Drivers and barriers to voluntary marketing stewardship program adoption within marketing ecosystems

Abstract

With the growing societal challenges, many firms are voluntarily adopting marketing stewardship programs, Voluntary Marketing Stewardship Programs (VMSP), that are geared towards improving the well-being of the customers. Unfortunately, these programs face an uphill battle of adoption as it requires buy-in and coordination among the stakeholders who are expected to adopt VMSP. In this paper, using a discovery-oriented grounded theoretical approach, I develop a comprehensive model and present related propositions in the context of awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) framework to provide insights into the drivers and barriers of adoption of VMSP. I collect qualitative data from a unique context where I recruited and conducted four focus groups with stakeholders from the beef and dairy industry who gathered to help us design a VMSP to combat antimicrobial resistance. The paper concludes by providing guidance on how managers should make strategic decisions to increase cooperation among the stakeholders, enhance customer relationship management, exemplify social responsibility, and minimize governmental regulations related to the adoption of VMSP.