Marketing Sustainability of Enterprise Business Projects as a Factor

Supporting Regional Economic Stability

Sergey Avakyan

Rostov State University of Economics (RINH) Russia, Rostov-on-Don

Keywords: Sustainable Development Marketing, Marketing Management, Project Marketing.

Abstract: The paper presents the development of the concept of sustainable marketing in the planning and

implementation of business projects of enterprises. Marketing sustainability of business projects is considered

an independent subsystem of project activities management, which responds to market risks of the project by

marketing techniques and methods, and ensures the implementation of the values of sustainable development.

Above all, these are the values of ecology and social justice. Developing marketing sustainability systems is

a complex task that can be difficult for traditional project management modes. Therefore, there is a need to

expand business advisory services. This challenge can be addressed at the regional level. Thus, at the level of

regional governance, the sustainable development of the territory's enterprises will be promoted, which will

cause a reverse effect on increasing the sustainability of economic processes in the region.

1 INTRODUCTION

Efficient and sustainable functioning of the regional

economic system is the basis for stable growth of the

country's economy and a condition for successful

business in the region. Regional authorities have

various tools to influence the socio-economic

processes of the territory, but not many of them can

affect the sustainability of economic growth. Russian

scientists make attempts to develop such tools (with

the allocation of sustainability types (Perfilov,

2012)), including the involvement of marketing (as

part of the formation of the regional development

strategy (Baranova, I.V. and Baranova, G.N., 2016)).

In general, the theme of sustainability of regional

development is present in Russian scientific thought.

Still, it is more focused on solving crisis processes

and developing mechanisms to maintain the social

sphere. In foreign scientific thought, the sustainability

of regional development is considered in a broader

sense as a qualitative characteristic of economic

growth to achieve a new quality of the socio-

economic system. This approach allows us to

consider such complex processes as forming global

integration unions that contribute to the convergence

https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000

of economic development levels of entire countries

(Nowotny et al., 2013).

It is important to emphasize that the modern

understanding of sustainability is focused not so

much on maintaining the positive dynamics of

economic performance but rather on achieving

growth through the quality of sources of socio-

economic development. In terms of the concept of

sustainable economic growth, which began to be

actively developed since the second half of the 1990s

(Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995), such significant

qualitative aspects of economic growth are its social

and environmental outcomes. As early as 1991, the

United Nations proclaimed the goal of minimizing

environmental damage from economic activities. The

priority of achieving this goal has steadily increased

in the hierarchy of economic management goals

(Fuller, 1999).

Within the framework of marketing the goal of

environmental conservation is most fully embodied in

the concept of "sustainable marketing", which is

considered by foreign scientists as the development

of marketing methods on the basis of environmental

results. This approach is more comprehensive

compared to environmental or "green" marketing

(Belz, and Peattie, 2009), which already had some

history of development when the concept of

240

Avakyan, S.

Marketing Sustainability of Enterprise Business Projects as a Factor Supporting Regional Economic Stability.

DOI: 10.5220/0010666700003223

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc Forum on Sustainable Development of Socio-economic Systems (WFSDS 2021), pages 240-246

ISBN: 978-989-758-597-5

"sustainable growth" was formed. The difference

between the concept of sustainable marketing and

previously developed environmental marketing

components is that the environmental component of

sustainable development is considered along with the

social component, which is understood as the

availability of basic goods and services for all

categories of the population, the constant

improvement of the quality of life (Halina, 2016).

In addition to the new goals of marketing

activities within the framework of sustainable

marketing, one can highlight such new phenomenon

as individualization of value demand - customization

of product offer under the demands of an individual

consumer. Still, the demands are rational, formed in

developing environmental awareness and socially

responsible behavior (Halina, 2016). Practical

implementation of this concept is rather

multidimensional - it is organic consumer products,

eco-tourism, the choice of environmentally friendly

packaging, the rejection of excessive consumption,

and other measures of rational choice of goods and

services, taking into account the impact of their

production and disposal conditions on the

environment. That is, the practical embodiment of the

concept of sustainable marketing in consumer

behavior represents all those actions that embody

environmentally responsible purchasing decisions

(Soloveva et al., 2017): avoiding excesses, using

innovative goods and services that consider the

environmental consequences of production and

consumption, self-restraint and self-education for

optimal consumption. Marketing is attuned to such

consumption by becoming a concept: "which

involves building and developing sustainable

relationships with customers, the social environment

and the environment" (Solov'eva and Halina, 2015).

