ABSTRACT

The article explores the paradoxes that for-profit social ventures face when managing integrated marketing communications (IMC) and how they deal with and overcome the tensions that comprise these paradoxes. To investigate the nature of these paradoxes we integrated two theoretical perspectives: Service-Dominant Logic and Paradox Theory. While the former served as a lens to analyze social marketing phenomena, the latter is applied to comprehend and explore the underlying tensions within these social businesses in the communication setting. Following a multiple-case study based on interviews with founders, owners, and directors of Brazilian for-profit social ventures, we depicted how traditional marketing practices can lead both to problems and solutions manifested in the four IMC pillars (stakeholders, content, channels, and results). We recognize that properly managing stakeholders’ relationships aiming at the cocreation of value may result in valuable insights for dealing with tensions in all the four IMC pillars, and for achieving better marketing performance and higher social impact.

摘要

本文探讨了营利性社会企业在管理整合营销传播 (IMC) 时面临的悖论，以及它们如何处理和克服构成这些悖论的紧张局势。为了研究这些悖论的本质，我们整合了两种理论观点：服务主导逻辑和悖论理论。前者作为分析社会营销现象的镜头，而后者则用于理解和探索这些社会企业在传播环境中潜在的紧张关系。在对巴西营利性社会企业的创始人、所有者和董事进行访谈的多案例研究之后，我们描述了传统营销实践如何导致 IMC 四大支柱（利益相关者、内容、渠道、和结果）。