ABSTRACT
Attempts to characterize markets as concrete social structures typically assume that
constraints associated with roles are more important in determining individual strategies
than either the information or beliefs that decision makers might hold about the specific
situation that their companies face (Leifer, 1985; White, 1981, 1988; White & Eccles,
1987). Proponents of this structural approach to markets tend to see roles as regularities
in behavior that emerge from a system of equivalencies and differences among
competitors in a market. The main analytical focus of this research program is on the
reproductive forces behind observed market arrangements (Bothner & White, 2000).
However, as Porac, Thomas, Wilson, Paton, and Kanfer (1995) observed: “To identify
