Toward a “theoretical toolbox” for sustainability research
in marketing
Brian L. Connelly & David J. Ketchen Jr. &
Stanley F. Slater
Received: 6 January 2010 /Accepted: 31 March 2010 / Published online: 22 April 2010
# Academy of Marketing Science 2010
Abstract This paper provides a foundation for future
marketing research on sustainability through the application
of nine prominent organizational theories. Specifically, we
consider the implications for sustainability offered by
transaction cost economics, agency theory, institutional
theory, population ecology, resource dependence theory,
the resource-based view of the firm, upper echelons theory,
social network theory, and signaling theory. We consider
how each theory can help researchers to better understand
the ways that firms engage in sustainable marketing and
business practices, and we develop insights that emerge
from simultaneous examination of complementary or
competing theoretical perspectives.