To help organizations understand how their marketing functions can work with their internal and external stakeholders to successfully implement sustainability-led innovation.

1. 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 Watson
Supervisor: 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