Marketplace inclusivity and accessibility for people with disabilities

This Ph.D. dissertation uncovers novel and insidious hurdles that may undermine societal and corporate efforts to make the marketplace more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. It offers a novel consumer-based explanation for why people with disabilities, both as employees and consumers, may receive unfavorable outcomes in the marketplace. In the first chapter, we review the literature about consumers' perceptions of employees with disabilities, and we highlight significant gaps and findings. In the second chapter, we document a NIMBY effect (Not in my backyard), such that mass market consumers react positively (negatively) to companies that hire service employees with disabilities (when they have to use the service themselves). This project illustrates how consumer reactions toward companies that hire employees with disabilities may discourage employers from hiring people with disabilities as service employees. In the third chapter, we demonstrate that companies are penalized by mass market consumers when they develop and launch innovative products using value-based pricing targeted at consumers with disabilities. As mass market consumers experience pity toward people with disabilities, they expect companies to serve consumers with disabilities at lower prices. This potential backlash may limit the commercial potential of pursuing this segment for firms, ironically leaving consumers with disabilities with more limited choices.