2026-09-21T15:05:40Zhttps://iris.unica.it/oai/requestoai:iris.unica.it:11584/2668202022-10-20T08:54:36Zcom_11584_207615com_11584_111066col_11584_265854
The multifaceted world of sustainability. An analysis of about 30 years of studies
DETTORI, ANGELA
SciMat
analisi bibliometrica
benessere
bibliometric analysis
experiential marketing
felicità
happiness
marketing esperienziale
sostenibilità
sustainability
teoria del divertimento
the fun theory
well-being
Settore SPS/08 - Sociologia dei Processi Culturali e Comunicativi
The concept of sustainability has emerged as a response to the most
stringent problems of humanity. Initially defined in the Brundtland report
published by the World Commission on Environment and Development in
1987 as the “development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(United Nations, 1987:43), sustainable development constituted the main
topic of the Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro
in 1992. The conference distinguished itself in the world of academia by
establishing the principles of sustainable development and the indisputable
relation between three fundamental pillars: environmental protection, social
equity and economic development (Scrobota and Vosylius, 2013).
This dissertation is composed of three essays. Essay 1,
“Sustainability: The State of the Art and Emerging Perspectives”, analyzes
the current academic literature on sustainability, first, with elaborative
documentation and, second, using bibliometric analysis supported by the
Science Mapping Analysis Software Tool (SciMat) open source software
(Cobo, Lòpez-Herrera, Herrera and Herrera-Viedma, 2012b) to gain insight
on this body of knowledge and to investigate which topics are associated
with this subject and considered to be the most relevant.
Essay 2, “What Happens to Well-Being and Happiness by
Combining with Sustainability?”, originates from the results of Essay 1 and
develops an analysis of the relationship between sustainability, well-being
and happiness. Indeed, as outlined in Essay 1, a considerable amount of
literature has focused on environmental and economic dimensions, but there
is little systematic research on how sustainability can interact with these
factors as new paradigms for individuals, communities, and organizations.
Essay 2 contributes to extending the existing theories on the three
pillars of sustainability and identifies well-being and happiness as new
driving factors.
Essay 3, “Sustainability as a Matrix of Experiential Marketing”,
examines the current role of sustainability as a matrix of experiential
marketing to understand how a memorable, emotional and responsible
connection between consumers and sustainable brand can generate customer
loyalty and affect the purchase decision through a case study (Yin, 1984;
Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Siggelkow, 2007; Yin, 2009) that analyzes
an ecological campaign called “The Fun Theory”. This work contributes to
strengthening this new theory, according to which “fun” is best for changing
the bad habits of people in a responsible and sustainable manner.
Collectively, the three essays provide a general picture for a more
holistic understanding of sustainability that creates new possibilities for
more focused and effective sustainable development policies. A broader
perspective on sustainability can maintain or improve the well-being and
happiness of human beings. Reaching this objective is possible if the
restrictions of individual freedoms, resource use and the ability to undergo
experiences are compensated by improvements in the other determinants of
wellness, and such improvements can be an effective motivator for sustainable behavior.
2015-05-28
info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
http://hdl.handle.net/11584/266820
eng
numberofpages:95
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Università degli Studi di Cagliari
license:Non specificato