Previous studies show that producers that span category boundaries exhibit lower fit to category schemas, accumulate less expertise, and elicit negative reactions from both critics and consumers. We propose that the negative reaction to category spanning also depends on another mechanism:...

We propose that category membership can operate as a collective market signal for quality. This requires that gaining category membership is more costly for low-quality producers. The strength of such signals increases with the distinctiveness, or contrast, of the category. Our empirical study...

?How does contention over authenticity unfold through social movement processes of mobilization and counter-mobilization? We address this issue by studying how the rise of "modern" winemaking practices embodied authenticity as creativity, how the success of the modernists triggered a...

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...