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The role of Marketing in Defining the Organization's 'Sustainability' Goals

Recently, there has been an explosion of research activity in organizations and government related to sustainability and green initiatives. Much of this is a direct result of the rapid development that we are experiencing around the world as well as consumers realizing the importance of changing the way that they consume products and services so as to reduce our impact on the earth. Sustainability or sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Consider the decision to move your operations overseas because of the relatively inexpensive labor market - what are the sustainability issues that we face as a business? Are sustainability issues considered? If so, how are they considered? If not, why are they not considered? How are managers making these decisions using the guiding principle of "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"? How can marketers be responsive to the needs of all stakeholders when operating in a global environment?

In order to effectively communicate organizations’ green commitments and technologies, companies must bridge the gap between technologies and marketing. Since a large majority of consumers’ link marketers’ social responsibility to their environmental behavior, sustainability must be integrated into an organization’s marketing strategy and mission. This is already evident in such areas as corporate branding (G.E. and EcoImagination), consumer boycotting (GM foods), cause-related marketing (Exxon providing mosquito netting in Central Africa), corporate communication (Toyota publishes annual Sustainability Reports), corporate social responsibility (creating positions of significance in company’s such as P&G’s VP of Corporate Sustainability), new technologies (hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen cars), reputation/image (IBM launching a Eco Data Center), and corporate associations (green labeling).

Researchers have the opportunity to bring more focus and scholarly attention to the marketing of organizations as sustainable products or services. In addition to the traditional focus on product- or service-level marketing, researchers can have input into where the world is going in the 21st century. With this initiative in mind, the 2009 American Marketing Association Summer Educators Conference is appropriately entitled “The role of Marketing in Defining the Organization’s ‘Sustainability’ Goals.”

General Information

The Summer Educators’ Conference is an important forum for current research and intellectual exchange. Manuscripts and special session proposals are invited that present evidence of empirical regularities, explore new theoretical perspectives, suggest practical implications of existing theory, apply new tools to marketing management, provide insights for research drawn from marketing practice and consumer behavior, highlight advances in marketing practice, and/or insightfully synthesize one or more important bodies of literature relevant to marketing. Although the conference is open to special sessions and paper proposals on all marketing-related topics, a goal for the 2009 Summer Educators’ Conference is to seek conceptual or empirical work that incorporates organizational-level issues related to the conference theme of “The role of Marketing in Defining the Organization’s ‘Sustainability’ Goals.” We plan to place particular emphasis on special sessions and strongly encourage potential participants to organize and propose such sessions with research colleagues working in similar research domains. Special sessions might take the form of (a) traditional research presentations (3-4) with a discussant; or (b) interactive panel discussions with 4-6 panelists and a moderator. Other types of creative special sessions are also possible. Another goal of the conference is to serve as a professional development opportunity for marketing scholars, which is consistent with the conference theme. This will be accomplished by creating a forum for developing research partnerships and interacting with other attendees from both academic and practitioner realms.

Thus, we encourage authors to present their best work at the conference, whether applied, theoretical, or methodological in orientation. In order to encourage authors to submit and present their best work at the conference, the option of publishing only an abstract in the conference proceedings is offered. At the time of submission, please specify your preference for publication in abstract or full-manuscript form, if your paper is accepted. This choice does not affect the review process.

The conference is organized around fourteen tracks, each with a Chair or Co-Chairs. This includes one track dedicated to the needs of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of the AMA Academic Division (Track 14). You may direct submission of a competitive paper or special session proposal to any one of these different tracks, or a SIG-related special session proposal to the SIG Track Chairs.

Conference Co-Chairs:

Michael Kamins and Ingrid M. Martin