A general finding in economic and organizational sociology states that producers and products that span categories lose appeal to audiences. This paper argues that the negative consequences of crossing category boundaries are more severe when the categories spanned are distant and have high...

Research shows that people systematically prefer “authentic” organizations above organizations that are not deemed authentic. Yet, people who desire authenticity may also be unable to detect what is authentic. We propose that endorsement by audiences that match the organization’s identity...

Although increases in status often lead to more favorable inferences about quality in subsequent evaluations, in this paper, we examine a setting in which an increase to an actor’s status results in less favorable quality evaluations, contrary to what much of sociological and management theory...

Organization theory highlights the spread of norms of rationality in contemporary life. Yet rationality does not always spread without friction; individuals often act based on other beliefs and norms. We explore this problem in the context of restaurants and diners. We argue that consumers...

Sociologists and other social scientists have long recognized that certain economic transactions involve more than a simple trade of goods or services for money. A long-standing theme in economic anthropology and sociology emphasizes the symbolic or moral character of certain economic exchanges...