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Summary
Summary
Great individuals are assumed to cause the success of radical innovations--thus Henry Ford is depicted as the one who established the automobile industry in America. Hayagreeva Rao tells a different story, one that will change the way you think about markets forever. He explains how "market rebels"--activists who defy authority and convention--are the real force behind the success or failure of radical innovations.
Rao shows how automobile enthusiasts were the ones who established the new automobile industry by staging highly publicized reliability races and lobbying governments to enact licensing laws. Ford exploited the popularity of the car by using new mass-production technologies.
Rao argues that market rebels also establish new niches and new cultural styles. If it were not for craft brewers who crusaded against "industrial beer" and proliferated brewpubs, there would be no specialty beers in America. But for nouvelle cuisine activists who broke the stranglehold of Escoffier's classical cuisine in France, there would have been little hybridization and experimentation in modern cooking.
Market rebels also thwart radical innovation. Rao demonstrates how consumer activists have faced down chain stores and big box retailers, and how anti-biotechnology activists in Germany penetrated pharmaceutical firms and delayed the commercialization of patents.
Read Market Rebels to learn how activists succeed when they construct "hot causes" that arouse intense emotions, and exploit "cool mobilization"--unconventional techniques that engage audiences in collective action. You will realize how the hands that move markets are the joined hands of market rebels.
Author Notes
Hayagreeva Rao is the Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.
Reviews 2
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rao, professor of organizational behavior and human resources at Stanford University, explores the role of collective action in promoting or hindering business innovation. Drawing heavily on theories of social movements, the author posits a cycle of "hot causes," unexpected events or innovations, and "cool mobilization," activities that channel emotional responses into popular mass actions that anchor new identities embracing or rejecting the hot cause. Rao presents several case studies in which activist behavior either encouraged or impeded the creation and expansion of new markets, technologies or new organizational structures. For example, early 20th-century automobile enthusiasts were able to placate fears about car safety (the hot cause) by staging hundreds of reliability contests that demonstrated the car's safety and practicality to a wide audience (the cool mobilization). Though dryly written and repetitive, the case studies themselves are fascinating and challenge traditional economic models that privilege individual consumer choice while ignoring broader social mobilizations. A final chapter offers advice and strategies for would-be market rebels looking to harness collective action, making this book a useful resource for both citizen activists and corporate leaders and marketers seeking popular support for their products. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
Rao (Stanford Univ. Graduate School of Business) highlights social movements as underappreciated factors in the market successes of so-called "radical innovations." Through well-crafted, intriguing case studies that include the rise of automobiles, microbrewing, nouvelle cuisine, and personal computers, he shows how mobilized activists can influence the acceptance of innovations, be they technological, cultural, or structural. Rao draws effectively on the research of historians and social scientists to build his argument for the effects of passionate activists who promote or try to hold back innovations. Because the full complexities of historical causation receive little play here, however, Rao's explanations replace common simplifications with his own. Nonetheless, adding social movements to the mix of factors to consider in thinking about the diffusion and acceptance of innovations holds unquestionable value. It will increase popular and business-oriented awareness of the multitude of widely ranging political, social, and cultural factors that affect markets. Rao's scholarly publications, related to his experience as an organizational sociologist, provide the foundation for this lively, highly accessible volume, which he explicitly directs to the broad public and especially to businesspeople seeking to advance their own innovations. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; all levels of undergraduate and graduate students; faculty; professionals. P. W. Laird University of Colorado Denver
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. ix |
| 1 From the Invisible Hand to Joined Hands | p. 1 |
| 2 "You Can't Get People to Sit on an Explosion!": The Cultural Acceptance of the Car in America | p. 18 |
| 3 Evange-Ale-ists and the Renaissance of Microbrewing | p. 43 |
| 4 The French Revolution: Collective Action and the Nouvelle Cuisine Innovation | p. 69 |
| 5 Show Me the Money: Shareholder Activism and Investor Rights | p. 95 |
| 6 Chain Reaction: The Enactment and Repeal of Anti-Chain Store Laws | p. 119 |
| 7 Drug Wars: How the Anti-Biotechnology Movement Penetrated German Pharmaceutical Firms and Prevented Technology Commercialization | p. 142 |
| 8 From Exit to Voice: Advice for Activists | p. 172 |
| Notes | p. 181 |
| Index | p. 197 |
