– The purpose of this paper is to identify the wicked problems inherent in socially responsible marketing and to provide practical insights into their management.
– This paper applies learning from three related conceptual areas (the Cynefin framework, complexity science and wicked problems) to think about sustainable marketing in new ways.
– Sustainability challenges the effectiveness of traditional marketing thought and action. New and emerging approaches and tools in sense-making, complexity science and problem recognition are needed to help ensure the successful development and implementation of sustainable marketing.
– Growing concern for so-called “wicked problems” appears in the literature of a number of disciplines in both the hard and soft sciences. Although the concept has appeared in the management and strategy literature, it is relatively unknown in marketing.
