Open Sustainability in Business Markets
Introduction
Special issue of Industrial Marketing Management; Deadline 15 Mar 2017
INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Call for Papers
Special Issue on “Open Sustainability in Business Markets”
Deadline: 15 March, 2017
‘Open Sustainability’ is the seminal idea that organizing for and creating sustainable relationships, organizations, networks and markets cannot be performed by focal companies alone but instead by carefully constructed and calculated interactions with other actors over time. For example, a sustainable supply chain depends on the coordinated collaboration of supply chain partners, or a ‘fair trade’ certification is related to third party organizations monitoring and assessing business practices. Thus, we propose that synonymously to the concept of ‘Open Innovation,’ sustainability management also needs to be seen as a phenomenon which transcends focal company boundaries.
The purpose of this special issue is to provide a forum from where different theoretical and empirical approaches to researching Open Sustainability in Business Markets can be explored and contrasted. Sustainability represents an important phenomenon in recent research in management studies (e.g. see Kudlak and Low’s (2015) recent review and commentary on special issues dedicated to CSR and Corporate Sustainability). Attention related to this area in Industrial Marketing Management has culminated in two special issues on Integrating Marketing and Operations for Business Sustainability (edited by Gupta, Rudd and Lee, 2014) and Green Marketing and its Impact on Supply Chain (edited by Chan, He and Wang, 2012). However, its ‘open’ nature with regard to business relationship and network effects has been under-researched and lacks conceptual engagement.
Contributions to the SI on Open Sustainability in Business Markets will loosely cover all aspect of the triple bottom line (Elkington, 1997; Normal and MacDonald, 2004) as well as supply chain, production/delivery, and business marketing issues.
The proposed special issue sets out to explore questions such as:
- What is the interplay between inter-organizational relationships, marketing, operations and supply chain management when fostering Open Sustainability?
- How do actors organize for Open Sustainability?
- How does Open Sustainability change the governance of business relationships and networks?
- How are regulating bodies and the rise of NGOs and associations co-governing and monitoring Open Sustainability interests?
- How are business to business firms co-opting and coordinating Open Sustainability practices?
- Which resources and capabilities do companies need in order to practice Open Sustainability successfully?
- What alternative theoretical lenses and empirical insights might help us conceptualize, understand, or explore Open Sustainability?
The concept of Open Sustainability in Business Markets is pertinent to Industrial Marketing Management as it questions how existing approaches to understanding sustainability have cast wider attention on the internal challenges faced by organizations when controlling for and operating in hierarchical structures. We proffer that the study of Open Sustainability in business markets needs to be more inclusive and scholars need to further address how multiple interactions among actors are influenced and shaped by the economic, social, corporate, ecological and political interfaces available to them. Open Sustainability will thus provide an important contribution to the field of business marketing as well as supply chain management; it has the potential to create a new keywords based on the concept of ‘Open Sustainability’ (analogously to the concept of open innovation) and can therefore shape further research, with the SI on Open Sustainability being the seminal reference.
Deadline: March 15, 2017
Submission Procedures:
To submit a paper please visit the IMM editorial site register as an author and submit the paper as the site will instruct you. When you get to the step in the process that asks you for the type of paper, select SI: Open Sustainability. All queries about the special issue should be sent to the Guest Editors (see below).
Special Issue Editors:
Dr. Ronika Chakrabarti: Lancaster University Management School. r.chakrabarti@lancaster.ac.uk
Professor Stephan C. Henneberg: School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. s.henneberg@qmul.ac.uk
Professor Bjoern Ivens: Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg. bjoern.ivens@uni-bamberg.de
References:
Chan, K.K., He, H., & Wang, W.Y.C. (2012). Green Marketing and its Impact on Supply Chain, Industrial Marketing Management, 41(4), 557-724.
Elkington, J. (1997). Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, Capstone.
Gupta, S., Rudd, J., & Lee, N. (2014), Integrating Marketing and Operations for Business Sustainability, Industrial Marketing Management, 43(1), 3–5.
Kudlak, R., & Low, K.Y. J. (2015). Special Issues Dedicated to CSR and Corporate Sustainability: A Review and Commentary, Long Range Planning, 48, 215-227.
Norman, W., & MacDonald, C. (2004). Getting to the Bottom of "Triple Bottom Line", Business Ethics Quarterly, 14(2), 243-262.
