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scholars using population ecology, institu-
version of this critique). When scholars fo-
tional theory, and network theory have been
cus on suppliers and customers, their discus-
interested in the linkage between the new cul-
sions focus on different relationships. Most
tural forms of products and the deployment
frequently, these relationships are thought to
of firm resources (for example, Carroll &
be about trust indexed through direct network
Swandinathan 2000, Granovetter & McGuire
ties that reflect ongoing social relationships
1998, Haveman & Rao 1997, Lounsbury &
between buyers and sellers (Baker et al. 1998;
Rao 2004, Powell et al. 2005). Of course,
Uzzi 1996, 1997).
much of the research has focused more on
None of these perspectives captures what
questions of legitimacy, resource dependence,
goes on in big consumer markets in which the
118 Fligstein Dauter
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buyers are individuals and their preferences sumers. These interventions appear to have
are expressed in more roundabout ways. been as important in generating trust (be-
Scholars most interested in the cultural con- tween firms and customers) as the problem
struction of products have criticized the fo- of the morality of the market (Heimer 1985).
cus in the sociology of markets on production. A fruitful dialogue is needed between those
To some degree, the use of products to make who favor a more cultural approach to con-
moral judgments or claim social status can sumers that focuses on the moral and social
be analytically separated from the problem of uses of products and those who favor an ap-
producing a stable product market. After all, proach that stresses solving the problems of
how people use automobiles and what they competition for producers. Such a dialogue
mean to them and others may not affect which would allow us to understand if these views
firms survive at the high or low end of the mar- are contradictory or complementary. Consid-
ket or how many firms there are and how they ering all sides of the problem would help us
are organized. Still, this disjuncture between get a clearer picture as to how the produc-
producers and consumers is one of the inter- tion and legitimation of new products and the
esting frontiers in the sociology of markets. structuring of stable markets are related.
Zelizer argues that the focus on production The question of the dynamics of mar-
misses the fact that consumers have to become kets leads to a more general disagreement
convinced about the value and legitimacy of in the literature surrounding stability and
products (Zelizer 1983, 1994, 1997). She ar- change. Population ecology, institutional the-
gues that moral issues abound in the creation ory, and some versions of network theory (i.e.,
of new markets. The life insurance industry, White) have an explicit argument that market-
for example, had to overcome the obvious opening projects are going to be very differ-
moral ambiguity of people buying insurance ent than market-stabilizing projects. For pop-
that put a price on their deaths. Moreover, ulation ecology, the liability of newness and
firms were put in the position of gambling on smallness are particularly acute at the forma-
other people s deaths. Many people resisted tion of new markets. In these moments, firms
buying life insurance because of these ghoul- either do not know what their key resource
ish qualities. Only when consumers became dependencies are or are not reliably able to
convinced through marketing efforts that life deliver products that people want. Thus, they
insurance was a way to provide for one s loved are more vulnerable to competition. Once
ones after death did the market take off. A markets have settled, existing firms can re-
production-focused sociology of markets fails main stable incumbent players for long peri-
to consider consumers and consumer market- ods. Such firms continuously face challengers,
ing and, in so doing, misses an important as- but these moments are qualitatively differ-
pect of where markets come from. ent from market formation moments. Institu-
The life insurance industry presents an tional theory (Fligstein 1996) also posits that
empirical puzzle that allows scholars to ex- producing a market as a field is a social and
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