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Category Stretching: Reorienting Research on Categories in Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Organization Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Rodolphe Durand

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Lionel Paolella

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

We advocate for more tolerance in the manner we collectively address categories and categorization in our research. Drawing on the prototype view, organizational scholars have provided a ‘disciplining' framework to explain how category membership shapes, impacts and limits organizational success. By stretching the existing straightjacket of scholarship on categories, we point to other useful conceptualizations of categories – i.e. the causal model and the goal-based approaches of categorization – and propose that depending on situational circumstances, and beyond a disciplining exercise, categories involve a cognitive test of congruence and a goal satisfying calculus. Unsettling the current consensus about categorical imperatives and market discipline, we suggest also that markets may tolerate more often than thought organizations that blend, span, and stretch categories. We derive implications for research about multi-category membership and mediation in markets, and suggest ways in which work on the theme of categories in the strategy, entrepreneurship, and managerial cognition literatures can be enriched.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodolphe Durand & Lionel Paolella, 2012. "Category Stretching: Reorienting Research on Categories in Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Organization Theory," Working Papers hal-02011439, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02011439
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Charles Baden-Fuller & Vincent Mangematin, 2013. "Business models: A challenging agenda," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-00869707, HAL.
    2. repec:hal:gemwpa:hal-00869707 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Charles Baden-Fuller & Vincent Mangematin, 2013. "Business models: A challenging agenda," Post-Print hal-00869707, HAL.
    4. repec:hal:wpaper:hal-00869707 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Schiller-Merkens, Simone, 2013. "Framing moral markets: The cultural legacy of social movements in an emerging market category," MPIfG Discussion Paper 13/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    6. E. Moreva L. & Е. Морева Л., 2017. "Бизнес-Модель И Ее Роль В Разработке Инновационной Политики (Анализ Зарубежных Концепций) // The Business Model And Its Role In The Development Of The Innovation Policy (Analysis Of Foreign Concepts)," Финансы: теория и практика/Finance: Theory and Practice // Finance: Theory and Practice, ФГОБУВО Финансовый университет при Правительстве Российской Федерации // Financial University under The Government of Russian Federation, vol. 21(4), pages 126-137.
    7. Mihaela Diaconu & Amalia Dutu, 2017. "Business Development In Tourism And Technology," Revista de turism - studii si cercetari in turism / Journal of tourism - studies and research in tourism, "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Public Administration - Economy, Business Administration and Tourism Department., vol. 24(24), pages 1-1, December.

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