Marketing and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Marketing is often portrayed in terms of its contribution to over-consumption rather than sustainability, yet the discipline has a long tradition of research that aims at seeking to encourage pro-environmental consumer behaviours and production. Usually operating under the headings of sustainable, green or environmental marketing, there is now a substantial body of marketing knowledge engaged with issues of sustainability and consumer behaviour, the marketing of sustainable and green products, product design, and green branding, labelling and advertising. In addition, the marketing subject also has several sub-fields with a strong focus on sustainability. Social marketing has a strong stream of work on the development of behavioural interventions at both individual and community levels that look to influence consumption practices as well as corporate behaviour. Similarly, the field of macro-marketing has looked to the means by which changes to the marketing system can contribute to improve sustainability. There is also a tradition of more critical and radical marketing theory and analysis that seeks to fundamentally critique and question the role of commercial marketing, the implications of marketing practices for consumption and identity as well as how marketing education may influence the outlook of marketers toward sustainability.

Yet despite the potentially rich vein of marketing knowledge and insights for sustainability research there is a relative lack of engagement between marketing studies and the wider body of research on sustainability. The purpose of this Topical Collection is to therefore highlight the potential contributions of marketing to promoting sustainable consumption and production as well as to gain a better understanding of the ways in which sustainability research can lead to a new orientations and trajectories of business and marketing practices, including with respect to education.

Prof. Dr. C. Michael Hall
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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