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INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING STRATEGY, MARKETING AND SOCIETY
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals

Posted by: Oriol Iglesias

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Special Issue

CONSCIENTIOUS BRANDS: MAKING SUSTAINABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY WORK

CALL FOR PAPERS

• Dr Oriol Iglesias (ESADE Business School, Spain)
• Professor Nicholas Ind (Kristiania University College, Norway)
• Dr Nathalia C Tjandra (Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom)
• Dr Alessandro Feri (John Cabot University, Italy)
• Professor Francisco Guzman (University of North Texas, USA)
• Dr Zoe Lee (Cardiff University, UK)

Background of this special issue

As the world faces increasing societal and environmental challenges, stakeholders have raised their expectations for the conduct and integrity of organizations and their brands (Salzer-Mörling and StrannegÃ¥rd 2007; Bhagwat et al, 2020; Hambrick and Wowak 2019; Sarkar and Kotler 2020). It is no longer enough for brands to merely acknowledge the problems facing the world, stakeholders now believe that brands should actively contribute to solving these problems by improving the quality of life and addressing environmental issues (Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2016). The sustainability agenda, which balances the needs of people, planet and profit, is rapidly becoming a requirement simply to operate. This means more than simply telling positive stories. It concerns a brand’s willingness to embed conscience into its actions and to shift to a broader focus on creating value. This is the arena of conscientious brands, which suggests that brands, like people, can have moral agency and can choose to act in ways that make a positive contribution to the world (Iglesias and Ind, 2016, 2020; Ind and Horlings, 2016). Such brands are built on their willingness to think issues through critically from the perspective of all stakeholders and to work together to deliver transformative change (Ind and Iglesias, 2022). Conscientious brands encompass a moral orientation that can integrate concepts such as sustainability, diversity, inclusion and equality as deliberative acts.

The concept of conscientious brands was first introduced in the Journal of Brand Management Special Issue in 2011 edited by Nicholas Ind and Ian Ryder (Ind and Ryder, 2011) as an attempt to go beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR). During the last decades, most corporate brands have tried to address their broader responsibilities beyond profit through CSR programs. However, too many corporate brands have only embraced CSR as a reputation cleansing mechanism (Maxfield, 2008; Pope and Wæraas, 2016) or as a tactical tool to manage potential risks (Walsh and Beatty, 2007). Additionally, CSR is confined into an organizational department and tends to be disconnected fom the brand and corporate strategies (Iglesias et al, 2023). These limitations of CSR, together with the emergence of brands such as Patagonia, Tony Chocolonely, Rabobank or Oda in the corporate arena, have led to a renewed interest in the idea of conscientious brands. This is evident in recent publications on the topic (Markovic et al., 2023) focusing on conscientious corporate brand cocreation (Iglesias et al, 2023; Iglesias and Ind, 2020; Vallaster and Lechner, 2022) and on conscientious B2B brands (Beitelspacher and Getchell, 2023; Keränen et al, 2023; Abratt and Klein, 2023). This renewed interest can also be related to the results of the changes in stakeholder attitudes and behaviour. Stakeholders have growing expectations of brands and in turn brands have become more willing to associate themselves with social-political activist ideology and activities (Schmidt et al, 2021) such as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Pride and School Strike for Climates. These changes have also led to a growing research interest, vis-a-vis to that of conscientious brands, in the fields of brand activism (Wannow et al, 2023), brand management and sustainability (Golob et al, 2022), corporate social responsibility and brands (Golob and Podnar, 2019), and brands that do good (Roper et al, 2018), as the four different JBM Special Issues recently published show.

However, further discussions are needed to connect these different streams of research. In parallel more research needs also to be conducted as to whether, and how, embedding conscience in the brand’s principles and actions could benefit their organisations and stakeholders, and align sustainability and responsibility strategies.

The aims of this special issue

Due to the increasing interest in the topic and changes in the marketing sphere, it is time to expand the debates and discussions on conscientious brands. We welcome paper submissions that focus on enhancing the existing body of literature on conscientious brands. Contributions can be conceptual and/or empirical (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods). Possible research topics include, but are not limited to the following:

First, some recent studies have started to conceptualize the key characteristics of conscientious brands (Iglesias and Ind, 2020; Iglesias et al, 2023; Abratt and Kleyn, 2023). However, more research is needed capable of more profoundly conceptualizing the construct of conscientious brands. In this same line, it is important to further understand its antecedents and outcomes. Some suggested research questions are:

• What are the key characteristics of conscientious brands?
• What are the drivers of conscientious brands?
• What are the expected outcomes for brands embracing conscientiousness?

Second, Ind and Iglesias (2022) have suggested that conscientious brands should define a conscience rooted in a corporate brand purpose and a set of guiding principles, and that this should emerge from a co-creative process with manifold stakeholders. In this regard, future studies should examine (Markovic et al., 2023):

• What participatory mechanisms need to be promoted to build a conscientious brand?
• What is the role of co-creation in building conscientious brands?

Third, conscientious brands cannot come alive without a committed network (Rindell et al, 2011) of strategically aligned business partners (Mingione and Leoni, 2020). A few related relevant research questions are:

• What is the role of business partners in building conscientious brands?
• How should conscientious brands promote the strategic alignment of their business partners around their organizational conscience?
• How can conscientious brands monitor, but also empower its business-to-business network?

Fourth, there is extremely scarce research on how to communicate conscientious brands (Ind and Iglesias, 2022). However, it remains key to better understand how to communicate a conscientious value proposition and how to inspire and nudge consumers to adopt more responsible and sustainable behaviours. Overall, future studies should focus on understanding:

• What are the best potential ways of effectively communicating conscientious brands?
• What is the role of transparency in communicating conscientious brands?
• How can conscientious brands best influence their consumers to adopt more responsible and sustainable behaviours?

