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Digital Marketing for Sustainable Growth: Business Models and Online Campaigns using Sustainable Strategies

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2019) | Viewed by 140466

Special Issue Editors

Department of Financial Economy and Operations Management, Faculty of Business and Management, University of Sevilla, 41018 Sevilla, Spain
Interests: technology adoption; digital economy; sharing economy; sustainable digital marketing; cloud business organization
Department of Business Economics, Rey Juan Carlos University, Paseo Artilleros s/n, 28032, Madrid, Spain
Interests: Sustainable Tourism; Tourism, Digital Tourism; Sustainable Business; Sustainable Search Engines; Sustainable Business Management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Digital marketing has transformed how companies communicate with their customers around the world. The increase in the use of social networks and how users communicate with companies on the Internet has given rise to new business models based on the bidirectionality of communication between companies and Internet users. Digital marketing, new business models, online advertising campaigns and other digital strategies have gathered user opinions and comments through this new on-line channel. In this way, companies are beginning to see the digital ecosystem as not only the present, but also as the future.

With this long-term perspective, companies are concerned about the sustainability and growth of their business models. There are new business models on the Internet that support social causes, new platforms aimed at supporting social and sustainable projects, and digital advertising campaigns that mainly promote sustainability.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to analyze how these new strategies develop, and their influence on the sustainability of digital marketing strategies. The objective of this Special Issue, consequently, is to analyze how companies are adopting these new technologies in a digital environment that is increasingly concerned with the sustainability of business models and actions on the Internet.

For this Special Issue, we invite paper contributions related to any of the topics outlined above and which clearly relate to sustainable business models on the Internet and digital and social marketing techniques using research methodologies such as social network analysis, sentiment analysis, big data, neuromarketing, adoption of technologies, case studies or reviews of literature on this topic as well as another quantitative, qualitative or mixed/multi-method perspectives.

Prof. Dr. Jose Ramon Saura
Prof. Dr. Pedro Palos-Sanchez
Prof. Dr. Beatriz Rodriguez Herraez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

References

Saura, J.R.; Palos-Sánchez, P.; Cerdá Suárez, L.M. Understanding the Digital Marketing Environment with KPIs and Web Analytics. Future Internet 2017, 9, 76.
Segerberg, A., & Bennett, W. L. Social media and the organization of collective action: Using Twitter to explore the ecologies of two climate change protests. The Communication Review 2011 14(3), 197-215.
 
Saura, J.R.; Palos-Sanchez, P.; Grilo, A. Detecting Indicators for Startup Business Success: Sentiment Analysis Using Text Data Mining. Sustainability 2019, 11, 917.
 
Minton, E., Lee, C., Orth, U., Kim, C. H., & Kahle, L. Sustainable marketing and social media: A cross-country analysis of motives for sustainable behaviors. Journal of Advertising 2012 41(4), 69-84.
 
Saura, J., Reyes-Menendez, A., & Alvarez-Alonso, C. Do Online Comments Affect Environmental Management? Identifying Factors Related to Environmental Management and Sustainability of Hotels. Sustainability 2018 10(9), 3016.
 
Rastogi, E., & Khan, M. S. An analytical study of online advertising and its co-relationship with green marketing for facilitating sustainable marketing effectiveness. International Journal of Applied Research 2015 1(5), 182-184.
 

Keywords

  • Sustainable Digital Marketing strategies
  • Sustainable Business Models
  • Sustainable Management
  • Social Network Analysis for Sustainability
  • Sustainable Growth

Published Papers (12 papers)

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Editorial

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5 pages, 214 KiB  
Editorial
Digital Marketing for Sustainable Growth: Business Models and Online Campaigns Using Sustainable Strategies
by Jose Ramon Saura, Pedro Palos-Sanchez and Beatriz Rodríguez Herráez
Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 1003; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12031003 - 30 Jan 2020
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 17457
Abstract
In recent years, digital marketing has transformed the way in which companies communicate with their customers around the world. The increase in the use of social networks and how users communicate with companies on the Internet has given rise to new business models [...] Read more.
In recent years, digital marketing has transformed the way in which companies communicate with their customers around the world. The increase in the use of social networks and how users communicate with companies on the Internet has given rise to new business models based on the bidirectionality of communication between companies and Internet users. Digital marketing, new business models, online advertising campaigns, and other digital strategies have gathered user opinions and comments through this new online channel. In this way, companies have started to see the digital ecosystem as not only their present, but also as their future. From this long-term perspective, companies are concerned about sustainability and the growth of their business models. There are new business models on the Internet that support social causes, new platforms aimed at supporting social and sustainable projects, and digital advertising campaigns promoting sustainability. The overarching aim of this Special Issue was to analyze the development of these new strategies as well as their influence on the sustainability of digital marketing strategies. Therefore, we aimed to analyze how companies adopt these new technologies in a digital environment that is increasingly concerned with the sustainability of business models and actions on the Internet. Full article

