An Ecology of Social Categories

Pontikes, Elizabeth G.; Hannan, Michael T.

doi:10.15195/v1.a20

Cited by 40 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In formal terms, an object x's typicality as an instance of the concept l to an (unspecified) audience member, in notation θ(l, x), is inversely proportional to the distance, δ, between its profile of feature values, f x , and the audience member's schema for the concept, σ l . Because it is consistent with experimental evidence, we build on Hampton's (2007) threshold model of categorization using the following negative-logistic form (see Pontikes and Hannan (2014)). …”

Section: Categorization and Typicalitymentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Hannan et al (2007) assert that organizational schemas are sets of profiles of feature values, where each profile identifies a prototype. Specifically, a schema is a subset of the feature space that contains the prototypes (Pontikes and Hannan, 2014). That is, schemas are the sets of profiles of feature values that yield full membership.…”

Section: Fit To Schemasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Full membership means possessing a profile of feature values that falls in the schema by matching one of the prototypes (distance from the schema is zero). Otherwise, the degree of typicality of an object as an instance of a concept is inversely proportional to the distance of its profile of feature values from the closest prototype in the schema (Pontikes and Hannan, 2014). (This is a classical point-to-set distance: the minimum of the distances of the point from the members of the set.…”

Section: Fit To Schemasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sociocultural distance between a pair of concepts depends on the distance in the feature space between their associated schemas (Pontikes and Hannan, 2014). If the schemas for a pair of concepts lie far apart in the sociocultural space, an offer that gets labeled as an instance of both cannot fit either schema well.…”

Section: Categorization and Typicalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Genres also differ considerably in the clarity of their boundaries, the degree to which their memberships stand out in the domain. Knowledge of the typography of such a sociocultural space provides essential information about the audience's conceptual structure (Pontikes and Hannan, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Extending the INGO Network Country Score 1950-2008

Paxton¹,

Hughes²,

Reith³

2015

SocScience

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A general finding in economic and organizational sociology shows that objects that span categories lose appeal to audiences. This paper argues that the negative consequences of crossing boundaries are more severe when the categories spanned are distant and have high contrast. Available empirical strategies do not incorporate information on the distances among categories. Here we introduce novel measures of distance in conceptual space and derive measures for typicality, category contrast, and categorical niche width. Using the proposed measurement approach, we test our theory using data on online reviews of books and restaurants.

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Section: Categorization and Typicalitymentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Fit To Schemasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fit To Schemasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Categorization and Typicalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Extending the INGO Network Country Score 1950-2008

Paxton¹,

Hughes²,

Reith³

2015

SocScience

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show abstract

“We do what we must, and call it by the best names”: Can deliberate names offset the consequences of organizational atypicality?

Smith

Chae

2015

Strategic Management Journal

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Research summary:This article focuses on organizational naming as a strategic choice organizations make to overcome liabilities of atypicality. We argue that, in markets presenting an "illegitimacy discount," atypical organizations may use deliberate names-names that communicate the market categories to which organizations claim membership-to offset the consequences of atypicality. Using data from the global hedge fund industry, we show that atypical hedge funds are more likely than typical funds to have deliberate names. Importantly, the selection of a deliberate name is economically significant. First, funds with deliberate names grow faster than funds without deliberate names, especially among atypical funds. Second, while atypicality heightened the likelihood of failure during the recent financial crisis-even after controlling for fund performance-having a deliberate name mitigated this effect.Managerial summary: Differentiation is a core element of many organizations' competitive advantage. Nevertheless, as differentiation implies being atypical among one's competitors, differentiation strategies can also lead to an "illegitimacy discount" whereby differentiators are at risk of being misunderstood, miscategorized, and ignored by consumers. Here we investigate how atypical hedge funds-funds that differentiate themselves from their competitors by investing in notably unique ways-use names to offset the potential consequences associated with the "illegitimacy discount." Our analysis of more than 12,000 hedge funds over 12 years highlighted a trend whereby atypical hedge funds were more likely to choose names that unambiguously associated them with a known investment strategy-for instance, choosing the name "Apex Global Macro Capital" over simply "Apex Capital." Importantly, name selection proved to be economically significant. For example, among atypical hedge funds, those with unambiguous names grew faster than those without. Furthermore, while being atypical increased the level of disinvestment during the recent financial crisis, having an unambiguous name reversed this effect. Organizational names play an important communication role with consumers, which, while highly symbolic, may also help resolve the dual organizational need to both conform to consumer expectations and differentiate from market competitors.

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Category innovation in the software industry: 1990–2002

Pontikes

2022

Strategic Management Journal

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This study investigates category innovation, when firms introduce a new label to pioneer a market category. I propose two antecedent pathways.The first is based on firms' material developments. Firms that combine categories in their products and technologies are more likely to use category innovation to communicate their position is not peripheral, but at the center of an emerging category. The second is contextual,

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An Ecology of Social Categories

Cited by 40 publications

References 46 publications

Extending the INGO Network Country Score 1950-2008

Extending the INGO Network Country Score 1950-2008

“We do what we must, and call it by the best names”: Can deliberate names offset the consequences of organizational atypicality?

Category innovation in the software industry: 1990–2002

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