Fifth, recent research suggests that conscientious brands are co-created from inside out (Biedenbach and Biedenbach, 2022). However, little is still known regarding what the best way to activate the organizational conscience is. This leads to the following research questions:

• What type of corporate culture can best promote conscientious brands?
• What are the key traits that should define conscientious leaders?
• What are the leadership development tools that can help a conscientious brand to internally grow a relevant number of conscientious leaders?

Sixth, conscientious brands will also need to decide how to confront the potential ethical dilemmas related to the new emerging technologies (Brand and Blok, 2019). Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, or geolocalization raise relevant concerns from the consumers and other stakeholders’ perspectives. On the other side, new technologies can also foster new and more sustainable innovations. Some potential research questions are:

• How should conscientious brands engage with the new emerging technologies?
• What are the internal mechanisms that need to be promoted in order to ensure an ethical use of the new emerging technologies?
• What are the opportunities offered by new technologies to promote more conscientious, responsible and sustainable brands?

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts submitted for consideration in this Journal of Brand Management (JBM) Special Issue must conform to the latest author guidelines for JBM as outlined on the journal’s website at the time of submission (). Manuscripts should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words in length, inclusive of words in tables but excluding references.

Manuscripts must be submitted via the online submission system of JBM while ensuring to select the option Special Issue: Conscientious Brands during submission ().

The submission and review process will be managed by the Journal Guest Editors.

The SI submission option will open in the online submission system on 30/06/2024.

The closing date for submissions is 30/09/2024.

Contacts and further questions

For all editorial questions regarding the Special Issue please contact the Journal Guest Editors by email: oriol.iglesias@esade.edu

For all technical submission queries (e.g., problems with the online submission system) please contact Prasanth Dhandapani at the publisher’s Journal Editorial Office by email: prasanth.dhandapani@springernature.com

References

Abratt, R. and Kleyn, N. (2023) The conscientious corporate brand: definition, operationalization and application in a B2B context. Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, advance online publication 3 January, doi: .

Beitelspacher, L. and Getchell, K. (2023) The adoption of conscientiousness in business to business relationships. Industrial Marketing Management 109: 221–231.

Biedenbach, G. and Biedenbach, T. (2022) Co-creating conscientious corporate brands inside-out through values-driven branding. In: O. Iglesias, N. Ind and M. Schultz (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Corporate Branding. London: Routledge, pp. 480-495.

Brand, T. and Blok, V. (2019) Responsible innovation in business: a critical reflection on deliberative engagement as a central governance mechanism. Journal of Responsible Innovation 6(1): 4-24.

Golob, U. and Podnar, K. (2019) Researching CSR and brands in the here and now: An integrative perspective. Journal of Brand Management 26 (1): 1–8.

Golob, U., Burghausen, M., Kernstock, J. and Davies, M. (2022) Brand management and sustainability: exploring potential for the transformative power of brands. Journal of Brand Management 29(6): 513–519.

Iglesias, O. and Ind, N. (2016) How to be a brand with a conscience. In: N. Ind and S. Horlings (eds.) Brands with a conscience. London: Kogan Page, pp. 203-211.

Iglesias, O. and Ind, N. (2020) Towards a theory of conscientious corporate brand co-creation: the next key challenge in brand management. Journal of Brand Management 27(6): 710–720.

Iglesias, O., Mingione, M., Ind, N. and Markovic, S. (2023) How to build a conscientious corporate brand together with business partners: A case study of Unilever. Industrial Marketing Management 109: 1–13.

Ind, N. and Horlings, S. (2016) Brands with a conscience. London: Kogan Page.

Ind, N. and Iglesias, O. (2022) In good conscience: Do the right thing while building a profitable business. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ind, N., and Ryder, I. (2011) Conscientious brands editorial. The Journal of Brand Management 18(9): 635–
638.

Keränen, A., Malmi, K., Nätti, S. and Ulkuniemi, P. (2023) Developing identity of conscientious business-tobusiness organizations through integrative leadership. Industrial Marketing Management 109: 188–203.

Markovic, S., Iglesias, O., and Ind, N. (2023). Conscientious organizations: Status quo and future research agenda. Industrial Marketing Management

Mingione, M. and Leoni, L. (2020) Blurring B2C and B2B boundaries: corporate brand value co-creation in B2B2C markets. Journal of Marketing Management 36(1-2): 72-99.

Olsen, L. E. and Peretz, A. (2011) Conscientious brand criteria: A framework and a case example from the clothing industry. Journal of Brand Management 18(9): 639-649.

Ramaswamy, V. and Ozcan, K. (2016) Brand value co-creation in a digitalized world: An integrative framework and research implications. International Journal of Research in Marketing 33(1): 93–106.

Rindell, A., Svensson, G., Mysen, T., Billström, A. and Wilén, K. (2011) Towards a conceptual foundation of ‘Conscientious Corporate Brands’. Journal of Brand Management 18(9): 709-719.

Schmidt, H. J., Ind, N., Guzmán, F. and Kennedy, E. (2021) Sociopolitical activist brands. Journal of Product and Brand Management 31(1): 40–55.

Vallaster, C. and Lechner, P. (2022) Co-creation of conscientious corporate brands – facilitating societal change towards sustainability: a structured analysis. In: S. Markovic, R. Gyrd-Jones, S. von Wallpach and A. Lindgreen (eds.) Research Handbook on Brand Co-creation. Cheltenham: Elgar Edward, pp. 256–273.

Wannow, S., Haupt, M. and Ohlwein, M. (2023) Is brand activism an emotional affair? The role of moral emotions in consumer responses to brand activism. Journal of Brand Management, advance online publication 24 May, doi: .

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