Collective action and market formation: An integrative framework

Research Summary : While extant research recognizes the importance of collective action for market formation, it provides little understanding about when and to what extent collective action is important. In this article, we develop a novel theoretical framework detailing what collective action problems and solutions arise in market formation and under what conditions. Our framework centers on the development of market infrastructure with three key factors that influence the nature and extent of collective action problems: perceived returns to contributions, excludability, and contribution substitutability. We apply our framework to diverse market formation contexts and derive a set of attendant propositions. Finally, we show how collective action problems and solutions evolve during market formation efforts and discuss how our framework contributes to strategic management, entrepreneurship, and organization literatures. Managerial Summary : This article lays out the key considerations that players operating in new markets should contemplate when making nontrivial investments in those spaces. As collective action problems can thwart efforts to establish new markets, we ask: When and under what conditions should market players collaborate rather than act independently? And if players collaborate, how should they coordinate to establish a new market? To address these research questions, we develop a novel generalizable framework of collective action in market formation. Our framework assesses the presence and type of collective action problems that hinder market formation and identifies potential solutions tied to those collective action problems

Interdependent Formation of Symbolic and Regulatory Boundaries: The Discursive Contestation Around the Home-Sharing Category

The formation of boundaries between established and emergent categories is a complex social process. Therein, our understanding of how symbolic boundaries translate into regulatory boundaries is underdeveloped. Extant research either treats laws and regulations for categories as given or assumes a seamless translation of a symbolic into a regulatory boundary. This sidelines that market participants actively contest and shape boundaries between categories. To address this lacuna, we open the black box of how symbolic boundaries are translated into regulatory boundaries. We adopt a discursive perspective and conduct a longitudinal study of the contestation around the categories of home sharing and short-term rental in Europe. Our analysis shows how symbolic and regulatory boundaries are formed in a causal sequential process, driven by shifts in the field positioning of market actors and in the discursive accounts they mobilize. We develop a theoretical model of the discursive foundation of category boundary formation. At the heart of our theorization are discursive accounts and how shifting coalitions of market participants mobilize them to shape the evolving symbolic and regulatory boundaries between an emergent and an established category. We contribute to category research by unearthing the interdependent formation of symbolic and regulatory boundaries and the role of discursive accounts in these processes

Interdependent Formation of Symbolic and Regulatory Boundaries: The Discursive Contestation Around the Home-Sharing Category

The formation of boundaries between established and emergent categories is a complex social process. Therein, our understanding of how symbolic boundaries translate into regulatory boundaries is underdeveloped. Extant research either treats laws and regulations for categories as given, or it assumes a seamless translation of a symbolic into a regulatory boundary. This sidelines that market participants actively contest and shape boundaries between categories. To address this lacuna, we open the black box of how symbolic boundaries are translated into regulatory boundaries. We adopt a discursive perspective and conduct a longitudinal study of the contestation around the categories of home sharing and short-term rental in Europe. Our analysis shows how symbolic and regulatory boundaries are formed in a causal sequential process, driven by shifts in the field positioning of market actors and in the discursive accounts they mobilize. We develop a theoretical model of the discursive foundation of category boundary formation. At the heart of our theorization are discursive accounts and how shifting coalitions of market participants mobilize them to shape the evolving symbolic and regulatory boundaries between an emergent and an established category. We contribute to category research by unearthing the interdependent formation of symbolic and regulatory boundaries and the role of discursive accounts in these processes

