A major challenge in sustainable business is that many of the good things we want simply can’t be seen. The electronics equipment you are considering may have be made by people being paid a decent wage, or it may not have been. You don’t really know the difference from just looking at the product. Gregory…
Category: Understanding Marketing
Marketing Is An Essential Part Of Positive Change
To change the way commerce works requires good business practice — in all senses of the word good. Marketing is an essential part of positive change. It isn’t good enough to want to do good things for the world with your company, you also need to be a good marketer. To make a positive change…
Should Firms Advertise Their Good Deeds?
How do you get credit for your good deeds? A 2015 paper considers this problem. The authors suggest that informing people of your good deeds can backfire. People attribute impure motives to anyone who draws attention to their good deeds. A similar issue occurs for companies. So, should firms advertise their good deeds? A Moral…
Will Consumers Actually Pay For Sustainability?
There are many ways that sustainable business can be financially successful. One of the first things that comes to mind is that consumers might be willing to pay more for products that are produced in a responsible way. Most consumers would prefer their products not to be made by child labor or to pollute the…
A Challenge With Managerial Articles
I’m a big fan of accessible research. People, rightly, get put off by a piece of work where the footnotes are longer than the main text. It is horrible to have your ability to concentrate on the ‘story’ that the researcher is trying to convey being constantly interrupted by intrusive footnotes. (The worst is when…
Win-Wins Are Good For Stakeholders
A theme I see in some writing about sustainable business is that we need to get beyond win-wins. Although I get the point — business cases won’t deliver everything — I worry that this isn’t the right message. Win-wins are good for stakeholders, and we haven’t found all the win-wins yet. As such, I’m not…
Is It Marketing? Who Cares?
Women traditionally face disadvantages in business. These can be especially pronounced in some societies. There is good reason to want to change this, not least the moral argument. That said, it is often helpful to go beyond the moral argument. What impact does empowering/hiring female micro-entrepreneurs have on society? Is it a zero-sum game, where…
Have You Got A Causal Effect?
Causation is a tricky thing. I remember discussing different conceptions of causality in undergrad and can’t say I’ve grasped it yet. In some ways, it seems like an easy question — we have lay theories of what causes something else everyday. Still, push harder and things get murky pretty quickly. Giving up isn’t an option…
How To Make Your Company Relevant?
Some companies are successful and some brands play an integral part in their customers’ lives. What sets the successful apart from those that aren’t? Andy Colville, in her book of the same name, argues that it is relevance. The company/brand needs to break through the clutter and mean something to the customer. This leads to…
Understanding How We React To Evidence
We often like to see ourselves as objective observers of reality. This isn’t really how we see the world, nor is it how we describe the world to others. Alex Edmans has a book that helps us in understanding how we react to evidence. Evidence For The Benefits/Challenges Of Sustainable Business Alex Edmans is best…
