Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs) and Social Marketing are the forefront of a societal shift in our collective desire to live better, to cause less damage to our planet and to leave fewer people behind in our quest for progress. Against the challenging backdrop of the rise in cost of living, war and the pandemic globally, it is through innovative thinking and disruptive practices that SPOs and Social Marketing can help to improve people’s health and wellbeing, protect our planet through improving air quality, water quality and biodiversity and deliver social justice. Consumers want organisations to play a bigger role in tackling these complex issues as distrust in government’s ability to make a difference continue to rise. The growing momentum behind an ambition to live in a sustainable way, underpinned by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, uniquely offers SPOs and Social Marketing an opportunity to drive innovation and creativity. This was the rationale driving this Special Issue on “Delivering Impact for Social Good”. With the opportunity to write an editorial piece to introduce the Special Issue our team wanted to do something different. So, we are not going to summarise the excellent papers within this issue; their abstracts are clear and will signpost you to the research most relevant to your work and interests. What we will do is reflect personally, as individuals, on what motivates us to contribute to social impact knowledge and practice – and where we see the field going. In a small way, we want to raise our voices to encourage others.
Mitchell, Sarah-Louise Rundle-Thiele, SharynLee, ZoeHyde, Fran
Oxford Brookes Business School
Year of publication: 2024Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-11-20