A conventional assumption within sociology of markets is that social ties are crucial in economic life, but that too strong relationships between sellers and buyers can create role conflicts and restrict business. Using qualitative interviews with Norwegian exporters and Danish importers, this article examines transactions in the international fish trade. We find that the assumed episodic and highly competitive commodity trade is rooted in dyadic networks and personal trust; inspired by the work of Goffman, we analyse transaction patterns as ‘interaction order’. The transaction pattern is dependent on a particular organization of social interaction, interaction in which business dealings are divided into delimited spheres of the ‘formal’, ‘personal’ and ‘private’. This division reflects a differentiation of the social roles, one in which traders avoid the role conflicts inherent in close relationships. We conclude by stating that economic sociology should probably be less preoccupied with formal network configurations and instead be focused more on how actors actually use social ties in the marketplace to conduct business, and on how these ties are linked to price mechanisms.
Aspers, P. (2001) Markets in Fashion: a Phenomenological Approach. Stockholm: City University Press.
2.
Axelrod, R. (1984) The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
3.
Burt, R. S. (1992) Structural Holes. The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4.
Burt, R. S. (2001) ‘Bandwith and Echo: Trust, Information and Gossip in Social Networks’, in J. E. Rauch and A. Casella (eds) Networks and Markets, pp. 30–75. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
5.
Casella, A. (2001) ‘Concluding Remarks: Questions for Policy’, in J. E. Rauch and A. Casella (eds) Networks and Markets, pp. 328–339. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
6.
Davis, W. (1973) Social Relations in a Philippine Market: Self Interest and Subjectivity. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
7.
Dreyer, B. (1998) Kampen for tilværelsen – et studium av overlevelsesstrategier i fiskeindustrien. Dissertation. Tromsø: Norwegian College of Fishery Science, University of Tromsø.
8.
Dreyer, B. and Grønhaug, K. (2004) ‘Uncertainty, Flexibility and Sustained Competitive Advantage’, Journal of Business Research57: 484–494.
9.
Dulsrud, A. (2002) Tillit og transaksjoner. En kvalitativ analyse av kontraktsrelasjoner i norsk hvitfiskeksport [Trust and Transactions. A Qualititative Analysis of Contract Relations in the Whitefish Exporting Business]. PhD dissertation. Fagrapport nr. 2. Lysaker: Statens institutt for forbruksforskning.
10.
Geertz, C. (1979) ‘Suq: The Bazaar Economy in Sefrou’, in C. Geertz, H. Geertz and L. Rosen (eds) Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society, pp. 123–276. New York: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Gerlach, M. (1990) ‘Trust is Not Enough: Cooperation and Conflict in Kikkoman's American Development’, Journal of Japanese Studies16: 389–424.
12.
Goffman, E.[1959] (1969)The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
13.
Goffman, E. (1983) ‘The Interaction Order’, American Sociological Review48: 1–17.
14.
Granovetter, M. (1985) ‘Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology91: 481–510.
15.
Granovetter, M. (1993) ‘The Nature of Economic Relationships’, in R. Swedberg (ed.) Explorations in Economic Sociology, pp. 3–41. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
16.
Granovetter, M. (2002) ‘A Theoretical Agenda for Economic Sociology’, in M. Guillén, R. Collins, P. England and M. Meyer (eds) The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field, pp. 35–59. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
17.
Granovetter, M. (2005) ‘Business Groups’, in N. Smelser and R. Swedberg (eds) The Handbook of Economic Sociology, 2nd edn, pp. 429–451. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
18.
Greif, A. (1993) ‘Contract Enforceability and Economic Institutions in Early Trade: The Maghribi Traders Coalition’, American Economic Review1993: 525–547.
19.
Greif, A. (1994) ‘Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies’, Journal of Political Economy102: 912–950.
20.
Guseva, A. and Rona Tas, A. (2001) ‘Uncertainty, Risk and Trust: Russian and American Credit Card Markets Compared’, American Sociological Review66 (October): 623–646.
21.
