Why this is important

• Commodity prices rising (up 150%

between 2002 and 20102) and volatile

• Huge potential cost savings ($380-

$630bn pa EU manufacturing alone3)

and market opportunities for business

• More people consuming limited

resources at developed country levels

(150m people entering middle class

each year4)

• Consumer intent not translating into

action (<5% share eco-labelled food5)

• Difficult and complex changes to make

requiring co-ordination across

business, individuals and policymakers

Need to understand how

businesses, through engagement

with their stakeholders play a role in

delivering sustainability-led

innovation

Findings from literature6

• Sustainability marketing: Marketing

functions need to manage internal and

external stakeholder relationships to

enable sustainability

• Sustainability-led innovation:

Innovations are complex due to wide

range of stakeholders, with potentially

conflicting demands

• Stakeholder marketing / value co-

creation: Limited research on

stakeholders as applied to the

marketing function. Value co-creation

as a mechanism through which firms

and their stakeholders can collectively

change what is valued and expected

or desired by customers

More research needed on how

marketing practices (or marketing

skills and capabilities) can be

applied to a broader set of

stakeholders in the context of

sustainability-led innovation

Findings from exploratory

practitioner interviews7

• Semi-structured interviews with 5 CSR

and marketing professionals, three

from specialist CSR consultancies, two

from large UK corporations

Indicative findings:

• Engagement between CSR /

sustainability teams and marketing1

teams (e.g. product development,

innovation) is critical and needs

improvement.

• Sharing stakeholder insights and

approaches internally is also important

and potentially difficult

• Relationships with B2B customers

(e.g. large retailers) are driving

significant change

• Relationships with some external

stakeholders groups, e.g. NGOs are

subject to significant culture clash

which reduces their effectiveness

• There are sustainability issues which

can not be addresses by single

organizations alone; however

collaboration is hindered by the need

to retain competitive advantage

• There is recognition of co-creation with

users as a means to increase mutual

value, but limited examples of this in

practice in the context of sustainability-

led innovation

Planned research

PhD Year 2: How firms interact with their

stakeholders

• In-depth case studies of organizations

delivering sustainability-led innovation

• Either one case study organization

across multiple stakeholders, or

multiple organizations, each

demonstrating an exemplary approach

with particular stakeholders

• Potential organizations include:• Unilever

• BT

• Home Retail Group (Argos/ Homebase)

PhD Year 3: Focus on co-creation

• Experimental research to assess the

impact and effectiveness of co-

creation processes with selected

stakeholder group(s) e.g. users,

employees

The role of marketing in sustainability-led innovation

PhD, SoM 2013-2017

Rosina WatsonSupervisor: Prof. Hugh Wilson(Strategic Marketing and Sales)

Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)7715 747 511 E: rosina.watson@cranfield.ac.uk

http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/about/cranfield/themes/environment/

References and notes

1: Marketing is defined as the groups of individuals in an organization who carry out the organization’s defined activities and processes relating to creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings in the market

2,4: World Economic Forum 2014 available at: http://www.weforum.org/issues/sustainable-consumption

3: Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2012. Towards the Circular Economy Vol.1. Available at: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/books-and-reports

5: Rex, E. and Baumann, H., 2007. Beyond ecolabels: what green marketing can learn from conventional marketing. Journal of Cleaner Production, 15(6), pp.567–576.

6: Literature review performed in support of 1st year Positioning Study

7: Interviews conducted for 1st year Qualitative Assessment

8: http://www.designingourtomorrow.com/

Aim

• To help organizations understand how their marketing functions1 can work with their

internal and external stakeholders to successfully implement sustainability-led

innovation

Research Questions

• How do interactions between marketing1 and internal and external stakeholders

enable sustainability-led innovation?

• Which stakeholders are critical?

• What is the required nature of the relationship with these stakeholders (style of

interaction; engagement process; resolution of culture clashes)?

• What is the role for marketing in these relationships (from communication to

proposition development)?

Who the research will benefit

• Researchers: Develop a conversation about the role of marketing in sustainability-led innovation, from the perspectives of stakeholder theory and value co-creation. Also the

potential to look at culture clashes between stakeholder group and organizations from an institutional logics perspective.

• Practitioners: Provision of accessible case studies on organizations who are engaging with their stakeholders in a new and effective ways to deliver sustainability-led

innovation. Research output should include best practice examples, toolkits (c.f. BT’s Designing our Tomorrow8) and success criteria that can be applied in practice to

sustainability-led innovation projects.

• Policymakers: Contribution to selected deliverables of a broader EU funded research project entitled “EU-InnovatE: Sustainable Lifestyles 2.0: End User Integration, Innovation

and Entrepreneurship” which is investigating the active role of end users in shaping sustainable lifestyles and the transition to a green economy in Europe.

Source: World Bank; Ellen MacArthur circular economy team