The paradigm-shifting era of automation, digitalization, hyper-connectivity, obligations, globalization and sustainability (ADHOGS) in the face of disruption, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (DVUCA) has resulted in significant changes within the field of business, including ethical marketing. Correspondingly, reviewing the literature is essential for determining the trends and patterns in the ethical marketing discipline. This study aims to determine the intellectual structure clusters, main themes, and fundamental gaps in the ethical marketing field and to present the future research agenda.
By using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, the study selected 1,558 documents indexed in the Scopus database. The study employed science mapping, and the results were interpreted using a sensemaking approach of scanning, sensing, and substantiating.
The findings uncover the influence of ethical marketing across multiple domains, including marketing functions (i.e. advertising, marketing strategy, marketing research, and relationship marketing), consumer aspects (i.e. culture, privacy and consumer behavior), ESG (i.e. ethics, sustainability, social marketing, Islamic marketing and social responsibility), and marketing education. The findings highlight the significance of research pathways in immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation while projecting the ethical marketing field’s future trajectory.
The study has been arguably the pioneer in providing a comprehensive overview of the ethical marketing literature since 1967. This paper identifies fundamental gaps and potential future research directions and proposed an integrated ethical marketing framework.