Hansen, K. (1996) ‘The Dual Motives of Participants at International Trade Shows. An Empirical Investigation of Exhibitors and Visitors with Selling Motives’, International Marketing Review13: 39–53.
22.
Hart, K. (1988) ‘Kinship, Contract and Trust: the Economic Organisation of Migrants in an African City Slum’, in D. Gambetta (ed.) Trust. Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, pp. 176–194. Oxford: Blackwell.
23.
Harvey, M. (2002) ‘Markets, Supermarkets and the Macro-social Shaping of Demand: an Instituted Economic Process Approach’, in A. McMeekin, K. Green, M. Tomlinson and V. Walsh (eds) Innovation by Demand. An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Demand and its Role in Innovation, pp. 187–209. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
24.
Haugland, S. A. and Grønhaug, K. (1996) ‘Cooperative Relationships in Competitive Markets’. Journal of Socio-Economics25: 359–371.
25.
Kirman, A. (2001) ‘Market Organization and Individual Behaviour: Evidence from Fish Markets’, in J. E. Rauch and A. Casella (eds) Networks and Markets, pp. 155–196. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
26.
Knorr Cetina, K. and Bruegger, U. (2002) ‘Global Microstructures: The Virtual Societies of Financial Markets’, American Journal of Sociology107: 905–951.
27.
Kollock, P. (1994) ‘The Emergence of Exchange Structures: An Experimental Study of Uncertainty, Commitment and Trust’, American Journal of Sociology100: 313–345.
28.
Kranton, R. E. (1996) ‘Reciprocal Exchange: A Self-Sustaining System’, American Economic Review86: 830–851.
29.
Lohr, S. (1982) ‘When Money Doesn't Matter in Japan’, New York Times (30 December).
30.
Lorenz, E. H. (1988) ‘Neither Friends nor Strangers: Informal Networks of Subcontracting in French Industry’, in D. Gambetta (ed.) Trust. Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, pp. 194–211. Oxford: Blackwell.
31.
Luhmann, N. (1979) Trust and Power. Chichester: Wiley.
32.
Milgrom, P., Roberts, J. and Weingast, B. R. (1990) ‘The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Medieval Law Merchant, Private Judges and Champagne Fairs’, Economics and Politics1: 1–23.
33.
Misztal, B. A. (1996) Trust in Modern Societies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
34.
Misztal, B. A. (2001) ‘Normality and Trust in Goffman's Theory of Interaction Order’, Sociological Theory19: 312–324.
35.
Montgomery, J. D. (1998) ‘Toward a Role-Theoretic Conception of Embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology104: 92–126.
36.
Polodny, J. M. and Baron, J. N. (1997) ‘Resources and Relationships: Social Networks and Mobility in the Workplace’, American Sociological Review62: 673–693.
37.
Rauch, J. E. (2000) ‘Business and Social Networks in International Trade’, Journal of Economic Literature39: 1177–1203.
38.
Rauch, J. E. and Casella, A. (eds) (2001) Networks and Markets. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
39.
Seligman, A. (1997) The Problem of Trust. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
40.
Siamwalla, A. (1978) ‘Farmers and Middlemen: Aspects of Agricultural Marketing in Thailand’, Economic Bulletin for Asia and the Pacific29: 38–50.
41.
Silver, A. (1990) ‘Friendship in Commercial Society: Eighteenth-Century Social Theory and Modern Sociology’, American Journal of Sociology95: 1474–1504.
42.
Swedberg, R. (2002) Principles of Economic Sociology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
43.
Swedberg, R. (2005) ‘Markets in Society’, in N. Smelser and R. Swedberg (eds) The Handbook of Economic Sociology, 2nd edn., pp. 233–254. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.
44.
Szanton, M. (1972) A Right to Survive: Subsistence Marketing in a Lowland Philippine Town. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
45.
Uzzi, B. (1997) ‘Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness’, Administrative Science Quarterly42: 35–68.
46.
White, H. (1981) ‘Where Do Markets Come From?’, American Journal of Sociology87: 517–547.