Research

Jump to: Editorial

16 pages, 479 KiB  
Article
Empirical Study of Omnichannel Purchasing Pattern with Real Customer Data from Health and Lifestyle Company
by Jongsoo Kang, Marko Majer and Hyun-Jung Kim
Sustainability 2019, 11(24), 7185; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11247185 - 15 Dec 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4341
Abstract
This study examines the effect of omnichannel usage pattern on customers’ purchasing amount by determining statistical significance of different purchasing amount occurred for online and offline channel usage pattern with empirical analysis. The data is collected from a health and lifestyle company operated [...] Read more.
This study examines the effect of omnichannel usage pattern on customers’ purchasing amount by determining statistical significance of different purchasing amount occurred for online and offline channel usage pattern with empirical analysis. The data is collected from a health and lifestyle company operated by Major Pharmaceutical company in Korea, which sells health supplement and skincare products through their owned online and offline channels. The channel usage pattern of customers is categorized into four groups: Customer using online channel only, customer using offline channel only, customer first joined membership through online and use both on/offline channels and customers joined membership through offline channel and use both on/offline. Then, the trading period, total number of purchasing, average purchasing amount per transaction and total purchasing amount during trading period among the above four groups were analyzed. The result demonstrated the number of purchasing, average purchasing amount and total purchasing amount for the omnichannel customer groups who cross used on and offline showed statistical significance. However, the difference in purchasing amount between the group of customers who joined online membership and use offline channel and another customer group that joined offline membership and use online channel was not statistically significant. This study overcame the limitation of conventional studies used survey based data, by the application of empirical data from the real customers in on/offline channels, and provides meaningful insights based on empirical real data that group of customers with higher purchasing experience in both on/offline channels shows high performance. Full article
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21 pages, 2166 KiB  
Article
Attitude Evaluation on Using the Neuromarketing Approach in Social Media: Matching Company’s Purposes and Consumer’s Benefits for Sustainable Business Growth
by Mihaela Constantinescu, Andreea Orindaru, Andreea Pachitanu, Laura Rosca, Stefan-Claudiu Caescu and Mihai Cristian Orzan
Sustainability 2019, 11(24), 7094; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11247094 - 11 Dec 2019
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 10202
Abstract
The current era has brought about major changes in the way people connect to each other, and social media is a major pillar of this change. In this new communication and connecting environment, companies are under pressure to constantly adapt and become present [...] Read more.
The current era has brought about major changes in the way people connect to each other, and social media is a major pillar of this change. In this new communication and connecting environment, companies are under pressure to constantly adapt and become present on platforms where their customers are while being sustainable and profitable in the long run. On the other hand, traditional marketing research challenges have led to the expansion of new research approaches like neuromarketing as a means to gather the most accurate data ever from customers. When referring to how we can use neuromarketing research within the social media context, the current paper aims to fill a gap in the current literature: Using neuromarketing research in social media while taking into consideration both companies’ purposes and customers’ sought-after benefits. This aim is achieved through two pieces of research that shed light on a model where these purposes are matched with the corresponding benefits, showing the degree of acceptability of four major neuromarketing applications. This model is a stepping stone towards discovering how social media neuromarketing research can be a pillar of sustainable business communication as part of the broader perspective of sustainability in terms of business growth. Full article
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21 pages, 1043 KiB  
Article
A Study of Integrative Bargaining Model with Argumentation-Based Negotiation
by Jinsoo Park, Hamirahanim Abdul Rahman, Jihae Suh and Hazami Hussin
Sustainability 2019, 11(23), 6832; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11236832 - 02 Dec 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 11804
Abstract
E-commerce is increasingly competitive and there is a constant need for new approaches and technology to facilitate exchange. Emerging techniques include the use of artificial intelligence (AI). One AI tool that has sparked interest in e-commerce is the automated negotiation agent (negotiation-agent). This [...] Read more.
