This paper analyses how cultural entrepreneurs populating an unsettled organizational field may construct their identities as the field evolves. While extant studies in cultural entrepreneurship have recognized the importance of context, they mostly operationalize it as a stable source of standards. By adopting a field perspective, the present study instead offers a dynamic contextualization of cultural entrepreneurship. Applying computational and interpretative text-analytical methods to the empirical setting of the emerging Italian drone field, the results indicate that cultural entrepreneurs may follow different strategies to construct a distinctive identity narrative under specific field formation processes. The paper contributes to the literature by providing a model of cultural entrepreneurship under field-level change conditions. This model, by spotlighting unsettled fields’ evolving semantic dimensions, demonstrates how cultural entrepreneurs may be able to construct distinctive identities even when their field’s meaning system is far from stable, and the criteria to evaluate a venture’s legitimacy are still being developed.
AlbertStuartWhettenDavid A. (1985). Organizational identity. Research in Organizational Behavior, 7, 263–295.
2.
AldrichHoward E.FiolC. Marlene (1994). Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation. Academy of Management Review, 19, 645–670.
3.
AndersonChris (2012). Makers. The new industrial revolution. New York, NY: Crown Business.
4.
AugustineGraceKingBrayden G. (2019). Worthy of debate: Discursive coherence and agreement in the formation of the field of sustainability in higher education. Socio-Economic Review, 17, 135–165.
5.
AversaPaoloFurnariSantiJenkinsMark (2022). The primordial soup: Exploring the emotional microfoundations of cluster genesis. Organization Science, 33, 1340–1371.
6.
BesharovMarya L.BricksonShelley L. (2016). Organizational identity and institutional forces. In PrattMichael G.SchultzMajkenAshforthBlake E.RavasiDavide (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organizational identity (pp. 396–414). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7.
BleiDavid M.NgAndrew Y.JordanMichael I. (2003). Latent Dirichlet allocation. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 3, 993–1022.
8.
BrewerMarilynn B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 475–482.
9.
CasasnovasGuillermo (2023). When states build markets: Policy support as a double-edged sword in the UK social investment market. Organization Studies, 44, 229–252.
CroidieuGrégoireKimPhillip H. (2018). Labor of love: Amateurs and lay-expertise legitimation in the early US radio field. Administrative Science Quarterly, 63, 1–42.
12.
DeephouseDavid L. (1999). To be different, or to be the same? It’s a question (and theory) of strategic balance. Strategic Management Journal, 20, 147–166.
13.
DuvalJulien (2018). Correspondence analysis and Bourdieu’s approach to statistics: Using correspondence analysis within field theory. In MedvetzThomasSallazJeffrey J. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Pierre Bourdieu (pp. 512–527). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14.
FurnariSanti (2018). When does an issue trigger change in a field? A comparative approach to issue frames, field structures and types of field change. Human Relations, 71, 321–348.
15.
GaoChengMcDonaldRory (2022). Shaping nascent industries: Innovation strategy and regulatory uncertainty in personal genomics. Administrative Science Quarterly, 67, 915–967.
16.
GarudRaghuLantTheresa K.SchildtHenri A. (2019). Generative imitation, strategic distancing and optimal distinctiveness during the growth, decline, and stabilization of Silicon Alley. Innovation: Organization and Management, 21, 187–213.
17.
GarudRaghuSchildtHenri A.LantTheresa K. (2014). Entrepreneurial storytelling, future expectations, and the paradox of legitimacy. Organization Science, 25, 1479–1492.
18.
GehmanJoelGrimesMatthew (2017). Hidden badge of honor: How contextual distinctiveness affects category promotion among certified B corporations. Academy of Management Journal, 60, 2294–2320.
19.
GlynnMary Ann (2000). When cymbals become symbols: Conflict over organizational identity within a symphony orchestra. Organization Science, 11, 285–298.
20.
GlynnMary Ann (2008). Beyond constraint: How institutions enable identity. In GreenwoodRoystonOliverChristineSahlinKerstinSuddabyRoy (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 413–430). London: Sage.
21.
GranqvistNinaGrodalStineWoolleyJennifer L. (2013). Hedging your bets: Explaining executives’ market labeling strategies in nanotechnology. Organization Science, 24, 395–413.
22.
GranqvistNinaLaurilaJuha (2011). Rage against self-replicating machines: Framing science and fiction in the US nanotechnology field. Organization Studies, 32, 253–280.
23.
GreenacreMichael (2007). Correspondence analysis in practice (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC.
24.
GrodalStine (2018). Field expansion and contraction: How communities shape social and symbolic boundaries. Administrative Science Quarterly, 63, 783–818.
25.
