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AbstractBecause women in large corporations face constrained opportunities due to engrained stereotypes, many leave to start their own businesses. Unfortunately, women owner‐managers may not escape the effect of negative stereotypes if these biases affect the behaviour of resource providers external to their firms. This study indicates that women business owners may be treated somewhat differently than men by one type of external resource provider–consultants. The advice hypothetical women received from a sample of consultants differed qualitatively and quantitatively from that received by hypothetical men facing exactly the same situations. The implications of these findings for business owners, resource providers, and academics are explored.RésuméComme lesfemmes qui travaillent dans de grandes entreprises font face á des dèbouchès restreints á cause des stèrèotypes ancrès, elles sont nombreuses á quitter pour monter lew propre affaire. Malheureusement, ces propriètaires dirigeantes ne peuvent pas toujours échapper aux effets des stéréotypes nègatifs, surtout si ces travers affectent le comportement des fournisseurs de ressources exterieurs á leurs firmes. La prèsente ètude indique que les femmes propriètaires de leur affaire peuvent être traitèes quelquepeu differemment de leurs homologues masculins par une catègoric de fournisseurs de ressources extèrieurs: les consultants. Les conseils que des femmes hypothètiques ont reçus d'un èchantillonnage de consultants diffèraient qualitativement et quantitativement de ceux reçus par des hommes hypothètiques dans exactement les mêmes situations. L'article explore les implications de ces conclusions pour les propriètaires d'affaires, les fournisseurs de ressources et les universitaires.

This section presents four commentaries to Sandberg and Alvesson's (2020) "Meanings of theory," an article that argues common definitions of theory are too restrictive. To contribute toward a more diverse and level playing field, Sandberg and Alvesson propose a typology of five "basic theory types." The commentaries here consider their arguments in the light of marketing and consumer research.

Abstract
Since industrialization, both beauty and refinement have been highlighted in many consumer markets, including home decoration, clothing, and fine foods and beverages. Consumers whose habitus resonates with these markets often formulate the goal of developing aesthetic expertise in them; they learn complex systems of taste evaluation to judge their aesthetic experiences. Extant research shows these systems' effects on many aspects of consumer behavior, from information search and memory to strategies for participating in status games. This study extends consumer research by illuminating how these taste evaluation systems are constituted in consumers, after habitus has instilled generic dispositions in them. The multimethod ethnography studies US middle-class, male craft beer aficionados seeking to become connoisseurs. This work makes two main contributions to consumer research. First, it places the often-neglected world of the senses at the center of taste theorizing. It details three learning practices (benchmarking, autodidactics, and scaffolding) that consumers use to bind together the sensory and discursive dimensions of social practices. Second, it reveals interconsumer cooperation as a key mechanism in building consensus on social practices that involve ambiguous aesthetic experiences. This theorization complements prior research on status competition as a dominant type of sociality in taste-centered consumption domains.

Many services, particularly those related to health care, can be considered high-risk in that despite service providers' best efforts, consumers may not attain the outcomes they hope to achieve. Recent research highlights how cultural models regarding service providers influence the ways consumers experience and respond to failure. What bears investigating is how these cultural models and consumers' related framings of failure shape consumer experience in high-risk contexts. Analyzing data from informants engaged with various types of infertility services, we develop a typology of four consumer experiential framings of failure that explore their experiences across three dimensions. These are as follows: the implicit cultural model that shapes relationships with service providers, the implicit cultural model regarding goal pursuit, and consumers' tacit understandings regarding their appropriate courses of action in response to failure. We link each distinct type of experiential framing to consumers' distinct set of expectations related to service recovery. And we offer insights for service providers on how to manage their relationships with consumers and (in the tradition of transformative services research) how to enhance consumer well-being.

AbstractThis article brings the sociological theory of governmentality to bear on a longitudinal analysis of American presidential speeches to theorize the formation of the citizen-consumer subject. This 40-year historical analysis—which extends through four economic recessions and the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama—illustrates the ways in which the national mythology of the American Dream has been linked to the political ideology of the state to create the citizen-consumer subject in the United States. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data demonstrates 1) the consistent emphasis on responsibility as a key moral value, albeit meshed with ideals of liberalism and libertarianism at different presidential periods; 2) that the presidents iteratively link the neoliberal political ideology and the national mythology of the American Dream through a sophisticated morality play myth, wherein they cast the citizen-consumer as a responsible moral hero on a journey to achieve the American Dream; and 3) that the presidents use three main dispositives—disciplinary, legal, and security—to craft the citizen-consumer subject in their response to economic recessions. These findings extend prior consumer research on consumer subjectivity, consumer moralism, marketplace mythology, and politics of consumption.