Christine T. Domegan, Tina Flaherty, John McNamara, David Murphy, Jonathan Derham, Mark McCorry, Suzanne Nally, Maurice Eakin, Dmitry Brychkov, Rebecca Doyle, Arthur Devine, Eva Greene, Joseph McKenna, Finola OMahony and Tadgh O'Mahony
To combat climate change, protect biodiversity, maintain water quality, facilitate a just transition for workers and engage citizens and communities, a diversity of stakeholders…
Abstract
Purpose
To combat climate change, protect biodiversity, maintain water quality, facilitate a just transition for workers and engage citizens and communities, a diversity of stakeholders across multiple levels work together and collaborate to co-create mutually beneficial solutions. This paper aims to illustrate how a 7.5-year collaboration between local communities, researchers, academics, companies, state agencies and policymakers is contributing to the reframing of industrial harvested peatlands to regenerative ecosystems and carbon sinks with impacts on ecological, economic, social and cultural systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The European Union LIFE Integrated Project, Peatlands and People, responding to Ireland’s Climate Action Plan, represents Europe’s largest rehabilitation of industrially harvested peatlands. It makes extensive use of marketing research for reframing strategies and actions by partners, collaborators and communities in the evolving context of a just transition to a carbon-neutral future.
Findings
The results highlight the ecological, economic, social and cultural reframing of peatlands from fossil fuel and waste lands to regenerative ecosystems bursting with biodiversity and climate solution opportunities. Reframing impacts requires muddling through the ebbs and flows of planned, possible and unanticipated change that can deliver benefits for peatlands and people over time.
Research limitations/implications
At 3 of 7.5 years into a project, the authors are muddling through how ecological reframing impacts economic and social/cultural reframing. Further impacts, planned and unplanned, can be expected.
Practical implications
This paper shows how an impact planning canvas tool and impact taxonomy can be applied for social and systems change. The tools can be used throughout a project to understand, respond to and manage for unplanned events. There is constant learning, constantly going back to the impact planning canvas and checking where we are, what is needed. There is action and reaction to each other and to the diversity of stakeholders affected and being affected by the reframing work.
Originality/value
This paper considers how systemic change through ecological, economic, social and cultural reframing is a perfectly imperfect process of muddling through which holds the promise of environmental, economic, technological, political, social and educational impacts to benefit nature, individuals, communities, organisations and society.
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Patricia McHugh, Cushla Dromgool-Regan, Christine T. Domegan and Noirin Burke
This paper aims to describe a case between practitioners and social marketing academics to grow and scale a programme that engages with primary schools, teachers, children and the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe a case between practitioners and social marketing academics to grow and scale a programme that engages with primary schools, teachers, children and the education network, inspiring students to become marine leaders and ocean champions.
Design/methodology/approach
Over a six-year period, the authors first applied collective intelligence to work with stakeholders across society to better understand the barriers and solutions to teaching children (6–12 year olds) about the ocean in schools. Following this, a Collective Impact Assessment of the Explorers Education Programme took place to grow the impact of the programme.
Findings
The Explorers Education Programme has grown its numbers higher than pre-pandemic levels. In 2022, the Explorers Education Programme had the largest number of participating children, reaching 15,237, with a growth of 21% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and 79% compared to 2021. In 2023, the programme won the “Best Education Outreach Award” category of the Education Awards in Ireland.
Research limitations/implications
This research stresses the importance of measuring impact. The long-term impact of the Explorers Education Programme at societal, environmental and economical levels takes a much longer time frame to measure than the six years of these research collaborations.
Practical implications
The collaborative approach between academics and practitioners meant that this research had practical implications, whereby necessary and effective changes and learnings could be directly applied to the Explorers Education Programme in real time, as the practitioners involved were directly responsible for the management and coordination of the programme.
Originality/value
The value of collaborations and engagement between academia and practice cannot be underestimated. The ability to collectively reflect and assess impact moves beyond “an” intervention, allowing for more meaningful behavioural, social and system changes for the collective good, inspiring the next generation of marine leaders and ocean champions.
