Marketing's Role in Promoting the Common Good: A Systematic Examination and an Agenda for Future Inquiry

The pursuit of the common good is an important endeavor in business and marketing. The benefits of this pursuit to society are reflected in the increasing number of journal special issues dedicated to common good–related research and the recent observation that the marketing discipline is supportive of business research as a catalyst for positive change. Despite its importance, little is known about the nature of the common good within marketing scholarship. This article presents a systematic, multimethod inquiry to assess the representation and impact of the common good, with a focus on equity. The authors analyze publications in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing and marketing journals on the Financial Times 50 list. This work acknowledges the significant influence of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals on global policy and the benefits to people around the world. It also responds to the call for marketing scholars to pay more attention to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The authors use insights from their inquiry to identify a promising agenda for future research that contributes to the promotion of the common good in relation to eradicating poverty, improving health, achieving universal education, and promoting gender equality.