VHB Award for the Best Text Book 2010 goes to “Sustainability Marketing”

Last week was really exciting for us: We received the Award for the Best Text Book 2010 by the German Academic Association for Business Research (Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft, in short: VHB)! With more than 1,800 members this internationally oriented association is one of the largest of its kind. The main aim of the association is to foster research and education in the field of business administration. The annual Best Text Book Award recognizes the relevance of business education. It encourages scholars to publish innovative text books, based on scientific research.

The submitted text books, which have been released recently, were evaluated by the selection committee, consisting of Professor Dr. Klaus Backhaus (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster); Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lutz Kruschwitz (Freie Universität Berlin), and Professor Dr. Dirk Matten (York University Toronto). Last year the latest text books did not meet the high standards of the committee. It has to be something special and extraordinary. That is why the VHB did not present a Best Text Book Award 2009. This year, however, the committee reached a unanimous decision: They selected “Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective” as the Text Book of the Year 2010! Dirk Matten from York University Toronto comments: “It was a no-brainer”.

The official ceremony was held at the wonderful Parkhotel of Bremen at the gala dinner of the annual VHB conference on May 28, 2010. Prof. Dr. Ingo Balderjahn (Chair of Marketing) from the University of Potsdam said in his laudation: “It is with great pleasure to announce that this year we can award a text book, which does not only meet, but exceeds our high standards. It is a brilliant book with a great fun factor!” He really liked the sustainability marketing stories at the beginning of the chapters and the discussion questions at the end, which raised critical issues and encouraged reflective thinking. In the end of his speech he said: “All in all the text book sustainability marketing by Belz and Peattie is fun to read, easy to follow, and incredibly interesting. I congratulate them for this achievement!” The VHB Text Book Award was presented by Prof. Dr. Caren Sureth, President-Elect of the VHB, to Frank presenting the author team.



Foto: Caren Sureth, President-Elect, the VHB Award, and Frank-Martin Belz presenting the author team of "Sustainability Marketing" (from right to left)

Hereby Frank and Ken would like express our gratitude to the association for the prestigious award. We are highly honoured. We would also like to express thanks to our colleagues who encouraged us to write the text book and who adopted it; and to our students from all over the world, who inspired us to write a book on sustainability marketing with a fun factor. It is great fun giving you lectures, discussing critical issues with you and learning from you. Last, but not least we would like to thank you, the readers of the blog, who give us comments and input for future editions of the award-winning text book.