15 research outputs found
Stepping out of the shadows: identity exposure as a remedy for stigma transfer concerns in the medical marijuana market
Many legalized markets bear categorical stigma—a vilifying label attached to an industry and its participants—that threatens their performance and survival chances. This happens because audiences avoid engagement with stigmatized organizations to minimize the probability of stigma transfer. Although scholars have explored what strategies stigmatized companies undertake to mitigate their stigma, we know very little about whether and how audiences’ acceptance of stigmatized organizations actually happens and if industry-level processes play a role in this acceptance. We develop a theory of identity exposure predicting that customers will become less concerned about stigma transfer when stigmatized organizations unambiguously reveal their identities by publicly advocating and celebrating their business and when vanguard customers openly discuss stigmatized organizations and their products in public forums. We find support for our theorizing in the analyses of customers’ concerns about stigma in Weedmaps.com—a marijuana-based community—from its inception in 2008 through 2014. Ultimately, our findings and extensive robustness checks suggest that identity exposure within stigmatized industries can alleviate customers’ concerns about stigma transfer and in this way accelerate the market destigmatization process.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Gies College of Business at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and the Spanish FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia
e Innovacio´n – Agencia Estatal de Investigacio´n (Grant RTI2018-097033-B-I00)
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EFFECTS OF ENTRY MODE AND INCUMBENCY STATUS ON THE RATES OF FIRM PRODUCT INNOVATION IN THE WORLDWIDE OPTICAL DISK DRIVE INDUSTRY, 1983-1999
Firms entering an industry de novo (start-up) and firms entering de alio (diversification away from another industry) differ in the initial entry conditions. In this paper I propose that the differences in resource endowment, previous experience, and structural flexibility between de novo and de alio firms at the time of entry have long-lasting imprinting effects on their innovation behavior. In particular, I predict that de novo firms exert greater efforts and achieve greater technological outcomes in product innovation than de alio firms. Furthermore, I argue that firm entry mode explains additional variance in firm innovative behavior, which is not explained by entrant-incumbent status alone. I find strong empirical support for these predictions when analyzing product innovation of all firms that ever participated in the worldwide optical disk drive industry, 1983-1999. I discuss the implications of my findings for the entrant-incumbent research in the literature of the management of innovation
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Ecological Dynamics of De Novo and De Alio Products in the Worldwide Optical Disk Drive Industry, 1983-1999
In this paper we developed a concept suggesting that initial entry conditions experienced by start-ups and diversified firms affect the behavior and fates of their products. Specifically, we predicted that in capital intensive industries, initial entry conditions confer advantages to diversifiers from related industries. As a result, these firms are likely to ship more models of products than start-ups. Products made by diversifiers are likely to have a longer market life span and exert a stronger competitive pressure than those made by start-ups. We tested these predictions on all products ever shipped in the worldwide optical disk drive industry, 1983-1999. The statistical analysis largely supported our theoretical predictions
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Ecological Dynamics of De Novo and De Alio Products in the Worldwide Optical Disk Drive Industry, 1983-1999
In this paper we developed a concept suggesting that initial entry conditions experienced by start-ups and diversified firms affect the behavior and fates of their products. Specifically, we predicted that in capital intensive industries, initial entry conditions confer advantages to diversifiers from related industries. As a result, these firms are likely to ship more models of products than start-ups. Products made by diversifiers are likely to have a longer market life span and exert a stronger competitive pressure than those made by start-ups. We tested these predictions on all products ever shipped in the worldwide optical disk drive industry, 1983-1999. The statistical analysis largely supported our theoretical predictions
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In the Bud? Disk Array Producers as a (Possibly) Emergent Organizational Form
When and where will a new organizational form emerge? Recent theory says that as the number of organizations using a particular external identity code first increases beyond a critical minimal level, the code becomes an organizational form. But how is an external identity code established? We assume that the identity code derives from the aggregated identities of individual organizations. Our core argument holds that when the identities of individual organizations are perceptually focused, they will more readily cohere into a distinct collective identity. We develop ideas about how two observable aspects of organizations might generate perceptually focused identities in a common market: (1) de novo entry and (2) agglomeration in a geographic place with a related identity. Using comprehensive data from the market for disk drive arrays, we analyze these ideas and an alternative by estimating effects of different specifications of organizational and product densities on rates of entry and exit for array producers. The findings show that the density of de novo firms affects all (de alio as well as de novo) disk array producers in form-establishing ways: de novo density significantly increases all firm entry and significantly reduces all firm exit. Analyzing densities of certain geographic areas, we also find evidence of faster form development in a place with a related identity and a geographic agglomeration of disk array producers. Finally, we find that joint operation of the two processes, geographic agglomeration of de novo producers in a place with a related identity, serves to enhance form emergence even faster. Overall, the analysis supports the notion that firms with perceptually focused identities aid in establishing an organizational form. It does not show empirical support for a common sense alternative interpretation based on product proliferation
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In the Bud? Disk Array Producers as a (Possibly) Emergent Organizational Form
When and where will a new organizational form emerge? Recent theory says that as the number of organizations using a particular external identity code first increases beyond a critical minimal level, the code becomes an organizational form. But how is an external identity code established? We assume that the identity code derives from the aggregated identities of individual organizations. Our core argument holds that when the identities of individual organizations are perceptually focused, they will more readily cohere into a distinct collective identity. We develop ideas about how two observable aspects of organizations might generate perceptually focused identities in a common market: (1) de novo entry and (2) agglomeration in a geographic place with a related identity. Using comprehensive data from the market for disk drive arrays, we analyze these ideas and an alternative by estimating effects of different specifications of organizational and product densities on rates of entry and exit for array producers. The findings show that the density of de novo firms affects all (de alio as well as de novo) disk array producers in form-establishing ways: de novo density significantly increases all firm entry and significantly reduces all firm exit. Analyzing densities of certain geographic areas, we also find evidence of faster form development in a place with a related identity and a geographic agglomeration of disk array producers. Finally, we find that joint operation of the two processes, geographic agglomeration of de novo producers in a place with a related identity, serves to enhance form emergence even faster. Overall, the analysis supports the notion that firms with perceptually focused identities aid in establishing an organizational form. It does not show empirical support for a common sense alternative interpretation based on product proliferation