E-commerce is increasingly competitive and there is a constant need for new approaches and technology to facilitate exchange. Emerging techniques include the use of artificial intelligence (AI). One AI tool that has sparked interest in e-commerce is the automated negotiation agent (negotiation-agent). This study examines such agents, and proposes an offer strategy model of integrative negotiation for a negotiation-agent with a focus on negotiation agent-to-human interaction. More specifically, a new offer strategy was developed based on the integrative bargaining model, which emphasizes the importance of exchanging information among negotiators and multi-issue negotiation that includes package offers to achieve an integrative (win-win) outcome. This study incorporated an argumentation-based negotiation and the negotiation tactic of multiple equivalent simultaneous offers, which was programmed into the negotiation-agent. An experiment was conducted performing 49 negotiation-agent-to-human negotiations over three issues in online purchase tasks to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. Experimental results indicated that the proposed offer strategy with agent negotiation can enhance the persuasiveness of an offer and the performance of negotiation outcome (human counterpart’s perception toward negotiation process, opponent–agent and desire for future negotiation). The findings confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed design and demonstrated an innovative approach to e-commerce transactions. Full article
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24 pages, 1377 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Restaurant Social Media on Environmental Sustainability: An Empirical Study
by Juan Gabriel Martínez-Navalón, Vera Gelashvili and Felipe Debasa
Sustainability 2019, 11(21), 6105; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11216105 - 02 Nov 2019
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 8878
Abstract
Social media is currently a powerful way for companies to keep in touch with their customers and promote new products. The main objective of this research paper is to analyze the impact of social media marketing on environmental sustainability in food and beverage [...] Read more.
Social media is currently a powerful way for companies to keep in touch with their customers and promote new products. The main objective of this research paper is to analyze the impact of social media marketing on environmental sustainability in food and beverage service companies in Spain, taking customer satisfaction into account. The variables, such as customer trust, perceived value, and continuance intention, were also studied to determine whether they influence environmental sustainability. In order to achieve the stated objective, a questionnaire was created and the obtained data was analyzed using a PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modeling) methodology. The main conclusion of this study is an important contribution to the academic literature and is also helpful for restaurant managers for planning communication strategies through social media, since environmental sustainability is one of the main concerns of the public. Full article
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19 pages, 968 KiB  
Article
Managing Marketing Decision-Making with Sentiment Analysis: An Evaluation of the Main Product Features Using Text Data Mining
by Erick Kauffmann, Jesús Peral, David Gil, Antonio Ferrández, Ricardo Sellers and Higinio Mora
Sustainability 2019, 11(15), 4235; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11154235 - 05 Aug 2019
Cited by 57 | Viewed by 10122
Abstract
Companies have realized the importance of “big data” in creating a sustainable competitive advantage, and user-generated content (UGC) represents one of big data’s most important sources. From blogs to social media and online reviews, consumers generate a huge amount of brand-related information that [...] Read more.
Companies have realized the importance of “big data” in creating a sustainable competitive advantage, and user-generated content (UGC) represents one of big data’s most important sources. From blogs to social media and online reviews, consumers generate a huge amount of brand-related information that has a decisive potential business value for marketing purposes. Particularly, we focus on online reviews that could have an influence on brand image and positioning. Within this context, and using the usual quantitative star score ratings, a recent stream of research has employed sentiment analysis (SA) tools to examine the textual content of reviews and categorize buyer opinions. Although many SA tools split comments into negative or positive, a review can contain phrases with different polarities because the user can have different sentiments about each feature of the product. Finding the polarity of each feature can be interesting for product managers and brand management. In this paper, we present a general framework that uses natural language processing (NLP) techniques, including sentiment analysis, text data mining, and clustering techniques, to obtain new scores based on consumer sentiments for different product features. The main contribution of our proposal is the combination of price and the aforementioned scores to define a new global score for the product, which allows us to obtain a ranking according to product features. Furthermore, the products can be classified according to their positive, neutral, or negative features (visualized on dashboards), helping consumers with their sustainable purchasing behavior. We proved the validity of our approach in a case study using big data extracted from Amazon online reviews (specifically cell phones), obtaining satisfactory and promising results. After the experimentation, we could conclude that our work is able to improve recommender systems by using positive, neutral, and negative customer opinions and by classifying customers based on their comments. Full article
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19 pages, 894 KiB  
Article
Session-Based Recommender System for Sustainable Digital Marketing
by Hyunwoo Hwangbo and Yangsok Kim
Sustainability 2019, 11(12), 3336; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11123336 - 17 Jun 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5183
Abstract
Many companies operate e-commerce websites to sell fashion products. Some customers want to buy products with intention of sustainability and therefore the companies need to suggest appropriate fashion products to those customers. Recommender systems are key applications in these sustainable digital marketing strategies [...] Read more.
