Shedding light on a range of price fixing mechanisms and price display technologies, this incisive book offers a clear overview of the retail price setting, posting and adjusting processes. Based on a detailed study of a century of pricing practices in the US retail sector, it explores the anthropology and sociology of valuation practices by concentrating on the way prices are fabricated. Fixing Prices examines the relationship between everyday price display innovations, such as price tag devices, and wider market changes, including the introduction of price regulations about price display and item pricing. Investigating the historical development of price display, the book demonstrates the extent to which the materiality of prices contributes to the creation of different price-based valuation tactics. Offering a historical perspective on pricing in the US retail sector, this unique book will prove invaluable to students of marketing, economic sociology, and industrial economics. It will also benefit industry professionals wanting to expand their knowledge surrounding pricing procedures.

The insightful chapters collected here show that markets are a matter of concern because they can be spaces for making concerns matter.' - David Stark, Columbia University, US and author of The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life'Do those impersonal allocation mechanisms that we call markets even exist as such? Or should we drop this questionable euphemism if what we want is to address the political struggles and bureaucratic processes that control economic life? Readers interested in a measured approach to the subject matter will find a set of clues here. By considering markets as nodes of concerns, the works assembled in this volume guide us along a subtle path.' - Fabian Muniesa, Ecole des Mines de Paris, France Concerned Markets tackles the intersection between markets and politics, investigating the very current issue of designing markets to include multiple values. When political, social, technological and economic interests, values, and perspectives interact, market order and performance become contentious issues of debate. Such 'hot' situations are becoming increasingly common and make for rich sites of research. With expert empirical contributions investigating the organization of such 'concerned' markets, this book is positioned at the centre of the rapidly growing area of interdisciplinary market studies. Markets investigated include those for palm oil, primary health care and functional foods. The authors also examine markets and environmental concerns as well as better market design for those at the bottom of the pyramid. Scholars, postgraduate and PhD level students in finance, economic sociology, marketing, organization theory and economics will find this book essential reading. Policymakers and practitioners will benefit from the fresh insight into the design and maintenance of market systems. Contributors include: L. Araujo, F. Azimont, R. Chakrabarti, F. Cochoy, S. D'Antone, G. Dix, S. Geiger, D. Harrison, J. Hauber, L. Johansson, H. Kjellberg, A. Mallard, K. Mason, W.I. Onyas, C. Ruppert-Winkel, A. Ryan, R. Spencer, I. Stigzelius

This book addresses how digitalization influences markets, and attempts to put research on digitalized markets center-stage. It explores digitalized markets through empirically based theorizing concerning the consequences of digitalization for mundane markets. The individual chapters explore several mundane markets, including personal transportation, temporary accommodation, fashion clothing, concert tickets, and web shopping. They employ a variety of useful concepts and methods to approach the complexity of digitalization of markets. Based on these accounts, the digitalization of markets is conceived as comprising transformation of three main aspects of markets. First, digitalization transforms the elements of markets, such as actors, devices, objects, and places that contribute to constitute markets. Second, digitalization alters market processes, or developmental event sequences by changing the activities that contribute to produce the market and thus how markets develop and take form. Third, digitalization has implications for the overall forms that markets assume in terms of how market elements and processes are linked and organized. The volume provides important contributions to our understanding of digitalized markets both through rich empirical accounts of a variety of market contexts and through conceptual developments that improve our ability to analytically deal with the market consequences of digitalization. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Consumption Markets & Culture.

The insightful chapters collected here show that markets are a matter of concern because they can be spaces for making concerns matter.' - David Stark, Columbia University, US and author of The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life'Do those impersonal allocation mechanisms that we call markets even exist as such? Or should we drop this questionable euphemism if what we want is to address the political struggles and bureaucratic processes that control economic life? Readers interested in a measured approach to the subject matter will find a set of clues here. By considering markets as nodes of concerns, the works assembled in this volume guide us along a subtle path.' - Fabian Muniesa, Ecole des Mines de Paris, France Concerned Markets tackles the intersection between markets and politics, investigating the very current issue of designing markets to include multiple values. When political, social, technological and economic interests, values, and perspectives interact, market order and performance become contentious issues of debate. Such 'hot' situations are becoming increasingly common and make for rich sites of research. With expert empirical contributions investigating the organization of such 'concerned' markets, this book is positioned at the centre of the rapidly growing area of interdisciplinary market studies. Markets investigated include those for palm oil, primary health care and functional foods. The authors also examine markets and environmental concerns as well as better market design for those at the bottom of the pyramid. Scholars, postgraduate and PhD level students in finance, economic sociology, marketing, organization theory and economics will find this book essential reading. Policymakers and practitioners will benefit from the fresh insight into the design and maintenance of market systems. Contributors include: L. Araujo, F. Azimont, R. Chakrabarti, F. Cochoy, S. D'Antone, G. Dix, S. Geiger, D. Harrison, J. Hauber, L. Johansson, H. Kjellberg, A. Mallard, K. Mason, W.I. Onyas, C. Ruppert-Winkel, A. Ryan, R. Spencer, I. Stigzelius

