Cluster-level sustainable marketing capabilities and territorial competitiveness: a multiple-case qualitative study

This article explores how industrial clusters and regional ecosystems develop sustainable marketing capabilities through shared narratives, joint labels, certification systems, and coordinated branding practices, and how these capabilities shape territorial competitiveness. Moving beyond a firm-level perspective, it argues that sustainable marketing is a collective, place-based capability embedded in regional dynamics. Using a qualitative multiple-case design, the study compares four industrial clusters in the wine, tourism, textile/fashion, and agri-food sectors. The analysis draws on 42 semi-structured interviews with firms, cluster associations, development agencies, policymakers, and other intermediaries, complemented by documentary and observational evidence. A cross-case thematic comparison reveals a typology of cluster-level sustainable marketing configurations, ranging from symbolic branding and compliance-driven labelling to transformative–regenerative branding. The findings show that these capabilities emerge through governance mechanisms such as cluster associations, public–private partnerships, intermediary coordination, and shared performance metrics. Importantly, territorial competitiveness depends not only on sustainability performance itself but also on the ability to translate it into credible, coherent, and widely recognized collective narratives. The article contributes by positioning sustainable marketing as a territorial capability co-produced through networks of firms and institutions, with implications for regional development and sustainability transitions.