Dear Colleagues,

A black swan in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic has come upon us and traditional social behaviour has radically changed in its wake. Managerial theory faces the need to reflect changes to individual value scales in managerial practice. While there are some areas where this need is not so urgent and the shift in trends is rather slow, there are other areas where the shift in trends has been rapid and radical. Marketing management and marketing innovations are the areas where the black swan effect is the most obvious. However, reflecting actual flexibility trends in managerial patterns is not the only aspect that has changed. Another—even more important—aspect lies in the stable character of this phenomenon. This is because we are not only dealing with the current reality of the pandemic, but we are also looking to the post-pandemic situation that is likely to involve turbulent markets and managerial realities. Despite the fact that the black swan theory was discussed in a wider socioeconomic context by Taleb at the very beginning of the 21st century, not enough scientific interest has been paid to this topic so far. The search for articles focused on the black swan effect only yielded 59 articles to the end of 2020. These studies identify three basic levels of the black swan effect: pre-black swan, black swan, and post-black swan.  However, these levels are not discussed equally. The main scientific interest is concentrated on the black swan event itself and its immediate aftermath. The pre- and the post- phases are discussed only marginally. We aim to fill this scientific gap in an upcoming Special Issue. Only effective marketing management can be considered a suitable platform to sustain competitive advantage based on appropriately motivated consumers. Thus, it is essential to redirect the attention of managers, which has so far been focused mainly on the effective creation of competitive advantage providing for consumer's preferences, to the factual realization of the activities that have a direct positive impact on sustainable development.

Based on the growing need for developing integrated models of the creation and implementation of sustainable marketing management patterns focusing on behaviourism in consumers’ buying behaviour, there is a gap that could potentially be filled by formulating relevant theoretical platforms as well as complex methodologies in the form of framework models oriented towards the optimization of managerial decision-making processes.

Therefore, a space must be created for the acquisition of new knowledge and the formulation of new postulates based on the application of systematic and multidisciplinary approaches, forming the basis for reaching the sustainable development of society.

Therefore, we are organizing this Special Issue, which aims to discuss the challenges of contemporary sustainable marketing management in light of the multidisciplinary nature and contemporary challenges related to this concept.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• sustainable development
• sustainable marketing management
• sustainable marketing research
• sustainable product policy
• sustainable price policy
• sustainable distribution policy
• sustainable communication policy
• sustainable innovation
• adaptive capacity
• responsible innovation
• prosumer marketing
• market orientation
• strategic marketing
• consumer loyalty
• green marketing and greenwashing
• marketing ethics
• socially responsible marketing
• strategic management
• digital communication platforms
• e-marketing
• COVID-19 and post-pandemic marketing management
• black swan effect
• behavioural economics
• consumer motivation sources
• consumer engagement
• sustainable buying behaviour
• typology of consumer behaviour
• generational stratification of consumers
• marketing in emerging markets

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jana Majerová
Dr. Mária Szalmáné Csete
Dr. Margareta Nadanyiova
Dr. Lubica Gajanova
Guest Editors

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• market orientation
• strategic marketing
• sustainable innovation
• sustainable marketing
• consumer loyalty
• green marketing
• socially responsible marketing
• strategic management
• COVID-19
• post-pandemic management