Institutional entrepreneurship in the formation of new markets: Transfering biodynamic logics into market practices

Abstract

Based on a theoretical framework that combines market construction through practices with the perspective of institutional action of multiple actors to overcome the inertia of markets, this study aims to understand how institutional entrepreneurship, through its practices, influences the formation of new markets. To achieve this, an interpretative look was adopted for the biodynamic production of grapes in the Serra Gaúcha. The results show a complex network of actors operating both at a micro-social level and at productive organizations and sector entities that operate in the structuring of the wine sector, first promoting the production of biodynamic grapes in the region and later, transferring the alternative logics of biodynamics
to market practices. Some of these actors play the role of institutional entrepreneurs engaged in building a specific market to commercialize this production. Their action created a view about biodynamics, mobilized resources and supported the change of micro-activities based on the feasibility of exchange, representational and normative practices that shape the emerging market. The results show how the process of institutional entrepreneurship is linked with market practices when creating a market arrangement that welcomes alternative production models.