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INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING AND SOCIETY
POSTING TYPE: Resources

Author: Antje Graul

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Welcome to the ��������� Special Interest Group for Sustainable Marketing and Innovation

Introduction and Leadership

The Sustainable Marketing and Innovation Special Interest Group (SUSTSIG) is an emerging community of scholars who believe that the business of business is more than business.

Our ��������� SUSTSIG leadership team consists of:

Honorary Chair: Jagdish Sheth (Emory University)

Chair: Neeraj Bharadwaj (University of Tennessee)

Co-Chairs, Awards and Strategic Initiatives:

• Sundar Bharadwaj (University of Georgia)
• Anders Gustafsson (BI Norwegian Business School)
• Charles Noble (University of Tennessee)

Communications:

• Antje Graul (Utah State University)
• Atul Kulkarni (Southern Connecticut State University)
• Ludovica Scalco (BI Norwegian Business School)

Corporate Affairs: Maddy Kulkarni (PepsiCo)

Events: Crystal Reeck (Temple University)

Teaching Resources: Xiaoxu Wu (Michigan State University)

Treasurer: Dionne Nickerson (Indiana University)

Mission and Vision

We strive to understand how environmental, social, and/or governance initiatives undertaken by companies influence pivotal business and societal outcomes. The specific research interests of our SIG members span numerous topics, including: demonstrating the business case for sustainability, driving innovation in a circular economy, empowering entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid with marketing knowledge, understanding drivers of consumer decision making, linking marketing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and clarifying when and how sustainability can serve as a basis for competitive advantage. Given the strong push to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum, we also facilitate collaborative exchange of research ideas and teaching resources.

How to Get More Involved with SUSTSIG

Please:

• Mark your interest by checking the Pop-Up SIG Sustainable Marketing box when you renew your ��������� membership.
• Follow us on LinkedIn clicking on the link below.

Click here to renew your ��������� membership

Latest News

���������-Sheth Consortium in Oslo, June 16, 2023

2023 ���������-Sheth Consortium: Frontiers of Sustainability Research

On Friday, June 16, members of the SUSTSIG leadership team organized and participated in the Frontiers of Sustainability Research session at the 2023 ���������/Sheth Family Foundation Doctoral Consortium. Following some opening remarks to arrive at the shared understanding that sustainability broadly encompasses the interplay of people, planet, and profit, a set of marketing thought leaders presented their current research on social and/or environmental sustainability (titles listed below). The strong turnout along with numerous questions raised by doctoral students and faculty fellows alike underscores the growing interest in sustainability research. The following presentations were featured:

Sundar Bharadwaj (University of Georgia) – “Who Wins and Who Loses as Firms Shift from a Shareholder to a Stakeholder Orientation?”

Frank Germann (University of Notre Dame) – “Do Marketers Matter for Entrepreneurs? Evidence from a Field Experiment in Uganda”

Yashoda Bhagwat (Texas Christian University) – “Waiting to Speak Up: How the Timing of Activism Affects Investor Responses”

Gergana Nenkov (Boston College) – “Managing Consumption Waste: Shifting From ‘Recycle’ to ‘Reduce and Reuse”

Tohid Ghanbarpour (BI Norwegian Business School) – “Revisiting the Interactions of Corporate Social Performance with Innovation and Industry Differentiation”

Upcoming Events

SUSTSIG Workshop at 2023 ��������� Summer Educators’ Conference

Please join us at our Intensive Workshop “Perspectives on Sustainable Marketing”

on August 4, 2023 at the ��������� Summer Conference in San Francisco.

Location: Salon 1 in Marriott Marquis San Francisco (780 Mission Street)

Schedule Overview

Noon-12:15pm Welcome and Program Overview��

Jag Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Chaired Professor of Marketing (Emory University)

12:15-1:15 pm Sustainable Marketing: Research from a Strategy/Quant Perspective��

Prasad Naik, Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow (UC-Davis)

Dionne Nickerson, Assistant Professor (Indiana University)

Raji Srinivasan, Sam Barshop Centennial Professor (UT-Austin)
Facilitation Leader: Neeraj Bharadwaj (University of Tennessee)

1:30-2:30 pm Sustainable Marketing: Research from a Behavioral Perspective��

Russell Belk, Professor of Marketing and Kraft Foods Canada Chair of Marketing (York University)

Yuliya Strizhakova, Associate Professor (Rutgers University)

Karen Winterich, Professor and Gerald I. Susman Professor in Sustainability (Penn State)
Facilitation Leader: Robert Dahlstrom (Miami University and BI-Norwegian Business School)

2:45-4:00 pm Corporate/Nonprofit/Academic Leadership Panel��

Darren Dahl, Dean and Innovate BC Professor (University of British Columbia)

Jonathan Knowles, Type 2 Consulting

Stephanie Ogden, CARE, Water Team Director

David Smukowski, Board member and former Boeing executive
Facilitation Leader: Dana Alden (University of Hawaii)