How Firms Frame Catastrophic Innovation Failure

We examine how catastrophic innovation failure affects organizational and industry legitimacy in nascent sectors by analyzing the interactions between Virgin Galactic and stakeholders in the space community in the aftermath of the firm’s 2014 test flight crash. Following catastrophic innovation failure, we find that industry participants use their interpretations of the failure to either uphold or challenge the legitimacy of the firm, while maintaining the legitimacy of the industry. These dynamics yield two interesting effects. First, we show that, in upholding the legitimacy of the industry, different industry participants rhetorically re-draw the boundaries of the industry to selectively include players they consider ‘legitimate’ and exclude those they view as ‘illegitimate:’ detracting stakeholders constrain the boundaries of the industry by excluding the firm or excluding the firm and its segment, while the firm and supporting stakeholders amplify the boundaries of the industry by including firms in adjacent high-legitimacy sectors. Second, we show that, in assessing organizational legitimacy, the firm and its stakeholders differ in the way they approach distinctiveness between the identities of the industry and the firm. Detracting stakeholders differentiate the firm from the rest of the industry and isolate it, while the firm and supporting stakeholders re-identify the firm with the industry, embedding the firm within it. Overall, our findings illuminate the effects that catastrophic innovation failure has over high-order dynamics that affect the evolution of nascent industries

How Catastrophic Innovation Failure Affects Organizational and Industry Legitimacy: The 2014 Virgin Galactic Test Flight Crash

We examine how catastrophic innovation failure affects organizational and industry legitimacy in nascent sectors by analyzing the interactions between Virgin Galactic and stakeholders in the space community in the aftermath of the firm’s 2014 test flight crash. Following catastrophic innovation failure, we find that industry participants use their interpretations of the failure to either uphold or challenge the legitimacy of the firm while maintaining the legitimacy of the industry. These dynamics yield two interesting effects. First, we show that, in upholding the legitimacy of the industry, different industry participants rhetorically redraw the boundaries of the industry to selectively include players they consider legitimate and exclude those they view as illegitimate: detracting stakeholders constrain the boundaries of the industry by excluding the firm or excluding the firm and its segment, whereas the firm and supporting stakeholders amplify the boundaries of the industry by including firms in adjacent high-legitimacy sectors. Second, we show that, in assessing organizational legitimacy, the firm and its stakeholders differ in the way they approach distinctiveness between the identities of the industry and the firm. Detracting stakeholders differentiate the firm from the rest of the industry and isolate it, whereas the firm and supporting stakeholders reidentify the firm with the industry, embedding the firm within it. Overall, our findings illuminate the effects that catastrophic innovation failure has over high-order dynamics that affect the evolution of nascent industries

Legitimidad en el emprendimiento. Estructura intelectual y tendencias de investigación

[EN] From the beginning of the xxi century, research on organizational legitimacy has been frequently used to explain the survival of new companies. The need of being considered legitimated for new companies to improve their access to necessary resources to survive has called the researchers attention. This situation has favored the increase in the research about organizational legitimacy in the entrepreneurship field, which has augmented the complexity of obtaining a global understanding of the field´s current context. The aim of this research is to identify and visualize the intellectual structure of the research and the emerging trends regarding organizational legitimacy in the entrepreneurship field. The database is made up of the sources of knowledge and references on which the scientific articles published in the data base of the Web of Science (WOS) were based. Through a bibliometric methodology based on co-citation, we identify the main research areas, the most active ones, the main contributors, dissemination paths and emerging trends in the research field. This research paper contributes to the development of organizational legitimacy in the entrepreneurship field offering a comprehensive view of the situation of this domain, a starting point as well as a theoretical base for the researchers to build new developments.[ES] Desde principios del siglo xxi, la investigación sobre la legitimidad organizacional se ha utilizado con frecuencia para explicar la supervivencia de las nuevas empresas. La necesidad de ser consideradas legitimas las nuevas empresas para mejorar su acceso a los recursos necesarios para sobrevivir ha llamado la atención de los investigadores. Esta situación ha favorecido el aumento de la investigación sobre la legitimidad organizacional en el campo del emprendimiento, lo que ha aumentado la complejidad de obtener una comprensión global de la situación actual en el campo. El objetivo de esta investigación es identificar y visualizar la estructura intelectual de la investigación y las tendencias emergentes en el campo de la legitimidad organizacional en el emprendimiento. La base de datos está formada por las fuentes de conocimiento o referencias en que se basan los artículos científicos publicados en la base de datos de Web of Science (WOS). Mediante una metodología bibliométrica basada en co-citas, identificamos las principales áreas de investigación, las más activas, los principales contribuyentes, las vías de difusión y las tendencias emergentes en el campo de la investigación. Este trabajo de investigación contribuye al desarrollo del campo de la legitimidad organizacional en el emprendimiento ofreciendo una visión integral de la situación de este dominio, tanto un punto de partida como una base teórica para que los investigadores construyan nuevos desarrollos

