Academic Web Pages – Elizabeth G. Pontikes https://elizabethpontikes.org Category Dynamics in Markets Tue, 30 Jul 2019 21:03:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6 Book Released: Concepts and Categories: Foundations for Sociological and Cultural Analysis https://elizabethpontikes.org/concepts-and-categories/ https://elizabethpontikes.org/concepts-and-categories/#respond Mon, 01 Jul 2019 18:23:51 +0000 https://elizabethpontikes.org/?p=256 View at Amazon. ]]>

Concepts and Categories book cover 331 x 499

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• Why do people like books, music, or movies that adhere consistently to genre conventions? • Why is it hard for politicians to take positions that cross ideological boundaries? • Why do we have dramatically different expectations of companies that are categorized as social media platforms as opposed to news media sites? •

The answers to these questions require an understanding of how people use basic concepts in their everyday lives to give meaning to objects, other people, and social situations and actions.

In this book, we present a new model of concepts and categorization that can guide sociological and cultural analysis of a wide variety of social situations.


Social classification―the establishment of categories and the sorting of entities into those categories―is the critical juncture at which cognition and social organization intersect. As such, it is a central topic that cuts across many fields of sociology and other social sciences. This volume integrates work from the most productive and promising program of theory and research on social classification into a coherent statement that will inform sociological thinking for years to come.

This formal foundation of categorization processes represents a massive step forward in our theoretical understanding of categories, their evolution, and their influence on decisions. The authors do an excellent job of motivating these cognitive foundations in terms of their relevance to sociological questions of interest.

Concepts and Categories is at once foundational and generative―the kind of book in which you will fill the margins with new learnings and insights. I highly recommend it both to newcomers to the sociology of markets as well as to established scholars looking for their next novel idea.

Hannan and collaborators have produced a masterful interdisciplinary intervention, the first to bridge research on the nature of concepts in cognitive psychology and sociological work on organizational and market categories. The book provides solid theoretical foundations tightly linked to formal measurement tools that should prove foundational to future advancements in the field.

]]> https://elizabethpontikes.org/concepts-and-categories/feed/ 0 Presenting at Academy of Management Annual Meetings in Boston Aug 9 – 13 https://elizabethpontikes.org/sample-announcements-post/ https://elizabethpontikes.org/sample-announcements-post/#respond Sun, 30 Jun 2019 17:54:20 +0000 https://elizabethpontikes.org/?p=249 Academy of Management Annual Meeting Program]]> My work features in three sessions at the AoM annual meetings, on market categories, cultural entrepreneurship, and stigma. See you there. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Program

]]> https://elizabethpontikes.org/sample-announcements-post/feed/ 0 Category Strategy https://elizabethpontikes.org/category-strategy/ https://elizabethpontikes.org/category-strategy/#respond Fri, 21 Jun 2019 14:42:29 +0000 https://elizabethpontikes.org/?p=229 category strategy. Strategy is not limited to choosing positions in an external market, or changing the firm to fit the market. It should also include shaping the market to align with the firm. Category strategy is especially important for entrepreneurs who need to carve out a space for a new idea, product, or technology. Then, a firm’s position within (evolving) market categories affects how it is evaluated.]]>

Category Strategy image

Category Dynamics


Category dynamics recognizes that market categories are both influential and malleable. This presents the opportunity for category strategy. Strategy is not limited to choosing positions in an external market, or changing the firm to fit the market. It should also include shaping the market to align with the firm. Category strategy is especially important for entrepreneurs who need to carve out a space for a new idea, product, or technology. Then, a firm’s position within (evolving) market categories affects how it is evaluated.



Selected Publications

Pontikes, E.G. and V. Rindova (2020). “Shaping Markets Through Temporal, Constructive, and Interactive Agency.” Strategy Science.

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Pontikes, E.G. “Category innovation in the software industry: 1990 – 2002.”

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Pontikes, E.G. (2018). “Category Strategy for Firm Advantage.” Strategy Science, 3(4): 555-682.

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Pontikes, E.G. “The Categorical Basis of Combination. A Theory and Two Empirical Tests.”

