Purpose

Accomplishing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is imperative for societies to meet their grand challenges. Achieving these goals by 2030 requires sustainability change agents with a can-do-attitude. This study aims to show how institutions of higher education can become partners for social marketing in bringing forward such change agents.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking a case study approach, this paper examines a master’s programme to identify factors relevant to educating sustainability change agents that can serve as a basis for a social marketing planning primer to foster the SDGs.

Findings

This study presents the social marketing discipline with a viable option for supporting the achievement of the SDGs through higher education. Its contributions are twofold. First, it is shown that when interdisciplinarity and a project-based approach are conceptualized and organized to create a motivating and meaningful learning environment with the SDGs as guiding principles, students, as sustainability change agents, can increase awareness and have the potential to generate impacts regarding the SDGs at the individual, organizational and institutional levels. Second, based on this, the paper provides guidance to social marketers regarding the planning of a campaign targeting higher education institutions. The authors argue that the aim of this campaign should be to promote the implementation of the SDGs as guiding principles above all, as this can facilitate the process of students becoming sustainability change agents who help achieve the goals in a timely manner.

Research limitations/implications

Whilst single case studies are usually limited in drawing generalizations, the present study offers a starting point for investigating the role of universities as a target group for social marketing in fostering further sustainable development. Building on its findings, future research could test the proposed social marketing planning primer and evaluate the impact on the SDGs at a larger scale than only one university.

Practical implications

It is proposed to use the findings of the study to model a social marketing campaign aimed at universities to motivate them to help develop sustainability change agents in all disciplines by integrating the SDGs as guiding principles for study programmes.

Social implications

Students’ impacts range from leading peers to buy sustainable products and consume less to influencing a company to adopt sustainable packaging, thereby contributing to social change.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to examine the possible effect of a study programme on the SDGs at different societal levels by taking the perspectives of multiple stakeholders into account and combining the theory of higher education with sustainability and social marketing.

中文翻译：

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社会营销和高等教育：合作实现可持续发展目标

目的

实现联合国的可持续发展目标 (SDG) 是社会应对重大挑战的当务之急。到 2030 年实现这些目标需要具有能干态度的可持续性变革推动者。本研究旨在展示高等教育机构如何成为社会营销的合作伙伴，以推动此类变革推动者。

设计/方法/方法

本文采用案例研究方法，研究了一个硕士课程，以确定与教育可持续变革推动者相关的因素，这些因素可以作为社会营销规划入门的基础，以促进可持续发展目标。

发现

本研究为社会营销学科提供了一个可行的选择，以支持通过高等教育实现可持续发展目标。它的贡献是双重的。首先，它表明，当跨学科和基于项目的方法被概念化和组织起来以创建一个以可持续发展目标为指导原则的激励和有意义的学习环境时，学生作为可持续性变革推动者，可以提高意识并有可能产生影响关于个人、组织和机构层面的可持续发展目标。其次，基于此，本文为社会营销人员提供了针对高等教育机构的活动规划的指导。作者认为，这项运动的目的应该是促进作为指导原则的可持续发展目标的实施，

研究限制/影响

虽然单一案例研究在概括概括方面通常受到限制，但本研究为调查大学作为社会营销目标群体在促进进一步可持续发展方面的作用提供了一个起点。基于其发现，未来的研究可以测试拟议的社会营销规划入门，并评估对可持续发展目标的影响，而不仅仅是一所大学。

实际影响

建议利用研究结果为针对大学的社会营销活动建模，以激励他们通过将可持续发展目标作为研究计划的指导原则来帮助开发所有学科的可持续性变革推动者。

社会影响

学生的影响范围从带领同龄人购买可持续产品和减少消费到影响公司采用可持续包装，从而为社会变革做出贡献。

原创性/价值

本研究是首批通过考虑多个利益相关者的观点并将高等教育理论与可持续性和社会营销相结合，研究研究计划对不同社会层面可持续发展目标可能产生的影响的研究之一。