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For social marketers to become effective change agents, evaluation is important. This paper aims to expand existing evaluation work to empirically respond to Gordon and Gurrieri’s request for a reflexive turn in social marketing using reflexive process evaluations: measuring more than “what” worked well, but also evaluating “how” and “why” success or indeed failure happened.

An online survey, adapting Dillman’s tailored design method empirically assesses 13 reflexive process hypotheses. With a response rate of 74 per cent, regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the proposed hypotheses and to identify the significant predictors of each of the reflexive process relationships under investigation.

The study empirically examines and shows support for three reflexive process evaluation constructs – relationships, knowledge and networking. Network involvement and reciprocity; two process dimension constructs do not exert any impact or predict any relationship in the conceptual framework.

This paper expands evaluation theory and practice by offering a conceptual framework for reflexive process evaluation that supports the logic to be reflexive. It shows support for three reflective process evaluation constructs – relationships, knowledge and networks. Another unique element featured in this study is the empirical assessment of Gordon and Gurrieri’s “other stakeholders”, extending evaluations beyond a traditional client focus to an interconnected assessment of researchers, clients and other stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon social marketing and its implications for the contemporary marketing practices (CMP) classification scheme.

The paper adopts a theoretical approach. Examples from the public engagement with science are used in the reflection.

A phenomenon not commonly associated with social marketing is the growing number of science communication, outreach and public activities to engage the public with science. These scientific initiatives, established to drive knowledge‐based societies around the world, are charged with changing the public's behaviour towards science. This analysis shows the application of the CMP classification explicitly to the broader context of social marketing.

This paper examines how complex multiple exchanges, and social and environment influences, associated with social marketing provide a broader context to examine marketing practice. Further investigation is needed as to whether a sixth aspect of marketing practice is required to fully capture social marketing practice.

This study examines the mediating role of motivation on outdoor recreation on the attitude–behavior and social marketing–behavior linkages. The paper scrutinizes the moderating impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) risk perception in transforming individual motivation on nature-based outdoor recreation into environmentally responsible behavior.

Data were collected and conducted in Vietnamese National Parks. The dataset consists of 900 valid responses by domestic travelers. The research was operationalized using empirical data and employed structural equation modeling (SEM) and SPSS PROCESS analysis.

First, this study confirms that outdoor recreation activities and business's marketing on social networks tend to transform into support for individual behavior in terms of protecting environment and having responsibility for environment. Second, the current paper also represents the academic efforts to contribute to outdoor recreation literature by explaining the current global problem that has caused serious upheaval in global society as well as individual life. The findings not only confirmed the mediating role of nature-based outdoor recreation motivation between attitude and behavior, but also examined the moderating effect of COVID-19 risk perception in the relationship between motivation and behavior.

The findings indicate the significant association of social marketing, environment attitudes, outdoor recreation motivation and environmentally responsible behavior. The findings not only confirmed the mediating role of nature-based outdoor recreation motivation between attitude and behavior, but also examined the moderating effect of COVID-19 risk perception in the relationship between motivation and behavior. These results provide key insights about examining visitors' behavior for environment protection during future infectious disease outbreaks.

The study aims to propose four novel constructs of green satisfaction, green loyalty, green trust and green brand equity. It identifies the role of social marketing, relationship marketing, marketing orientation, general strategies, green marketing and marketing mix elements in enhancing financial and non-financial performance and ultimately the green brand equity. Green marketing strategies are gaining significant attention in the literature to support societal marketing concept vis-à-vis to enhance brand equity in the present competitive era. The present study conceptualizes a novel strategic green marketing orientation (SGMO) concept.

The paper draws upon the extant literature to present a series of research propositions relating to SGMO.

The study provides new insight to marketing management by highlighting the factors such as social marketing, relationship marketing and marketing orientation as the constituent elements which facilitate the development of SGMO in an organization. Further, the study has put emphasis on SGMO- performance relationship which is mediated by green trust, green satisfaction and green loyalty. Finally, it advances an understanding in enhancing green brand equity of the organization.

Being conceptual in nature, the paper needs to be empirically tested across manufacturing and service sectors. Further, lack of generalization of the scale items in various sectors needs to be researched in the future research.

This paper can help managers in identifying the three perspectives of SGMO, which include strategies (general), green marketing and marketing mix elements.

The purpose of the editorial is to accompany this special issue on “Social marketing: social change”.

The editorial presents three invited reflections by Philip Kotler, Michael Polonsky and Gerard Hastings. It also discusses the articles in this special issue.

Overall, the contributed papers demonstrate that there are many layers to social marketing.

