Constructing a bridge to multicultural marketplace well-being: A consumer-centered framework for marketer action

As modern societies have become increasingly diverse, we witness elevated tensions between different cultural groups. Through spaces and representations they create, marketers provide interaction for various groups and we argue that marketing science, education and practice can play a transformative role in addressing these tensions. Towards this end, this paper contributes in three areas. First, we examine the structures and mechanisms underlying tensions and argue for a change from current policies of tolerance that merely recognize diversity, to actively seeking a well-being-enhancing multicultural engagement. Second, we provide a conceptual framework, employing a bridge metaphor that identifies the interactive marketplace domains of multicultural engagement (security, visibility, opportunity, utility, competence, and cultural navigability). Third, from the framework, we derive an agenda for actions by marketing academe and practice to support each domain.

Keywords:

consumer research  culture  marketing  marketplaces  modern society  multicultural engagement  multicultural marketplace well-being  social interaction  transformative consumer research  well-being 

Citation:

Catherine Demangeot, Eva Kipnis, Chris Pullig, Samantha N.N. Cross, Julie Emontspool, Cristina Galalae, Sonya A. Grier, Mark S. Rosenbaum, and Susy F. Best (2019). Constructing a bridge to multicultural marketplace well-being: A consumer-centered framework for marketer action. Journal of Business Research, 100, Pages 339-353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.12.026