Military-Madrasa-Mullah Complex 601
India Quarterly, 66, 2 (2010): 133–149
A Global Threat 601 Article
Sustainability Marketing Strategy:
An Analysis of Recent Literature
Vinod Kumar
Zillur Rahman
A.A. Kazmi
Abstract
The present study reviews the extant literature available on the emerging area of Sustainability Marketing
Strategy (SMS), which hopefully, will prove to be a springboard for the future research. Tracing the
origin of the concept of SMS, a detailed discussion on historic developments in the field is taken up with
the help of definitions and pictorial representation of various related concepts followed by a survey
of wide range of available databases from 1996 to 2011. After a rigorous search of numerous jour-
nals, those research papers exploring the field adequately have been selected. The selected papers are
then classified according to various criteria for the purpose of comprehensive review of literature.
Finally, after analyzing current status of research in the field of SMS, a probable agenda for future
research has been formulated, which may serve as a useful guideline for the future investigators, as
significant contribution need to be made in the area of SMS.
Keywords
Social and societal marketing, ecological marketing, green marketing, sustainable marketing, sustainability
marketing strategy
Introduction
The beginning of twenty-first century faced environmental challenges like resource conservation,
climate changes and global warming, which are directly related off shoots of served business practices
that have a detrimental impact on economy, environment and society. All the resources are depleting day
by day and their sustainability needs to be replenished urgently. The term ‘Sustainability’ was coined in
Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (WECD, 1987). Here, sustainable development has been
defined as, ‘Development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED, 1987, p. 24). This report changed the role of
Vinod Kumar (corresponding author) is Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute
of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand–247667, India. E-mail: vkmehta.iitr@gmail.com
Zillur Rahman is Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology,
Roorkee, Uttarakhand–247667, India. E-mail: yusuffdm@iitr.ernet.in
A.A. Kazmi is Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee,
Uttarakhand–247667, India. E-mail: kazmifce@iitr.ernet.in
Global Business Review
14(4) 601–625
© 2013 IMI
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/0972150913501598
http://gbr.sagepub.com
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