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The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon social marketing and its implications for the contemporary marketing practices (CMP) classification scheme.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon social marketing and its implications for the contemporary marketing practices (CMP) classification scheme.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a theoretical approach. Examples from the public engagement with science are used in the reflection.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Many leading firms across Europe are harnessing information technology to cultivate customer service as a valuable asset to achieve strategic superiority. The key findings of this…
Abstract
Many leading firms across Europe are harnessing information technology to cultivate customer service as a valuable asset to achieve strategic superiority. The key findings of this IT/customer service adoption study emphasize three main points. First information technology acts as an enabling tool in achieving customer service advantages in three ways: clerical effectiveness/automation; operational efficiency; and/or information generation and strategic effectiveness or transformation. Second, customer service is being nurtured as a valuable asset in differentiating products in one or more of four forms: distribution, transaction, relationship and/or strategic. Third, there is a direct positive correlation between the exploitation of IT in customer service and the degree of information orientation. The conclusion presents a model of this adoption process of IT in customer service. These findings reflect “leading” business practice in the use of IT in customer service.
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Patricia McHugh and Christine Domegan
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Dmitry Brychkov and Christine Domegan
The purpose of this paper is to present retrospective, current and prospective aspects of social marketing and systems science integration.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present retrospective, current and prospective aspects of social marketing and systems science integration.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a periodization methodology, based on turning points of conceptual integration between social marketing and systems science.
Findings
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.
Research limitations/implications
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Tina Flaherty, Christine Domegan and Mihir Anand
With the explosion of digital technologies in contemporary daily life, fuelled by a pandemic and remote working, online learning and shopping and the proliferation of social…
Abstract
Purpose
With the explosion of digital technologies in contemporary daily life, fuelled by a pandemic and remote working, online learning and shopping and the proliferation of social platforms, much remains nebulous about the opportunities these technologies hold for social marketers beyond their previously documented use as communication and promotion tools. This paper aims to provide a rich examination of the variety of digital technologies used within social marketing and establish the scale of integration between digital technologies and social marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
Following systematic literature review procedures, a systematic literature review through eight databases was conducted. The systematic review focussed on the assessment of social marketing studies that incorporated a wide range of mature and emerging digital technologies such as the internet, mobile platforms and social media channels. A total of 50 social marketing studies (2014–2020) were analysed.
Findings
The review found that there have been major advancements in the technologies available to social marketers in recent years. Furthermore, the adoption of digital technologies by social marketers has evolved from a communication or promotion function where generic information is pushed to the citizen, towards the use of these technologies for a more personalised design, content and behaviour change intervention. In some studies, the digital technologies were the primary means for interactions and collaborations to take place. The review also found that digital technologies target more than the individual citizen. Digital technologies are used to target multi-level stakeholders, policy makers and partners as part of behavioural change interventions.
Originality/value
Only two previous reviews have synthesised digital technologies and their use in social marketing. This review provides a recent depiction of the range and scale of integration within social marketing. Specifically, it demonstrates the expansion beyond a persuasive application to their use for research, segmentation and targeting, collaboration and co-creation, the product and facilitator of service delivery. Finally, this review provides a heat map to illustrate the integration between digital technologies and key concepts and criteria within social marketing.
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Dzmitry Brychkov, Peter Cornelius McKeown, Christine Domegan, Charles Spillane and Galina Brychkova
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of “Connect the circle” systems thinking tools for improving contextualised systems thinking from sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of “Connect the circle” systems thinking tools for improving contextualised systems thinking from sustainability perspectives. The guiding question is could “Connect the circle” improve sustainability education?
Design/methodology/approach
The effect of the “Connect the circle” tool on the development of learning dimensions, especially improved problem understanding, shared vision and quality of communication in STEM modules, was analysed by qualitative and quantitative methods.
Findings
Authors find that “Connect the circle” is an effective tool for thinking skills development. However, scaffolding in education is required to achieve higher-order thinking skills by empowering students to become active agents of change, capable of envisioning and implementing sustainable solutions at multiple levels.
Practical implications
Educators must bridge gaps between systems theory and understanding how systems thinking skills should be developed in sustainability contexts. Insights from this research will support the development of knowledge and skills required for higher education institutions graduates to address complex sustainability issues.
Originality/value
Applying this tool to STEM curricula represents an original way to explain student holistic vision to connect systems theory to the application of systems thinking skills for sustainability change.