GuoLeiVargoChris J.PanZixuanDingWeicongIshwarPrakash (2016). Big social data analytics in journalism and mass communication: Comparing dictionary-based text analysis and unsupervised topic modeling. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93, 332–359.
26.
HaansRichard F. J. (2019). What’s the value of being different when everyone is? The effects of distinctiveness on performance in homogeneous versus heterogeneous categories. Strategic Management Journal, 40, 3–27.
27.
HanniganTimothy R.BriggsAnthony R.ValadaoRodrigoSeidelMarc-David L.JenningsP. Devereaux (2022). A new tool for policymakers: Mapping cultural possibilities in an emerging AI entrepreneurial ecosystem. Research Policy, 51, 104315.
28.
HanniganTimothy R.CasasnovasGuillermo (2021). New structuralism and field emergence: The co-constitution of meanings and actors in the early moments of social impact investing. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 68, 147–183.
29.
HanniganTimothy R.HaansRichard F. J.VakiliKeyvanTchalianHovigGlaserVern L.WangMilo ShaoqingKaplanSarahJenningsP. Devereaux (2019). Topic modeling in management research: Rendering new theory from textual data. Academy of Management Annals, 13, 586–632.
30.
HanniganTimothy R.PakYunjungJenningsP. Devereaux (2022). Mapping the multiverse: A cultural cartographic approach to realizing entrepreneurial possibilities. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 80, 239–259.
31.
HiningsC. R. (Bob)LogueDanielleZietsmaCharlene (2017). Fields, institutional infrastructure and governance. In GreenwoodRoystonOliverChristineLawrenceThomas B.MeyerRenate E. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism (2nd edition, pp. 170–197). London: Sage.
32.
HoffmanAndrew J. (1999). Institutional evolution and change: Environmentalism and the US chemical industry. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 351–371.
33.
InnisBenjamin D. (2022). Category change in cultural fields: Practice deviation and the discursive maintenance of category meanings in jazz music. Organization Studies, 43, 1745–1767.
34.
KimmittJonathanKiblerEwaldSchildtHenriOinasPäivi (2023). Place in entrepreneurial storytelling: A study of cultural entrepreneurship in a deprived context. Journal of Management Studies, 61, 1036–1073.
35.
KodeihFarahGreenwoodRoyston (2014). Responding to institutional complexity: The role of identity. Organization Studies, 35, 7–39.
36.
LamontMichèleMolnárVirág (2002). The study of boundaries in the social sciences. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 167–195.
37.
LangleyAnn (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24, 691–710.
38.
LêPatrick L.LanderMichel W. (2023). Enjoying the betwixt and between: Liminoid identity construction on Twitter. Organization Studies, 44, 1519–1540.
39.
LeibelEstherHallettTimBechkyBeth A. (2018). Meaning at the source: The dynamics of field formation in institutional research. Academy of Management Annals, 12, 154–177.
40.
LiaoTony (2016). Is it ‘augmented reality’? Contesting boundary work over the definitions and organizing visions for an emerging technology across field-configuring events. Information and Organization, 26, 45–62.
41.
LockwoodChristiGiorgiSimonaGlynnMary Ann (2019). “How to do things with words”: Mechanisms bridging language and action in management research. Journal of Management, 45, 7–34.
42.
LoewensteinJeffreyOcasioWilliamJonesCandace (2012). Vocabularies and vocabulary structure: A new approach linking categories, practices, and institutions. Academy of Management Annals, 6, 41–86.
43.
LounsburyMichaelGlynnMary Ann (2001). Cultural entrepreneurship: Stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources. Strategic Management Journal, 22, 545–564.
44.
LounsburyMichaelGlynnMary Ann (2019). Cultural entrepreneurship: A new agenda for the study of entrepreneurial processes and possibilities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
45.
MartensMartin L.JenningsJennifer E.JenningsP. Devereaux (2007). Do the stories they tell get them the money they need? The role of entrepreneurial narratives in resource acquisition. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 1107–1132.
46.
McKnightBrentZietsmaCharlene (2018). Finding the threshold: A configurational approach to optimal distinctiveness. Journal of Business Venturing, 33, 493–512.
47.
MeyerAlan D.GabaVibhaColwellKenneth A. (2005). Organizing far from equilibrium: Nonlinear change in organizational fields. Organization Science, 16, 456–473.
48.
MeyerJohn W.RowanBrian (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340–363.
49.
MeyerRenate E.HöllererMarkus A. (2010). Meaning structures in a contested issue field: A topographic map of shareholder value in Austria. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1241–1262.
50.
MohrJohn W. (2013). Bourdieu’s relational method in theory and in practice: From fields and capitals to networks and institutions (and back again). In DepelteauFrançoisPowellChristopher (Eds.), Applying relational sociology (pp. 101–135). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
51.
