transition from an anthropocentric to a biocentric paradigm [23], and the development of sustainable product life cycles [24]. However, despite awareness of the significance of sustainability issues in marketing there are a wide range of interpretations of how this may be achieved [8,25].…”