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An Ethical Marketing Approach to Wicked Problems: Macromarketing for the Common Good

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Abstract

Macromarketing attempts to address issues that engage marketing and society and previous ethical scholarship has focused on distributive justice and on exchanges that occur in conventional markets. As our research highlights, however, the distributive justice approach alone is insufficient for managing the complexities, ethical paradoxes, and out-of-market conditions associated with wicked, cross-national social concerns. In this article, we integrate macromarketing with the theory of the common good in order to provide a foundation for framing societal change that can encompass nonmarket value, stakeholder rights, collective social priorities, organizational responsibilities, and political action.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lowth Entrepreneurship Center, Sykes College of Business, University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida, USA

    Thomas G. Pittz

  2. Sykes College of Business, University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida, USA

    Susan D. Steiner & Julia R. Pennington

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  1. Thomas G. Pittz
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  2. Susan D. Steiner
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Correspondence to Thomas G. Pittz.

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Conflict of interest

Thomas G. Pittz declares that he has no conflict of interest (research grants, honoraria, consulting or speaker fees, ownership or financial stakes, or otherwise) within this research. Susan Steiner also declares that she has no conflict of interest. Julie Pennington also declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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No human studies were conducted during the course of this research. Thus, all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. No animals were used during the course of this research. Thus, all applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Pittz, T.G., Steiner, S.D. & Pennington, J.R. An Ethical Marketing Approach to Wicked Problems: Macromarketing for the Common Good. J Bus Ethics 164, 301–310 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04277-7

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