The articles featured in this special issue help to advance social marketing theory as well as offer valuable implications and recommendations for managers, practitioners and policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to present retrospective, current and prospective aspects of social marketing and systems science integration.

The paper uses a periodization methodology, based on turning points of conceptual integration between social marketing and systems science.

The paper identifies three periods of integration between social marketing and systems science: initialization of marketing and systems science integration; further conceptualization of the link between marketing and systems science, coupled by permeation of systems thinking into social marketing; and deep integration of social marketing with systems science. The latter period is ongoing and focuses on the origination of strategic systems-based theories and practices for sustainable social change.

The use of a periodization methodology might be biased by subjectivity, as chronological sequences of conceptualization-related events can be hard to decipher and can be reluctant to structural analysis. The necessity to examine the link between marketing and systems science, in so far as social marketing draws upon marketing theory regarding integration with systems science, has social marketing overshadowed by marketing at some points in time.

Historical research of social marketing and systems science integration provides a robust platform for large-scale practical manifestation of system-based strategic projects in social marketing.

This paper demonstrates that the permeation of systems thinking into the social marketing paradigm is gaining momentum and describes the trends, prospects and complexities associated with the accelerating integration.

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of relationship marketing and particularly customer trust in energy-efficiency labels in social marketing interventions geared towards energy-efficient consumption.

A conceptual model was empirically tested on a sample of 517 users of electronic appliances living in South Africa. The study involved a cross-sectional design, and data were collected via a self-administered survey. Structural equation modelling and mediation analysis were used to test the hypothesised relationships.

The results indicated that customer trust is influenced by customers’ perception of the price and quality of energy-efficiency products, their attitude towards such products and their level of satisfaction with the environmental performance of the products. Customer trust, in turn, showed a positive influence on the customers’ intention to purchase energy-efficiency products and their loyalty to such products. As a central variable, customer trust was found to be an important mediator in the conceptual model.

The findings provide social marketers with important insights on the critical role that customer trust plays in achieving a long-term behavioural shift towards energy-efficient consumption.

Focusing on customer trust in energy-efficiency labels, this study provides empirical evidence of the mediating role of trust in influencing the intention to purchase and the decision to remain loyal to eco-friendly products. Moreover, this paper provides greater clarity on various levers to be activated to enhance the trust that customers have in energy-efficiency labels.

The social marketing literature tends to focus on upstream marketing (policy) and downstream (individual behaviour change) and has a limited view on midstream (working with partners and community groups) social marketing. The paper proposes midstream social marketing should also include an understanding of how services and service employees influence and support individual behaviour change goals. The paper presents four key services marketing principles – derived from services theory and thinking – which the paper believes to be essential for implementing effective midstream social marketing.

This is a conceptual paper that uses service theory and case-examples to show how service thinking can be used as a midstream social marketing approach.

For effective uptake and impact of social marketing services amongst people and populations, social marketers need to design programs that consider the service experience, the service employee, service quality/customer value and the active role of the customer in value creation.

Services marketing is a well-established sub-discipline of marketing which, until recently, has not interacted with social marketing. The extension and application of services theory for social marketing can enrich and propel the social marketing discipline forward. Further research is recommended to evaluate how service principles can be applied in practice.

Given that social marketing services tend not to be accessed in sufficient numbers by the people who most need them, social marketers need to think beyond the technical, cognitive, and organisational-focused goals when designing social services.

This paper identifies key service theories that social marketers should understand and use and is thus a source of fresh ideas for theory and practice.

Online service brand communities (OBCs) are an essential services marketing channel and relationship marketing tool, in which social capital (SC) is a critical success factor. Underpinned in social identity and social exchange theories, this paper aims to explore the effects of SC on customer brand engagement (CBE), considering the roles of collective psychological ownership (CPO), customer citizenship behaviour (CCB) and perceived community support (PCS).

The research model was tested using survey data from 256 participants; 137 from the Xiaomi Community and 119 from the Huawei Fan Club. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling analysis was used.

SC drives CBE. CPO and CCB are important mediators, whilst PCS is an important moderator.

Brand marketers need to foster SC in OBCs to achieve the maximum level of customer engagement. The authors provide recommendations as to how to build structural, relational and cognitive SC, as well as CPO, CCB and PCS. In short, brand marketers need to foster an interactive, empowering and supportive environment.

The authors further service research around the humanisation of technology. Specifically, OBCs are social spaces for brands and customers, and a key enabler of relationship marketing principles, such as CBE. The authors test the roles of structural, cognitive and relational SC in engagement in OBCs, through CPO and CCB. This holistic picture of engagement in OBCs is an important foundation for future service research.