Kevin D. Thomas

Exploring Entrepreneurship through the Lens of Spirituality

A two-stage research project utilizing grounded theory was conducted with 134 entrepreneurs to better understand their motivational factors. Utilizing spiritual concepts, researchers were able to discover a deeper understanding of the entrepreneurs. Initially, three distinct modalities of entrepreneurs were identified, which were expanded into five: ‘Make me Whole,’ ‘Soul Seekers,’ ‘Conflicting Goals,’ ‘Mostly Business’, and ‘Strictly Business’. Respondent comments that represent each of these modalities are presented and indicate various levels of dependency or independency on spiritually-oriented attributes.

Entrepreneurship and Spirituality: A Comparative Analysis of Entrepreneurs’ Motivation

Abstract This article discusses a research study conducted to explore the relationship between entrepreneurs’ values, definitions of success, economic stability, demographic characteristics, and their joy at work through three stated hypotheses. For the study, we used a convenience sample of 280 entrepreneurs who responded to a 17-question survey. Utilizing the respondents’ definition of success, we found two different groups of entrepreneurs: one that was labeled ‘Cash is King’—defining success in relation to financial goals—and another that was labeled ‘Make me Whole’—defining success in relation to their own (Jungian) individuation process. The results of the study showed significant differences between the groups based on their values, behaviors and their experiences of joy at work. However, we found no significant differences between the groups relating to various demographic variables. In addition, there was no difference between the groups based on their economic stability, even though the ‘Cash is King’ group was more financially motivated than the ‘Make me Whole’ group. The study supports previous research in the field of “spirituality and work” and introduces a new model for the entrepreneurship field. The article concludes with implications for future studies to provide a better understanding of the behaviors and values of entrepreneurs based on their definition of success.

Negotiating cultural ambiguity: the role of markets and consumption in multiracial identity development

Due to their growing social visibility and recognized buying power, multiracial individuals have emerged as a viable consumer segment among marketers. However, there is a dearth of research examining how multiracial populations experience the marketplace. In an attempt to better understand the ways in which multiracial individuals utilize consumption practices as a means of developing and expressing their racial identity, this study examined the lived experience of multiracial (black and white) women. Findings of this phenomenological study indicate that multiracial consumers engage with the marketplace to assuage racial discordance and legitimize the liminal space they occupy. This marketplace engagement is explored through themes such as living in two worlds, the mighty ringlets and forced choice. Multiracial identity is seen to be co-constituted by marketers and consumers. Existing theories proved ineffectual at fully capturing the lived experience connected to the consumer acculturation and socialization processes for those with two distinctly constructed racial backgrounds.

Assessing the Societal Impact of Research: The Relational Engagement Approach

Marketing and policy researchers aiming to increase the societal impact of their scholarship should engage directly with relevant stakeholders. For maximum societal effect, this engagement needs to occur both within the research process and throughout the complex process of knowledge transfer. The authors propose that a relational engagement approach to research impact complements and builds on traditional approaches. Traditional approaches to impact employ bibliometric measures and focus on the creation and use of journal articles by scholarly audiences, an important but incomplete part of the academic process. The authors recommend expanding the strategies and measures of impact to include process assessments for specific stakeholders across the entire course of impact, from the creation, awareness, and use of knowledge to societal impact. This relational engagement approach involves the cocreation of research with audiences beyond academia. The authors hope to begin a dialogue on the strategies researchers can use to increase the potential societal benefits of their research.

Endlessly Creating Myself: Examining Marketplace Inclusion Through the Lived Experience of Black and White Male Millennials

This study qualitatively examines the synergetic relationship between identity projects and the marketplace. The sample consisted of 20 men between the ages of 18 and 29 years; 10 self-identified as black, and 10 self-identified as white. Consumers must navigate multiple sites of identification that constantly shift in importance and involvement. To more closely reflect actual consumers, this study incorporated gender orientation, age, and race into an intersectional analysis. By taking a more “true-to-life” approach to consumption/identity research, this project unearths new knowledge that is proximate to the lived experience of consumers. While both white and black informants use the symbolic meaning of commodities as a mode of self-expression, key differences exist. Dominant discourse pertaining to white and black male identity appears to influence how informants perceive possibilities of self, which in turn affects marketplace interaction. The author concludes with a discussion of ways public policy can be used to remedy marketplace inequities.

When the burger becomes halal: a critical discourse analysis of privilege and marketplace inclusion

ABSTRACT Although a rich body of research provides insights to understanding stigma within the marketplace, much less is known regarding its direct corollary, privilege. We posit that this void is problematic as it may inadvertently support and legitimate existing socio-political arrangements which inhibit consumer wellbeing and marketplace equality. The present study addresses this gap by offering a theoretical understanding of privilege within the marketplace. Using a Foucauldian approach to privilege and power, we draw on the discursive perspective on legitimation to critically investigate the contentious debate over the inclusion of halal meat at a popular burger chain in France. In light of French political secularism (laïcité), we demonstrate how power discursively operates through narratives on rights and moral responsibility to constitute, defend and challenge a certain state of privilege within the marketplace. Our resulting theoretical discussion extends existing studies on marketplace equality and the growing body of literature related to the “marketization of religion”.

