Brandon H. Lee

Market Mediators and the Tradeoffs of Legitimacy-Seeking Behaviors in a Nascent Category

Although existing research has demonstrated the importance of attaining legitimacy for new market categories, few scholars have considered the tradeoffs associated with such actions. Using the U.S. organic food product category as a context, we explore how one standards-based certification organization — the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) — sought to balance efforts to legitimate a nascent market category with retaining a shared, distinctive identity among its members. Our findings suggest that legitimacy-seeking behaviors undertaken by the standards organization diluted the initial collective identity and founding ethos of its membership. However, by shifting the meaning of organic from the producer to the product, CCOF was able to strengthen the categorical boundary, thereby enhancing its legitimacy. By showing how the organization managed the associated tradeoffs, this study highlights the double-edged nature of legitimacy and offers important implications for the literatures on legitimacy and new market category formation.

Gone with the Wind: Industry Development and the Evolution of Social Movement Influence

Recent work linking social movements and organizations has shown that social movements can promote entrepreneurial activity in new industries. Social movements can increase acceptance of new industries among consumers, drum up state support, call entrepreneurs’ attention to new opportunities, connect entrepreneurs to resource providers, and promote the formation of supportive infrastructure. All of these actions facilitate new industry emergence and expansion. In this paper, we argue that when social movements successfully foster industry expansion, three related things happen. First, the movement-encouraged development of industry infrastructure reduces the need for continued support by social movements. Initially because of the difficulty of starting a new organization in a new sector, initial entrants are more likely to be highly motivated by ideology. Second, movements’ efforts on behalf of new industries increase the importance of resource availability: by improving opportunities to earn profits, entrepreneurs who are motivated more by financial considerations and less by movement ideologies are increasingly attracted to the industry; for such instrumentally motivated entrepreneurs, resources are more important than movement support. Third, industry growth motivates counter movements that compete with initiator movements, further reducing the beneficial impact of imitator movements. To test these arguments, we use panel data on the US wind power industry and related social movements. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for the study of social movements, organizations, and entrepreneurship.

Gone with the Wind: The Evolving Influence of Social Movements and Counter Movements on Entrepreneurial Activity in the U.S. Wind Industry

Abstract Social movements can disrupt existing industries and inspire the emergence of new markets by drawing attention to problems with the status quo and promoting alternatives. We examine how the influence of social movements on entrepreneurial activity evolves as the markets they foster mature. Theoretically, we argue that the success of social movements in furthering market expansion leads to three related outcomes. First, the movement-encouraged development of market infrastructure reduces the need for continued social movement support. Second, social movements’ efforts on behalf of new markets increase the importance of resource availability for market entry. Third, market growth motivates countermovement that reduce the beneficial impact of initiator movements on entrepreneurial activity. We test these arguments by analyzing evolving social movement dynamics and entrepreneurial activity in the US wind power industry from 1992 to 2007. We discuss the implications of our findings for the study of social movements, stakeholder management, sustainability, and entrepreneurship.

Social movements and market entry: A synthesis and extension

In this paper we integrate market entry research with studies of social movements and markets to offer a theory of how social movements induce market entry. We theorize that social movements facili...

Certifying the Harvest: Entry Dynamics and Standards-Based Certification Organizations in a Nascent Market

Standards organizations play an increasing role in many market sectors and industries, yet we do not fully understand their role in nascent sectors. In this paper, we develop a theory regarding standards-based certification organizations (SBCOs) and explicate their role in fostering entry into a new product category. We argue that through key processes of standards creation, promotion, and verification, SBCOs solidify product categories and legitimate new product markets. We also consider how other important institutional and market conditions moderate the impact of SBCOs on market entry decisions. The U.S. organic food industry serves as the empirical context for this study. We discuss the implications of the findings from this study for the growing literature on institutions and entrepreneurship.

Values and Standards Organizations in a Nascent Market

While new institutionalists have demonstrated the importance of field-level actors in constructing and enforcing various institutional rules, most research in this area depicts such organizations as neutral or independent arbiters. In this paper, we challenge the notion that field-level organizations are value-free, and investigate how values shape standards organizations in fields. Drawing on a field analytical case study of the U.S. organic food industry, we show how the values of holism and scientism differentially shaped the creation of different kinds of standards organizations linked to different producer communities — activist, small farmers versus large agribusiness concerns. We marshal qualitative and quantitative evidence to chronicle how this unfolds both spatially and temporally, providing an account of the influence of movement values on the creation of broader-scale markets. In contrast to the literature on institutionalization that emphasizes the co-optation of movement participants and values, our research suggests that movements provide values that structure action and initiate legacies that become embedded in institutional elements that guide and enable future behavior—in our case, organic standards organizations. We discuss the implications of this study of values and standards organizations for research at the interface of social movements, organization, and institutional dynamics.