Many companies operate e-commerce websites to sell fashion products. Some customers want to buy products with intention of sustainability and therefore the companies need to suggest appropriate fashion products to those customers. Recommender systems are key applications in these sustainable digital marketing strategies and high performance is the most necessary factor. This research aims to improve recommendation systems’ performance by considering item session and attribute session information. We suggest the Item Session-Based Recommender (ISBR) and the Attribute Session-Based Recommenders (ASBRs) that use item and attribute session data independently, and then we suggest the Feature-Weighted Session-Based Recommenders (FWSBRs) that combine multiple ASBRs with various feature weighting schemes. Our experimental results show that FWSBR with chi-square feature weighting scheme outperforms ISBR, ASBRs, and Collaborative Filtering Recommender (CFR). In addition, it is notable that FWSBRs overcome the cold-start item problem, one significant limitation of CFR and ISBR, without losing performance. Full article
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16 pages, 4122 KiB  
Article
A Text Mining Approach for Sustainable Performance in the Film Industry
by Hyunwoo Hwangbo and Jonghyuk Kim
Sustainability 2019, 11(11), 3207; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11113207 - 09 Jun 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4501
Abstract
Many previous studies have shown that the volume or valence of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has a sustainable and significant impact on box office performance. Traditional studies used quantitative data, such as ratings, to measure eWOM. However, recent studies analyzed unstructured data, [...] Read more.
Many previous studies have shown that the volume or valence of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has a sustainable and significant impact on box office performance. Traditional studies used quantitative data, such as ratings, to measure eWOM. However, recent studies analyzed unstructured data, such as comments, through web-based text analysis. Based on recent research trends, we analyzed not only quantitative data, like ratings, but also text data, like reviews, and we performed a sentiment analysis using a text mining technique. Studies have also examined the effect of cultural differences on the decision-making processes of individuals and organizations. We applied Hofstede’s cultural theory to eWOM and analyzed the moderating effect of cultural differences on eWOM influence. We selected 338 films released between 2006 and 2015 from the BoxOfficeMojo database. We collected ratings and reviews, box office revenues, and other basic information from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). We also analyzed the effects of cultural differences, such as power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity, on box office performance. We found that user comments have a greater impact on film sales than user ratings, and movie stars and co-production contribute to box office success. We also conclude that cultural and geographical differences moderate the sentiment elasticity of eWOM. Full article
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13 pages, 2178 KiB  
Article
Research Challenges in Digital Marketing: Sustainability
by Francisco Diez-Martin, Alicia Blanco-Gonzalez and Camilo Prado-Roman
Sustainability 2019, 11(10), 2839; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11102839 - 18 May 2019
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 23104
Abstract
Great progress has been made in the field of marketing and sustainability. Nevertheless, there is still an important gap between the behavior and beliefs of society and markets about sustainability, and companies’ capability to understand and face this trend. Digital marketing is key [...] Read more.
Great progress has been made in the field of marketing and sustainability. Nevertheless, there is still an important gap between the behavior and beliefs of society and markets about sustainability, and companies’ capability to understand and face this trend. Digital marketing is key to filling this gap. However, research in digital marketing and sustainability is very scarce. The purpose of this research is to examine the literature in the subject, since 2009 until 2018, and to elaborate a research agenda about digital marketing and sustainability. Through a previous analysis based on bibliometrics, a research agenda has been developed that shows the main challenges for the digital marketing and sustainability field: (1) customer orientation and value proposition; (2) digital consumer’s behavior; (3) digital green marketing; (4) competitive advantage; (5) supply chain; and (6) capabilities. This work contributes to the development of the research in digital marketing and sustainability, suggesting various challenges for the field that lead to future lines of research, and favoring the development of a new research approach capable of reducing the existing gap between society and business on sustainability issues. Full article
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19 pages, 3005 KiB  
Article
Evolution and Transformation of the Central Place Theory in E-Business: China’s C2C Online Game Marketing
by Qiang Li, Qing Liu, Xiaona Guo, Shuo Xu, Jingyu Liu and Heli Lu
Sustainability 2019, 11(8), 2274; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11082274 - 16 Apr 2019
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4438
Abstract
In contemporary studies in areas such as the field of classical theory, there has been an increasing emphasis on E-Business. In this study, we examine central place theory principles using China’s consumer-to-consumer online game marketing as a case of E-business. The results indicate [...] Read more.