It is important to note that the initiative in spreading

"sustainable marketing" comes both from the

consumers themselves, who are conscious, and is

actively supported by the state and various public

organizations. At the regional level, it may also be

possible to encourage support for the concept of

sustainable marketing. Moreover, the essence of the

concept of sustainable marketing is fully consistent

with the content of management activities to ensure

sustainable development of the socio-economic

system of the region since the understanding of

sustainable marketing is formed as a derivative of the

three target components, which were not previously

considered as business objectives and, therefore, as

the primary marketing objectives: achieving social,

environmental and ethical effects.

In the author's opinion, sustainable marketing can

be considered an important tool for managing the

region's sustainability. However, the methodological

aspects of this direction of marketing are very poorly

developed. It is practically not represented in the

Russian scientific literature - most of the works of

Russian scientists on sustainable marketing are

devoted to the marketing activity of the firm. It can

be assumed that for the implementation of sustainable

marketing as a tool of regional sustainability

management, it is necessary to accumulate a

sufficient "critical mass" of research in this area of

marketing and disseminate the concept of

"sustainable growth" in practical economic

management.

However, the evolutionary accumulation of the

"critical mass" of sustainability marketing research

can become a very long-term process, so it is

necessary to stimulate the dissemination and

application of this concept, to improve its

methodological support, to increase the availability of

scientific developments for practice managers.

It is essential to accelerate the spread of the

concept of sustainable development for agrarian

regions, whose economic activities are related to

problems of land fertility preservation and protection

of natural factors of agricultural production itself

from over-intensive consumption. Planning of

economic activity in agrarian regions must be

extremely sensitive to environmental and social

consequences of economic activity; therefore, in the

author's opinion, every business project in the

agrarian sphere must necessarily take these

consequences into account. Formal accounting for

environmental and social risks of business projects is

not enough - special project management in market

conditions must maintain the established sustainable

development goals when the commercial business

environment changes.

Such special management is business project

sustainability marketing, the development of which

the author's research is devoted to.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The methodological basis of business project

sustainability marketing is the conceptual approaches

of the concept of sustainable growth and modern

transformations of marketing theory. The use of

sustainable marketing in Russian practice requires

clarification of the categorical apparatus.

The correct use of the term "sustainability

marketing" is extremely important for the Russian

Marketing Sustainability of Enterprise Business Projects as a Factor Supporting Regional Economic Stability

241

scientific thought. As accurately pointed out by G. L.

Bagiev and a group of researchers in several

publications (Bagiev and CHerenkov, 2018; Bagiev

et al., 2018), the straightforward translation of this

term generates a distorted semantic construct whose

content should denote marketing sustainability itself.

This aspect of sustainability is important for

management - marketing activities must be carried

out stably in the face of any changes in the external

environment. But the content of the term, borrowed

from foreign academic literature, is the use of

marketing for economic sustainability. This very

definition of "marketing for sustainable

development" is fixed by G. L. Bagiev in the title of

the article and is disclosed in its content (Bagiev and

CHerenkov, 2018).

From the position of this methodological

approach, the possibilities of marketing for business

project sustainability are explored. Moreover, the

focus is on agrarian business projects, which, as

mentioned above, are particularly sensitive to the

environmental and social impacts of implementation.

The main methodological approaches to ensuring

the economic sustainability of enterprises have

already been developed in economic theory. In

practice, it is mainly analyzed from the perspective of

the study of financial performance indicators -

assessment of the adequacy of assets and reserves.

Stability is also comprehensively assessed using the

techniques and methods of risk management

(Kachalov, 2002) to identify risks and hazards of

economic activity and the development of measures

to counter them. An independent methodological area

of economic sustainability analysis is the theory of

enterprise reliability, in the framework of which the

main attention of researchers is focused on the study

of the ability of an enterprise to function under peak

loads and resource constraints (Kabanov, 2008)

Within the marketing framework, sustainability

issues are most fully developed from the position of

analysis of the anti-crisis function of marketing

(Fed'ko et al., 2013).

In general, the existing theoretical and

methodological components of economic

sustainability form the scientific basis for developing

the marketing sustainability system of the business

projects, which is considered an addition to the

existing approaches.

The statistical data (Rossijskij statisticheskij

ezhegodnik, 2019), the analysis of which allowed us

to form an assessment of the scale of project

activities, formed the information basis of the study.

Based on the indicators of technical re-equipment and

the level of mastering of innovative technologies, it

was concluded that there is a high need to improve the

quality of project activities, which is what the study

of marketing sustainability of business projects is

aimed at.

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

The marketing sustainability of a business project is

considered from two perspectives. The first position

is a characteristic of the extent to which the planned

implementation of a business project is protected

from the negative effects of market forces. The

second position is the ability of the project

management system to adapt to the changed market

conditions. Thus, marketing sustainability is seen as

both:

- assessment of the degree of feasibility and

characterization of the business project

implementation process;

- direction of management activity, an

independent subsystem of business project

management.

