Management & Society Research Seminar: “The co-evolution of market categories and audience judgements of new ventures: Legitimate distinctiveness” by Shannon YOUNGER – Texan Christian University
Speakers: Shannon YOUNGER
Texan Christian University
Date and Location – Friday March 19th 2021 from 15:30 to 17:00 on Zoom
ABSTRACT
A joint work with Chad Navis and John Preedom from Clemson University
Research on the legitimate distinctiveness of new ventures has emphasized the dynamic nature of these audience judgments, but with little attention to how market evolutionary factors guide and shape them. Just as each stage of an evolving market category is characterized by a distinct set of market conditions and new venture imperatives, so too does each stage introduce a unique set of dynamics through which legitimate distinctiveness is signified and evaluated.
We advance an integrative framework that defines and distinguishes these underspecified dynamics for the early, emergent, and established stages of a market category. For each stage, we theorize the primary cognitive referent that frames audience judgments, the focal linkages between market-level factors and changing audience expectations for legitimate distinctiveness, and the signified behaviors of new ventures that we expect to be more likely than others to fulfill these stage-specific audience expectations.
Our primary contribution is to establish and elucidate the critical influence of market evolutionary factors and dynamics to research on legitimate distinctiveness. In doing so, we also usefully integrate, reconcile, and advance a diversity of perspectives that inform this burgeoning domain.
