Marketing

The global shift toward sustainability has prompted brands to promote their sustainability initiatives on social media, aiming to connect with pro-environmental consumers. However, this strategy comes with risks, as social media allows for swift and widespread backlash if consumers perceive greenwashing. The present work examines the impact of social media backlash toward a brand's sustainability initiatives on consumers' purchase intentions. In an experimental study (N = 553), participants were presented social media responses to a fictitious brand's sustainability initiative that were either negative, positive, or a mix of both. The findings indicate that the negative comments decreased purchase intentions for consumers with a pro-environmentalist identity but not otherwise. Moreover, this effect was mediated by decreased perceptions of value-congruence with the brand. This study contributes to larger academic discourses on sustainable marketing, greenwashing, and consumer-brand relationships while providing tangible recommendations to marketing practitioners attempting to mitigate the challenges posed by social media backlash.

Author Keywords: greenwashing, social identity, social influence, social media backlash, sustainability promotion, value congruence

Car-sharing may have the potential to contribute to a more sustainable transportation system. The current research sought to answer the question: what are university-aged Millennials' perceptions and attitudes toward the adoption of vehicle sharing and private vehicle ownership? The research consisted of hosting six interactive focus group sessions with Millennial students, who currently do not own vehicles. Using a qualitative approach, I analyzed the discussions through a social practice theory lens. I suggest that skills, meanings, materials, and social interactions have an influence on the way in which a transportation option is perceived by Millennials. The results revealed that social norms surrounding vehicle ownership and car sharing are being developed, shaped, changed, challenged and reconstructed. If car-sharing businesses, universities, and governments wish to progress toward a more sustainable transportation system, they should recognize the importance of marketing.

Author Keywords: Car ownership, Car sharing, Millennials, Sustainability, Transportation, University

Online behavioural advertising (OBA) is an advertising technique which relies on collected customer information and online activity to serve people with more relevant ads. On November 16th, 2013, Bell Canada launched their first OBA program via Bell Mobility: the Bell Targeted Ads Program, or BTAP. My thesis provides an ethical analysis of BTAP and shows that Bell undermined and violated customer privacy, stifled customer autonomy, and harmed customer identity. Relevant moral problems include typification, a disrespecting of customer autonomy, and identity commodification.

I show that BTAP was unethical by grounding my arguments within the moral framework of Information Ethics (IE). IE is an ethical system which focuses on the role of information in the ethical dilemmas. IE also justifies the self-constitutive theory of privacy (SCP) which argues that our information and privacy are entangled with our identities. This gives us strong reason to defend our privacy/identity within BTAP.

After making several arguments which demonstrate that BTAP was unethical, I will then turn my attention to showing how it is possible to rectify and mitigate many of BTAP's ethical problems by installing a two-stage opt-in (TSOI) which provides customers with a greater deal of autonomy, and the ability to remove themselves from BTAP.

Author Keywords: Bell Canada, Ethics, Identity, Online Behavioural Advertising, Privacy, Targeted Advertising