IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v173y2024ics0148296323008251.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A relational power perspective on the positional shift of peripheral players in an organisational field: The case of Mediapart in the French press field

Author

Listed:
  • Ben-Slimane, Karim
  • Laifi, Amira
  • Germain, Olivier

Abstract

Prior research in field theory has acknowledged the importance of power to the stability of field structure and to the reproduction of the benefits and advantages that powerful incumbent organizations have over powerless peripheral players. In this paper, we challenge such determinism by embracing a relational view of power in the field. We argue that when incumbents' use of power is perceived as hegemonic and in contradiction with field values and norms by peripheral players, the latter may act to contest such hegemonic power, leading them to achieve a positional shift. We conducted a qualitative study of the newspaper Mediapart in the French press field who succeeded in getting to the centre of the field by contesting the hegemony of incumbents. Our findings show three main strategies that allow peripheral players to achieve a positional shift in the field: reclaiming ownership, recentring authenticity and reaffirming legitimacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ben-Slimane, Karim & Laifi, Amira & Germain, Olivier, 2024. "A relational power perspective on the positional shift of peripheral players in an organisational field: The case of Mediapart in the French press field," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:173:y:2024:i:c:s0148296323008251
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114466
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323008251
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114466?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oliver Hahl & Jaekyung Ha, 2020. "Committed Diversification: Why Authenticity Insulates Against Penalties for Diversification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 1-22, January.
    2. Rodolphe Durand & Hayagreeva Rao & Philippe Monin, 2003. "Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy," Post-Print hal-00480858, HAL.
    3. Daiane Scaraboto & Eileen Fischer, 2013. "Frustrated Fatshionistas: An Institutional Theory Perspective on Consumer Quests for Greater Choice in Mainstream Markets," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1234-1257.
    4. Gregoire Croidieu & Charles-Clemens Ruling & Amélie Boutinot, 2016. "How do creative genres emerge? The case of the Australian wine industry," Post-Print hal-02312381, HAL.
    5. J. Cameron Verhaal & Jake D. Hoskins & Leif W. Lundmark, 2017. "Little Fish in a Big Pond: Legitimacy Transfer, Authenticity, and Factors of Peripheral Firm Entry and Growth in the Market Center," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(12), pages 2532-2552, December.
    6. Neil Fligstein, 2021. "Innovation and the theory of fields," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 272-289, December.
    7. Grégoire Croidieu & Charles-Clemens Rüling & Amélie Boutinot, 2016. "How do creative genres emerge? The case of the Australian wine industry," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01498722, HAL.
    8. Thibault Daudigeos & Thomas Roulet & Bertrand Valiorgue, 2020. "How Scandals Act as Catalysts of Fringe Stakeholders' Contentious Actions against Multinational Corporations," Post-Print hal-03041023, HAL.
    9. Grégoire Croidieu & Charles-Clemens Rüling & Amélie Boutinot, 2016. "How do creative genres emerge? The case of the Australian wine industry," Post-Print halshs-01498722, HAL.
    10. Croidieu, Grégoire & Rüling, Charles-Clemens & Boutinot, Amélie, 2016. "How do creative genres emerge? The case of the Australian wine industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 2334-2342.
    11. Hayagreeva Rao & Philippe Monin & Rodolphe Durand, 2003. "Institutional change in toque ville : Nouvelle cuisine as an identity movement in French gastronomy," Post-Print hal-02311672, HAL.
    12. Özlem Sandikci & Güliz Ger, 2010. "Veiling in Style: How Does a Stigmatized Practice Become Fashionable?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 15-36, June.
    13. Sean T. Hsu & Susan K. Cohen, 2022. "Overcoming the Incumbent Dilemma: The Dual Roles of Multimarket Contact During Disruption," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 319-348, March.
