Access Inequality: How the co-location of formal and informal-sector firms can reduce unequal access

Colleagues and HDR candidates working in marketing, strategy, economic geography, development, inequality, financial inclusion, public policy, emerging markets, business analytics and responsible innovation are warmly invited to attend.

Inequality is most often discussed and measured in terms of income and wealth. Yet individuals and communities frequently experience inequality more directly: through unequal access to the goods and services that support their wellbeing, including financial services, energy, education, clean air and water, healthcare and essential infrastructure.

Because marketing is concerned with enabling exchange and overcoming market failure, access to goods and services is not peripheral to the discipline—it lies at its heart. Marketing decisions can influence not only which consumers a firm serves, but also which consumers and communities remain excluded.

Professor Sourindra Banerjee will present the working paper:
Access Inequality: How Co-location of Formal and Informal Sector Firms Reduces Access Inequality - Joint work with J. Vassallo (University of Sydney), M. Hassan (University of Manchester) and J. Prabhu (University of Cambridge).

The study introduces Access Inequality, defined as the lack of equality in access to goods and services that contribute to improving individual and societal wellbeing. The concept offers a way to examine multiple manifestations of inequality through the spatial distribution of market access, rather than relying solely on conventional measures of income and wealth.

One of the most consequential marketing decisions affecting access is the choice of location. However, existing knowledge about location decisions has largely been developed from research on formal-sector organizations, particularly those operating in developed economies. It provides far less guidance for firms working in emerging and developing economies, where formal and informal markets frequently coexist.
Informal economies present distinctive marketing challenges, including limited transportation infrastructure, intense competition from unbranded products and services, fragmented distribution systems, and considerable consumer heterogeneity. A conventional response is for formal firms to overlook the informal sector and concentrate on competing with other formal organizations.

The study asks whether this approach can unintentionally deepen Access Inequality—and whether locating formal and informal services together offers a more inclusive alternative.
Measuring these effects has traditionally been difficult because temporally consistent and spatially granular measures of societal wellbeing are rarely available. To address this challenge, the authors use nighttime-lights satellite data to construct a robust, geographically detailed measure of Access Inequality. They then examine the relationship between the locations of formal- and informal-sector financial services and Access Inequality in India between 2008 and 2012.

The findings challenge the assumption that expanding either sector independently is necessarily sufficient to improve access. Formal-sector services and informal-sector services are each associated with greater Access Inequality when considered separately. Their co-location, however, is associated with lower Access Inequality.

These results suggest that location decisions should account not only for formal competitors, but also for informal providers whose presence is often overlooked. By understanding the complementary roles of formal and informal organizations, firms and policymakers may be able to improve market participation, extend access to underserved communities and contribute to broader societal wellbeing.

Over 90 minutes, the seminar will examine the conceptualization and measurement of Access Inequality, the use of satellite data in marketing research, the interdependence of formal and informal markets, and the implications of location decisions for managers, policymakers and communities.

About Professor Sourindra Banerjee

Sourindra Banerjee is a Professor of Marketing at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds.

His expertise lies in three key areas:

1. understanding how emerging market firms achieve growth through international expansion and drive innovation in base-of-the-pyramid markets;
2. exploring how firms can leverage social media analytics, machine learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence technologies; and
3. enhancing the effectiveness of salespeople.

His research is best characterized as a systematic effort to integrate marketing and strategy theories with advanced econometric models, machine learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence technologies to address relevant managerial marketing challenges.
Professor Banerjee has published in Journal of Marketing (2015 and 2020), Journal of Product Innovation Management (2019 and 2023), Research Policy (2023), Journal of International Marketing (2024), Management International Review (2023), Journal of Business Research (2017), Industrial Marketing Management (2023), International Marketing Review (2018), Psychology and Marketing (2024), Stanford Social Innovation Review (2023) and Journal of Management Inquiry (2017).

His research has received several accolades. Some of the notable accolades are:

• American Marketing Association’s Excellence in Global Marketing Research Award
• American Marketing Association’s Innovation, Technology and Interactivity Award for Best Research Paper
• Dean’s Highly Commended Best Journal Article Award
• Finalist for American Marketing Association’s Sheth Foundation Journal of Marketing Award
• Finalist for American Marketing Association’s 2020 H. Paul Root Award
• Finalist for American Marketing Association’s 2016 H. Paul Root Award

Prior to joining Leeds University Business School, Professor Banerjee was an Assistant Professor at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. Professor Banerjee received his PhD from Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and was a visiting scholar for a year at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Professor Banerjee received several scholarships like the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship, British Petroleum Scholarship, Smuts Memorial Scholarship and the Maurice Keyworth Scholarship.

Professor Banerjee is the Co-Director of the Global and Strategic Marketing Research Centre. He was the Chair of the Marketing Department Advisory Board from 2019–2025.