The subject of marketing sustainability

management of the business project is the

preservation of the planned market share for the entire

period of the business project, ensuring its

effectiveness; reproduction of relations with suppliers

and customers, interaction with the public and market

regulators, and other significant aspects of the

business project. The main objects of influence within

the framework of ensuring the marketing

sustainability of the business project are changes in

the market conditions for the implementation of

project activities.

The main subject of ensuring marketing

sustainability of a business project is a specialized

project management team. Regardless of the scale or

the way the project is organized, the marketing

functions must be embodied in the project

management process. Since marketing and project

implementation competencies require high

professionalism, it is necessary to provide an

opportunity to engage specialists and consultants with

sufficient knowledge and experience to solve

complex tasks of business project implementation.

The work directed at ensuring the marketing

stability of the business project aims to counter the

risks of a market nature and can be influenced by

marketing means. Moreover, we can rightfully assert

that a certain group of risks - price, sales, customer,

image, communication - cannot be responded to

without marketing.

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242

A distinctive feature of the application of

marketing within the concept of sustainable growth is

the development of management decisions

considering environmental and social constraints.

Thus, countering the above risks should be

implemented based on values and a responsible

approach to business.

It is important to note that the implementation of

business project sustainability marketing changes the

marketing role, moving it to the highest level of the

management hierarchy. Thus, the composition of the

response to changing market conditions of the project

may require adjustments not only commercial but

also production, financial, human, information, and

other parameters of the project, which are not within

the competence of marketing. Consequently,

effective interaction of the marketing service (or

project marketing team) with other divisions of the

enterprise and the formation of mechanisms for joint

decision-making is necessary. When developing joint

management decisions, marketing simultaneously

plays the role of the initiator of changes. It

implements the functions of an independent system

for managing the sustainability of a business project.

The basic algorithm of actions to ensure

marketing sustainability is implemented in the

following composition:

a) formation of a market situation forecast for the

period of the business project implementation;

(b) developing a business change model to adapt

to possible market changes;

capable of implementing marketing responses to

possible changes;

(d) reserving resources to respond to changes in

the external environment;

(e) monitoring the market environment and

responding to emerging threats to the sustainability of

the business project;

f) initiating a response to the identified threats to

the business project - both in the form of individual

marketing activities and by changing the production

and commercial activities of the entire enterprise.

The implementation of this algorithm is possible

if there is sufficient information and effective

communication. Therefore, it is necessary to form

specialized information resources that provide

marketing sustainability management. Such

resources should be formed as a part of the marketing

information system of the enterprise.

The notion of a marketing information system is

quite broad and includes the whole spectrum of

marketing information resources used for different

aspects of enterprise activity management in market

conditions (Vanifatova, 2002). Conceptually and

functionally, the analytical component designed to

ensure marketing sustainability is already embedded

within traditional marketing information systems.

Therefore, there is no need to create a special

marketing information system to ensure the

sustainability of the business project - it is enough to

modernize existing systems to solve this problem.

The essence of modernization is to supplement the

existing marketing information systems with

techniques and data to assess the marketing

sustainability of the business project.

The main purpose of this improvement of

marketing information system operation is to expand

analytical support of sustainable development of

market subjects, formation of sufficient evaluation

base for project activities, coordination of interests of

all its subjects: producers, consumers, resource

suppliers, scientific organizations, regulatory bodies,

etc. However, it isn't easy to independently form such

an information system for analytical support of own

business projects at the enterprise level. Therefore, it

is necessary to create an advisory center at the

regional level, which will support business projects of

enterprises with necessary information resources and

methodological assistance. The main task of such a

center is to concentrate marketing competencies in

business sustainability, of which there may be

several, even within a single firm.

It is important to note that the organizational

structures for providing such assistance already exist

- it is necessary to expand their work with modern

techniques and methods. The concept of marketing

sustainability is a source of new techniques and

methods of economic management, and its further

development and implementation will improve the

validity of economic decisions.

4 RESULT DISCUSSION

Developments in sustainable marketing are related to

changes in attitudes towards marketing itself and are

sparking discussions about the role of environmental

awareness and culture in promoting this type of

marketing. For the sustainability marketing of a

business project, these aspects are fundamental.

When implementing a project in practice, there may

be situations when it is commercially beneficial to

abandon the project's environmental or social

constraints to maintain its financial attractiveness. To

overcome this contradiction, sustainability marketing

should allow for the formation of an estimate of the

damage to the firm's image and reputation resulting

Marketing Sustainability of Enterprise Business Projects as a Factor Supporting Regional Economic Stability

243

from the implementation of such failures. Such

damages may exceed the financial achievements of

the project, which should be an incentive to preserve

the environmental and social parameters of the

project.

