Mind Your Category in a Shifting World: New Frontiers in Market Categories and Firm Strategy

Research interests at the intersection of strategic management and market categories has grown significantly in recent years and current market environments have posed tremendous challenge for firms seeking to classify themselves and their offerings for competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market structure. This symposium invites scholars interested in strategic management and market categories to present and discuss their views on firms’ strategic choice of category labels, meanings, and positions as they consider and engage with other key stakeholders in the marketplace. By examining factors associated with firms’ strategic categorization, including motivations, occasions and contexts, we hope to open conversations and future research opportunities to clarify the multiple mechanisms through which categories and categorization processes in the market can be associated with firms’ strategic choices. More broadly, we hope this symposium would also contribute to the understanding of market categories and firm strategy in dynamic market environments. Market positioning, spanning competitive sets or market category features: Effects on firm value Presenter: Elizabeth Pontikes; UC Davis Presenter: Amanda Sharkey; U. Of Chicago Dynamic Positioning and Accelerating Product Launches by Ventures Presenter: Emily Cox-Pahnke; U. of Washington Presenter: Michael Deane Howard; Texas A&M U., College Station Close to Functional Ideal: Product Positioning and Performance Implications in High-growth Markets Presenter: Amy Zhao-Ding; Technical U. of Munich Beef- it’s what’s for dinner: Incumbent responses to category transformation in the U.S. meat market Presenter: Anders Dahl Krabbe; King's Business School Presenter: Eunice Yunjin Rhee; Seattle U. Presenter: Jade Lo; Drexel U. The Role of Categories in Market Coordination: A Framework and Map Presenter: Enlan Wang; U. of Southern California Presenter: Peer Fiss; U. of Southern California