Conceptualizing firms’ responses to inclusionary forces in the marketplace

Abstract

This paper develops an integrative conceptual model of firm responses to the emergence of inclusionary forces in markets that have historically evolved as exclusionary. Drawing on institutional and sensemaking theories, we illustrate how marketing practices reproduce exclusionary norms that become institutionalized as markets mature, and how demographic, moral, regulatory, and competitive forces disrupt these logics to create opportunities for inclusion. We conceptualize firms’ sensemaking of turbulence along two dimensions: external appraisals of inclusion as consensual versus controversial and internal appraisals of adaptation as seamless versus burdensome, yielding four patterned responses: segregation, stealth inclusion, compliant inclusion, and transformative inclusion. Our model contributes to inclusive marketing scholarship by: integrating fragmented research into a unified framework that explains why and how firms adopt divergent responses to inclusionary pressures; expanding theorization of inclusion and exclusion as dynamic and mutually constitutive processes; and linking micro-level marketing practices to macro-level institutional dynamics of exclusion and inclusion.