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The Impact of Marginalization on Online Marketing

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Celebrating the Past and Future of Marketing and Discovery with Social Impact (AMSAC-WC 2021)

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Abstract

Despite the opportunities and benefits associated with establishing a web presence, there is a significant subset of entrepreneurial ventures that are offline. Given the proliferation of internet use across the United States, exploring the factors contributing to this counterintuitive decision unearths new insights on entrepreneurial behavior. Through a survey of 260 small business owners and managers in the United States and additional interviews with 18 leaders at small entrepreneurial firms, we examine how marginalization, an external challenge that creates barriers to success, can influence an entrepreneur’s perceptions about digital marketing, and ultimately contribute to performance issues within the firm. We find that marginalization heightens the level of risk entrepreneurs assign to internet use. This risk perception limits the extent to which an entrepreneur responds to online customer feedback, which has implications for the venture’s relationship and reputation management efforts with buyers, ultimately impacting the firm’s performance.

Contributors and Funding Sources

The University of New Orleans provided funding for this research through a professorship which the authors used to pay for interview and survey participant incentives.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Nicole R. Fuller & Elyria A. Kemp

  2. California State University-Fresno, Fresno, CA, USA

    McDowell Porter III

Authors
  1. Nicole R. Fuller
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  2. McDowell Porter III
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  3. Elyria A. Kemp
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Correspondence to Nicole R. Fuller .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business Administration, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA, USA

    Juliann Allen

  2. MINT Research Center, SKEMA Business School, Lille, France

    Bruna Jochims

  3. Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA

    Shuang Wu

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Fuller, N.R., Porter, M., Kemp, E.A. (2022). The Impact of Marginalization on Online Marketing. In: Allen, J., Jochims, B., Wu, S. (eds) Celebrating the Past and Future of Marketing and Discovery with Social Impact. AMSAC-WC 2021. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95346-1_132

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