How Social Inequalities Shape Markets: Lessons From the Configuration of PET Recycling Practices in Brazil

Abstract

The article addresses how societal inequalities shape market arrangements. While business scholars developed important work about the interplay of organizations and societal economic inequalities, less has been said about the embeddedness of markets in unequal social structures. We argue that this issue may be addressed by cross-fertilizing the sociological approach of Bourdieu and the Strategic Action Fields perspective. To demonstrate our view, we assessed the extreme case of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling markets in Brazil, conducting a qualitative study based on the precepts of abductive analysis and using data from different secondary sources, interviews, and participant observation. We verified the existence of correspondences between the power of strategic action fields and the positions the individuals controlling them occupy in what Bourdieu calls the social space and show how these differences enable inter field connections that tend to reproduce social hierarchies.

Market-Shaping as Meta-Strategy : A Strategy of Strategies

“…Given the systemic nature of market-shaping strategies, shaping efforts typically encompass both market and nonmarket actors. Consequently, a market-shaping strategy may consist of actions directed at the market environment, such as changes in pricing (Nenonen, Storbacka, & Frethey-Bentham, 2019) or the acquisition of market actors (Santos & Eisenhardt, 2009), as well as actions aimed at the nonmarket environment ranging from lobbying (Doganova & Karnøe, 2015) to the introduction of new industry practices (Candido, Sacomano Neto, & Côrtes, 2021).…”

Transformations in female representations in beer advertisements: a Strategic Actions Fields perspective

“…Based on the SAF approach, it is possible to analyze markets as a set of "economic" and "non-economic" social arenas interconnected from both a material and symbolic point of view (Fligstein, 2001;Candido et al, 2019;Candido et al, 2021). Although defining the boundaries of these fields is an empirical question, in economics, in general, it is possible to identify sectors as fields whose actors are companies and the governance units are business associations (Fligstein, 1990(Fligstein, , 2001.…”

Market-shaping phases—a qualitative meta-analysis and conceptual framework

“…Thus, this set of extracted activities is similar to processes in institutional work (Lawrence et al, 2011) aimed at institutionalizing change. To materialize and stabilize the desired market change, market-shaping actors develop and diffuse new practices (Baker et al, 2019;Candido et al, 2021;Ruiz & Makkar, 2021) as seen for example in the development of recycling practices to shape the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling market in Brazil (Candido et al, 2021). Additionally, market-shaping actors attempt to develop new market norms and rules that support the materialization of the desired changes in the market (Breidbach & Tana, 2021;Geiger & Kjellberg, 2020;Purtik & Arenas, 2019).…”

“…Additionally, the institutionalization of newly introduced or influenced practices (Canales, 2016;Candido et al, 2021;Ruiz & Makkar, 2021), standards (Elg et al, 2012;Ingenbleek & Reinders, 2013;Ulkuniemi et al, 2015) or regulations, policies and laws (Doganova & Karnøe, 2015;Moors et al, 2018;Maciel & Fischer, 2020) legitimizes the newly shaped market, providing it with further cohesion, which ultimately strengthens its resilience. For example, in the Mexican small and medium enterprise (SME) credit market, market-shaping actors leveraged high-status actors to legitimize the newly developed practices of SME lending, thereby equipping the newly shaped market with institutional power and thus fortifying its raison d'être (Canales, 2016).…”