This study draws on the theory of cognitive dissonance to better understand how individuals make moral sense of responsible business behavior in a societal paradox characterized by interdependent and contradictory demands between important social objectives. Using a qualitative survey open to the U.S. public at the the start of the pandemic, the study proposes a typology called the 4R Model of Moral Sensemaking of Competing Social Problems. The 4R Model offers insights for businesses on how their responses to competing social problems may be perceived as either responsible and/or irresponsible. The study then expands the paradox and micro-CSR literatures.
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Marketing seems to be slow to fully recognize its role, place and responsibility in changes in climate, biodiversity and resources. This reluctance can be attributed, at least in part, to the implicit assumptions of sustainable marketing, which tend to minimize the scale of the paradigm shifts needed to remain hopeful of a habitable planet. Consequently, the dominant approaches to “sustainable marketing” find it difficult to question the fundamental principles and ideological foundations of the market system. This is why we are calling for radical changes in marketing research in order to envisage a truly sustainable future. We are therefore formulating a program based on five proposals with the aim of inviting profound transformations in the discipline.
- Research
- Marketing, Sales and Communication, Sustainable Development and CSR
