Beyond the Tipping Point: The Role of Status in Organizations’ Public Narratives to Mobilize Support for Change

Watered Down: Market Growth, Authenticity, and Evaluation in Craft Beer

“…The more people know and believe others like a particular beer, the more likely they are to drink and evaluate it, and the higher the score they are likely to assign it. While that intuition seems logical and has been demonstrated in studies of status bias and social influence in judgment of some cultural products (Kim & King, 2014; Pedeliento et al, 2020; Ren, 2021), it contradicts recent research that finds that in some fields, new reviewers sometimes flock to, but are harsher evaluators for, an award-winning cultural object (Kovács & Sharkey, 2014). If new craft beer drinkers were similar, we would expect to see lower ratings, but instead we find that beers that win competitive awards actually receive higher evaluations.…”

“…Here, theories that suggest that producer authenticity is significant to niche dissolution in other cultural markets prove of particular interest (McKendrick & Hannan, 2014; Pedeliento et al, 2020). Diffusion-related and status-related variables, such as perceived benefits and social influence (Strang & Meyer, 1993; Ren, 2021), can also be linked here to ostensible consumer acceptance of categories with eroded boundaries.…”

“…728–9) explained that this is why “a crestfallen look comes on the perfectly content beer drinker when told that the specialty beer being consumed actually comes from a major brewing corporation.” Early theorizing about this niche also assumed authenticity violations would come from industrial brewers masquerading as craft—not specialists pushing categorical boundaries (see Frake, 2016)—such that violations would engender uniformly negative reactions. Recent work in other settings, however, has focused on consumers’ responses to products and producers that span or muddy categories, suggesting that audiences generally see as legitimate and reward organizations that adhere to or align with categorical authenticity norms and their attendant expectations (Durand & Khaire, 2017; Hannan et al, 2007; Ren, 2021), while negatively appraising violators (Hsu & Hannan, 2005; Negro et al, 2011; Zuckerman, 1999).…”

The Tip of the Iceberg: A Roadmap for Management Research on Tipping

“…Tipping has also spread to new industries with wholly different compensation structures like gig work platforms and live-streaming services (Jain & Qian, 2021; Wilson & Setter, 2020). Curiously, in tandem with the rise of tipping in newer contexts, we are seeing concerted efforts by some actors to abandon long-standing tipping practices, like some full-service restaurants and cruise ships (Azar, 2020; Ren, 2021). In the majority of cases, these efforts were short-lived and unsuccessful, though the international cruise industry stands out as an example of an industry that transitioned away from tipping to automatic service charges (Lynn & Kwortnik, 2020).…”

“…Researchers who have studied tipping have done so primarily in the context of the hospitality industry and through the lenses of psychology and economics and, to lesser degrees, sociology and service management. To date, management research has surprisingly paid limited attention to tipping (e.g., Mulinari, 2019; Ogbonna & Harris, 2002; Ren, 2021). While it is not possible to summarize all of the work on tipping in this short piece, two broader topics, in particular, have received significant attention.…”