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CALL FOR PAPERS
JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT AND PUBLIC SECTOR MARKETING
Special Issue on Transformative Ethical/Sustainable Consumption Research

Guest Editors:

Iain Black, University of Edinburgh Business School
Terry Newholm, Manchester Business School
Michal Carrington, La Trobe University

This JNPSM Special Issue seeks transformative ethical consumption research with the aim of co-developing insights with industry leaders to influence positive consumer behavioural change. It is the aim of this issue to bridge the gap between rigorous ethical consumption research and marketing practice through the co-development of tangible insight and managerial guidance, with the aim of transforming ethical consumption intentions into everyday consumer behaviour.

Ethical consumers ‘have political, religious, spiritual, environmental, social or other motives for choosing one product over another’ (Harrison, Newholm, and Shaw 2005)i and are concerned with the impact of their consumption choices on other individuals (including future generations), society, animals and the environment (Smith 2008)ii. Within the field of ethical consumption ‘ethical’, ‘conscious’, and ‘sustainable’ consumerism are now used to describe this expanding movement of consumers (Smith 2008). Transformative research “benefits consumer welfare and quality of life for all beings affected by consumption across the world”iii.

Whereas on one hand research suggests that mainstream consumers are embracing the pillars of ethicality and sustainability on a global scale and expressing these values through diverse concerns such as environmental degradation, climate change, sweatshop manufacture, child labour, economic resilience of local communities, and the treatment of animals in factory farming conditions. On the other hand, actual market shares of ethical products remain disappointing, most indicators of sustainability continue to decline and respected figures within climate change science such as Lester Brown are now talking about the urgent need to act to avoid civilisation collapse as action is happening too little and too late to have an effect on climate change.

In this call for papers we contend that the time to just “describe the phenomenon” has passed and thus seek rigorous ethical consumption research that provides actionable insights for practitioners and consumers. Swim (2009)iv also draws attention to the role that marketers have to play in facilitating consumer behavioural change towards sustainable practices. In this light, after two rounds of academic review, we will facilitate the collaboration of leading ethical consumption practitioners/marketers with the authors of accepted papers to co-develop relevant insights and practical guidance for marketing managers. These insights will form ‘Managerial Implications’ sections at the end of each paper in the special issue.

Theoretical and empirical papers based on a wide range of methods and theoretical perspectives are invited in the following areas:

• The positive or negative role of identity in ethical/sustainable consumption
• The importance of branding and marketing communication in ethical/sustainable consumption
• The marketing challenges of mainstreaming ethical/sustainable consumption
• The role and attitudes of organisations and marketing managers towards ethical/sustainable consumption
• The role of many to many consumer communications in the construction of discourses on consumption ethics, sustainability and resistance
• Cultural and cross-cultural influences
• Internal and external drivers of ethical consumption
• Ethical tourism and business travel
• Barriers to ethical consumption
• Ethical/sustainable consumption as a social movement
• Consumer perceptions and scepticism towards ethical claims
• Ethical consumption from a macro-marketing perspective
• The role of public policy in influencing ethical consumption
• Transforming ethical/sustainable consumption through social marketing

The word limit for submissions is 5,500 words – not including ‘Managerial Implications’ – as this section will be co-developed with industry experts upon acceptance. Papers addressing other aspects of ethical consumption are also welcomed by the co-editors.

The deadline for submission is December 30 2011. The special issue is scheduled to be published in Issue 4 2012.

Prospective contributors are welcome to contact the Special Issue Co-Editors to clarify questions about the potential suitability of topics: Dr Iain Black (Iain.Black@ed.ac.uk ); Dr Terry Newholm (Terry.Newholm@mbs.ac.uk); Michal Carrington (M.Carrington@latrobe.edu.au). Please submit your papers for peer review for the Special Issue by December 30 2011 to Michal Carrington.

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