This narrative–integrative review examines the persistent gap between corporate diversity rhetoric and substantive inclusion outcomes, with a focus on ethnic minority employment and the alignment of corporate practices with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). The review is guided by three research questions: (RQ1) How do existing studies conceptualise and explain the gap between corporate diversity rhetoric and substantive inclusion for ethnic minority employees? (RQ2) Which organisational mechanisms support or undermine the translation of diversity policies into measurable inclusion outcomes? (RQ3) How can corporate inclusion practices be mapped against SDG 8 and SDG 10 targets, indicators, and organisational metrics so as to support strategic, rather than symbolic, inclusion? Methodologically, the article adopts a narrative–integrative review following Snyder [39] and Torraco [40], with quality appraisal guided by the SANRA criteria for narrative reviews [2] and by the broader principles of evidence-informed management knowledge [41]. The review is not a registered systematic review and does not aggregate effect sizes,instead, it synthesises conceptual, empirical and policy-oriented evidence and weights that evidence by methodological strength. Sources were identified through purposive and snowball searches of Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Business Source Complete, supplemented by hand-searching key journals and citation tracing of foundational works. A transparent selection audit trail is reported in Sect. 2.4 and Appendix A. The synthesis is organised thematically and is grounded in institutional theory, critical race and intersectionality perspectives, the resource-based view, and paradox theory, which are brought into explicit dialogue rather than presented in isolation. The reviewed literature suggests that corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts are often partially symbolic: policy adoption frequently outpaces implementation, and accountability structures remain weak. Field-experimental and meta-analytic evidence shows that ethnic discrimination in hiring is persistent and has not meaningfully declined over time [7, 32, 44]. Within organisations, the rhetoric–implementation gap appears to be sustained by ceremonial compliance, weak accountability, and inattention to inclusion as the lived experience of belonging, voice and uniqueness [1, 29, 36]. Corporate inclusion practices may contribute to SDG 8 and SDG 10 when they are tied to measurable indicators of employment access, job quality, advancement and inequality reduction,absent such linkages, SDG alignment risks becoming a further layer of aspirational discourse [21, 35, 43]. The article makes three contributions. First, it develops an integrative analytical framework that places institutional theory, critical race and intersectionality scholarship, the resource-based view, and paradox theory in explicit dialogue: specifying what each lens explains, what it misses, and where the lenses complement or stand in tension with one another, for analysing the rhetoric–implementation gap in ethnic minority employment. Second, it offers a cautious mapping of corporate inclusion practices to SDG 8 and SDG 10 targets, framed as plausible alignment pathways with explicit evidence requirements rather than as proven SDG contributions. Third, it proposes a set of testable propositions, grounded in constructs established earlier in the review, for future empirical research on strategic inclusion. Strategic inclusion may support social and organisational outcomes, although the strength of this relationship depends on implementation quality, accountability mechanisms, and sectoral context.
