Role of Sustainability in Marketing and Management

This essay discusses the role of sustainability in marketing and management, using specific articles to highlight important points. It also suggests ways to improve sustainability in the future.

Running head: ROLE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Role of sustainability:
Marketing and management
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

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Introduction
The term sustainable development conveys different meanings to different people. But
the central theme is apprehensive to fulfill the needs of the people in the present so that the future
generation can meet their own needs and wants. That is the reason why sustainable development
takes into consideration a broad view of the social, economic and environmental results
(Bebbington, Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014). Moreover a future perspective is also concerned with
the rights and interests of the upcoming generations as well as of the present. Sustainable
development or sustainability also uses an inclusive approach to action which identifies the
desires of the people in all those decisions that affect their lives in any way (Benn, Dunphy &
Griffiths, 2014). This particular essay will consider the role of sustainability in marketing and
management in the present and the ways of improvement in the future. Specific articles will be
used in order to highlight the important points by aligning with the aim of this essay.
Discussion
The primary aim of this essay is to find out about the role played by sustainability in
marketing and management field. Sustainability in the specific field uses the concept of
environment, economy and the needs of the present and future generations (Childers et al.,
2015). These three streams are used to make living easy amidst limited resources and
maintaining economic feasibility. By adhering to this aim of the essay the quality of life on the
planet will be maintained successfully.
With the reading of the article ‘Social innovation and social entrepreneurship: A
systematic review’ from the Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and Sustainability it can be
stated that the initiatives taken on behalf of sustainability in the field of management and

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marketing goes a long way beyond the fulfillment of the instant needs of the stakeholders for the
profitable organization in order to boost up the performance (Phillips et al., 2015). A review of
this article had shed light on the fact that the business cases for sustainable development and the
concept of going green goes hand- in- hand yet there are a lot of arguments. The five key points
that can be highlighted from this journal article are- 1. There is a contemporary trend of shifting
towards sustainable management in the business environment; 2. Although the idea of
sustainability plays a convincing role but the managers have faced challenge in implementing it.
3. There are critical objectives of climate change and biodiversity; 4. Working condition and
health of the underprivileged population is considered in terms of sustainability; 5. The
marketing managers faced trouble in translating the theoretical concepts into feasible business
propositions (Clayton & Radcliffe, 2015).
As per the aim of the essay Crane and Matten (2016) mentioned that sustainability is not
only considered as the responsibility of the environmentalists or the managers of the organization
or the communication specialists but people from all over the organization should make their
required contribution towards sustainability. The article focuses on the issue of sustainable
development with which most of the marketers are acquainted.
In order to describe the five key points from the journal it can be stated that most of the
business organizations are shifting their focus on sustainable practices because the satisfaction of
human needs and wants are considered as the major objective of development. However Epstein
and Buhovac (2014) had countered that the second point of challenges in sustainability
contradicts the fact by mentioning that the managers are not always successful in implementing
the practice among the employees. Again the theme of biodiversity which is related to a well-
functioning ecosystem gives general solutions to build flexibility by helping the society to fight

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climate change. This is interrelated to the thought that sustainability is dependent on the present
needs of the working class and underprivileged section of the society. That is the reason why the
marketing managers failed in certain situations to implement the process in practice.
In the book ‘the integration of social, environmental and economic performance’ the
authors Schaltegger and Wagner (2017) have stated that sustainability in the business case covers
up the entire area of questions that refer to the voluntary environmental and social activities for
the success of the company. It can be contradicted in another way that how can the business be
improved for the sake of competitiveness and financial performance. If there is any measure
taken to manage and market with the help of sustainable development it should have a positive
outcome on the success of the organization. It can be achieved by looking out for the
sustainability and economic performance along with competitiveness (Jia et al., 2015). Recently
the relation between sustainability performance and competiveness has gained momentum in the
business environment.
The author has also focused on the fact that managers who excel in systematically
analyzing the economic or financial challenges of the company can be enhanced by means of
environmental or social activities. This is a striking fact that the capability to manage the non-
marketing challenges can be complex and might hamper the existence of the company
(Mowforth & Munt, 2015). However a better understanding of the connection between
sustainability performance, financial success and competitiveness in the business clearly aims
towards the role of sustainability in the field of marketing and management. Thus the corporate
sustainability and the long discussed term sustainability performance can be explained well by
the combination of social, economic and environmental performance measures. The non- market
activities as well as the performance when integrated with the main business activities and other

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external factors put an impact on the competitiveness of the company (Waas et al., 2014). But it
would be wrong to think that the non- market performance do not have direct impact on the
financial success of the company. This is because competitiveness provides a description of the
comparative market position and the skill of the organization to fulfill the desires of the
customers in a much better and improved way than the competitors. This is the prime motivator
behind the financial success of the company which has the ability to produce an outstanding
performance when influenced on a positive note (Jia et al., 2015).
Below is the summary given in a pictorial form to better interpretation of the
sustainability performance.
Fig: Management of sustainability performance by integrating environmental and social
management with financial success and competitiveness

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Source: (Wood et al., 2014)
Sustainability in marketing and management deals with both the management and
analysis part of the impact posed on the social and environmental activities on the overall
success of the company as well as on the business effects on the business activities. There are a
number of studies that have been based on this relationship between economic and social
performance but there are not many researches done which closely scrutinizes the points
mentioned in the above figure (Waas et al., 2014). Further this report will summarize the key
points that have been missed in the articles and the ways of improvement in sustainability.
Conclusion
The journal article had focused on the five key elements that have been mentioned in the
beginning of this report but it did not explain the ways by which sustainability can be practiced
in the field of marketing and management. It went on mentioning about the non-market
managers but there was hardly any description of the marketing managers. This can be
considered as a drawback on the part of the researcher and a limitation of this article.
For future studies on this topic the researcher needs to take care of this point and be
specific in the studies which will be conducted. Moreover the target market was not directly hit
by this research and it failed to make any impact on the market. As sustainability is a trending
factor in the competitive market therefore the research should have been aimed at the youth as
they are the torch bearer of the future days. When the youth will be targeted with the benefits of
sustainability then they will be able to embed the seed both in the present and in the future
generation because the theory of sustainability is aimed at the preservation of resources for the
future by fulfilling the needs o the present.

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For future studies on the role of sustainability in marketing and management the
researcher can use the instance of the luxury automaker BMW which was nominated as the most
sustainable company of the year 2016. They were able to earn this fame by using efficient
amount of water, energy and releasing minimum waste material. In addition to that they have
also responded positively to tax payment, innovation investments, less employee turnover and
less pay difference among the management and the employees. Thus it is clear from this instance
that a management or marketing company can be considered as sustainable when they will make
the most effective use of their capital by improving the employee performance and proper use of
natural resources.
There are other instances too that have managed to achieve top ranking in terms of
sustainable practices such as Outotec, a Finland based construction and engineering company;
Adidas; Commonwealth bank of Australia; Reckitt Benkiser, a UK based household products
company and others.

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References
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Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
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Epstein, M. J., & Buhovac, A. R. (2014). Making sustainability work: Best practices in
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