    14. Blake D. Mathias & Annelore Huyghe & David W. Williams, 2020. "Selling your soul to the devil? The importance of independent ownership to identity distinctiveness for oppositional categories," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(13), pages 2548-2584, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cruz, Angela Gracia B. & Cardoso, Flavia & Rojas-Gaviria, Pilar, 2022. "Crafting food products for culturally diverse markets: A narrative synthesis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 19-34.
    2. Christine Moser & Juliane Reinecke & Frank den Hond & Silviya Svejenova & Gregoire Croidieu, 2021. "Biomateriality and Organizing : Towards an Organizational Perspective on Food," Post-Print hal-03193731, HAL.
    3. Karim Ben Slimane & Amira Laifi & Olivier Germain, 2022. "Institutional work of maintenance by peripheral players: the case of Mediapart in the French press field," Post-Print hal-03631615, HAL.
    4. Grégoire Croidieu & Charles-Clemens Ruling & Bilal-Ahmed Jathol, 2017. "Complex field-positions and non-imitation: Pioneers, strangers, and insulars in Australian fine-wine," Post-Print hal-01609429, HAL.
    5. Solomon, Shelby J. & Mathias, Blake D., 2020. "The artisans' dilemma: Artisan entrepreneurship and the challenge of firm growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    6. Grégoire Croidieu & Charles-Clemens Ruling & Bilal-Ahmed Jathol, 2017. "Complex field-positions and non-imitation: Pioneers, strangers, and insulars in Australian fine-wine," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-01609429, HAL.
    7. Andrews, Daniel S. & Mathias, Blake & Kumaraswamy, Arun & Schotter, Andreas P.J., 2024. "Trouble brewing: Craft ventures during market disruption," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(6).
    8. Peter Younkin & Keyvan Kashkooli, 2020. "Stay True to Your Roots? Category Distance, Hierarchy, and the Performance of New Entrants in the Music Industry," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 604-627, May.
    9. Megan Yuan Li & Charson Cancan Dong & Shige Makino, 2023. "Does a Past Category’s Success Influence Existing Entrepreneurial Fundraising?: A Legitimacy Spillover Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2263-2292, November.
    10. Karim Ben Slimane & Cédric Diridollou & Karim Hamadache, 2018. "How Morally Contested Innovations are Legitimized?," Post-Print hal-02948026, HAL.
    11. Blake D. Mathias & Annelore Huyghe & David W. Williams, 2020. "Selling your soul to the devil? The importance of independent ownership to identity distinctiveness for oppositional categories," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(13), pages 2548-2584, December.
    12. Ben-Slimane, Karim & Diridollou, Cédric & Hamadache, Karim, 2020. "The legitimation strategies of early stage disruptive innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1q24hpq2919to8ct061g8p33kn is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    15. Calvin Morrill, 2008. "Culture and Organization Theory," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 619(1), pages 15-40, September.
    16. Tammar B. Zilber, 2011. "Institutional Multiplicity in Practice: A Tale of Two High-Tech Conferences in Israel," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1539-1559, December.
    17. Victoria Johnson & Walter W. Powell, 2015. "Poisedness and Propagation: Organizational Emergence and the Transformation of Civic Order in 19th-Century New York City," NBER Working Papers 21011, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Suddaby, Roy & Ganzin, Max & Minkus, Alison, 2017. "Craft, magic and the re-enchantment of the world," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 285-296.
    19. Jain, Sanjay, 2020. "Fumbling to the future? Socio-technical regime change in the recorded music industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    20. Isabelle Bouty & Marie-Léandre Gomez & Carole Drucker-Godard, 2013. "Maintaining an Institution : The Institutional Work of Michelin in Haute Cuisine around the World," Working Papers hal-00782455, HAL.
    21. Hao Ren & Rongrong Wang & Suopeng Zhang & An Zhang, 2017. "How Do Internet Enterprises Obtain Sustainable Development of Organizational Ecology? A Case Study of LeEco Using Institutional Logic Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-21, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:173:y:2024:i:c:s0148296323008251. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.