Selling your soul to the devil? The importance of independent ownership to identity distinctiveness for oppositional categories

• Published in: Strategic management journal Vol. 41; no. 13; pp. 2548 - 2584
• Main Authors: Mathias, Blake D., Huyghe, Annelore, Williams, David W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.12.2020; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Breweries; Confusion; craft beer industry; craft‐based organizations; Distinctiveness; Group identity; Incumbency; market categories; oppositional identity; Owners; Ownership; qualitative methods

Research Summary Oppositional categories emerge in direct ideological opposition to incumbent mass producers. In doing so, these oppositional categories, especially craft‐based ones, emphasize their size (small), ownership (independence), and production methods (traditional) as important identity co...