Dear colleagues,
You are invited to the colloquium of interest to COR community….
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
1:00-2:30pm
SB1 5200
Speaker: Nicholas Occhiuto, Yale University
“Market Actions and Non-Market Consequences: How Transportation Network
Companies Influenced Regulation in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco”
Abstract:
A long line of research has examined how firms attempt to shape regulation and government policy in ways favorable to the firm. Existing research on non-market strategy has largely focused on how firm actions in the non-market environment influence both economic regulation and public policy. Recent research suggests, however, that firms actions in the market environment may also gain regulatory and policy influence. Nevertheless, because most of this work has largely focused on the market actions of existing firms, it remains unclear whether and how the market actions of startups may also help them gain regulatory and policy influence. This paper adds to our understanding of non-market strategy by showing that startups may use market actions to build constituencies, which can function as important assets in influencing their non-market environments. Drawing on 128 interviews, ethnographic observations, and content analysis of primary source documents collected across New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco, this paper will show how Transportation Network Companies used market actions (i.e., contracting with drivers, registering passengers, and securing venture capital investment) to make displays of worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment of their emerging market to both regulators and policy makers. As a result, these market actions influenced regulators and policy makers to produce regulations that were favorable to the firms. This article also highlights city-level variation of regulation in the context of global market emergence. It will show how this same market actions initiated two different types of non-market outcomes: formal and interpretive change.