Business School

Sustainability and societal issues in marketing

This research stream is concerned with the impact that marketing practice may have on society and vice-versa. It addresses issues such as sustainable marketing practice, sustainable consumption, anti-consumption and resistance to commercialisation, social marketing and alternative marketing practices, ethics and corporate social responsibility, and the environmental consequences of marketing practices.

Research in this area currently encompasses:

Marketing and sustainability: barriers to, and facilitators of, more sustainable consumption practices, from reducing carbon footprints to food choices, and motivations for voluntary simplification or ‘down-shifting’ in consumption.
Consumer resistance and anti-consumption: for example, why consumers resist the consumption of certain brands, services, and products, and why some consumers are morally opposed to dominant companies.
Dissatisfaction and complaining behaviour: how do consumers respond when their expectations are disconfirmed?
Alternative marketing practices: marketing approaches adopted by organisations outside the mainstream, including not-for-profit organisations, fair trade organisations, and farmers’ markets.
Corporate social responsibility, ethics, and frameworks of dominance, justice and hegemony in the contemporary market: for example, how do consumers react to domineering brands or companies in a globalised marketplace?

Researchers in sustainability and societal issues in marketing