Help-Seeking and Entrepreneurial Processes: Three Essays on Help-Seeking in the Context of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship researchers are consistently interested in identifying the mechanisms involved in the success and growth of new ventures. In this dissertation, I examine the antecedents and consequences of help-seeking behaviors by entrepreneurs. Specifically, I examine antecedents to entrepreneurial help-seeking that influence their choices, and then how help-seeking behaviors impact entrepreneurs and their ventures.In Essay 1, I develop the foundation for why help-seeking is an important process to study in entrepreneurship, discuss how entrepreneurship differs from the traditional organizational context, and then extrapolate how entrepreneurship provides a unique lens through which to examine this behavior. In Essay 2, I draw on human capital theory to explore how the prior industry experience of entrepreneurs affects their help-seeking behaviors. Using a sample of U.S. entrepreneurs, I investigate how the difficulty and frequency of problems, as well as industry differences, have an effect on how and when the entrepreneur seeks help. In Essay 3, I unpack how help-seeking behavior may modify the overall outcomes of the venture by specifically looking at how social and economic exchanges increase entrepreneurial work tension and affect firm performance leading to closure intentions. I empirically test how these two types of exchanges create different expectations that induce tension and have different consequences in terms of firm performance and the longevity of the venture.Together these three essays examine the process of help-seeking in entrepreneurship. In combination, this dissertation integrates and tests theory regarding the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurial help-seeking, shedding new light into this important process

Market Orchestrators:The Effects of Certification on Platforms and Their Complementors

We study how a multisided platform’s decision to certify a subset of its complementors affects those complementors and ultimately the platform itself. Kiva, a microfinance platform, introduced a social performance badging program in December 2011. The badging program appears to have been beneficial to Kiva—it led to more borrowers, lenders, total funding, and amount of funding per lender. To better understand the mechanisms behind this performance increase, we study how the badging program changed the bundle of products offered by Kiva’s complementors. We find that Kiva’s certification leads badged microfinance institutions to reorient their loan portfolio composition to align with the certification and that the extent of portfolio reorientation varies across microfinance institutions, depending on underlying demand- and supply-side factors. We further show that certified microfinance institutions that do align their loan portfolios enjoy stronger demand-side benefits than do certified microfinance institutions that do not align their loan portfolios. We therefore demonstrate that platforms can influence the product offerings and performance of their complementors—and, subsequently, the performance of the ecosystem overall—through careful enactment of governance strategies, a process we call “market orchestration.

Product categories as judgment devices: The moral awakening of the investment industry

Product categories are more than classification devices that organize markets; when reflecting market actors\u27 purposes, they are also judgment devices. Taking stock of the literature on product categories and drawing on the distinction between the faculties of knowing and judging, we elaborate a framework that accounts for how and why market actors include or exclude normative attributes in a product category definition. Based on a field study of the development of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds in France, we describe the phases and conditions of a judgment framework for category definition, for both established and nascent categories. We discuss implications for research on product categories and the workings of markets more broadly

Product Categories as Judgment Devices: The Moral Awakening of the Investment Industry

Product categories are more than classification devices that organize markets; when reflecting market actors\u27 purposes, they are also judgment devices. Taking stock of the literature on product categories and drawing on the distinction between the faculties of knowing and judging, we elaborate a framework that accounts for how and why market actors include or exclude normative attributes in a product category definition. Based on a field study of the development of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds in France, we describe the phases and conditions of a judgment framework for category definition, for both established and nascent categories. We discuss implications for research on product categories and the workings of markets more broadly