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Seeking ways towards a sustainable future is the most dominant socio-political challenge of our time. Marketing should have a crucial role to play in leading research and impact in sustainability, yet it is limited by relying on cognitive behavioural theories rooted in the 1970s, which have proved to have little bearing on actual behaviour. This paper aims to interrogate why marketing is failing to address the challenge of sustainability and identify alternative approaches.

The constraint in theoretical development contextualises the problem, followed by a focus on four key themes to promote theory development: developing sustainable people; models of alternative consumption; building towards sustainable marketplaces; and theoretical domains for the future. These themes were developed and refined during the 2018 Academy of Marketing workshop on seeking sustainable futures. MacInnis’s (2011) framework for conceptual contributions in marketing provides the narrative thread and structure.

The current state of play is explicated, combining the four themes and MacInnis’s framework to identify the failures and gaps in extant approaches to the field.

This paper sets a new research agenda for the marketing discipline in quest for sustainable futures in marketing and consumer research.

Approaches are proposed which will allow the transformation of the dominant socio-economic systems towards a model capable of promoting a sustainable future.

The paper provides thought leadership in marketing and sustainability as befits the special issue, by moving beyond the description of the problem to making a conceptual contribution and setting a research agenda for the future.

Drawing on stakeholder theory, the purpose of this paper examines how Nigerian banks employ their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to empower women to participate in economic and commercial activities.

The methodology of this paper is regarding a thematic analysis of Nigerian banks' annual CSR and sustainability reports.

A theoretical framework was developed which illustrates the investment foundation (Sustainable Development Goals, Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles) that supports the different levels of engagement (healthcare, financial, social and career empowerment) aimed at different groups of women (women at large, women in business and women in career) in the society.

The study findings are confined to the banks in Nigeria, focussing on how they empower women to participate in economic and commercial activities.

It is paramount that Nigerian banks consistently report their CSR initiatives. When designing these initiatives, it is equally important to incorporate WEPs, as they are specifically focussed on women.

Due to their low-level institutional and financial development, it is important that Nigerian banks design their CSR initiatives to improve women empowerment. While initiatives should be targeted at women's well-being and physical health, it is important to steer women towards financial and social independence through loans, grants and mentorship.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no other research study has examined how banks in an emerging market use their CSR activities to empower women to participate in financial activities.

This study aims to explore how banks in Nigeria are marketing financial services to financially vulnerable customers.

A multiple case study research strategy was used to analyse three commercial banks and two microfinance banks. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with the banks' directors as well as from banks' published annual reports and archival images.

The study reveals that Nigerian banks develop different product development portfolios, adopt innovative traditional marketing schemes and apply inclusive technologies to reach and extend services to the unbanked and financially vulnerable customers in the society.

Banks should focus on consumer engagement through the proactive development of technologies and employ innovative marketing methods. Customers' banking experiences can be enhanced if banks communicate with and educate customers about technological modes of engagement. In addition, financial service transaction support and financial literacy education can assist banks in marketing their services to financially vulnerable customers, in mutually beneficial ways.

This study shows how financial service operators' market and extend their services to financially vulnerable customers in emerging markets. It empirically establishes the importance of financial services to financially excluded customers.

There are substantive disagreements about whether encouraging deliberative thinking increases consumer preference in low-involvement product categories. The authors draw on dual-process theory to add rare experimental evidence to this debate. They also investigate whether the effect of deliberative thinking increases with familiarity of the stimuli, as different theories of memory yield different predictions on this point. Finally, they provide evidence on whether the effectiveness of the Fairtrade logo arises more from mere exposure or attention to the ethical claim.

The context for the research is the use of ethical logos in packaged coffee, as this provides a realistic setting for the desired experimental manipulations. The fieldwork consists of two sets of trade-off experiments – rankings based conjoint analysis (n = 360) and best-worst scaling with a balanced incomplete block design (n = 1,628). Deliberative thinking is manipulated in three ways: by varying logos between visual (Type 1 processing) and lexical (Type 2 processing) treatments, by post hoc classification of time taken, and by imposing either time constraints (Type 1) or cognitive load (Type 2) on the completion of the task. Familiarity is manipulated by varying logos between the Fairtrade and a fictional Exchange Ethics logo.

Consumers do have higher preferences in the deliberative treatment conditions; thinking more results in an 18 per cent increase (Cohen’s d = 0.25) in the preference for choices that display an ethical cobranded logo. Surprisingly, the impact of deliberation is not greater for the more familiar Fairtrade logo than the fictional Exchange Ethics logo. This result is inconsistent with strength-based theories of memory, as these predict that deliberation will have a greater effect for more familiar stimuli. However, it is consistent with newer theories of memory that acknowledge familiarity can lead to activation confusion, reducing retrieval of pre-existing knowledge into working memory. The research also shows that the Fairtrade logo has substantial utility to consumers, and that this is approximately 59 per cent due to the ethical claim and 41 per cent due to the familiarity of the logo.

In field conditions, attempts to manipulate deliberation may not be effective or may simply result in reduced attention. Also, the costs of increasing deliberation may outweigh the benefits obtained.

The research confirms the heuristic value of the Fairtrade logo and shows that the effectiveness of ethical logos may increase with additional deliberation by shoppers.

There is relatively little work in marketing that applies dual-process theories to investigate consumer behaviour. The present study extends the use of dual-process theories in marketing, demonstrates a new method to investigate the effect of deliberation on brand choice and shows how deliberation magnifies the effect of endorsing logos, including unfamiliar logos.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a review of the literature on the value of public libraries and propose a preliminary value framework for the public library based on the results. The review was conducted and the framework was developed as part of a larger ongoing project exploring the value of California’s public libraries.

This paper is a literature review of approximately 130 international, national and local resources from 1998 to 2018. Findings were developed through an analysis and synthesis of the works as they relate to public libraries.

The themes that emerged from the exploration of studies fell into three intersecting categories: support for personal advancement; support for vulnerable populations; and support for community development. A wide variety of quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed in this area of research. Among the many ways to discuss value, the most appropriate for the user will always depend on the context for which the concept of value is being defined.

Practitioners may find the various definitions of value useful when sharing information about public libraries with decision makers and other stakeholder audiences and when designing service models and outcomes.

The authors believe this paper is the first to identify the emergence of a value framework for the public library based on a literature review exploring both the social and financial value of public libraries.

Acquiring and retaining profitable customers are major concerns of a business. In this paper, the customers of the Restoration and Beauty Clinic of Iran University are segmented using three value types: current value, expected value, and loyalty in a case study to predict the probability of customer churn and future purchase services in the clinic.

This study utilized customers' data records with nine data fields (socio‐demographic and transactional) from three year's transactions of the clinic. Logistic regression as a data mining technique is then used to predict the future behavior of the customers. In addition, the verification and the validation of the models are done using lift charts.

This research segments the customers of the clinic into four categories based on three values (current value, expected value, and loyalty). Then simple marketing strategies that might be adopted are suggested. These strategies might help the shareholders and experts of the clinic to promote relationships with patients and deliver better services to attract and retain their customers.

The results of this research enable public health agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of their policies and detect their shortcomings in order to better serve patients. Also, it will help to increase their profits from the clinics and raise customer satisfaction.