New occupations are pervasive and constantly alter fields. This paper studies how occupational newcomers and dominant incumbents confront the opportunities and constraints of field-level uncertainty by engaging in interprofessional coalition building. Using resource dependence theory to ground our arguments, we highlight that this type of uncertainty makes third party ties the channel through which mutual dependence is assessed and power imbalance is regulated. We also claim that when dominant incumbents perceive field-level uncertainty around a new occupation, ties that regulate power imbalance overshadow mutual dependence considerations. Conversely, once occupational boundaries and norms are established through professionalization, the difference across types of third party ties declines. Empirically, the paper uses the case of silk designers emerging as an independent occupation adjacent to the 18th century silk guild in Lyon. Using archival data of 676 silk designers (1700-1788), we test the role of third party ties in affecting the likelihood of a partnership forming between a designer and a merchant.
By conceptualizing similarity among firms in terms of overlapping resources, research on location choice has found that similar firms tend to locate far from one another. Yet, a resource-overlap perspective may not always align with decision-makers’ similarity classifications. In this article, we propose that new entrants also perceive firm similarities in terms of collective identities, and we examine how competition between collective identities influences entrants’ choice of location. Our arguments center on the distinction between unaffiliated traditionalists, actors who are loyal to values and practices originally associated with a label and who emphasize autonomy, and affiliated modernists, actors who reinterpret a label using different values and practices and who seek consistency. Analyzing the entry of 177 artisan bakers within the city of Lyon from 1998 to 2017, we find that new entrants locate where prior actors with similar collective identities had located previously. To differentiate through competition, however, some new entrants also tend to prefer locations closer to actors who are encroaching on their collective identity, most evident among traditionalists choosing to locate near modernists. By integrating a collective-identity perspective with location choice, we show how the sociocognitive basis of similarity classification shapes new entrants’ competitive behavior.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.