Today’s business is marked with the rapid emergence of new technologies, changes in consumer preferences, and environmental concerns. In the context of the fourth industrial revolution, the marketing environment is now more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. So, businesses are facing much more challenges in remaining relevant in the market. To succeed, a business, now-a-days, has to undergo a sustainable transformation as a proactive strategy. Fundamentally, sustainable business transformation refers to the changes in business models, procedures, and organizational culture that are proactive rather than merely reactive in nature. It involves predicting the market trend, identifying new societal issues, and figuring out the ways to develop a business in a competitive way.

Rapid fusion of technologies is impacting our personal lives as well as altering the modes and mechanisms of business operations. Integrating technology and digitization are now essential for a sustainable business transformation. Putting tech-driven solutions into practice can modernize processes, improve productivity, and decrease human error. By utilizing technology like big data and analytics, organizations may know more about changing customer preferences and market trends. Besides, to remain competitive in this changing landscape, marketers are looking for innovative market solutions, cutting-edge technologies, and differentiated products with unique customer experiences to meet the constant pressure of customer expectations. Such efforts result in lower risks, better decision-making, and profit maximization for the firms. However, the modern business landscape is driven not only by the maximization of profit but also by a meticulous approach to the environment and society. Consequently, environmental, and social responsibilities have become key drivers of sustainable business transformation. It is, therefore, expected that all the stakeholders’ engagement would be redesigned and strengthened with a view to demonstrating responsible corporate behavior.

In this backdrop, the Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, planned to organize an International Conference (CU-Marketing Conference 2024) on “Sustainable Business Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities for Marketing” on November 6-7, 2024 with the expectation of receiving original research works conducted by academicians, policymakers, research institutes, business professionals, funded projects, PhD candidates, and university graduates in different functional areas of business. However, we are going to reschedule it due to the recent civil unrest erupted throughout Bangladesh. We are happy that normalcy has been restored and accordingly we got to revise our plan to hold the conference on January 8-9, 2025.

This conference aims to explore ongoing marketing practices and cutting-edge research in marketing that contributes toward sustainable business transformation. In this regard, this conference invites submissions of unpublished works in the form of conceptual papers, research papers, working papers for oral presentation or poster presentations that identify the major challenges and opportunities for marketing due to sustainable business transformation. The conference will be held in-person and virtual/online (only for the interested international participants for whom it is not possible to attend physically).