This marketing role is quite new as marketing has

always been focused only on achieving profits from

the transactions made. The concept of sustainable

marketing is based on ethical principles - both in its

focus on environmental and social justice goals and

its rejection of consumer manipulation. These ethical

foundations of sustainable marketing have been

actively debated in the academic literature from the

perspective of criticizing the use of marketing to

impose unnecessary and redundant products on

consumers (Skorobogatyh et al., 2013; Stoeckl and

Luedicke, 2015).

In general, the concept of sustainable marketing

can be seen as a response to marketing criticism,

which is quite extensive. The main criticism relates to

the moral aspects of marketing activities - this is

shown in a comprehensive study of criticism of

marketing practices (Stoeckl and Luedicke, 2015). It

can be argued that the concept of sustainable

marketing is opposed to such practices. The concept

of sustainable marketing attempts to reconcile the

interests of business and society, which can be

realized through business following the best social

practices.

The opportunities for sustainable marketing

development are largely determined by the promotion

of environmental awareness and culture, which are

beginning to change the market and social

environment of market actors (Skorobogatyh et al.,

2013):

- consumers increase demand for environmentally

friendly products and services and those produced in

an environmentally responsible manner;

- manufacturers, intermediaries, investors expand

the use of environmentally friendly technologies,

production of environmentally friendly goods and

services;

- public, educational, scientific and other

organizations that influence consumers, promote the

environmental agenda, actualize environmental

protection issues.

As a result of the influence of ecological culture

on the consciousness of market participants, a new

paradigm of sustainable marketing is emerging,

which is also seen as a development of the concept of

macromarketing (Cherenkov et al., 2020) and has

considerable research potential.

The noted oppositions between financial benefits

and the need to follow self-restrictions to achieve

environmental and social goals will inevitably

manifest themselves in the development and

implementation of management decisions,

particularly in building a system to counteract the

risks of business projects.

At present, that project risk counteraction is

embodied in a system of project financial

management measures. However, the main focus of

the project's financial management is on the

emergence of arrears, the formation of financial

reserves, possible work on the restructuring of debts,

etc. The majority of the project management literature

focuses specifically on the financial aspects of

management.

Marketing management of project sustainability

and risk management is more comprehensive than its

financial management and can be viewed as a key

management activity of project activities. Therefore,

it is natural that more and more researchers consider

marketing as a leading component of integrated

project management. This approach reveals new

marketing opportunities and provides a conceptual

basis for the implementation of the marketing

sustainability methodology: "Marketing project

management is an art, science, and methodology of

planning, leadership, and coordination of labor,

financial and material and technical resources

throughout the project cycle, aimed at effectively

achieving goals projects related to attracting,

preserving and developing consumers through the

creation, provision, and promotion of values that are

significant to them, following the requirements and

opportunities of the market, within the limits of the

scope and scope of work, cost, time and quality

existing in the project" ( Vozmilov and Kapustina,

2010).

We should agree that marketing management is an

art, but this aspect makes its formalization much more

difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly

expand the scientific approaches to building

management activities on the basis of marketing,

which will allow creating sufficient analytical tools

for the effective implementation of creative

marketing developments in economic practice.

It can be assumed that in today's fiercely

competitive market, it is impossible to succeed

without creative implementation of marketing in the

management system. Marketing management of the

project is conceptually aimed at the embodiment of

the creative component of the project activities, and

ensuring the marketing sustainability of the project

will ensure the stability and reliability of the project

activities, which will allow making and implementing

creative decisions.

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5 CONCLUSION

The concept of sustainable growth is an important

area of economic thought and is reflected in various

marketing developments. Sustainable marketing not

only formulates modern goals and objectives of

marketing work, but also imposes new value

requirements for marketing itself. Sustainable

marketing goals for environmental protection and

social justice are consistent with regional

management goals. At the microeconomic level,

sustainable marketing is embodied in the

environmental culture and social responsibility of the

entrepreneur. Particularly full disclosure of the value

aspects of marketing in the development of a business

project.

The research considers marketing as a tool for

project sustainability. The marketing sustainability of

the project is aimed at both preserving its financial

and commercial parameters and embodying the value

aspects of the entrepreneur's activity - consideration

of environmental and social outcomes.

The research proposes forming an independent

management system of marketing sustainability of

the business projects, which should be integrated with

other subsystems of project management and with the

functions of enterprise management.

Building marketing sustainability systems for

projects requires skilled effort and complex work. To

support it, it is recommended to create a marketing

information system that can be implemented at the

regional level and provide the necessary analytical

support for business projects. Thus, the region

contributes to the development of marketing

sustainability systems in the territory's enterprises.

This enhances the sustainability of regional

development.

The proposed approaches are rather new for

marketing, but their development is significant for

improving economic management for ensuring stable

and sustainable growth of regional economies.

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