This article draws on evidence from interviews with directors of a diverse group of international gifted education organisations. The business models with which they operate and their obligation to satisfy various stakeholder expectations are found to compromise philosophical tenets and organisational aims, particularly those concerned with cultural diversity and multivariate identification criteria. Considering these economic limitations in a sociological context highlights how intrinsic they are to the neoliberal educational marketplace. Interdisciplinary research can best equip gifted education practitioners to navigate the complexities and contradictions in practice that result.