This book addresses how digitalization influences markets, and attempts to put research on digitalized markets center-stage. It explores digitalized markets through empirically based theorizing concerning the consequences of digitalization for mundane markets. The individual chapters explore several mundane markets, including personal transportation, temporary accommodation, fashion clothing, concert tickets, and web shopping. They employ a variety of useful concepts and methods to approach the complexity of digitalization of markets. Based on these accounts, the digitalization of markets is conceived as comprising transformation of three main aspects of markets. First, digitalization transforms the elements of markets, such as actors, devices, objects, and places that contribute to constitute markets. Second, digitalization alters market processes, or developmental event sequences by changing the activities that contribute to produce the market and thus how markets develop and take form. Third, digitalization has implications for the overall forms that markets assume in terms of how market elements and processes are linked and organized. The volume provides important contributions to our understanding of digitalized markets both through rich empirical accounts of a variety of market contexts and through conceptual developments that improve our ability to analytically deal with the market consequences of digitalization. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Consumption Markets & Culture.

Marketing Performativity: Theories, practices and devices addresses concerns about the theory-practice gap so often discussed by marketing scholars, and indeed reframes this 'gap' by asking 'how is marketing theory performative?' How does marketing theory shape action? Who uses it in practice and to what effects? The individual contributions in this book look at how marketing theories are used in practice and what this means for our understanding of the practicing-theorising landscape of marketing. The book begins by considering what performativity is and how this concept is used in the marketing literature. It then considers three themes concerning the performativity of marketing that emerge from the contributions, before presenting ten empirical studies that ask how, why, and to what effect marketing theories are used and 'performed' in marketing practice. The book also summarises the implications of three themes and sketches research areas for further developing our understanding of the performativity of marketing. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management.

Marketing Performativity: Theories, practices and devices addresses concerns about the theory-practice gap so often discussed by marketing scholars, and indeed reframes this 'gap' by asking 'how is marketing theory performative?' How does marketing theory shape action? Who uses it in practice and to what effects? The individual contributions in this book look at how marketing theories are used in practice and what this means for our understanding of the practicing-theorising landscape of marketing. The book begins by considering what performativity is and how this concept is used in the marketing literature. It then considers three themes concerning the performativity of marketing that emerge from the contributions, before presenting ten empirical studies that ask how, why, and to what effect marketing theories are used and 'performed' in marketing practice. The book also summarises the implications of three themes and sketches research areas for further developing our understanding of the performativity of marketing. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management.

The historical link between marketing and markets, prevalent until the 1960s, has given way to the view of marketing as a portable set of tools applicable to markets and non-markets alike. By re-establishing the connection between the two, this book examines the argument that marketing produces markets: marketing practices and theories play a very significant role in the production of markets and the kinds of entities and phenomena that populate markets.
This interdisciplinary book brings together theoretical and empirical contributions from marketing and economic sociologists to analyse and develop novel approaches to interpreting the relationship between marketing theory, marketing practices, and markets across a variety of market settings and countries.

The historical link between marketing and markets, prevalent until the 1960s, has given way to the view of marketing as a portable set of tools applicable to markets and non-markets alike. By re-establishing the connection between the two, this book examines the argument that marketing produces markets: marketing practices and theories play a very significant role in the production of markets and the kinds of entities and phenomena that populate markets.
This interdisciplinary book brings together theoretical and empirical contributions from marketing and economic sociologists to analyse and develop novel approaches to interpreting the relationship between marketing theory, marketing practices, and markets across a variety of market settings and countries.