THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN SPECIFIC CONTEXTS OF SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE MARKETING

Abstract

Leadership is a social and mutual process where several players are involved in leadership interactions with the aim of achieving a collective goal. It can be connected to personal characteristics and it is linked with a structural network composed by numerous conceptions, namely power, political power and social influence. As enterprises recognise the growing importance of its interactions within customers and local society, responsible social marketing has been assuming a central role on the theoretical and practical framework. Social responsibility normally lays on three categories of analysis: ethical, environmental and social. The present study, in a conceptual basis, intends to gather some of the main contributions of leadership theories in organizational contexts with responsible social marketing. It presents a model proposed to be empirically tested on Delta Cafés, a portuguese brand, as a case of success on leadership and social responsible marketing levels. At the end, a reflexion on the theme is done, with the explanation of a model and future lines of research are discussed.