Corporate sustainability research in marketing: Mapping progress and broadening our perspective

Abstract

This review examines corporate sustainability research in marketing, using a perspective that encompasses the environmental and social, as well as economic, aspects of firm performance (i.e., the “Triple Bottom Line”). The authors describe major trends in the strategy-level corporate sustainability literature over several generations. Prior research has mostly focused on the organizational level, noting how firms have engaged with sustainability, while largely ignoring markets and the global economic system. Trends in economic, environmental, and social focus are highlighted, with environmental issues being of relatively greater importance in the nascent stages of corporate sustainability research. However, a growing preference for economic and social issues is observed over time. More recent research examines the tension between sustainability and profitability, examining potential trade-offs between bottom line financial results and achieving the sustainability goals of social and environmental progress. The paper concludes with an agenda for future research in strategic marketing sustainability.