A Guiding Framework for Levels of Sustainability in Marketing

Abstract

Up to now, far more attention has been paid to assessing the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainability. However, what makes this paper distinct is that it proposes a guiding framework that can be employed as a useful tool for business enterprises and other related stakeholders in transforming the potential of marketing disciplines towards upper levels of marketing orientations and sustainable consumption patterns. This present paper follows a typological model that classifies the conceptual approximations that are relatively dispersed in the literature. In doing so, the authors trace back to Kotler’s distinction of positive and normative scopes of marketing, then based on this dichotomy, they propose five different sustainability marketing levels and tag them. This paper aims to provide a convenient roadmap for traditional growth-oriented and transitionary firms who are stuck in short-term positive marketing level and thus need to include sustainability and sufficiency as the most prospective options for long term competitive advantage.