The retail ethnoscape framework: cultural embeddedness of (un)welcome
Shahriar, Hossain LU
; Ulver, Sofia
LU
; Johansson, Ulf
LU
; Bixo, Sofie
and Lundqvist, Sara K
(2026)
In International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
- Abstract
- Purpose
To explore the cultural embeddedness of (un)welcome experiences among ethnically marginalized consumers in retail spaces.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on Arjun Appadurai's notion of the ethnoscape, the study is empirically grounded in critical-incident interviews with consumers from multiethnic backgrounds in Sweden.
Findings
Three dimensions through which (un)welcome is negotiated are identified: interpersonal recognition in service encounters, cultural resonance in visibility encounters and atmospheric conviviality in material–sensory encounters. The research theorizes the Retail Ethnoscape Framework, conceptualizing (un)welcome as interpersonal, representational and spatial zones of... (More) - Purpose
To explore the cultural embeddedness of (un)welcome experiences among ethnically marginalized consumers in retail spaces.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on Arjun Appadurai's notion of the ethnoscape, the study is empirically grounded in critical-incident interviews with consumers from multiethnic backgrounds in Sweden.
Findings
Three dimensions through which (un)welcome is negotiated are identified: interpersonal recognition in service encounters, cultural resonance in visibility encounters and atmospheric conviviality in material–sensory encounters. The research theorizes the Retail Ethnoscape Framework, conceptualizing (un)welcome as interpersonal, representational and spatial zones of disjuncture between the retailer's official mind and the consumer's lived ethnoscape. The study introduces retail proprioception – a learned bodily attunement through which marginalized consumers detect these disjunctures – revealing the somatic origin of the inclusionary labor they perform.
Research limitations/implications
The framework calls for culturally sensitive service scripts, strategic workforce diversity, and integrated inclusion design. For consumers, understanding retail proprioception enables more effective marketplace navigation, while societally, genuinely welcoming retail environments foster multiethnic engagement, well-being and social cohesion, advancing human-centric retail. The small Swedish sample limits generalizability.
Originality/value
The article advances retail welcome research by moving understandings of (un)welcome beyond discrete cues toward cultural embeddedness, extends atmospheric scholarship by demonstrating that environmental elements are perspectival constructs, reframes consumer vulnerability from a trait to a contextually activated state, and contributes to marketplace inclusion/exclusion scholarship by identifying retail proprioception as the embodied mechanism through which inclusionary labor falls disproportionately on marginalized consumers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8b9f3396-d65f-4707-879a-b67a4bfa5573
- author
- Shahriar, Hossain
LU
; Ulver, Sofia
LU
; Johansson, Ulf
LU
; Bixo, Sofie
and Lundqvist, Sara K
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-06-02
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- (Un)welcoming, Retail atmospherics, Market inclusion and exclusion, Ethnic marginalization, Ethnoscape, Proprioception
- in
- International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
- pages
- 16 pages
- publisher
- Emerald Group Publishing Limited
- ISSN
- 0959-0552
- DOI
- 10.1108/IJRDM-08-2025-0648
- project
- Exploring Retail Marketplaces as Spaces for Social Inclusion and Exclusion
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 8b9f3396-d65f-4707-879a-b67a4bfa5573
- date added to LUP
- 2026-05-18 10:41:02
- date last changed
- 2026-06-02 10:25:08
@article{8b9f3396-d65f-4707-879a-b67a4bfa5573,
abstract = {{Purpose<br/>To explore the cultural embeddedness of (un)welcome experiences among ethnically marginalized consumers in retail spaces.<br/><br/>Design/methodology/approach<br/>Drawing on Arjun Appadurai's notion of the ethnoscape, the study is empirically grounded in critical-incident interviews with consumers from multiethnic backgrounds in Sweden.<br/><br/>Findings<br/>Three dimensions through which (un)welcome is negotiated are identified: interpersonal recognition in service encounters, cultural resonance in visibility encounters and atmospheric conviviality in material–sensory encounters. The research theorizes the Retail Ethnoscape Framework, conceptualizing (un)welcome as interpersonal, representational and spatial zones of disjuncture between the retailer's official mind and the consumer's lived ethnoscape. The study introduces retail proprioception – a learned bodily attunement through which marginalized consumers detect these disjunctures – revealing the somatic origin of the inclusionary labor they perform.<br/><br/>Research limitations/implications<br/>The framework calls for culturally sensitive service scripts, strategic workforce diversity, and integrated inclusion design. For consumers, understanding retail proprioception enables more effective marketplace navigation, while societally, genuinely welcoming retail environments foster multiethnic engagement, well-being and social cohesion, advancing human-centric retail. The small Swedish sample limits generalizability.<br/><br/>Originality/value<br/>The article advances retail welcome research by moving understandings of (un)welcome beyond discrete cues toward cultural embeddedness, extends atmospheric scholarship by demonstrating that environmental elements are perspectival constructs, reframes consumer vulnerability from a trait to a contextually activated state, and contributes to marketplace inclusion/exclusion scholarship by identifying retail proprioception as the embodied mechanism through which inclusionary labor falls disproportionately on marginalized consumers.}},
author = {{Shahriar, Hossain and Ulver, Sofia and Johansson, Ulf and Bixo, Sofie and Lundqvist, Sara K}},
issn = {{0959-0552}},
keywords = {{(Un)welcoming; Retail atmospherics; Market inclusion and exclusion; Ethnic marginalization; Ethnoscape; Proprioception}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{06}},
publisher = {{Emerald Group Publishing Limited}},
series = {{International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management}},
title = {{The retail ethnoscape framework: cultural embeddedness of (un)welcome}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-08-2025-0648}},
doi = {{10.1108/IJRDM-08-2025-0648}},
year = {{2026}},
}