How Marketers Become Change Agents | Integrating Sustainability into Marketing Education and Practice
Chiara Hübscher is a PhD Student in the department Product–Market Relations. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr.ir. J. Henseler faculty Engineering Technology (ET) University of Twente and prof.dr. S. Hensel-Börner from HSBA Hamburg University.
The dissertation investigates how marketers can become active agents of change in the pursuit of sustainable development, addressing the central research question: How can marketers become change‑agents for sustainable development? It integrates three inter‑related perspectives - marketing education, social‑marketing practice, and sustainable‑marketing theory - to provide a comprehensive answer that is relevant for academia, policy‑makers, and business leaders.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) constitute a global framework for tackling the most pressing environmental, social, and economic challenges. Despite considerable effort, humanity continues to exceed planetary boundaries, and current trajectories indicate that many SDG targets will not be met by 2030. Because the business sector is both a major source of unsustainable impacts and a powerful lever for change, marketing - by shaping consumer behaviour, organisational strategies, and societal norms - has a pivotal role to play. The dissertation argues that marketers must move beyond traditional profit‑oriented activities and become purposeful change‑agents who embed sustainability into the core of their work.
The dissertation pursues four main objectives: (1) to highlight the importance of higher education and marketing for sustainable development; (2) to map the current state of research on these topics; (3) to understand how students can act as change‑agents; and (4) to identify the conditions that enable marketers in practice to adopt sustainable strategies. These objectives are operationalised through the overarching question and two sub‑questions: (a) how can higher education train future marketers as change‑agents, and (b) what organisational and contextual factors influence marketers’ willingness to implement sustainable marketing.
As a first step, the dissertation identifies trending topics in marketing education research using a bibliometric literature analysis. Sustainability is recognised as a shaping force, while digital transformation dominates the discussion. The SDGs and key competencies for sustainable development are currently given little or no consideration in the marketing education literature, thus highlighting a sustainability gap in the field. To bridge this gap, the dissertation introduces the concept of marketing education for sustainable development (MESD) and provides a framework that addresses questions about purpose, teaching content and pedagogical tools to turn marketing students into change agents for sustainable development.
Next, the dissertation shows by means of a case study investigating a real-life study programme that students, as change agents, can achieve impact regarding sustainable development on the individual, organisational and institutional levels. To increase the effect, as many higher education institutions as possible should join the effort. They thus present a promising target group for the social marketing discipline. Providing a campaign planning primer, the dissertation highlights the role that social marketers can play in establishing education for sustainable development at universities, thereby bridging the perspectives of education and practice.
Finally, employing a mixed-methods approach the dissertation develops and validates the Sustainability Acceptance Model (SAM) for marketing practice. The model proposes that marketer’s intention to accept sustainable marketing and, hence, to act as a change agent, is influenced by sustainability threats at the macro level, sustainability opportunities, organisational culture and formalisation, as well as resources at the meso level, and self-efficacy at the micro level. With SAM, the dissertation proposes a tool for companies to analyse and monitor marketer’s level of sustainability acceptance as well as to identify levers for increasing it.
This dissertation theoretically advances the research fields of marketing, higher education, and sustainable development. Its findings map onto SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and have several practical implications:
Universities should adopt the MESD framework, redesign programmes around the SDGs, and embed experiential, interdisciplinary projects that turn students into competent sustainability advocates.
Companies can use SAM to diagnose internal barriers and identify drivers for the adoption of sustainable marketing, cultivate a culture where sustainability is the norm, allocate resources, and set strategies to ensure genuine sustainable marketing.
Policy-makers should reward curricula that embed the MESD framework, incentivise university‑industry collaborations for sustainability education, and implement legislation to create supportive subjective norms for sustainable marketing without imposing undue bureaucratic burdens.
The dissertation offers a timely, evidence‑based blueprint for turning the marketing discipline into a powerful engine of sustainable development.
