Unpacking the Role of Ethical Leadership in the Era of Sustainable Development Goals and Values-Based Marketing

Tackling the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has become a key strategic marketing activity for multinational enterprises (MNEs) to build their reputation and ensure their brand value. However, SDGs can cause goal conflicts for MNEs, resulting in firms not being equally responsive to all stakeholders. Therefore, this study explores how ethical leadership, underpinned by a corporate purpose, enables MNEs to pursue SDGs in foreign markets. The researchers argue that ethical leadership based on a corporate purpose can provide strategic direction for MNEs, thus enabling them to focus on selected SDGs that can be integrated into their values-based marketing agendas. Further, the findings reveal that a corporate purpose can offer consistency and perseverance in the exertion of ethical leadership at the local market level; however, ethical leadership may require organizational members to disassociate from structural inconsistencies and goal conflicts in pursuit of SDGs. Thus, the study makes a significant contribution to the literature on international marketing by adopting an ethical perspective to explain how MNEs can strategically position themselves in relation to SDGs in international markets. The findings suggest that ethical leadership can build a foundation for credible marketing communication while serving as a driver of values-based marketing programs.