MohrJohn W.BogdanovPetko (2013). Introduction—Topic models: What they are and why they matter. Poetics, 41, 545–569.
52.
MohrJohn W.LeeHelene K. (2000). From affirmative action to outreach: Discourse shifts at the University of California. Poetics, 28, 47–71.
53.
NavisChadGlynnMary Ann (2010). How new market categories emerge: Temporal dynamics of legitimacy, identity, and entrepreneurship in satellite radio, 1990–2005. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55, 439–471.
54.
NavisChadGlynnMary Ann (2011). Legitimate distinctiveness and the entrepreneurial identity: Influence on investor judgments of new venture plausibility. Academy of Management Review, 36, 479–499.
55.
NelsonLaura K. (2020). Computational grounded theory: A methodological framework. Sociological Methods & Research, 49, 3–42.
56.
OzcanPinarGursesKerem (2018). Playing cat and mouse: Contests over regulatory categorization of dietary supplements in the US. Academy of Management Journal, 61, 1789–1820.
57.
PareschiLucaLusianiMaria (2020). What editors talk about when they talk about editors? A public discourse analysis of market and aesthetic logics. Poetics, 81, 101444.
58.
PatalaSamuliKorpivaaraIdaJalkalaAnneKuitunenAinoSoppeBirthe (2019). Legitimacy under institutional change: How incumbents appropriate clean rhetoric for dirty technologies. Organization Studies, 40, 395–419.
59.
Pellandini-SimányiLénaVarghaZsuzsanna (2021). Legal infrastructures: How laws matter in the organization of new markets. Organization Studies, 42, 867–889.
60.
PowellWalter W.HorvathAaronBrandtnerChristof (2016). Click and mortar: Organizations on the web. Research in Organizational Behavior, 36, 101–120.
61.
SantosFilipe M.EisenhardtKathleen M. (2009). Constructing markets and shaping boundaries: Entrepreneurial power in nascent fields. Academy of Management Journal, 52, 643–671.
62.
SoublièreJean-FrançoisLockwoodChristi (2022). Achieving cultural resonance: Four strategies toward rallying support for entrepreneurial endeavors. Strategic Management Journal, 43, 1499–1527.
63.
StiglianiIleanaElsbachKimberly D. (2018). Identity co-formation in an emerging industry: Forging organizational distinctiveness and industry coherence through sensemaking and sensegiving. Journal of Management Studies, 55, 1323–1355.
64.
SuJingqinGaoXinTanJustin (2024). Positioning for optimal distinctiveness: How firms manage competitive and institutional pressures under dynamic and complex environment. Strategic Management Journal, 45, 333–361.
65.
SuchmanMark C. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20, 571–610.
66.
SwidlerAnn (1986). Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review, 51, 273–286.
67.
TaeuscherKarlBounckenRicardaPeschRobin (2021). Gaining legitimacy by being different: Optimal distinctiveness in crowdfunding platforms. Academy of Management Journal, 64, 149–179.
68.
TaeuscherKarlZhaoEric Y.LounsburyMichael (2022). Categories and narratives as sources of distinctiveness: Cultural entrepreneurship within and across categories. Strategic Management Journal, 43, 2101–2134.
69.
TolbertPamela S.ZuckerLynne G. (1983). Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880–1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 22–39.
70.
ÜberbacherFlorianJacobsClaus D.CornelissenJoep P. (2015). How entrepreneurs become skilled cultural operators. Organization Studies, 36, 925–951.
71.
WhettenDavid A.MackeyAlison (2002). A social actor conception of organizational identity and its implications for the study of organizational reputation. Business & Society, 41, 393–414.
72.
WootenMelissaHoffmanAndrew J. (2008). Organizational fields: Past, present and future. In GreenwoodRoystonOliverChristineSahlinKerstinSuddabyRoy (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 130–147). London: Sage.
73.
WryTylerLounsburyMichaelGlynnMary Ann (2011). Legitimating nascent collective identities: Coordinating cultural entrepreneurship. Organization Science, 22, 449–463.
74.
ZhaoEric Y. (2022). Optimal distinctiveness: A new agenda for the study of competitive positioning of organizations and markets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
75.
ZhaoEric Y.GlynnMary Ann (2022). Optimal distinctiveness: On being the same and different. Organization Theory, 3(1), 26317877221079340.
76.
ZhaoEric Y.IshiharaMasakazuLounsburyMichael (2013). Overcoming the illegitimacy discount: Cultural entrepreneurship in the US feature film industry. Organization Studies, 34, 1747–1776.
77.
ZietsmaCharleneGroenewegenPeterLogueDanielleHiningsC. R. (Bob) (2017). Field or fields? Building the scaffolding for cumulation of research on institutional fields. Academy of Management Annals, 11, 391–450.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
