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Sensemaking and Sustainability: A Sensemaking Perspective on the Ethical Use of Big Data in Marketing Strategizing

In: Sustainable Development Seen Through the Lenses of Ethnoeconomics and the Circular Economy

Author

Listed:
  • Emma (Junhong) Wang

    (School of Business, Southern Connecticut State University)

  • Pierre Berthon

    (Bentley University)

  • Yiran Su

    (Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Abstract

Despite the ethical concerns over the datafication and surveillance of individuals and groups, companies are making ever greater investments in big data. The assumptions underpinning this movement are: (1) organizations are passive implementers of big data—more data is the inevitable consequence of technology and a competitive necessity for business, (2) more data offers a more objective and accurate picture of reality and (3) more data enables better prediction. We argue that this perspective is strategically unsustainable and abdicates ethical responsibility. In this chapter, we adopt a sensemaking perspective (Weick in (1995) Sensemaking in organizations (Vol. 3). Sage) to challenge each of the assumptions of inevitability, objectivity, and predictability. Building on this critique, we discuss the role that organizations can play in creating alternative sustainable futures with big data and explore the legal and ethical consequences of their actions. In addition, we advocate that, from a sensemaking perspective, organizations can use big data to cultivate sustainable learning and innovating communities of both employees and customers.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma (Junhong) Wang & Pierre Berthon & Yiran Su, 2024. "Sensemaking and Sustainability: A Sensemaking Perspective on the Ethical Use of Big Data in Marketing Strategizing," Springer Books, in: Walter Leal Filho & Vladan Kuzmanović (ed.), Sustainable Development Seen Through the Lenses of Ethnoeconomics and the Circular Economy, pages 125-148, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-72676-7_7
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-72676-7_7
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