Outgrowing your identity: three empirical essays on innovation, identity constraints and product proliferation in specialist organizations

This dissertation investigates the competitive environment of craft based specialist organizations. These are often characterized as entrepreneurial, craft based firms that leverage a collective identity of authenticity (and include, but are not restricted to: microbreweries and microdistilleries, artisan cheese producers, custom snowboard, surfboard and bicycle manufacturers, farm to table restaurants, and organic food producers). In this context, I investigate how these entrepreneurial firms leverage reputation, identity, and legitimacy to compete with much larger organizations, despite their inability to garner competitive advantages based on scope and scale economies. The findings are consistent with the notion that craft based organizations operate much differently than mainstream markets.