Why Marketing Managers Act Sustainable - and Why Not: Towards a Sustainability Acceptance Model
(A2024-119489)

AUTHORS

Chiara Hübscher, University of Twente; Susanne Hensel-Börner, HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration; Jörg Henseler, University of Twente

ABSTRACT

Marketing activities can educate consumers, influence their behaviour, and change the product offering. Therefore, the decisions of marketing managers play an important role in achieving the twelfth Sustainable Development Goal on "Responsible consumption and production" (SDG 12). Understanding and creating the conditions under which marketing managers implement marketing activities that promote sustainable development is thus a priority research topic. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this paper conceptualises the variables that underlie decision-making for sustainable marketing activities. The resulting Sustainability Acceptance Model (SAM) has the potential to explain marketing managers' acceptance of sustainable marketing activities versus their non-sustainable alternative and thus form the basis for future empirical research as well as for policy design in the context of sustainable development in general and SDG 12 in particular.