B2B Marketing for People, Planet and Profit: Theoretical advancement and empirical insights

Sustainable marketing—defined as contributing to society and the environment while supporting a brand's commercial competitive advantage—is a well-recognized but under-researched field. This research gap is even more pronounced in the context of sustainable B2B marketing. This article provides an overview of the selected articles that aim to advance theoretical and empirical understanding to abridge this research gap. The findings from the selected articles highlight four key competitive market forces that can drive sustainable B2B marketing in a way that generates profit while also contributing back to people (society) and the planet (environment). These forces include innovation management, individual characteristics (of B2B marketers and firms), transition management, and performance management. Following our discussion on the implications of these competitive market forces for leveraging B2B marketing dynamics in support of the triple bottom line—People, Planet, and Profit—we conclude by outlining directions for future research.