The Stigma Turbine: A Theoretical Framework for Conceptualizing and Contextualizing Marketplace Stigma

Stigmas, or discredited personal attributes, emanate from social perceptions of physical characteristics, aspects of character, and “tribal” associations (e.g., race; Goffman 1963). Extant research has emphasized the perspective of the stigma target, with some scholars exploring how social institutions shape stigma. Yet the ways stakeholders within the sociocommercial sphere create, perpetuate, or resist stigma remain overlooked. The authors introduce and define marketplace stigma as the labeling, stereotyping, and devaluation by and of commercial stakeholders (consumers, companies and their employees, stockholders, and institutions) and their offerings (products, services, and experiences). The authors offer the Stigma Turbine as a unifying conceptual framework that locates marketplace stigma within the broader sociocultural context and illuminates its relationship to forces that exacerbate or blunt stigma. In unpacking the Stigma Turbine, the authors reveal the critical role that market stakeholders can play in (de)stigmatization, explore implications for marketing practice and public policy, and offer a research agenda to further understanding of marketplace stigma and stakeholder welfare.

Negotiating Cultural Ambiguity: A Phenomenological Study of Multiracial Identity and Consumption

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this chapter is to explore the intersection of identity, culture, and consumption as it relates to multiracial identity development. Methodology/approach The authors employed a phenomenological approach wherein 21 multiracial women were interviewed to understanding the lived experience and meaning of multiracial identity development. Findings Findings of this study indicate that multiracial consumers engage with the marketplace to assuage racial discordance and legitimize the liminal space they occupy. Research implications While there is much research related to the variety of ways marketing and consumption practices intersect with identity (re)formation, researchers have focused much of their attention on monoracial populations. This research identifies and fills a gap in the literature related to how multiple racial backgrounds complicate this understanding. Practical implications Due to their growing social visibility and recognized buying power, multiracial individuals have emerged as a viable consumer segment among marketers. However, there is a dearth of research examining how multiracial populations experience the marketplace. Originality/value This study provides a better understanding of the ways in which multiracial individuals utilize consumption practices as a means of developing and expressing their racial identity.

Privilege: The Neglected Obstacle in Attaining Equity in the Ad Industry

The quest to address inequities in the advertising industry has in large part been hyper-focused on taking corrective and affirmative actions that diversify the field beyond its white male majority. While such a focus has resulted in laudable diversity gains, equality remains firmly out of reach. How is this so? Well, inequity inherently has two sides – those receiving less than their fair share and those who are receiving more. As such, efforts to obtain equity demand a two-pronged plan of action, wherein both oppression and privilege are acknowledged and tended to. Focusing solely on the oppression aspect of the equation has the unintended effect of normalizing positions of privilege, which, as the opening quote so succinctly states, results in a warped understanding of equality as a state of (reverse) discrimination. The acknowledgement of privilege as the unavoidable companion of oppression is by no means a new development. More than eighty years ago Du Bois (1935, p. 700) highlighted the unearned “public and psychological wage” low-income white men received, which, unlike their black colleagues, enabled them to be “admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks, and the best schools.” However, rather than heed these words and expressly confront how discriminatory industry practices have served to create and maintain privileged positionalities, equity efforts (in and outside of the industry) have primarily concentrated on alleviating oppressive conditions. The purpose of this essay is to emphasize the importance of addressing privilege in the struggle to remedy inequities in the advertising industry. More specifically, I attempt to provide actionable suggestions for advertising educators that may assist with bringing equity to the ad industry. Privilege and Inequity in Advertising: Overview Limits of Current Equity Efforts Advertising industry. The fundamental component of advertising equity efforts has centered on diversification – most notably providing more opportunities to white women and applicants of color. This approach is grounded in sound reasoning and an abundance of statistics that demonstrate that white women and people of color are woefully underrepresented in the industry, particularly in management positions and the oft glamorized creative wing of the trade. In 1978, the New York City Commission on Human Rights found that people of color (Black and Latinx) made up only 5% of the individuals employed by agencies located in New York City (40 of the 50 largest agencies had offices in New York City at the time). In contrast, Black and Latinx communities were 25% of the local area labor force. The Commission’s report astutely highlighted that the underrepresentation present in the ad industry “was not simply the result of neutral forces, but emanated directly from discriminatory practices” (as cited in Bendick & Egan, 2009, p. iii). Thirty years later a report commissioned by the Madison Avenue Project uncovered that severe levels of underrepresentation remained in place (Bendick & Egan, 2009). Their 2009 study determined that about 16% of large advertising firms employed no black managers or professionals, a rate 60% higher than in the overall labor market, and that Blacks were only 62% as likely as their white counterparts to work in the creative division of agencies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) reported that in the United States Black and Latinx individuals comprised approximately 16% of those employed by ad agencies, PR firms and comKevin D. Thomas, University of Texas

Re-Imagining the Marketplace: Addressing Race in Academic Marketing Research

ABSTRACT Race is a marketplace icon. How so? By holding true to an icon’s defining characteristics: high visibility, divisiveness, and uncritical devotion. In this brief musing, we describe how despite its centrality to market activities, race is uncritically addressed in academic marketing research. We next introduce the Race in the Marketplace (RIM) Research Network, a newly-formed interdisciplinary collective of scholars and scholar-activists that seek to break race of its iconic standing and bring greater equity to markets by disseminating critical, collaborative, and transdisciplinary race-based market research that supports liberatory public policies and community actions. We close with a call to join our effort to reimagine the marketplace through the critical examination of what has been a perpetually overlooked icon in marketing academia.