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Shaping Cultural Meanings in Markets with Category Strategy and Optimal Distinctiveness: An Agency-based Perspective

J. Cameron Verhaal (Tulane University, Louisiana, USA)
Elizabeth G. Pontikes (University of California, USA)

Advances in Cultural Entrepreneurship

ISBN: 978-1-80262-208-9, eISBN: 978-1-80262-207-2

Publication date: 18 April 2022

Abstract

Market actors are simultaneously constrained and enabled by the structures they operate within, which opens opportunities for strategic actors. We build on cultural entrepreneurship and market category research to advance an agency-based perspective that brings together research streams on positioning for optimal distinctiveness and shaping with category strategy. We distinguish legitimating narratives for an individual position from initiatives aimed at category construction, and propose that linking these is a basis for strategic advantage. Market transformation involves strategic actors crafting differentiating stories that make an individual position compelling, and then extending these narratives to construct an abstract schema that creatively combines cultural defaults. We further highlight that transformative agency requires an engaged audience, such that stakeholders are willing to consider a new narrative.

Keywords

Citation

Verhaal, J.C. and Pontikes, E.G. (2022), "Shaping Cultural Meanings in Markets with Category Strategy and Optimal Distinctiveness: An Agency-based Perspective", Lockwood, C. and Soublière, J.-F. (Ed.) Advances in Cultural Entrepreneurship (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 80), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20220000080011

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 J. Cameron Verhaal and Elizabeth G. Pontikes