How Cinderella Became a Queen: Theorizing Radical Status Change

摘要

Using a case study of the Italian spirit grappa, we examine status recategorization - the vertical extension and reclassification of an entire market category. Grappa was historically a low-status product, but in the 1970s one regional distiller took steps that led to a radical break from its traditional image, so that in just over a decade high-quality grappa became an exemplar of cultured Italian lifestyle and held a market position in the same class as cognac and whisky. We use this context to articulate "theorization by allusion", whichudoccurs through three mechanisms: category detachment-distancing a socialudobject from its existing category; category emulation-presenting that objectudso that it hints at the practices of a high-status category; and categoryudsublimation-shifting from local, field-specific references to broader, societal-level frames. This novel theorization is particularly appropriate for explainingudchange from low to high status because it avoids resistance to and contestation of such change (by customers, media, and other sources) as a result of status imperatives, which may be especially strong in mature fields. Unlike priorudstudies that have examined the status of organizations within a category, ours foregrounds shifts in the status and social meaning of a market category itself. (authors' abstract)