The factors influencing legal and ethical digital marketing communication

Abstract

The scientific literature has extensively covered digital marketing communication and the advantages brought by it – interactivity, intelligence, individualisation, integration, independence of location etc. However, in the context of sustainable development, a key aspect in marketing communication is collective social responsibility, more specifically – legal and ethical digital marketing communication, one that does not pose threat to health, safety etc. or otherwise harm the society or its individual members. The increasing role of digitalised processes in the daily life of businesses, including the management of digital marketing and marketing communication, and the lack of legislation governing the digital commercial environment highlight several negative trends and risks for both businesses and the public. The goal of the study is to identify the factors that influence the use of legal and ethical digital marketing in entrepreneurship based on an analysis of the regulatory framework governing digital marketing and expert survey. The study implements a cross-disciplinary approach by incorporating research methods characteristic of law, economics and management sciences in the methodology. The methods used in the research are the monographic method, expert survey, regulation and case law analysis, secondary data analysis. The main results show that important factors in putting the digital commercial environment in order and mitigating risks are the lack of competence and knowledge in digital marketing practice, responsibility sharing between the company and the communication stakeholders, conflicts of interest, the focus on immediate sales, the lack of awareness and knowledge of collective social responsibility, ethicality in the digital environment – marketing communication, and the lack of regulatory framework, especially in the fields of privacy protection, intellectual property, data and personal information security, influencer activity, and in the context of sustainability policy in the European Union.