Click here to register for 2023 ��������� Summer Conference

Selected Call for Papers

AMS Review

Theories of Sustainability

Marketing Education Review

Societal Impact in Marketing Education

Journal of Product Innovation Management

Responsible New Product Development and Innovation Management

��Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

Collaborative Approaches to Create Positive Social Impact

Selected Upcoming Conferences

2024 ��������� Winter Academic Conference, February 23-25, 2024 in St. Pete Beach, FL

Submission Deadline: August 11, 2023

Track: “Sustainability, Social Responsibility, and Social Justice”

Selected Research Spotlights

Journal of Business Ethics

Abstract. This paper aims to investigate the current state of play on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) integration and check the validity of the current metrics system by assessing if it will survive the COVID-19 crisis. By adopting a qualitative research approach through semi-structured anonymous interviews with 14 senior managers of six European listed companies we use a framework by assessing the mechanisms of reactivity on the effectiveness of ESG measures in times of COVID-19. By interpreting the practitioners’ points of view through the lens of the sociological framework by Espeland and Sauder (Am J Sociol 113:1–40, 2007) our findings show different mechanisms of reactivity by companies on the effectiveness of ESG measures in times of COVID-19, i.e., active and passive conformity and active resistance. We also identified the main Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) institutional factors that affect managers’ reactivity. An extensive re-formulation of the ESG metrics is required in the light of times of crisis, given that accountability and transparency are strongly linked to quantitative measures which can play a critical role in the financial system and investors’ engagement. Particularly, the strict distinction between “E”, “S” and “G” issues should be abandoned claiming a different holistic re-design of sustainability measures by considering the increasing relevance of the Social dimension in time of COVID-19. This study provides a valuable contribution to the existing literature on the measurement of sustainability within the link of accountability and crisis by highlighting new corporate needs to re-design the ESG metrics system.

Journal of Product Innovation Management

Abstract. Innovation experts posit that digital technologies—such as additive manufacturing (AM)—can address societal challenges and change the nature of work and collaboration. In recognition, this special issue encourages researchers to investigate how AM can be leveraged to reduce environmental externalities and devote greater attention to the production of 3D printed items. This article integrates academic research on new product development and the cradle-to-cradle philosophy with insights gleaned from long-term case observations across a series of large-scale AM projects to advance that 3D printing can unleash three pivotal adaptations to the traditional conception-development-launch ecosystem. Specifically, our direct participation in designing and building multiple 3D printed products reveals that: (1) spent products can possess valuable ingredient materials that can be repurposed, (2) the reduced structural strength of the reclaimed material can be a positive force insofar as spawning innovation in a new product category, and (3) manufacturing should appear as an independent stage in new product development. On this last point, our completed projects align with recent observations that newer AM technologies can make prototyping and manufacturing products easier, faster, and less expensive. Accordingly, we advance a cyclical sustainable innovation process, which consists of ideation, development, AM output (i.e., manufacturing), and material reclamation. This research is both theoretically meaningful and pragmatically useful. It addresses knowledge gaps regarding AM in the academic literature and spawns new research questions for innovation scholars. For managers, it provides a path to supplant the wasteful take-make-dispose production model with the more efficient and effective take-make-transmigrate approach that we deem an innovation loop. Specifically, our final built project—a 3D designed and printed chair that uses polymers from the spent chassis of a 3D printed car—serves as a proof of concept that AM can be a catalyst to a paradigmatic shift in how products are made.

Journal of Marketing Research

Abstract. The primary focus of brand equity research has been on how brand knowledge creates value for firms through customer behavior in product markets. Using archival data and five experiments, this article tests a framework that outlines the unique role brands play in the labor market. The framework distinguishes between vertical and horizontal differentiation and shows that vertical brand differentiation is associated with lower pay, whereas horizontal brand differentiation is associated with higher pay. Employees are also vertically and horizontally differentiated and firms high in horizontal brand differentiation pay more for employees who match their brands’ differentiating characteristics (i.e., brand-relevant complementarities). Results show that these brand-pay relationships have important downstream effects on employee behavior and, consequently, on firm profits. Specifically, leveraging vertical brand differentiation to lower pay represents a false economy because profits are attenuated by negative effects on employee productivity and retention. In contrast, when managers at firms high on horizontal brand differentiation pay more, profits increase via the same mediating employee behaviors. Six firm strategies and investments that influence firm bargaining power in the employee-brand matching process are found to moderate the brand-pay relationship and downstream effects on profits.

Sloan Management Review

Less than one-third of U.S. employees surveyed reported that their organizations engage in practices that embed sustainability goals in business models and employee roles. While many companies talk the talk of sustainability, claiming to be integrating environmental and societal concerns into their business models, far fewer walk the walk: Managers typically treat sustainability as someone else’s problem and relegate it to a department or even a single individual. On the other hand, companies that have been successful in transforming their business models to be more sustainable have embedded sustainability into their corporate DNA. This means that they have endowed their employees with a sense of sustainable ownership, spurring them to engage in more sustainability-supporting behaviors. When every employee integrates environmental and social concerns into every business decision, sustainability progress is accelerated — an aspirational goal for all companies.