In contemporary studies in areas such as the field of classical theory, there has been an increasing emphasis on E-Business. In this study, we examine central place theory principles using China’s consumer-to-consumer online game marketing as a case of E-business. The results indicate that virtual goods in China’s C2C online game marketing are distributed in areas with high economic development and where residents have high purchasing power. Further, we found that the transmission capacity of virtual goods is affected by the level of telecommunication services because they are transmitted through information flow. Such effects illustrate that virtual goods are no longer affected by spatial distance and traffic conditions because virtual goods do not need to be touched; however, they are still affected by market forces. We conclude that there are key differences between the marketing and transport principles of CPT based on the hierarchical model describing new internal and external relations and the level of complexity in E-Business processes. Full article
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24 pages, 9362 KiB  
Article
A Perspective Over Modern SMEs: Managing Brand Equity, Growth and Sustainability Through Digital Marketing Tools and Techniques
by Dan Dumitriu, Gheorghe Militaru, Dana Corina Deselnicu, Andrei Niculescu and Mirona Ana-Maria Popescu
Sustainability 2019, 11(7), 2111; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11072111 - 09 Apr 2019
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 17762
Abstract
On their way towards assuring growth and long-term sustainability, many modern small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from the European Union have set building a stronger brand as one of their primary goals. To achieve this, an integrated framework for managing the continuous [...] Read more.
On their way towards assuring growth and long-term sustainability, many modern small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from the European Union have set building a stronger brand as one of their primary goals. To achieve this, an integrated framework for managing the continuous enhancement of their brand equity level by adopting digital marketing tools and techniques (DMTTs), has increasingly become a necessity for most of the modern SMEs. However, even if such an approach provides plenty of benefits, such as better audience targeting and reduction of traditional marketing expenses, implementing these complex processes in their business models poses a series of challenges like choosing the best selection of DMTTs. For this reason, a conceptual model is proposed in the first part of the paper, with the aim to highlight a framework that will help underline the links between DMTTs and other key elements that can provide an increase in brand equity of SMEs, thus contributing to growth and enhancing the sustainability level. Following the proposed model, research aimed at two main directions has been conducted in the second part. The first direction was to analyze the degree in which modern SMEs from the European Union located in Romania dedicate themselves toward embracing sustainability goals and principles. The second one represents an analysis using also the SPSS software solution on the most used selections of DMTTs mentioned in the presented conceptual model. The results obtained provide a starting point for those modern SMEs that choose to follow the path of sustainability by creating and enhancing their brand equity through DMTTs. Full article
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14 pages, 823 KiB  
Article
Detecting Indicators for Startup Business Success: Sentiment Analysis Using Text Data Mining
by Jose Ramon Saura, Pedro Palos-Sanchez and Antonio Grilo
Sustainability 2019, 11(3), 917; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11030917 - 11 Feb 2019
Cited by 90 | Viewed by 18310
Abstract
The main aim of this study is to identify the key factors in User Generated Content (UGC) on the Twitter social network for the creation of successful startups, as well as to identify factors for sustainable startups and business models. New technologies were [...] Read more.
The main aim of this study is to identify the key factors in User Generated Content (UGC) on the Twitter social network for the creation of successful startups, as well as to identify factors for sustainable startups and business models. New technologies were used in the proposed research methodology to identify the key factors for the success of startup projects. First, a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model was used, which is a state-of-the-art thematic modeling tool that works in Python and determines the database topic by analyzing tweets for the #Startups hashtag on Twitter (n = 35.401 tweets). Secondly, a Sentiment Analysis was performed with a Supervised Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm that works with Machine Learning in Python. This was applied to the LDA results to divide the identified startup topics into negative, positive, and neutral sentiments. Thirdly, a Textual Analysis was carried out on the topics in each sentiment with Text Data Mining techniques using Nvivo software. This research has detected that the topics with positive feelings for the identification of key factors for the startup business success are startup tools, technology-based startup, the attitude of the founders, and the startup methodology development. The negative topics are the frameworks and programming languages, type of job offers, and the business angels’ requirements. The identified neutral topics are the development of the business plan, the type of startup project, and the incubator’s and startup’s geolocation. The limitations of the investigation are the number of tweets in the analyzed sample and the limited time horizon. Future lines of research could improve the methodology used to determine key factors for the creation of successful startups and could also study sustainable issues. Full article
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