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Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 41057

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Wilson Ozuem

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Guest Editor

Institute of Business, Industry and Leadership, University of Cumbria, Lancaster LA1 3JD, UK
Interests: marketing communication; marketing; social mapping; advertising; social media marketing; integrated marketing communication; branding; internet marketing; digital marketing; interactive marketing

Prof. Silvia Ranfagni

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Guest Editor

Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa (DISEI), University of Florence (UNIFI), Florence 50144, Italy
Interests: enterprise internationalization; innovation; brand; marketing research and consumer behavior; marketing business to business

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable marketing practice is essential for developing a more comprehensive understanding of consumers’ purchase decisions in dynamic digital marketing environments. Scholars and practitioners conceive sustainable marketing practices as an episodic fashion, predicated on temporal practices in response to the emerging digital environments. Consumers are increasingly becoming aware of the ecological issues that their consumption creates in the marketplace. Despite the importance of sustainable practices, when and how sustainability occurs within the consumer purchase decision remains largely unexplored. In part, this is because the practices of sustainability in the emerging computer-mediated marketing environments (CMMEs) are difficult to anticipate and study. Much of what we know about sustainable marketing practice is mainly focused on customer–brand relationships. Prior literature examining sustainable marketing practice through CMMEs remains sparse, despite consistent emphasis on the benefits of sustainable marketing practices in the emerging digital world. Our Special Issue will consider abstracts/papers on the following topics, though these are not mutually exclusive; potential papers on related themes may be considered.

Prof. Wilson Ozuem
Prof. Silvia Ranfagni
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.

Keywords

Sustainable marketing in the digital era
Digital marketing and sustainable marketing
Sustainability and online brand communities
Influencer marketing and sustainability
Social media strategies and sustainability
Netnography and user-generated content (UGC) as basis to investigate sustainability
Videography as basis to investigate sustainability in social networks
Sustainable brands and virtual settings
Sustainable brands and e-commerce
Innovation in channel distribution and sustainability
Big data and sustainability
Emerging technologies and sustainable marketing
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability
Social influence theory

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

12 pages, 252 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Luxury and Sustainability: Technological Pathways and Potential Opportunities

by Silvia Ranfagni and Wilson Ozuem

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5209; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14095209 - 26 Apr 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5458

Abstract

Emerging technologies have the potential to create new industries and transform existing ones, particularly the promotion of sustainable transitions in the luxury fashion industry [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

15 pages, 311 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Monetizing the IoT Revolution

by Herman Donner and Michael Steep

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2195; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13042195 - 18 Feb 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2818

Abstract

Academics and businesses alike tend to fail at understanding how the IoT revolution is monetized. We outline three main categories of how IoT will impact business models: (a) improved customer matching and tracking of marketing returns, (b) individualized offers and pricing when consumer demand and price elasticities can be identified, and (c) smart device and usage monitoring that allows for outcome-based contracts and servitization. Data convergence creates context-based-intelligence, which enables a shift from using consumer profiles for targeted advertising to individualized offers and pricing. The required depth of both consumer data and understanding of context will require collaborative efforts between companies and blur the lines between industrial- and consumer-IoT applications. Outlining concerns for privacy and cybersecurity, we find that consumer demand for decision-simplicity and relevant content aligns with the business model of “free” services in return for data, despite consumer concerns relating to data collection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy)

14 pages, 1186 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Factors Affecting Sustainable Purchase Intentions of SNS Emojis: Modeling the Impact of Self-Presentation

by YunJu Kim and Jong Woo Jun

Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8361; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12208361 - 12 Oct 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3775

Abstract

To promote more sustainable consumption of Social Networking Service (SNS) emojis, it is necessary to understand the relationships between social psychological antecedents and SNS users’ intention to purchase emojis. This study aimed to investigate motivational factors affecting users’ intentions to purchase SNS emojis. We examined SNS users of Kakao Talk, the most widely used instant messaging service in South Korea, and investigated the relationships among five latent constructs: Self-presentation, symbolic values, playfulness, purchase intentions, and need for uniqueness. The results of this study indicate that self-presentation does not directly affect the intention to purchase emojis (β = 0.10, p > 0.05). Rather, self-presentation positively influences purchase intention through the mediating path of SNS users’ perceived symbolic value (β = 0.60, p < 0.001) and playfulness (β = 0.35, p < 0.001) to purchase intention (β = 0.29, p < 0.001; β = 0.37, p < 0.001). Further, symbolic value affects playfulness (β = 0.56, p < 0.001), which in turn leads to consumers’ intentions to purchase emojis. This study highlights that SNS users’ need for uniqueness functions as a moderator in the relationship between self-presentation and their intentions to purchase emojis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy)

