Physical impacts from climate change already pose major challenges for organizations, and the trend is rising. Organization theorists, however, have barely begun to systematically consider the organizational impacts of more and increasingly intense storms, fl oods, droughts, fi res, sea level rise or changing growing seasons as part of their domain of study. Eight organizationally relevant dimensions of climate impacts are identifi ed: severity, temporal scale, spatial scale, predictability, mode, immediacy, state change potential and accelerating trend potential. Combined, their scale, scope and systemic uncertainty suggest future conditions of systemic hyperturbulence in organizational environments, defi ned here as 'massive discontinuous change' (MDC). To build a conceptual foundation for organizations to respond and adapt to MDC, the paper examines contributions from literatures on the management of sustainability, crisis, risk, resilience and adaptive organizational change. It highlights gaps for addressing both business challenges and opportunities from MDC, and suggests avenues for future research.

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Recent work is reconceptualizing global poverty as an attractive growth opportunity for firms, that can simultaneously alleviate the problem of poverty. This notion has major implications for the sustainability of global society in general, and for the concepts and practice of marketing in particular. It is the purpose of this paper to explore, and bring attention to, these important implications, and to offer conceptual and practical suggestions for a sustainability marketing for the poor.

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Purpose -This paper aims to explore key factors that will shape the future of trade shows as a marketing instrument until the year 2020. Using multistage scenario analysis, the paper seeks to provide a background for the discussion of strategic decisions made by trade show companies when they respond to the challenges ahead. Design/methodology/approach -The underlying research draws on scenario analysis involving experts who represent exhibitors and trade show organisers. In total, 50 leading executives were involved. The majority of them are located in Germany, but they are exposed to the international trade show business. The probability that the identified scenarios will materialise was assessed using a representative survey of 400 German managers of exhibiting companies. Findings -Within the study, three distinct scenarios were identified. Each scenario shows a different level of importance for trade shows as a marketing tool in the future. None of the scenarios predicts that trade shows will be completely replaced by other means, but all of the scenarios forecast a highly competitive market for trade show organisers.Research limitations/implications -The paper evaluates the trade show itself as a marketing instrument rather than predicting the development of the global trade show industry. As projections are determined by the characteristics of trade shows themselves, the results can add to the discussion of strategic decisions globally, even though the scenario study predominantly involved German experts. Practical implications -The research provides practitioners with a list of important factors that influence the performance of exhibitors and trade show organisers and hence insights into the future of trade shows as a marketing instrument. Originality/value -The paper provides a useful multidimensional perspective on what the future may hold for trade shows.