Doctoral Dissertation Research: Relational Pragmatics and Institution Work in Transitioning Industry

本项目将探讨涉及农产品的行业如何在不同监管水平的背景下演变。 关于现有产业的研究很多，但关于新产品产业如何演变的研究却很少。 此外，这些新兴产业往往受到不同环境的不同监管，包括联邦和州关于生产、营销和销售的监管之间的冲突。 这种冲突给企业家和公众带来了不确定性。该项目将分析不同的政治，文化和经济过程如何塑造新产业的结构方式，并分析这些力量和不确定性对企业家的影响。更具体地说，这项研究将解决两个问题。 第一，当新产业发展时，谁来发展改变制度的能力？第二，这些制度变迁所产生的结构如何更广泛地影响企业家的经验、框架和实践？该项目超越了关于哪些社会背景更有可能或更少可能与法律和商业习俗等制度变化相关的问题，因为它还探讨了谁正在发展真实的影响这些过程的能力。这项研究将为不断发展的行业提供见解，这些行业可能对负责制定监管法规以控制行业运营的州和国家政策制定者有用。它还将提供支持创业的见解，从而促进更高水平的创业和就业。该项目将采用混合方法研究设计，包括分析三个不同的州，每个州都采取不同的方法来规范新的农产品。 该项目将包括对各州参与者的70次半结构化深入访谈，这些访谈将使用MAXQDA 2018 Analytics Pro软件进行分析，以确定用于开发理论命题的数据模式。 这些主张将通过随后对许多州的选定企业家进行的横断面调查进行测试，目标回复率为408人。这两种方法相结合，以确定哪些机构将持续一段时间，哪些将无法持续。 本项目的研究结果将为关注供给侧的机构组织理论、实践的文化理论社会学、和社会控制理论，努力发展一个综合框架，解释微观层面的行业活动如何产生宏观，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This project will address how industries involving agricultural products evolve within the context of differing levels of regulation. There are many studies of existing industries, but few regarding how industries for new products evolve. In addition, these new industries are often subject to varying regulations across the contexts in which they are located, including conflict between federal and state regulations governing production, marketing and sales. This conflict creates uncertainty for entrepreneurs and for the general public. This project will analyze how different political, cultural, and economic processes are shaping the ways that new industries are structured, and analyze the effects of these forces and uncertainties on entrepreneurs. More specifically, this study will address two questions. First, when new industries evolve, who develops the capacity to change institutions? Second, how does the resulting structure from these institutional changes affect the experiences, frameworks, and practices of entrepreneurs more broadly? The project moves beyond questions about which social contexts are more and less likely to be associated with changes in institutions such as laws and customs of business because it also explores who is developing the capacity to influence these processes in real time. This research will provide insights into evolving industries that may be useful to state and national policymakers tasked with developing regulations to control industry operations. It will also provide insights to support entrepreneurship, thus contributing to higher levels of business creation and employment. This project will use a mixed-methods research design that includes analysis of three different states, each of which takes a different approach to regulating new agricultural products. The project will include 70 semi-structured in-depth interviews with participants across the states, which will be analyzed using MAXQDA 2018 Analytics Pro software in order to identify patterns in the data that will be used in developing theoretical propositions. These propositions will be tested with a subsequent cross-sectional survey of selected entrepreneurs across many states with a target response rate of 408 participants. These two approaches are combined to determine which institutions will persist over time and which ones will fail to persist. Findings from this project will inform organizational theories of institutions focusing on the supply-side, sociology of culture theories of practice, and theories of social control in an effort to develop an integrated framework to explain how micro-level industry activities can produce macro-level social change.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.