Unveiling Decision Biases Shaping Sustainable Innovation: A Typology of Marketing Managers
(A2025-126338)

AUTHORS

Sophie Richit, Aix-Marseille Université, CERGAM, IAE; Aurélie HEMONNET, Aix Marseille University - IAE Graduate School - CERGAM

ABSTRACT

Sustainable innovation is a lever for progress for companies, but in a context of innovation, marketing practitioners are likely to be subject to decision-making biases that can alter the sustainable products innovation process. In order to identify these biases, still relatively unexplored in marketing, theoretical fields of sustainable product innovation and behavioral strategy are mobilized. Drawing on the literature and on nineteen case studies, this research reveals the existence of three profiles of marketers: the “conservatives”, the “progressives” and the “transformers”, each associated with specific decision biases that influence the sustainability of the new product. This research provides a typology that highlights how decision biases influence marketing practices in a context of sustainable innovation, thus extending existing work on marketing role in innovation. From a managerial point of view, it provides a tool that companies can adopt to become aware of the decision biases of marketers to increase their sustainable accountability.