Marketing in the anthropocene: A future agenda for research and practice

Nancy M. P. Bocken (), Laura Niessen, Maike Gossen, Ankita Das and Maria Zielińska
Additional contact information
Nancy M. P. Bocken: Maastricht Sustainability Institute, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University
Laura Niessen: Maastricht Sustainability Institute, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University
Maike Gossen: Technical University Berlin
Ankita Das: Maastricht Sustainability Institute, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University
Maria Zielińska: Maastricht Sustainability Institute, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University

AMS Review, 2025, vol. 15, issue 1, No 3, 23-47

Abstract: Abstract Marketing is an important function and practice in everyday business. It involves getting potential customers interested in a product or service through value-oriented arguments. In this way, marketing plays a pivotal role in driving the consumption of goods and services. Given the increasing consumption of goods and services, decreasing product lifetimes, and increasing levels of waste in all product categories, it is evident that the practice and theory of marketing needs a radical rethink in light of pressing resource and climate issues. The impact of unsustainable production and consumption patterns has led to this era being referred to as the Anthropocene, in which humans have become the dominant influence on the climate and the natural environment. There is an urgent need to take a new direction to adapt marketing theory and practice to these pressing global needs. In this study, we investigate the following questions: What role should marketing play in the era of the Anthropocene? What concepts, outcomes, tools and theories does marketing offer to support a transition towards Marketing in the Anthropocene? We conduct a scoping literature review based on different research directions and propose a conceptualization for “Marketing in the Anthropocene” as an inspirational, forward-looking concept, tool and practice for marketers and marketing researchers. We highlight relevant marketing tools and theories and provide guiding questions for future research and practice.

Keywords: Marketing; Strong sustainability; Sufficiency; Climate change; Regeneration; Anthropocene; Research agenda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13162-025-00300-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:amsrev:v:15:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s13162-025-00300-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... gement/journal/13162

DOI: 10.1007/s13162-025-00300-5

Access Statistics for this article

AMS Review is currently edited by Manjit S. Yadav

More articles in AMS Review from Springer, Academy of Marketing Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().