Events

Professor Sharon Ng
Professor of Marketing, Deputy Dean
Nanyang Business School
Nanyang Technological University

ABSTRACT

Disability cues can shape service encounters in ways that either reinforce marketplace barriers or alter how consumers perceive service employees. This research examines this inclusion challenge by moving beyond a view of disability centered only on limitation and introducing the concept of sensory compensation belief, which refers to the belief that sensory impairment can enhance the remaining senses. Across a series of studies, we show that this belief influences consumers’ responses to product recommendations made by service employees with disabilities. Specifically, when a product that relies on the senses is recommended by an employee with a sensory impairment that differs from the focal product attribute, such as headphones recommended by a blind employee, consumers perceive the product to be of higher quality than when the same recommendation comes from an employee without disabilities. This higher perceived quality subsequently increases purchase intentions. The findings contribute to research on marketplace inclusivity by showing that disability cues not only trigger generalized perceptions of limitation; they can also activate inferences specific to the product domain that shape consumer trust and judgment.