No Through Road: A Critical Examination of Researcher Assumptions and Approaches to Researching Sustainability

McDonald, Seonaidh; Oates, Caroline; Alevizou, Panayiota J.

doi:10.1108/s1548-643520160000013014

Cited by 13 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…This conceptual framing works within some contextual constraints that operate at a practical level across and beyond the discipline. The key to understanding why we do not challenge conceptual frames that have proved unhelpful in explaining (un)sustainable behaviours may lie within the contextual constraints supplied by the boundaries of western higher education norms and practices (McDonald et al , 2016).…”

Section: Present Theoretical and Methodological Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research

Davies

Oates

Tynan

et al. 2020

EJM

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Purpose Seeking ways towards a sustainable future is the most dominant socio-political challenge of our time. Marketing should have a crucial role to play in leading research and impact in sustainability, yet it is limited by relying on cognitive behavioural theories rooted in the 1970s, which have proved to have little bearing on actual behaviour. This paper aims to interrogate why marketing is failing to address the challenge of sustainability and identify alternative approaches. Design/methodology/approach The constraint in theoretical development contextualises the problem, followed by a focus on four key themes to promote theory development: developing sustainable people; models of alternative consumption; building towards sustainable marketplaces; and theoretical domains for the future. These themes were developed and refined during the 2018 Academy of Marketing workshop on seeking sustainable futures. MacInnis’s (2011) framework for conceptual contributions in marketing provides the narrative thread and structure. Findings The current state of play is explicated, combining the four themes and MacInnis’s framework to identify the failures and gaps in extant approaches to the field. Research limitations/implications This paper sets a new research agenda for the marketing discipline in quest for sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research. Practical implications Approaches are proposed which will allow the transformation of the dominant socio-economic systems towards a model capable of promoting a sustainable future. Originality/value The paper provides thought leadership in marketing and sustainability as befits the special issue, by moving beyond the description of the problem to making a conceptual contribution and setting a research agenda for the future.

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Section: Present Theoretical and Methodological Domainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeking sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research

Davies

Oates

Tynan

et al. 2020

EJM

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Among a sample of 186 Copenhageners, for example, 13.4% indicated they would eat more plantbased if it was cheaper or if it was more convenient to get (10.3%), took less time to prepare (9.3%), and if there was a greater selection at supermarkets (7.2%) or if more restaurants offered plant-based meals (7.2%) [22]. Although one must be critical with self-reported data and the limited predictive power of attitudes for actual behavior [65], this can be considered a promising sign for PBMA and associated sustainability benefits.…”

Section: Structural Adoption Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant-Based Meat Alternatives: Motivational Adoption Barriers and Solutions

Jähn

Furchheim²,

Strässner³

2021

Sustainability

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Meat consumption is increasingly being seen as unsustainable. However, plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA) are not widely accepted yet. PBMA aim to imitate the experience of eating meat by mimicking animal meat in its sensory characteristics such as taste, texture, or aesthetic appearance. This narrative review explores the motivational barriers to adopting PBMA while focusing on food neophobia, social norms and rituals, as well as conflicting eating goals that prevent consumers from switching to a plant-based diet. Based on the key characteristics of these motivational barriers, which are informed by research findings in consumer psychology and marketing, solutions are discussed that can help counter the barriers.

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“…The discourse on sustainability in marketing research provides examples to help contextualise these problems and the detrimental effects they have on the study of marketing systems. Much of this research has focussed on the micro-level of people's meaning-making and practices (McDonald et al, 2016). This agent-centric approach where the actor creates the social system of consumption fails to account for interactions and interdependencies with other multiscalar system entities.…”

Section: Relations and Process Ontologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling the marketing systems orientation: re-establishing the ontic necessity of relations

Simmonds

2018

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Purpose This paper aims to critically reflect on the growing systems orientation in marketing research and the approaches used to understand marketing systems. In response, the paper offers an integrative metatheory built on the ontic necessity and subsequently constitutive and causal efficacy of relations. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper is built on a logic of critique, identifying the generative absences that produce problems in the frameworks in use and attempting to rectify these problems by offering an alternative meta-theoretical structure. This paper draws from critical realism, systems thinking and relational sociology. Findings This paper advocates for an emergentist ontology for marketing systems built on the value of both substance and relation as co-principles of existence and the subsequent irreducible stratification derived from this. This position suggests the following propositions: the ontological premise of being is reliant on relations; the social world is constructed of stratified levels of organisation in which entities, their properties and powers emerge by virtue of these relations; these entities operate in complex and mutually modifying interrelations; stability and change is the result of this complex interplay of temporally/spatially stratified relations; and time and space are properties and potential powers of organisation. Originality/value This paper considers a number of inconsistencies in current approaches to the study of marketing systems arguing these arise based on the absence of a view of relations that supports an effective theory of emergence. In response, the paper develops a set of ontological presuppositions regarding the nature of marketing systems and a subsequent set of epistemic conditions as an integrative metatheoretical position, through which these systems are better understood and analysed. The paper argues that these improve our ability to theorise about the multi-dimensionality of these systems.

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No Through Road: A Critical Examination of Researcher Assumptions and Approaches to Researching Sustainability

Cited by 13 publications

References 58 publications

Seeking sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research

Seeking sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research

Plant-Based Meat Alternatives: Motivational Adoption Barriers and Solutions

Enabling the marketing systems orientation: re-establishing the ontic necessity of relations

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