Overview

Consumers, producers, critics, and other market agents rely on socially constructed categories like 'craft' beers, houseware 'collectibles', and 'thriller' films for their understanding of products and producers in markets. Although organizational and sociological accounts often take such categories as given, researchers increasingly acknowledge that category emergence, development, and functioning represent key aspects of how markets work. Take, for example, the U.S. brewing industry, which has become segmented into mass versus specialty producers. Many beer lovers who appreciate the characteristics of a beer made by small, specialty breweries are not willing to buy an equivalent beer made by an integrated, major producer. Knowledge of what specialty beer has come to mean and represent to consumers as the product of an authentic, artisanal production process and delivery is crucial for our understanding of how this market and competitive dynamics within it have evolved. This volume focuses on how market categories shape processes of production and consumption and how these activities in turn shape category systems. This volume consists of original contributions to theory and empirical research by a diverse group of esteemed authors. Topics explored include how new categories emerge, become enacted and gain consensus, how categories are used by market agents (including as tools for interpretation, as mobilization frames, and as cognitive infrastructures for learning), and how category systems change over time. These topics are explored from a variety of perspectives: new institutional theory, organizational ecology, social movement theory, and socio-cognitive theories of markets. The breadth of perspectives in this volume attests to the importance of this topic to sociological studies of market processes.

Full Product Details

Author:   Greta Hsu ,  Ozgecan Kocak ,  Giacomo Negro ,  Michael Lounsbury
Publisher:   Emerald Publishing Limited
Imprint:   Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Volume:   31
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.757kg
ISBN:  

9780857245939

ISBN 10:   0857245937
Pages:   416
Publication Date:   12 November 2010
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of Contributors. Research on categories in the sociology of organizations. Legitimizing illegitimacy: How creating market identity legitimizes illegitimate products. Identity sequences and the early adoption pattern of a jazz canon, 1920–1929. Organizational form emergence and competing professional schemata of Dutch accounting, 1884–1939. Crossing a categorical boundary: the implications of switching from non-kosher wine production in the Israeli wine market. The consequences of category spanning depend on contrast. Organizational evolution with fuzzy technological formats: tape drive producers in the world market, 1951–1998. Activists, categories, and markets: Racial diversity and protests against Walmart store openings in America. From Categorical Imperative to Learning by Categories: Cost Accounting and New Categorical Practices in American Manufacturing, 1900–1930. Identity repositioning: The case of Liberal Democrats and audience attention in British politics, 1950–2005. The duality of niche and form: The differentiation of institutional space in New York City, 1888–1917. Category currency: The changing value of conformity as a function of ongoing meaning construction. Advisory Board. Research in the sociology of organizations. Research in the sociology of organizations. Copyright page.

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Author Information

Gerald Berk - Sandy Bogaert - Christophe Boone - Glenn R. Carroll - Mi Feng - Francesca Guerra-Pearson - Michael T. Hannan - Greta Hsu - Paul Ingram - Michael Jensen - Steven Kahl - Soorjith Illickal Karthikeyan - Mark Thomas Kennedy - Young-Kyu Kim - Ozgecan Kocak - Balazs Kovacs - GaA""l Le Mens - Jade Lo - Michael D. Lounsbury - David G. McKendrick - John W. Mohr - Giacomo Negro - Damon J. Phillips - Lori Qingyuan Yue -Hayagreeva Rao - Peter W. Roberts - Marc Schneiberg - Tal Simons - Anand Swaminathan - Filippo Carlo Wezel

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