The A-VO-S Map for Sustainability Marketing: A Scoping Review and Evidence Map

As sustainability marketing research advances, conceptual debates persist regarding relevant stakeholders, motivations, and the integration of sustainability into marketing. However, these debates are not always consistently reflected in empirical work. Given the urgency of sustainability, a unifying framework is crucial to synthesize four decades of research. We aim to provide a durable framework to ensure that critical research progresses efficiently by supporting meaningful knowledge generation in sustainability marketing research. We conduct a scoping review of 48 conceptual articles, resulting in the A-VO-S Map. Its three dimensions are: Actors (Consumers, Businesses, Institutions), Value Orientations (Self-, Societally-, and Environmentally-Oriented), and Scope of Sustainability (Peripheral to Central). We then present an evidence map of empirical sustainability marketing research based on a content analysis of 191 empirical articles from 19 top journals. Findings reveal that Consumers are overrepresented, Societal-Orientation lacks supporting evidence, and sustainability is studied with a Moderate Scope. We conclude the paper with a practitioner-informed research agenda and an interactive version of our evidence map. Thus, we offer unique contributions over prior reviews through a meta-framework that functions as an evidence map, with high valorization potential due to its interactive tool and practitioner-informed perspectives.