Seminar series on Business Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability – 2017-2018

Speaker: Constantinos N. Leonidou, Professor of Marketing, Leeds University Business School. University of Leeds

Constantinos N. Leonidou is Professor of Marketing at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds (Leeds, UK) and the Director of Research for the Marketing Division. He holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Middlesex University (2004), an MBA from Cardiff University (2006) and a PhD in Marketing and Strategy from the University of Leeds (2009). His main research and teaching interests focus on sustainability marketing, corporate responsibility, international marketing, and tourism/hospitality marketing. His research has appeared in many journals of international repute, such as the European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of World Business, and Tourism Management among others.

He is Editorial Review Board member of Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of International Marketing, and acts as ad hoc reviewer for many other academic journals. He regularly presents his work in leading international academic conferences across the globe, while he is an active member of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and Academy of Marketing Science (AMS). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the AMA Global Marketing SIG.

Abstract:

Sustainability has been referred to as a megatrend of the 21st century. Increasingly, consumers around the globe are aware of and consider sustainability issues in their everyday life. Naturally, such issues have attracted attention by scholars in the past years trying to understand how individual consumer values influence sustainability attitudes and behaviour. However, research on sustainability is suffering from a paucity of holistic investigations and a lack of understanding concerning the interplay of values, attitudes and behaviours in the realm of sustainability.

Against this background, the current research aims to shed light on the influence of value systems on sustainability attitudes and how these, in turn, impact activism and quality of life. We develop and test a theoretically-driven model in the US, and discuss its applicability in three different countries, namely, Austria, China, and India. Our results show that generativity is conducive, while materialism and religiosity are impediments to the development of favourable environmental and societal attitudes. Though the value of familiality is not a significant determinant of attitudes in the US, it is highly important in other country settings. Finally, our study provides concrete evidence of the role of environmental and societal activism in influencing quality of life across countries.

Seminar series on Business Ethics, Social Responsibility and Sustainability

In line with the Research with Impact strategic priority under the University’s Goal 3 agenda Social Responsibility and Engagement Committee at AMBS launched a seminar series in 2016-2017. The purpose of the seminar series is to invite researchers from AMBS and other business schools to present their work for discussion and also to explore new avenues in thinking and researching the area.