Trends and development in green and sustainability marketing: a bibliometrics analysis using VOSviewer

The recent global environmental crisis and climate change have prompted greater interest among global citizens in sustainability issues. Consumers are demanding more to be done by product and service suppliers to ensure sustainability. This has sparked research and academic interest in understanding how various organisations position themselves from a sustainability perspective. This study emerges from the need to understand trends and developments in sustainability marketing. To this end, this study uses bibliometric data from the Scopus database to examine this development. The data were analysed using Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer. The study found significant growth in the literature on green and sustainable marketing which is indicative of the subject over the past couple of years. In many respects green marketing is seen by many enterprises as playing a central role in shaping consumer perceptions and brand loyalty in many markets. However, green marketing and sustainability face various challenges such as misleading claims and greenwashing which threaten consumer confidence in sustainability efforts. Overall, this study found that integrating sustainability into marketing strategies fosters environmental responsibility, builds consumer trust, and enhances business performance. In addition, frameworks such as the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) provide a foundation for understanding consumers’ green attitudes and adoption behaviour. Greenwashing can be addressed by transparency, education, and regulatory compliance. Finally, practical recommendations include fostering international cooperation, developing targeted capacity-building initiatives, and leveraging sustainability marketing to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study provides a comprehensive framework for advancing green marketing research and practice, offering pathways for organisations to contribute to global sustainability while achieving long-term profitability.