Implementing gender-focused DEI initiatives in B2B sales: Navigating cultural forces and organizational resistance

Abstract

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has emerged as a strategic imperative in business-to-business markets. Yet, existing DEI implementation frameworks underplay the roles of frontline translation and organizational resistance. This omission is consequential in global sales contexts, where institutional forces amplify structural barriers to gender-focused DEI initiatives. Drawing on institutional theory and interview data from 41 sales and marketing professionals in India, this study examines how gender-focused DEI initiatives are received within a business context characterized by high power distance and entrenched masculine norms. Conceptualizing DEI implementation as a process of frontline translation, the authors develop an empirically grounded 2 × 2 typology of resistance to DEI initiatives. The typology is organized along two dimensions—form (ideological vs. operational) and level (active vs. passive)—and reveals four distinct resistance types, each driven by specific antecedents rooted in cultural norms and sales-specific constraints. The authors also identify contextually adaptive mitigation strategies and theorize the causal mechanisms linking them to specific drivers of resistance, offering actionable pathways for achieving sustained change. Collectively, findings demonstrate that effective DEI implementation requires strategies that are both culturally informed and operationally grounded. Further, the resulting framework provides a foundation for future research on gender-focused DEI across diverse institutional settings.