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16 pages, 251 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Affective Level in Adolescents in Relation to Advertising with a Selected Emotional Appeal

by David Vrtana, Anna Krizanova, Eva Skorvagova and Katarina Valaskova

Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 8287; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12198287 - 08 Oct 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3150

Abstract

The correlation and perception of advertising on adolescents have been shown to be a key factor in the survival of subjective emotional states. In this research, we map the affective level in relation to emotions in the context of assessing the marketing advertisement “Man on the Moon” by John Lewis company. We assess how an emotional appeal affects adolescents in various areas of the Slovak Republic, following several crucial demographic features of respondents. We examined the affective level by means of a psychodiagnostic tool in the form of a standardized tool of the scale of subjective emotional habitual well-being. To measure the emotional component of subjective well-being, we used descriptive words that expressed experienced emotions and feelings. From the collected data, we determined the frequency of positive and negative mood and verified the dependence between the variable region and emotion. We used Pearson’s chi-square test. When evaluating the data, we found dependencies between the categorical variable region and emotion. We did not find a relationship between the variable gender and emotion. The geographical division within the national market has an impact on the experience of positive and negative emotions when looking at advertising with an emotional appeal to the story. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy)

20 pages, 1933 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Natural Celebrity–Brand Association and Para-Social Interaction in Advertising Endorsement for Sustainable Marketing

by Ke Zhang and Kineta Hung

Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6215; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12156215 - 02 Aug 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6846

Abstract

Celebrity endorsement has been regarded as an effective strategy for enterprises to implement sustainable marketing strategies. However, frequent use of celebrity ads renders consumers skeptical of the ads’ and celebrity’s profit-making intent, which may adversely affect the sustainable marketing of the brand. This has given rise to “natural celebrity-brand association” that features celebrities using the brand in real-life settings, which is usually presented on social media rather than mass media. Using a boot-strapping approach, the study contrasts the effects of natural and commercial endorsements (i.e., natural vs. advertising, natural vs. product placement) on consumer brand responses. Results showed that natural celebrity–brand association exerts superior effects. Further, the mediating variables, para-social interaction (PSI) and its drivers (celebrity attractiveness, consumers’ perceived homophily with the celebrity), which reflect consumer’s emotional connection with a celebrity, also exert significantly stronger effects in the natural (vs. commercial) endorsement context. This research provides insights for advertisers and marketers in exploring new patterns of brand presentation forms in advertisements and gaining competitive advantage in sustainable marketing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy)

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13 pages, 248 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Social Media on the Strategy Formulation Process

by Gordon Bowen, Dominic Appiah and Sebastian Okafor

Sustainability 2020, 12(15), 6057; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12156057 - 28 Jul 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 6327

Abstract

The current theory on strategy formulation is based significantly on environmental analysis and leveraging strategic capability. There is limited understanding of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social media strategies could develop the strategy formulation to improve strategic outcomes. The input into the strategic formulation process does not tend to take account of customers’ inclination for CSR practices and policies. This is particularly important for consumers who can spurn organisations that do not incorporate ethical practices in their core values. The paper aims to show that social media is an inclusive tool, because of the duplex communication techniques that enhance it, and CSR is complementary to building a robust strategic planning process. The methodology is a qualitative case study using a reflective perspective based on a complete participant role. The results demonstrate that there are challenges in operating a strategic planning process that is situated in an uncertain, volatile and dynamic business environment; it requires an integrated partnership between the inter-organisational actors and other stakeholders. Social media is the integrator of resources and CSR helps to build relationships, acting as a reinforcer of trust. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy)

20 pages, 2168 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Discovering the Role of Emotional and Rational Appeals and Hidden Heterogeneity of Consumers in Advertising Copies for Sustainable Marketing

by Cheong Kim, Hyeon Gyu Jeon and Kun Chang Lee

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 5189; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12125189 - 25 Jun 2020

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 11530

Abstract

Advertising copies have been considered as a fundamental strategy for firms to continue sustainable marketing strategies. In order to provide the advancement of previous research and practical implication to marketers in the field for sustainable marketing strategy, this research tried to reveal the role of emotional and rational appeals as well as hidden heterogeneity of consumers in the appeal–value–trust–satisfaction–WOM framework. By applying the PLS-SEM and PLS-POS approach to 230 valid questionnaire samples, we could discover the role of appeals in the framework as well as three types of unobserved heterogeneity among the respondents. Both emotional and rational appeals had significant influences on the value–satisfaction–trust–WOM context. In addition, for hidden consumer traits in advertising copies, we revealed three types of consumer groups: Type 1, the consumer group with a rational orientation (n = 68); Type 2, the group with an emotional orientation (n = 74) and Type 3, the group with a utilitarian orientation. This research provided contributions by offering some insight into ways to establish sustainable marketing strategies in advertisements and to address unobserved heterogeneity consumers in advertising copy appeals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Marketing, Branding and CSR in the Digital Economy)

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