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Pontikes, E.G. and R. Kim (2017). “Strategic Categorization.” in From Categories to Categorization: Studies in Sociology, Organizations and Strategy at the Crossroads (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 51). Durand, R., N. Granqvist, and A. Tyllström (eds), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 71-111.

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Pontikes, E.G. and W.P. Barnett (2015). “The Persistence of Lenient Market Categories.” Organization Science, 26: 1415 – 1431.

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Pontikes, E.G. (2012). “Two Sides of the Same Coin: How Ambiguous Classification Affects Multiple Audiences’ Evaluations.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 57(1): 81-118.

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]]> https://elizabethpontikes.org/category-strategy/feed/ 0 Innovation and Market Evolution https://elizabethpontikes.org/innovation-and-market-evolution/ https://elizabethpontikes.org/innovation-and-market-evolution/#respond Fri, 21 Jun 2019 14:41:39 +0000 https://elizabethpontikes.org/?p=227 category strategy is one basis for the category dynamics that underlie market evolution. A key idea is that organizations are positioned within multiple “spaces” in a market: for example a “knowledge space” of technologies and a “market space” of product features. Firms that develop technological inventions create in knowledge space, and ones that pioneer a new market category act in market space. The link between these two spaces is socially constructed by how firms strategically position their products and technologies within market categories. ]]>

innovation and market evolution map

Innovation and Market Evolution


The positions firms take on the market influence the changing social meaning of market categories, so category strategy is one basis for the category dynamics that underlie market evolution. A key idea is that organizations are positioned within multiple “spaces” in a market: for example a “knowledge space” of technologies and a “market space” of product features. Firms that develop technological inventions create in knowledge space, and ones that pioneer a new market category act in market space. The link between these two spaces is socially constructed by how firms strategically position their products and technologies within market categories.



Selected Publications

Hannan, M. G. Le Mens, G. Hsu, B. Kovacs, G. Negro, L. Polos, E. Pontikes and A. Sharkey. Concepts and Categories: Foundations for Sociological Analysis. Columbia University Press.

[ARTICLE]

Pontikes, E.G. and W.P. Barnett (2017). “The Non-consensus Entrepreneur: Organizational Responses to Vital Events.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 62(1): 140-178.

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Pontikes, E.G. and W.P. Barnett (2017). “The Coevolution of Organizational Knowledge and Market Technology.” Strategy Science, 2(1): 64-82.

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Pontikes, E.G. and M.T. Hannan (2014). “An Ecology of Social Categories.” Sociological Science, 1: 311-343.

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]]> https://elizabethpontikes.org/innovation-and-market-evolution/feed/ 0 Stigma and Markets https://elizabethpontikes.org/stigma-and-markets/ https://elizabethpontikes.org/stigma-and-markets/#respond Fri, 21 Jun 2019 14:40:27 +0000 https://elizabethpontikes.org/?p=225 Stigmatized categories are potent and operate in unique ways. In this research stream I show that stigma readily travels through mere associations in markets, based on automatic associations rather than deliberate cognition. This means stigma can harm “innocents” who are connected to the category just by happenstance, and these effects do not readily reverse when stigmas recede.]]>

red hollywood

Stigma and Markets


Not all market categories are positive, or even neutral. Stigmatized categories are potent and operate in unique ways. In this research stream I show that stigma readily travels through mere associations in markets, based on automatic associations rather than deliberate cognition. This means stigma can harm “innocents” who are connected to the category just by happenstance, and these effects do not readily reverse when stigmas recede.



Selected Publications

Negro, G., M.L. Williams and E.G. Pontikes. “Destigmatization and Its Imbalanced Effects.”

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McDonnell, M.H. and E.G. Pontikes. “Bad Company: The Reputational Implications of Cross-Sector Interactions with a Stigmatized Firm.”

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Pontikes, E.G., G. Negro and H. Rao (2010). “Stained Red: A Study of Stigma by Association with Blacklisted Artists during the ‘Red Scare’ in Hollywood, 1945-1960.” American Sociological Review, 75(3): 456-478.

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